Tag Archives: widgets

DIY Decorating Your Blog for Any Holiday or Season

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It’s that time of the year again when people get creative and start decorating their houses for the festive season. Everyone loves Christmas decorations, but did you know that you can get just as creative with decorating your blog?

With so many options now available, we’ve decided to show you how easy it is to decorate your blog for any holiday or season!

We’ve also set up a demo blog so you can check out what a live blog looks like when you use different options to customise with a particular feel!

Adding a Custom Background

Most themes now allow you to set your own custom image header and custom background.

Yet most people are unaware of how easy it is to add a custom background to achieve a more customised look while adding a personalized touch to their blog.

The first step is to search for a free background you’d like to use.  Numerous websites provide a wide range of suitable free images and backgrounds.

Here’s some sites to get you started:

  1. Free Christmas Wallpapers
  2. Webweavers Free Clipart
  3. Free webimages & Clipart
  4. Background Labs
  5. Layouts for Christmas
  6. Christmas Free 4 All
  7. Animated Gif Net
  8. Cartoon Cottage

Once you’ve located an image you would like to use, all you need to do is right mouse click on the image and select Save Image As (or Save Picture as) to save a copy of the image onto your computer.

Now uploading your background is as simple as:

1.  Go to Appearance > Background inside your dashboard.

2.  Click on Choose File, select the image you want to upload and then click Upload.

3.  Once it is uploaded select your preferred display option and then click Save Changes.

And when you check your blog you should now see your new custom background!

Student bloggers often like using an animated gif for their background.  All they need to do is locate the animated .gif they want to use, save it onto their computer the same as you would save any other image, and then upload it as a background.

Of course, animated gifs can be a bit overwhelming when used as a background and Ronnie made me remove my pretty ones :(

Adding a Custom image header

Custom image headers, like backgrounds can really add to the look and feel of a blog.

You can easily make your own or search for a free image header to use.

Here’s some sites to get you started:

  1. Guides & Tips Bogger
  2. Free Christmas headers
  3. Free Web headers
  4. Free Header images
  5. Theme headers

Once you’ve located an image you would like to use all you need to do is right mouse click on the image and select Save Image As (or Save Picture as) to save a copy of the image onto your computer.


Tip:

  1. For the best quality use the recommended image header dimensions for your chosen theme (recommend size for your theme is displayed on Appearance > Header)
  2. I use Snagit to resize and adjust my image headers to the correct size before uploading.

Now uploading your image header is as simple as:

1.  Go to Appearance > Header inside your dashboard.

2.  Click on Choose file, browse for the image on your computer and then click on Open.

  • Only .jpeg, .gif, and .png files can be used for image headers.

3.  Next click Upload 

4.  Your image will upload and if it isn’t the exact dimensions you’ll need to select the area you want to crop and then click Crop and Publish.
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And when you check your blog you should now see your new custom image header!

Adding widgets to your sidebar

There are lots of seasonal widgets you can add to your sidebar.  Widgetbox provides the best selection of Christmas widgets.

You can check out the widgets I liked in the sidebar of our demo blog.  I also added a mixpod widget of Christmas music (student’s love music players on their blogs).

Please note you need to be using an Edublogs Pro blog, Edublogs Campus blog or have had extra features enabled on your blog by a Pro blog to be able to add embed code.

Adding a widget to your sidebar is as simple as:

1.  Copy the embed code for the widget.

2.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your dashboard.

3.  Click on the sidebar to expand it (so you can add the widget).

4.  Drag a text widget from the Available widget area into the sidebar area.

5.  Add the embed code to the text widget and click Save.

And when you check your blog you should see your new widget!

Enhancing your posts with embedded media

There’s a gazillion tools that you can easily embed into your posts that can create some great seasonal activities and fun.

Please note you need to be using an Edublogs Pro blog, Edublogs Campus blog or have had extra features enabled on your blog by a Pro blog to be able to add embed code.

I’ve added a selection to our demo blog so you can see how you could use them:

  1. Christmas Trivia Fun – from Widget box
  2. Christmas Glogster – get your students to create their own Christmas Glogster
  3. Christmas VoiceThread – create your own VoiceThread
  4. Christmas LiveBinder - packed full of ideas and Christmas activities
  5. Christmas AnswerGarden
  6. Christmas Quizzes – get your students to create their own quizz!
  7. Christmas Picture Puzzle – from Widget box
  8. Christmas Coloring pages
  9. Festive Turkey scoffing game – from Widget box
  10. Singing Christmas countdown – from Widget Box
You’ll find a comprehensive list of popular web tools to embed here!

 Adding them to a post is as simple as:

1.  Completely write your post including the title, text, images, tags and categories.

2.  Click on Save Draft, preview your post and make all necessary edits.

3.  Go to the online tool you want to use and copy the embed code.

4.  Click on the HTML tab in your write post area.

5.  Paste the embed code into your post where you want it to appear then immediately click Publish

  • Don’t click back to Visual Tab before hitting Publish as it can break the embed code.
  • Immediately close your post once you’ve published.
  • Change back to Visual Editing mode when you write your next post by clicking on the Visual tab.
  • You use this same process for any website that provides embed code.

And don’t forget the longtime-favorite Let It Snow plugin on Edublogs which adds falling snow right on your blog!

Leave a link to your decked-out and holiday-trimmed blog below so we can all get in the festive mood.

Seasons greetings and happy blog decorating!

Blogging with an iPad: Choosing a web browser, setting up your theme and adding widgets

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My iPad is a significant part of my life.  It goes almost everywhere with me and is the one device I can’t live without for both work and leisure.

With more educators looking at iPads as a replacement for student laptops and netbooks, we’re regularly being asked for blogging tips using iPads.

So I’ve decided the best way to provide advice is build a new blog using just my iPad and post about it as I go!

Web browsers on the iPad

Lets start by talking about web browsers since you’ll need to use one as you’re setting up your blog.

While Safari is the default web browser on an iPad there are apps that provide considerably better browsing with greater functionality than Safari.

Alternative web browsers for iPads include:

I’ve decided to use iCab mobile because:

  1. It has the richest feature set
  2. It supports tab browsing so you don’t have to keep zooming in and out of your browser to move pages
  3. I’m able to access more blog features inside my dashboard than any of the other browsers

You can choose to use Safari rather than purchase an app like iCab mobile however support of tab browsers makes the process considerably easier and quicker.

Tab browsing in iCabmobile on an iPad

Here’s a quick comparison of the main differences between these browsers:

Quick iPad Browser comparison

Tip:

  • The iPad’s dock at the bottom of the screen where you can ‘stick’ icons of your favorite apps so they remain accessible from all other Home screens can hold up to six different apps.
  • To add more icons to the iPad dock, or replace existing apps, just touch and hold any Home screen icon until the icons begin to wiggle.
  • Now drag the app you want to add from the Home screen into your dock.  When complete, press the Home button to save.

The most annoying aspect is Safari is the default browser and, unlike a computer, you can’t change this on an iPad.  So instead I’ve added iCab Mobile to my iPad dock to make it easier to access.

dock41

Creating the blog

Now it’s time for me to create the blog.

I’m creating it via the Edublogs sign up page using  iCab mobile however:

  1. If you’re new to blogging start by reading these things to consider before creating your blog
  2. If you’re setting the student blogs follow these instructions

Tip:  A handy shortcut is to doubletap on your home button. This brings up a toolbar which makes it easy to navigate around your iPad apps.

Accessing your iPad toolbar

Setting up the theme

Now my blog is created it’s time to give it my personal touch by choosing a new theme.  Last thing I want is it to look like all the other newly created blogs!

Changing the theme was simple.

All I needed to do was:

  1. Log into my blog dashboard using iCab mobile (or you can use Safari)
  2. Go to Appearance > Themes
  3. Click Activate below the theme I wanted to use

If you’re struggling to decide on a theme it’s best to activate a theme you want to check out and then view your blog in another tab, than to use Preview — it’s less time consuming.

Changing your theme

Here’s where you’ll find more information to help you choose your theme:

  1. What to consider when choosing your blog theme
  2. The 137 Edublogs Themes Separated Into Categories To Make Choosing Your Next Theme Easier

I’ve decided to use PrimePress because it’s a nice clean theme that suits my purpose.

Uploading the custom image header

While changing the theme was simple, uploading a custom image header wasn’t. It’s definitely something that’s considerably less painful using a computer.

But it can be done and here’s what you need to know:

  • The easiest option is to use a free image header that is close to the image header size you need to upload
  • You need to use iCab Mobile as most iPad web browsers won’t let you locate images on your iPad to upload
  • You need to make sure the image is exactly the size recommended on the Appearance > Custom Header page because you can’t crop images in the dashboard on an iPad

Here’s how I did it:

1.  Downloaded a free image header from FreeWebPageHeaders

  • Images from FreeWebPageHeaders are a standard size of 800 pixels wide by 200 high which means for most themes you’ll need to resize and crop.

Downloading an image on an iPad

2.  Resized the image to 920 pixels wide using iResizer (Us$1.19).

  • There’s lots of image resizers you can choose from.
  • I just found this app the easiest of the ones I already have and it’s handy to have a good image resizer.

Resizing an image on an iPad

3.  Opened up the resized image in PhotoGene (US$2.49):

  • cropped to 920 pixels wide and 150 pixels high (size required for uploading)
  • Added text
  • Saved the image

There’s lots of image editors you can choose from.  This app is easy to use and is handy for cool image editing.

Adding text to an image on an iPad

4.  Then reopened my new custom image header in iResizer to check:

  • it was definitely 920 pixels by 150 pixels
  • otherwise I wouldn’t be able to upload.

5.   Next I logged into my blog dashboard using iCab mobile

6.  Went to Appearance > Custom Header

7.  Clicked Select File, selected image from Camera Roll and clicked Upload image.

Presto!

My new image header is now on my blog!

You can check out the progress of my blog building on an iPad here!

Changing the tagline

The concept behind a blog tagline is to create a memorable phrase that sums up the tone and premise of a blog.

Changing the tagline was simple.

All I needed to do was:

  1. Log into my blog dashboard using iCab mobile (or you can use Safari)
  2. Go to Settings > General
  3. Add my new tagline and click Save Changes.

Adding a new tagline

Changing Widgets

You can’t drag and drop widgets on an iPad.

You can, however, still add widgets with relative ease using the following steps:

1.  Select ‘screen options’ from the tab at the top.

Click on Screen options

2. Enable accessibility mode

Enable accessibility mode

3.  Click add on the widget you want to add

Add the widget

4.  Add the information

  • In my situation I need to add an attribution for the image I’ve used

Adding information to the widget

5.  Then decide where it goes

Choose sidebar and location of widget

6.  Click Save Widget

You can learn more about working with widgets here!

Final thoughts

My blog is now set up ready for me to start adding content.  You can see how the blog is going here (if you can bear it’s current messy state!)

The next post in this series is all about creating and editing posts and pages using an iPad.

Please let us know:

  1. What have I missed?
  2. What other advice would you give?
  3. Or are there any other questions you would like answered?

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A free widget to enhance collaboration and discussion right in your blog!

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We recently came across CollaborizeClassroom and think that anyone with a blog will love what they offer!

CC_logo

Like blogging, CollaborizeClassroom makes it easy to have discussions online. And best of all, there is a widget that lets you embed questions and polls right into your blog!

Anna and the team from CollaborizeClassroom was nice enough to set up a site just for edubloggers – you don’t need to even be an Edublogs user to use it. You can also set-up your own online space and the service is completely free either way!

So play around with the following directions and let us know what you think!

Step One: Visit the Edublogs Collaborize Community. Click Ask a Question. When the window pops up, it’s time to set up your poll.

Screen shot 2011-04-27 at 11.11.59 AM

Step Two: This is the form where you’ll create your poll. In the first field, type in the topic (or title) of your poll. Add any other information you would like to include in the description area. We recommend using this space to explain how you would like people to use your poll. Next, select a category. If you don’t see a category that is specific to your poll, you can use the “Other” category. You can also add an end-date or attach an image, video or document.

AskForm

When you are done, click Publish.

Step Three: Once you see your topic displayed in the topic listing, click Make Widget (the link with the gear icon next to it). You will be taken to a wizard that guides you through the process of customizing your widget’s appearance.

MakeWidget

Step Four: Once you have customized your Widgets appearance, click Next then click Grab Code at the bottom of the page.  Copy the Widget Code.

Screen shot 2011-04-27 at 11.25.56 AM

grabcode

Step Five: From your Edublog site, in a New Post – Click on the HTML Tab and Paste in your Widget Code.

Screen shot 2011-04-27 at 11.30.06 AM

Step Six: Click Publish and view your new widget in action!

Screen shot 2011-04-27 at 11.33.57 AM

Thanks CollaborizeClassroom for putting together this site for our community and for helping with the directions above!

Top widgets for the sidebar of your class or student blog

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Note: This post is cross-posted from the Edublogs News blog. If you like what you read, please consider subscribing here.

Did you know that the fastest and easiest way to add new features to your blog is by embedding widgets into the sidebar of your blog?

To help you out, here is a list of the most popular and most useful widgets that can be added to your blog in no time.

Scroll down to the bottom of this post for more instructions on how to add widgets to your blog. Don’t forget, these widgets can also be embedded using the HTML tab in any page or post as well!

Visitor Statistics

  1. clustrClustrMaps - The most popular widget on Edublogs.  Displays a small map with “dots” for each of your visitors.
  2. Flag Counter – Lists the most common countries that your visitors are from and shows the flag from each country.
  3. Who’s Among Us – With an account, includes some nice stat collection tools.
  4. My Web Counter – Simple and free visitor counters with many custom looks and designs.

voki

Talking Avatars

  1. Voki - Add a speaking and highly customizable avatar to your blog.  Record you voice, create a character, and much more!
  2. Read The Words – Human avatars that will read text or recorded audio right in your blog.
  3. Site Pal – A paid widget that can make scarily realistic avatars using uploaded photos of you or students.

Miscellaneous

  1. Clock Link – 100′s of different and unique clocks of all types.
  2. AccuWeather – The most complete collection of weather widgets to show current conditions and forecasts.
  3. Box.net – Create a file dropbox or upload widget for students to submit files for your review.
  4. Feed Wind – Display the latest posts from another blog anywhere on the web.
  5. Sweet Search – Place a search box for a trusted and safe for students search engine.

googapps

Google Apps

*These widgets also will all work with Google Apps for Education users too!

  1. Google Calendar – Embed a list of upcoming events or a month view of a public Google calendar.
  2. Google Talk Chatback – Put a badge in your sidebar that lets users chat with you live when you are online. Your blog’s visitors don’t even need a gtalk account to chat with you.
  3. Google Maps – Embed a Google map – complete with directions, street views, and more.
  4. Google Gadgets – Choose from hundreds of different widgets, including games, trivia and more.

Multimedia

  1. schooltubeFlickr Slideshow and Badges - Easily add photos from your flickr account to your sidebar.
  2. Facebook Photo Gallery - Show off your public facebook photo galleries right on your blog.
  3. SchoolTube MVP - Share popular videos from SchoolTube.com with easy sidebar access.
  4. YouTube - Place in YouTube channels or top trending videos.
  5. Mixpod – Create a music play list and share it on your blog.
  6. RadioTuna – Pick a genre and play music for your visitors.

Languages

  1. wordofdayGoogle Translate – Instantly translate your blog into many different languages.
  2. Transparent.com Word of the Day – Audio and visual word of the day. Customizable in many of the world’s languages such as Spanish, French, German, Chinese and many more.
  3. Reverso Translation – Translorts, verb conjugators, and more in many different languages.

Reading

  1. Shelfari - Show off your favorite books for others to see.
  2. Education Atlas – Free thesaurus and dictionary widget with many features.
  3. SitePal Widgetbox – Mentioned above, but this widget will allow readers to type in or copy and paste words to be read out loud.

Science & Math

  1. convertScience Score – A science question of the day. Students can even enter to win prizes.
  2. Wolfram Alpha – Quite possibly the best resource on this list – Wolfram Alpha contains hundreds of customizable math and science widgets, including unit converters, weather tools, graphing calculators, problem solvers, and much more. This might be the only resource math and science students and teachers need for their blogs!

History

  1. Info Please – Nice looking “this day in history” widget that displays multiple events and updates every day.
  2. Timeline Index – 30 different timelines showcasing several different periods of history – including US presidents, world history outline, philosophers, and explorers.

Widget Sites & Collections

  1. widgetboxWidgetBox.com – The definite go-to place to find and build your own widgets. Edublogs uses several widgets from here on our main site!
  2. SpringWidgets.com – Another great source for widgets from many of your favorite sites on the web. User reviews and comments help you find the perfect widget for your blog.
  3. Widgipedia.com – Like the two sites above, wigipedia is a huge and growing collections of widgets of all types and sizes.

How To Embed

1. Choose the widget of your choice and copy the html code for it.

2.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

Appearance > Widgets menu item

3.  Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets)

4.  Add a text widget to the desired sidebar by dragging it from the Available Widgets into the Sidebar area on the right.

5.  The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code for your widget, click Save and then Close.

Adding HTML embed code to voki

6.  You should now see the widget in your blog sidebar!

Related Links

Since there are thousands and thousands of widgets to use, we are certain to have overlooked a few of your favorites.

Leave a comment below with any that we missed so that we can add to the list!

A Quick Tour of Your New Edublogs Features!

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As James says “odds are you’ve noticed that Edublogs has just undergone a pretty radical upgrade – and that your admin area is looking a heap of a lot different!”

And I thought you might like a quick overview of the main changes since I’ve been working hard to get the new Help & Support section up to date.

Your Dashboard

The main area of your dashboard is now made of handy configurable modules such as Right Now, Quick Press, Recent comments — read using your dashboard to learn more about the cool features of each module !

These modules can be moved by left mouse clicking on their title, dragging to the new location on your dashboard and then release your mouse button. You can also expand and collapse these dashboard modules by left mouse clicking on their title bar.

Image of moving a dashboard module

Your Navigation menu

Image of using menuYour navigation menu is now on the left side of your administration panel.

Each navigation item can be expanded or collapsed to view their sub menu by clicking on the arrow on the right hand side of the item.

Action Links

Your administration panels for managing features such as posts, pages, comments, and media now all use action links. Hovering your mouse over a title brings up the action links associated with that item and then clicking on the action takes you to the required screen.

For example, in the Edit Posts screen hovering your mouse over a title of a post brings up links for Edit, Quick Edit, Delete and View. Clicking on the action link Edit opens up the post allowing you to edit the post.

Image of action link

Uploading Media Files

Media such as images, video, audio and documents are still uploaded using the Add Media icons.

The main differences are:

  1. The Flash uploader is greatly improved (I’ve not experienced any problems or needed to use the browser uploader)
  2. There is no Insert/Edit Image button in your formatting toolbar. All actions of this button are now done completely using the Add an Image icon. For example, if you want to add an image by linking to an Image URL you now use the Add an Image icon. Image of linking to an Image URL
  3. Once you’ve uploaded a video, audio or document file make sure you click File URL before clicking Insert into Post otherwise the link to the location of your file won’t be inserted into your post. Image of inserting into post

Adding Widgets to Your Sidebar

Your Design navigation menu has been changed to Appearance and this is where features such as Themes and Widgets are now located.

For blogs with more than one sidebar, all sidebars are displayed on the right hand side of your Widget screen. Clicking a sidebar expands it to show all its current widgets. This feature means you can add widgets to all your sidebars at the same time.

Widgets are added to a sidebar by dragging the desired widget to the desired sidebar. When added the widget opens up; all you need to do is configured it and then click Save. Click on Remove to remove a widget from a sidebar.

Image of adding widget to sidebar

Accessing all your blogs

Image of locating blogGone is the tabs for all your blogs along the top of your administration panel or “All My blogs” link.

Instead you need to go your My Blogs screen via Dashboard > My Blogs and then click on the link to the desired blog dashboard.

Image of dashboard

FINAL THOUGHTS

As I said this was just a quick overview of the main changes.

For more details check out our guide for Getting Started with Edublogs which can be viewed online or downloaded as handy PDFs! — I’m working hard to get it all completed…please send chocolate to keep my energy sustained

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