Hebrew Bible and Christian Scriptures

Each week for six weeks we’re giving you a new task, with how-to info, to help you with your class blogging.

Here’s the previous tasks:

1. Week 1 – Create A Class Blog
2. Week 2: Set Up Your Blogging Rules and Guidelines
3. Week 3 – Add A Visitor Tracking Widget To Your Blog Sidebar

This week’s task is to add your student blogs to your blogroll (if you have student blogs).

Alternatively you can follow these directions to add links to helpful websites.

What is a Blogroll?

A blogroll is a list of links that you display on your blog.

Bloggers commonly use blogrolls to list their favourite blogs.  Blogrolls help readers locate other blogs worth reading — you are saying “these are some blogs I like – which are worth checking out!”

Blogrolls on class blogs are used slightly differently.

Your class blog is the central hub that connects your student blogs together; making it easier to share their learning, interact with each other and a global audience.

The blogroll on your class blog is what links together all the blogs — helping you, your students and others locate the student blogs easily.

Here’s an example of a blogroll on a Huzzah’s class blog:

How to Add Links To Your Blogroll

Every newly created Edublog has the same default widgets in its sidebars — including a blogroll.

You add links to your student blogs as follows:

1.  Go to Links > Add New

2.  Add the first name of your student (and initial of last name if necessary) to the Name Module

Tips:

• Normally only first names of students are used online.
• This is the text that will be clickable and takes you to their blog

3.  Add the student’s blog URL to the Web Address Module

4.  Select Blogroll in the Categories Module and click Add Link

How To Use Link Categories To Organise Your Student Blogs

You can sort students from different classess into separate categories as follows:

1.  Click on Add A New Category in the Categories Module

2.  Add the Class name then click Add

3.  Now instead of selecting blogroll you just choose the correct category for their Class and click Add Link

Check out Huzzah to see how categories can be used to sort links in blogrolls:

• Student blogs are listed using the catgeory Class Blogs
• Class blogs they read are listed using the category Our Blogroll

How To Edit Links

After adding links, you may want to edit them or delete the default links included on the blogroll of newly created Edublog.

1.  Go to Links > Edit

2.   To delete a link, hover over the link name and click the Delete option that appears below it.

3.  To delete multiple links, select several links and then choose Delete from the drop down Bulk Action menu, and click Apply.

4.  To edit a link, hover over the link name and click the Edit option that appears below it.

5.  An edit screen will open — just edit the link details and then click Update Link

Adding your Blogroll to Your Blog Sidebar

The Links Widget  is used to display the links you added to your blogroll in your sidebar.

Every newly created Edublog has the same default widgets in its sidebars — including a blogroll.  However,  when you add any widget to a newly created blog (via Appearance > Widgets) it automatically removes the default Edublogs widgets.

You add your blogroll back into the sidebar as follows:

1.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your Dashboard

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

3.  Drag the Links Widget from the Available Widgets area into the Sidebar area on the right

FINAL THOUGHTS

These weekly tasks are part of the preparation for the next Student Blogging Challenge which starts in March.

You can read more about the Student blogging challenge here:

1. About the student challenge
2. Student Blogging Challenge FAQs

Please a comment on this post if you need help setting up your class blog just — I’m always happy to help!

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Lots of people have been asking me about RSS feeds and Feedburner over the past few weeks.

So I’ve decided it’s time to update my ‘how to’ Feedburner info so that:

1. All the required instructions are in one post
2. It is current for the latest version of Edublogs and Feedburner

What is RSS?

The easiest way to receive latest posts from your favorite blogs is to subscribe to RSS using feed readers such as Google Reader, Bloglines, NetVibes.

RSS (means Really Simple Syndication) retrieves the latest content from the sites you are interested and pulls them into your feed reader where you can read them all in one location rather than visiting each site separately.

Watch RSS in Plain English to learn more!

The presence of the orange RSS icon indicates a site has an RSS feed and means you can subscribe to it using a feed reader.

What is FeedBurner?

Most blogs have RSS feed which is detected automatically by commonly used feed readers when the blog URL is added to the reader.

However, if you want to make it more obvious and easier for readers to subscribe using RSS, or want to know exactly how many people subscribe to your blog  then the best option is to add a Feedburner RSS feed and email subscription to your blog.

Feedburner is a free web service which enhances bloggers and podcasters ability to manage their RSS feeds and track usage of their subscribers.

Setting Up Your Feedburner Feed

1.  Go to Feedburner and sign in to Feedburner with your Google Account (create a Google Account first if you don’t have one!).

2.  Add your Blog URL to the Burn a Feed Right This Instant and click Next.

3.  Leave RSS 2.0 source selected and click Next.

4.  On “Welcome” page, make sure you are happy with the title and FeedBurner address (URI) of your new feed and then click Next.

5.  On the Congrats! page click Next

6.  On the stats configuration page select Clickthroughs and I want more! and then click Next.

Adding Your Feedburner Feed To Your Blog

This is used to add the RSS icon and easy subscribe options to your blog side bar using a text widget as explained below:

1.  Click on the Publicize Tab > Chicklet Chooser in your Feedburner account and copy the HTML code.

2.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

3.  Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets) Please note: In new blogs sidebars in your dashboard are empty and adding widgets automatically removes the default Edublogs 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 from FeedBurner, click Save and then Close.

Adding a FeedBurner Email Subscription

It’s important to add an email subscription option to your blog sidebar as some readers prefer to receive latest posts from blogs using email subscription.

1.  Click on the Publicize Tab > Email Subscription in your Feedburner account and click on Activate.

2.   Copy the HTML code.

3.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your blog dashboard

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

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

6.  The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code for Feedburner email subscription, click Save and then Close.

7.  Now readers simply enter their email address and then click on “Subscribe” and Feedburner emails your entire post to them on the day after it has been published on your blog.

Redirecting All Your Blog Feed To Feedburner

Unless you redirect all your blog feed to Feedburner you won’t get accurate subscriber numbers because some of your readers subscribe using your original blog feed.

If you’re an Edublogs supporter you can redirect your blog feed  as follows:

1.  Go to Settings > Feedburner in your blog dashboard

2.  Add your Feedburner address and click Save Changes.

3.  Now all your feeds is automatically redirected through FeedBurner and you’ll be able to track subscriber numbers accurately.

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Adding your own digital media content to blog posts isn’t hard and it does spice up your posts — providing more variety for your readers!

Let me show you how easy it is to create a PhotoPeach and add it to a blog post.

About PhotoPeach

PhotoPeach is probably one of the fastest and easiest ways of creating a story or quiz using photos.

It’s as simple as:

1. Uploading your photos
2. Adding music
3. Adding your captions.

Presto!  You’ve created a story that you can embed as a slideshow into your blog post.

Here’s Examples!

1. Look What’s Happening in Room 102! (Grade 2) PhotoPeaches:
   • What we learned about Owls – students researched and designed their owls
   • Working together to do maths – students learning about maths
2. Mrs. Nessman’s class (Grade 1)
   
   • The Mural has arrived – excellent example of using it to increase cultural awareness between collorabive classrooms in different countries

Below is a quick quiz I created with PhotoPeach:

How To Create A Quiz

Creating a PhotoPeach Quiz is really easy.

Here’s how it’s done:

1. Click on Edit once you’ve created your PhotoPeach
2. Then click on Edit Captions and Photos
3. Now click on each photo and then Quiz to add your questions
4. When finished click OK

Disabling Comments

As Linda Yollis points out you can’t moderate comments on PhotoPeach.

You can turn off comments (if your prefer) by:

1. Click on Edit once you’ve created your PhotoPeach
2. Then click on Manage Comments 
3. Change setting to Don’t allow comments 
   

How To Embed A Photo Peach

Embedding a PhotoPeach is the same as any other embed HTML code:

1. Completely write your post including adding title, text, images, tags and categories.
2. Click on Save Draft, previewed your post and make all necessary edits. 
3. Go to your completed PhotoPeach and hover your mouse over the PhotoPeach to bring up the menu items on the left hand side of the PhotoPeach.
4. Click on Embed in Blog.
5. Copy the Embed HTML code.
6. Click on HTML Tab on your blog post. 
7. Paste the embed code for your PhotoPeach 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.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This is part of a series of spicing up your blog posts using digital media content.

Please share your cool examples of digital media that you’ve used in posts as we’d love to check them out!

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I confess!  I hate default avatars next to my comments on other bloggers posts.

It makes me feel both naked and like a newblie

I’m know I’m not the only one.  The solution is simple — set up a Gravatar account!

About Gravatar

Gravatar is a service that provides globally unique avatars.

Most standard blogging platforms support Gravatar.  So when you go from site to site leaving comments your gravatar image automatically displays –provided the email address associated with your Gravatar’s account is used.

Here’s how simple it is:

1. Go to Gravatar and click on Get your Gravatar today!
2. Enter your email address and click Signup 
3. Go to your email account and click on the link in your gravatar confirmation email to activate your account.
4. Now follow the instructions to set your username and password.
5. Next upload your image by clicking on Add one by clicking here!
6. Choose where you’d like to get the image from – for best results ideal image size for upload is 80 x 80 pixels
7. Once uploaded click on Crop and Finish
8. Click on G Rated as many sites only support displaying avatars with a rating of G.

Presto!

Now whenever you leave a comment on a blog that supports gravatar (such as Edublogs.org, any Edublogs Campus site, WordPress.com, WordPress.org) your avatar image will automatically display next to your comment!

FINAL THOUGHTS

• If you are changing your avatar, it can take a few hours for caches to clear. Try clearing your browser’s cache by holding the Ctrl key and pressing F5, which will help.
• Check out Creating And Uploading Your Comment Avatar – for online tools you can use for creating your avatar image
  

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Your avatar is an important part of your online identity.

It’s an online representation of you that shows up in places such as where you leave comments or forum posts and is part of how others visualize who you are.

Most schools don’t allow students to use pictures of themselves on blogs or websites.  Instead of photos most students create avatars that representative of them.

Uploading your comment avatar to your blog is easy — I’ll show you how in a second.  But first let’s discuss online tools you can use to create your avatars!

For each tool I’ve included an example of the type of avatar they create and how to save the avatars (without creating an account and/or using an email address).

Important tips

Online avatar tools often create rectangular  images while normally avatars are square.

Use an image editing program (such as MS Paint, Picture Manager or iPhoto) to make your image square before uploading.

For best results resize your image to 97 pixels wide by 97 pixels high.

Here’s information to help you:

1. How to crop images using MS Paint
2. How to resize images using MS Paint
3. How to crop and resize using MS Picture Manager

Think carefully of how you want others to visualize you when choosing your avatar – it’s all about creating a positive digital identify!

Bless This Chick

Bless This Chick creates really cute female avatar (and I had lots of fun creating mine).

Once finished it’s best to select jpg image option 130 x 146 pixels and then email to yourself.

Build YourSelf Wild

Build Yourself  Wild can be used to create fairly conservative avatars (like my example below) or you can go totally wild by adding different animal parts to various areas of your avatar’s body.

To save your image:

1. Click on I’m Done
2. Now click on Print Your Wild Self
3. This will display the print version of your avatar in a new tab or window of your web browser
4. Right click on this print version and select ‘Save Image As’ or “Save Picture as’

Image size created is 1024 pixels wide by 768 pixels wide.

Use programs like MS Paint or MS Picture Manager to crop your avatar into a square shape and then resize.

DoppelMe

DoppelMe is relatively easy to use.  Just click on each feature you want to add to your avatar and it is automatically added (or changed).

A few features are only accessible if you create a DoppelMe account and are logged in.  However you can still create cool avatars (and save them) without an account.

Image size created is 100 pixels wide by 200 pixels wide.

To use your avatar’s full body it’s best not to add a background so you can make your image square.

To save your completed avatar:

1. Right click on your avatar
2. Select ‘Save Image As’ or “Save Picture as’

Dream Avatar Creator

Dream Avatar Creator is also relatively easy to use.

Just click on each feature you want to add to your avatar and it is automatically added (or changed).

To save your completed avatar:

1. Right click on your avatar
2. Select ‘Save Image As’ or “Save Picture as’

Image size created is 120 pixels wide by 150 pixels wide.

Face your Manga

A good aspect of Face your Manga is that it creates square shaped avatars so you don’t need to crop or change your image shape.

Unfortunately some of the ads on this site aren’t necessary ideal – check suitability for your student first!

To save your completed avatar:

1. Click on the PrtScn button on your keyboard (this takes a screenshot of your entire desktop) or click on Alt + PrtScrn to take a screenshot of the web browser page
2. Open up MS Paint
3. Hold your Ctrl key and then press V key to paste your screenshot into MS Paint 
4. Now just select the avatar and crop (Image > Crop) — then Save your image

On a Mac:  use Apple (Command) Key + Shift + 4 to take a screenshot of your avatar only.

Hero Factory

The Hero Factory creates action hero avatars.

Be warned the bodies of  most females hero’s may be a bit too voluptuous (my avatar covered up ).

Once you’ve completed save your avatar using the PrtScn method – same as described above for Face your Manga.

The Mini Mixer

The Mini Mixer creates a lego avatar – ideal for your lego loving students

Once you’ve completed save your avatar using the PrtScn method – same as described above for Face your Manga.

Mr. PicassoHead

Mr. PicassoHead creates a more artistic like avatar – ideal for those wanting something a bit different.

Once you’ve completed save your avatar using the PrtScn method – same as described above for Face your Manga.

Definitely fun — but I mightn’t be very artistic!

Simpsons Avatar

The Simpsons Avatar is definitely for those lovers of the Simpsons.

Just create your own Simpson avatar then save it using the PrtScn method – same as described above for Face your Manga.

WeeMee

WeeMee is also relatively easy to use.

Just click on each feature you want to add to your avatar and it is automatically added (or changed). However terms of services are for over 13 years of age.

Once you’ve completed save your avatar using the PrtScn method – same as described above for Face your Manga.

TizMe

TizMe is also excellent fun for creating avatars however terms of services state for over 13 years of age.

Once you’ve completed save your avatar using the PrtScn method – same as described above for Face your Manga.

Uploading your Avatar

Now you’ve created your avatar uploading it to your blog is as simple as:

1. Go to Users > Your Avatar or Profile > Your Avatar inside your blog dashboard
2. Click on Browse, locate your avatar on your computer and click Open
3. Now click Upload
   
4. Once uploaded select the part of the image you want to use as the avatar and then click Crop Image
   
5. Now whenever you leave comment on your blog or (another Edublogs.org blog) your avatar will display with your comment.

Please note:

1. If you have trouble cropping your avatar once uploaded – you need to upload again by click on Browse, locate your avatar and then click on the Alternative Upload button.
2. Your new avatar mightn’t appear immediately on new comments – try holding the Ctrl key and pressing F5 to clear your browser cache
3. For best results resize your image to 97 pixels wide by 97 pixels high before uploading.

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