Tag Archives: Edublogs supporter

Protecting Your Email on Blogs

Posted on by
17

Oh dear!  Not good :(

I’ve seen numerous people not protecting their email while reviewing blogs recently!

Definitely not a good idea!

Writing your email as margone@gmail.com in a blog post or on a page means it can be picked up by search bots and then spammers may use it to send you unwanted emails.

I’ll share some ways of protecting your email below — but first let’s talk about student emails.

Emails on Student Blogs

There are numerous reasons why it mightn’t be appropriate for student emails to be displayed publicly on a blog.

If you are a student please DO NOT display your email on your blog unless your teacher or parents says otherwise!

Educators please make sure you’ve provided clear guidelines for appropriate email use and being Internet Savvy otherwise this can happen….

Example of bad use of student email

Ways of Protecting Your Email

# 1 Use an image to display the email address

Search bots aren’t able to read email addresses in images.

This is easy as either:

  1. Creating your own email image using a photo editing program like I’ve done on the contact page of my personal blog
  2. Using email image generators such as:

#2 Writing it in a different format

Others understand your email when written as yourname[at]gmail[dot]com or yourname at gmail dot com but search bots don’t.

While an image is a better way of displaying email on a blog this is the best method for posting emails in a forum.

#3 Use A Contact Form

Edublog Supporters can add a contact form to their blog as simply as:

  1. Activating the WP-Contact form plugin
  2. Configuring the settings for the plugin (Settings > Contact Form)
  3. Adding the contact form code to a post or page using the HTML tab

Here’s how to:

  1. Go to Plugins > Installed in your Dashboard Plugin menu
  2. Click on Activate below WP-ContactForm  Activating contact form
  3. Go to Contact Form tab in Settings menu Contact form tab
  4. Insert your email address, adjust the settings as you desire and then click Update Options at bottom of page Changing contact form details
  5. Copy the contact form code at the bottom of the page in Settings > Contact Form Contact form code
  6. Create a new page or post.  Click on the HTML Tab and add the contact form code then press Publish. Adding contact form code to a contact page
  7. Presto!  You now have a contact form on  your blog!

Example of a contact form

FINAL THOUGHTS

Here are other ways of protecting your email - thanks to Robin Martin for sharing the link!

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

The Edublogger’s Student Competition!

Posted on by
174

The 2009 Student Blogging Challenge is now nearly half way through and the students have been working REALLY hard on the weekly challenges!  Currently 52 class blogs and 150 individual students blogs from 13 different countries are participating.

To celebrate the success of the challenge while also creating an opportunity to collect examples of student work we’re giving away twelve Edublogs supporter 12 month subscriptions which you can use on your own blog or give away to a reader.

Just write a post based on any of the topics themes listed below:

  1. Your own choice of topic but must include embedded media, created by the student or class, such as a SlideShare, video, comic strip, podcast, quiz, poll.  Here’s the chance to demonstrate how creative you can be!
  2. Your story of how blogging has helped you connect to a global audience and what this connection has meant to you.  e.g. the friends you have made, what you have learnt about other cultures, how you are able to share your passions with others, how you are able to use blogging to share your views on topics
  3. What difference has blogging made to your life at school and home e.g. how has it changed how you learn, the challenges of blogging and how teachers might make the process easier

Any class or student blogger can enter, including bloggers not currently participating in the 2009 Student Blogging Challenge, but you must:

  1. Leave a comment on this post letting me know you have entered, with a link to your post plus your Grade/year level.
  2. Explain in your post which topic you are writing about and link back to this post so that we receive a pingback advising us that you have written the post (read this to understand What’s A Pingback? And How To Write Links).

For example you might copy the following into the bottom of your post and just change the topic enclosed in the qutoation marks:

This post has been written on “my story of how blogging has connected me to a global audience” as part of The Edublogger’s Student Competition!

The four best post for each topic will win and you can submit posts for as many topics you like.  And off course all winners will get a badge they can add to their blogs :)

Remember we’re looking for the best — so here is your chance to demonstrate your blogging and creative skills!  You have until April 30 to enter.

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider feed-icon32x32 Finding and Adding Creative Commons Images To Your Blog PostsSubscribing For Free!

And the winners of The Edublogger’s Birthday Celebration Competition are

Posted on by
25

And the winners of The Edublogger’s Birthday Celebration Competition are …….

  1. Building a better blog and having fun doing it!!! by Ashley (student blogger)
  2. Blogging for ESL Students in Taiwan by Jared
  3. Using threaded comments to build a writing community in your classroom by Alice Mercer
  4. Helpful Tips for Setting up a Classroom Blog by Errin Gregory
  5. 20 Days to Better Blogging with Children by Joy Simpson
  6. SSR and Voice Thread by Paul Turtola
  7. How to embed a Jing Screencast into your Edublogs Blog by Nathan Toft
  8. Are you a quality Commenter? by Catie (student blogger)
  9. Images in blog posts by Miss Wyatt
  10. Tips For Building a Blog Audience by Nicholas (student blogger)
  11. Happy Birthday Edublogger – building your blog audience by Hayden (student blogger)
  12. Favorite Blog Widgets by Mallorie (student blogger)
  13. Getting Educators involved with Web 2.0 by Jody Bowie
  14. Getting educators involved with using web technology by Lisa Dumicich

Congratulations to all winners!

Here’s a badge if you would like to add to your sidebar:

Larger version

200 pixels wide by 100 pixels high

Image larger badge

Write the following code in a text widget to add it to your blog sidebar:

Image of code for larger badge

Smaller Version

180 pixels wide by 90 pixels high

Image Smaller badge

Write the following code in a text widget to add it to your blog sidebar:

Image of code for smaller badge

Please send an email to tell me if you want to use the free 12 months Edublogs supporters subscription on your own blog or to give away to a reader.

Image of email address

FINAL THOUGHTS

Thanks to everyone who entered!  Choosing the winners was incredibly hard due to so many excellent entries.

Please take the time to check out the winners posts because each provides excellent tips, ideas and advice.  You can check all the entries in the pingback section of this post!

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider feed-icon32x32 Finding and Adding Creative Commons Images To Your Blog PostsSubscribing For Free!

The Edublogger’s First Birthday Celebration!

Posted on by
105

The Edublogger just had its first birthday which makes:

PS Sorry but celebrations ran a bit due to waiting new birthday clothes — come and check them out! What do you think of The Edublogger’s new blog theme?

Story Behind The Blog

Was The Edublogger my idea?  Nope! It was all James Farmer originating from this email on January 4, 2008:

I’d like to float something with you, and see what you think of it.

As you know I’m a big fan of your work… I love the way you illustrate ideas, communicate with your readers, pick topics and… well, just about everything really.

What I’d like to float with you is the possibility of you doing the kind of stuff you already do so well, but doing it at a central place within Edublogs, and having it promoted throughout the site.  It would entirely focused around you… you’d be entirely independent to criticize, rave or write about whatever at will…

From this The Edublogger was set up, by Edublogs, to share tips, tricks, ideas that help the educational blogging community.  With it my role working for Edublogs increased; from writing posts on The Edublogger to being employed 3 days a week in 2009.

Lets Celebrate!

To celebrate The Edublogger’s first birthday we’re giving away twelve Edublogs supporter 12 month subscriptions which you can use on your own blog or give away to a reader.  Just write a post based on any of the topics themes listed below:

  1. Advice for doing blog makeovers i.e. improving your blog
  2. Tips for using blogs with students
  3. Using tools like VoiceThread, Voki, mystudiyo, Animoto, SlideShows, Google Documents with students and embedding in blogs posts
  4. Advice for writing better blog posts
  5. What makes good comments or commenting tips
  6. Images in blog posts
  7. Tips for building blog audience
  8. Ideas for getting educators involved with using web technology
  9. Favorite blog widgets
  10. Images generators (e.g. sign generators, newspaper generators), avatars, online graph tools etc that you can use with students
  11. Advice on setting up or using class blogs
  12. Tips for connecting with other classrooms

Anyone can enter, including students, but you must include in your post which topic you are writing about and link back to this post so that we receive a pingback advising us that you have written the post (read this to understand What’s A Pingback? And How To Write Links). For example you might copy the following into the bottom of your post and just change the topic enclosed in the qutoation marks:

This post has been written on “tips for using blogs with students” as part of The Edublogger’s Birthday Celebration Competition!

The best post for each topic wins and you can submit posts for as many topics you like.  You have until March 5 to enter.

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!


Redirecting Your Blog Feed To Feedburner

Posted on by
25

Besides making it easier for readers to subscribe to your blog using RSS or email, using a Feedburner feed means you can analyse your subscribers e.g. number of subscribers, and which feed reader they use.

Trouble is unless you redirect all your blog feed to Feedburner you won’t get an accurate picture of the number of readers that subscribe to your blog using a feed reader (e.g. Google Reader, NetVibes or Bloglines) because some of your readers will be subscribing using your blog feed.

The great news is Edublogs supporters are able to redirect all their blog feed to Feedburner which means they know exactly how many of readers subscribe to their blog. It costs US$39.95 per year to become an Edublogs supporter which gives you great extra features including Feedburner integration.

Setting up your Feedburner Feed

If you’ve already created your feedburner feed like I explained in Adding a RSS Feed From Feedburner To Your Blog and How To Add an Email Subscription to Your Blog you need to use this feedburner feed URL when redirecting your blog feed to feedburner.

feedburnersupporter1.jpg

Don’t create a new feed by clicking on the link “To get started, create a Feedburner feed for ……..” if you’ve already created a Feedburner feed.

Image of Feedburner set up

Analyzing & Monitoring Your Feed

It will take 24 hours for Feedburner to display the changes to your subscriber numbers and don’t stress if suddenly your subscription numbers increase dramatically — remember it’s now showing all your subscribers.

You will notice slight fluctuations in daily number of readers subscribed because numbers are based on an approximation of how many times your feed has been requested in a 24-hour period plus some of your readers may use desktop RSS software that retrieve your feed less frequently.

statsedublogger.jpg

Make sure you also subscribe to your blog using a feed reader; it’s really important– read why here! If you currently not using RSS to blogs using a feed reader — check out What is RSS and why you should use it? An introduction for newbies and watch RSS in Plain English.

If you’re interested in a more through analysis of your Feedburner statistics try out BlogPerfumes Feed analysis.

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!