Theology 7372, Fall 2009

Can you over use hashtags on twitter?

Is obsessive hashtagging a problem?

And what advice would you give in terms of appropriate use of hashtags?

Why do I ask?

Because Marian Schembari left the following comment on my A Twitteraholic’s Guide to tweets, hashtags, and all things Twitter post:

“Certain tweeters need to cut it out with the obsessive hashtagging. It dilutes the message and looks spammy.”

Now I feel I haven’t provided enough advice on hashtags so want to rectify it.

And why did I miss it?

Easy

How you use Twitter and what annoys you depends how many you follow.

A person who follows 1,000’s of people sees things differently from someone who follows 100’s.

So what advice should I be providing on using hashtags on twitter?

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Conferences can make you feel really overwhelmed and alone — especially at a conference like ISTE amongst 13,000 ed tech professionals participants who attend each year.

But never for a twitterer.

For us Twitter users conferences are like walking into a big party where you know everyone and are meeting up with old friends.

So how do we use Twitter?

Here’s advice on using Twitter written with assistance from my twitter network and readers comments on this post — thanks everyone for sharing their tips!

And for those of you who have heard of twitter and have dismissed it thinking ‘”Twitter is for people with too much time on their hands” — think again   Educators are connecting with each other on Twitter and using it like a big teachers lunch room that’s open 24/7 whenever they need help, assistance or just want to connect with others.

Here’s tips for signing up for your Twitter account:

1. Go to Twitter and create your account.
2. Remember first impressions count!  Choose your username and an avatar carefully
3. Choose a username that makes it easier for others to relate to you as a real person and conveys the right impression of who you are. e.g. Compare spwat3 with suewaters — which is easier?
4. But don’t stress too much — your username can be changed anytime without affecting your twitter account  (Settings > Account)

Before you start following other people make sure you:

1. Complete your bio and add your blog URL (if applicable) — people use this information to decide whether they follow you (Settings > Profile).
2. Upload your twitter avatar — people are less likely follow those using the default avatar (Settings > Profile)
3. Don’t start following people on twitter until you’ve published some tweets! Why would anyone follow you if you haven’t even bothered to update?

Tips for who to follow:

1. Choose about 100 people to follow initially
2. Find people to follow who have similar interests or with blogs you like who either share great info and links or who willingly engage in conversations
3. Follow a few people you know and follow who they follow
4. Find a twitter mentor who will help and guide you.  Get them to ask their followers to add you.
   
5. You can always ask me to help by sending an @suewaters tweet. Make sure when people do start adding you that add them back quickly plus thank them for adding you to their account!!!
6. Don’t just follow anyone — follow those who have the same interests and who you like
7. Remember following does not have to be forever — vet your following list to suit your needs
8. And think about how you want to use it — to follow latest news? to follow other educators? to share what you know?

Tips for engaging in the conversation:

Twitter is very similar to a face to face conversation.  A mixture of small talk, relationship building, helping others, getting help and sharing.

1. Be patient it takes time to build your network.
2. Use it everyday for four weeks, even if only for 5 minutes per day.
3. Remember twitter is a two way conversation — you need to answer as much as you ask but most importantly share, share, share.
4. Participate and say something, anything
5. Get involved in the conversation. Don’t be afraid to reply and if you don’t get a response back, don’t be offended. It happens — you’ll soon see those that do/don’t engage in conversations
   
6. Learn the twitter language and how to use it well i.e. @, DM, #, hashtags, RT — here’s information that will help.
7. Use a twitter client where possible and not the web interface
8. Avoid using up all 140 characters as it makes Retweeting harder
9. Remember online is forever. If you didn’t want it online don’t say it in the first place.
10. It’s extremely easy for others to misinterpret your written text. Remember this!
11. Think about how what you say reflects on how people visualise you.

Getting more out of Twitter by Using a Twitter Client

A twitter client is a MUST as they provide instant notification of the latest updates and easy response to the tweets.

Which Twitter client you use is personal. Here’s recommendations from my twitter network:

For your computer:

• TweetDeck
• Seesmic
• Hootsuite
• Yoono – FireFox addon
• Accessible Twitter – optimized to assist disabled users
  

For your mobile device:

• Twitter for iPhone – iPhone, iPod touch
• TweetDeck – iPhone, iPod touch
• Twitterific -- iPhone, iPod touch
• Twitbird - iPhone, iPod touch
• echofon – - iPhone, iPod touch
• Osfoora – iPad
• Uber twiter – BlackBerry
• Twitter for BlackBerry – BlackBerry
  
• Tweetcaster – Android
• Gravity – Nokia, Symbian

Connecting using Hashtags

A hashtag is any word on twitter that starts with the “#” hash sign.

Hash tags make it easier to search and follow the twitter conversations on specific topics.

How it works is everyone agrees to use a standard hash tag in their tweets when they tweet about a specific topic.  Then you set up a search for that hashtag using your twitter client, or use twitter search tools such as Twitter Search and Twitterfall to track the conversation.

Hashtags are commonly used at conferences to share thoughts on presentations, organise meet ups and coordinate after parties.  For example, the hashtag used at ISTE 2010 conference was #iste10.

Check out What is a Hashtag by Silvia Tolisano for a more detailed explanation.

Hashtags commonly used by educators include:

• #edchat – used for discussions between educators on thought provoking topics.  You can read more about #edchat here
• #ebshare – Edublogs Twitter hashtag for sharing good links and for educators to tweet links at Edublogs so we can share them with our community
• #teachertuesday – used on Tuesdays to recommend educators worth following
• #followfriday or #ff – used by Twitterers on Friday to recommend people worth following.
• #comment4kids – used by educators to tweet student posts that deserves to be commented on such as a post that is awesome or student that needs encouragement.
• #lrnchat – used for discussions on thought provoking topics.  You can read more about #lrnchat here

Public vs Protected Accounts

By default, when you sign up for Twitter your account is public and any one can see your tweets.

Some twitter users prefer to use Protected twitter accounts where their updates are kept private — where only approved followers can see their tweet updates. You change your privacy options in Settings > Account.

If you choose to use a Protected Twitter account then you need to appreciate there are people who won’t follow some one who uses a protected twitter account.

For those who won’t follow protected twitter accounts it is important to appreciate there are a range of reasons why an educator might choose to use a protected account and often it isn’t related to concerns of posting an inappropriate tweet.

It is also important to consider followers may be using a protected account when taking screenshots from Twitter — and where possible I prefer to ask if people mind me taking a screenshot.

Don’t forget here’s a cool way to grab a screenshot of a tweet and embed it to a blog post!

Thanks to Esra and Jane Lofton for reminding me to discuss Protected Twitter accounts!

Keeping up with links shared on Twitter

A twitter network is a rich source of great links to read and it’s handy to grab these links using twitter tools so you can check them out at your leisure.

Here’s a couple of options:

1. Shiftlinks – creates an RSS feed of your links posted by your twitter followers which you can subscribe to using an feed reader such as Google Reader. This works works well when following a small number of people.
2. The Twitter Times – creates a daily newspaper based on the top links shared by your twitter follower.  This works works well when following a large number of people.  Here’s my personalised Twitter Times.  You can also subscribe by RSS.

Thanks to Dolores Gende for reminding me to discuss how to monitor links shared!

And let us not forget how we can use with our students

Check out Tom Barrett and friends 30 Interesting Ways to use Twitter in the Classro0om from Tom’s Interesting Ways To… Series.

Final thoughts

Everyone has their own secret ingredients for using Twitter.

1. What did I miss?
2. What are your tips for getting more out of twitter?
3. Do you have any favourite twitter tools?

And please share your thoughts on why educators should use twitter and how to get more out of using it.

Thanks to everyone in my twitter network that helped write this post –really appreciated it and apologies for not listing everyone’s names but there were so many who helped!

Photo from Bloggers Cafe at ISTE by ctkmcmillan licensed under All Rights Reserved and used with permission from ctkmcmillan (Karen McTeach).

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When did you last check your spam folder?

I’ve been getting numerous emails recently such as ‘why aren’t I receiving my comment notification emails’,  ‘I haven’t received the emails for my student’s login details’ and ‘why haven’t you responded to my email.’

Unfortunately, gmail users are being caught out by legitimate emails being sent to spam and since by default gmail now hides the spam folder they aren’t realising.

Here’s my advice:

1. Change your gmail spam folder to show
2. Regularly check your spam folder for legitimate emails and unspam any legitimate emails

How to change your gmail spam folder setting

By default the spam folder is now located underneath the More drop down menu.

To always have your spam folder display you can either:

1. Drag your spam label out of the More area and into your main menu

2.  Or go to Settings > Labels and click on Show next to Spam

Presto!

Now you’ll easily be able to see how many emails have been spammed and can easily check it for those missing emails

Final Thoughts

Looking for more tips on using email?

Check out:

1. What You Really Ought To Know About Emails!
2. Creating Student Accounts Using One Gmail Account
3. How To Moderate All Comments and Posts On Student Blogs

And remember filters, especially strict ones for education email addresses,  often block legitimate emails.

Make sure when emailing from an education email account you include an alternative email address such as gmail or hotmail.

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Recent changes to Facebook may have stopped the import of your blog post feeds.

Which is frustrating as  some readers are more comfortable, and prefer to read posts, and comment on them, in Facebook rather than on blogs.

Facebook normally checks your feed every few hours and automatically adds any new blog posts to your Facebook notes.

If your blog feed is no longer being imported into Facebook the solution is to cancel your current blog import and then reimport it.

Not currently feeding your posts into Facebook?

Here’s our instructions on How To Import Your Blog Posts Into Facebook

Here’s how to restart your blog import:

1.  Log into your Facebook Account

2.  Click on Profile

3.  Click on Notes tab

4.   Click on the title of one of your posts or notes

5.  Now click on My Notes

6.  Click on ‘Edit import settings’

7.  Click on Stop Importing

8.  Now add back in your Feed URL, agree to their conditions to import feed and then click Start Importing

9.  On the preview of your imported blog page click Confirm Import if you are happy with the Preview.

Final Thoughts

Not currently feeding your posts into Facebook?

Here’s our instructions on How To Import Your Blog Posts Into Facebook

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Meet Tammy – a high school science teacher with an outstanding class blog which you can visit here.

Tammy serves as an inspiration to all of us that are interested in creating an online environment that is a natural extension of our classrooms.

She is amazing when it comes to recording her daily classroom notes and embedding them in her class blog as a video.

We thought that you might like to get to know her a bit better and how she does what she does, so we asked her a few questions and she was kind enough to reply.

What were the main reason(s) why you started recording videos for your students?

For years I taught my chemistry and physics students by using dry erase markers on an overhead projector.

When interactive boards came along, I was excited, but I needed to be able to see my students while they worked with me.  When I went behind my demonstration station to work problems on the board, it was like my students thought I’d left the building!

Another challenge was the missing student – students gone on mission trips, students out with the flu, students in tournaments, or students who missed the concepts in class that day and just needed to hear the lesson again.

Everything came together when, from all different directions and just about all at one time, I discovered Edublogs, eBeam Interact (an interactive projection device and software), and the Wacom Cintique Tablet.

How do you create your videos?

I’m able to write on the tablet while facing my students and record both my voice and pen strokes with eBeam and a cordless mic.

At the end of the day, I upload the videos to blip.tv, and then embed them on our class blog.  In addition to blip.tv, other online resources that have been really helpful for me as I post the lessons to the website are compfight.com and Flickr.com

How are you using your class blog?

I use our class blog for posting videos of daily lectures, reviews, and help sessions, but also as an online filing cabinet of sorts for just tons of resources for my students – the weekly syllabus, project information, assignments, interactive websites, tutorials, etc.

So many wonderful teachers and organizations have put such incredible resources for learning chemistry and physics online,  and now my students can access them though our blog.

Another very important way I use our class blog is to keep in touch with my students, and for them to keep in touch with each other, outside of class.

I’m working on helping them learn how scientists across the world communicate by having them share lab results, collaborate on projects, etc., through comments.

They also use the comments to ask me (or their classmates) questions they forgot or might have been hesitant to ask in class.

My chemistry students recently finished the huge end of the year research project, and, oh, my word, I thought someone from Edublogs was going to call and tell us we were overloading the system.

What has been the benefits of your class blog to your students?

Our class blog has proven to be a tremendous resource for my students who for one reason or another have to be absent from class.

From their homes or hotel room, while waiting between races on their lap top, or on iTunes, my students can watch the day’s lecture, watch videos that I might have shown in class through the VodPod, get copies of assignments, learn about upcoming projects, and then ask me or their classmates questions by posting comments.

My students love to see themselves in action, but I could never seem to keep up with getting all the pictures I took printed for everyone to see.  With our class blog, I’m able to use Flickr and post picture and videos on our blog so the students can see all of them, any time, and not just the ones I can afford to print. I also send pics and video to Facebook and Twitter, and I’ve had former students comment on, “I remember when… .”

My kids would never have this kind of interaction with me, with each other, and even with the world without our class blog.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Thank you, Tammy, for all of your kind and informational words!

We would love to hear from others of you out there that are using your blogs in exciting ways to improve the learning experience of students.

Feel free to leave a comment if you would like to share and possibly be part of a future post such as this one!

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I confess!  I’m a twitter-a-holic!

Like all lovers of twitter I like to include tweets in my posts.  Unfortunately previously this meant screenshots or copying the tweet text into the post.

The good news is thanks to @robinsloan from Twitter Media we now have BlackBird Pie.

With BlackBird Pie all you need to do is:

1. Add the URL of a tweet
2. Click Bake It
3. Copy and paste the code into your post

Since Edublogs allows you to add almost any embed code to posts –  you now have the tweet embedded in your post as a nice screenshot with all clickable links.

I learnt about BlackBird Pie from Kate who has been nice enough to let me demonstrate the steps using her Even Literary Characters are on Twitter post.

Thanks Kate!

But before I do!

Can you help?  I’m keen to update my resources on using Twitter for new people!

Please leave a comment to tell us:

1. What are your 3 (or more) most important tips a new twitterer needs to know?
2. What are your 3 (or more) reasons why you use twitter?
3. What are  your favorite twitter tools and apps?
4. Alternatively, if you haven’t tried twitter and have struggle can you tell us what you don’t understand or want to know more about in terms of twitter?  So we can help you!

Embedding the Tweet from BlackBird Pie

As alway to add any type of  HTML embed code into a post it is as simple as:

1. Completely write your post including title, text, images, tags and categories.
2. Click on Save Draft, preview your post and make all necessary edits.
3. Grab the HTML embed code
4. Click on the HTML tab
5. Paste the HTML embed code
6. Click Publish

And Remember:

• 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.

Here’s how it is done with BlackBird Pie:

1.  Locate the URL of the tweet by right clicking on the time of the tweet and copying the link address.

2.  Go to BlackBird Pie , add the tweet URL and click Bake it

3.  Copy the HTML code

4.  Click on HTML Tab on your blog post.

6.  Paste the embed code into your post where you want it to appear.

7.  Now click Publish and close your post while in HTML editor mode.

Presto!  The tweet is embedded in your blog post!

Final Thoughts

And if you can help — plesase share:

1. What are your 3 (or more) most important tips a new twitterer needs to know?
2. What are your 3 (or more) reasons why you use twitter?
3. What are  your favorite twitter tools and apps?
4. Alternatively, if you haven’t tried twitter and have struggle can you tell us what you don’t understand or want to know more about in terms of twitter?  So we can help you!

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Many online tools provide embed code that you can use to embed them into other web sites.  The good news is that Edublogs allows you to add almost any embed code into blog posts, pages and text widgets.

This means there are lots of online tools that you can embed to really spice up your posts — providing more variety for your readers and engaging your students!

Let me show you how easy it is to set up a Wallwisher and add it to a blog post.

About Wallwishers

Wallwisher is an online notice board creator.

It’s a really fast and easy way to create engaging activities to use with students.

It’s as simple as:

1. Create your Wallwisher
2. Add some sticky notes
3. Embed into your Blog Post
4. Add more sticky notes

The sticky notes can be as simple as text only OR very creative with images, audio, video, SlideShares, Google Presentations, blog posts (basically almost anything you can link to via their URL)!

And students don’t need to have a Wallwishers account to use it!

Here’s examples how you can use with students:

1. Frieda Foxworth’s Wallwisher’s in the classroom – includes a great ‘How to’ Wallwisher video
2. Ann Leaness’s Wallwisher and Stupeflix in the Classroom - make sure you check out the video at the end to see how she uses a Wallwisher to gather images to create a video with Stupeflix
3. Tom Barrett’s 19 Interesting ways to use Wallwisher in the Classroom
4. The Conch’s online “post-it parking lot” for pop culture points. Students earn extra credit when they make connections to what they are learning in class. Click on each post title to check out their different wallwishers.

Below is a  Wallwisher I’ve created:

I’ve set up this Wallwisher as a sandpit site.

Click on ‘Post a Sticky’ to add your own notes to the wall — why not add your thoughts on how it could be used or share links to your Wallwisher!

How To Create a Wallwisher

1.  Go to Wallwisher and click on ‘Build a wall‘

2.  Select your Wallwisher image, add your title and your subtitle

2. Add your name and email address

3.  Choose your Wall URL, who can view, who can post sticky notes and decide if you want to approve every post before it is added to the wall.

4.  Select your preferred theme and click Done.

5.  Presto!  Your Wallwisher is created and you can now start addding some sticky notes.

Adding and Viewing Sticky Notes on Wallwisher

1.  You just double click any where on the Wallwisher to add a new sticky note

2.  When the sticky note opens up add your text and/or the URL location of any images, audio, video, SlideShares, Google Presentations, blog posts etc you would like to include in your sticky note and then click OK

Tips:

1.  To locate the URL of an image just right click on the image and select:

• ‘Copy Image location’ when using FireFox
• Properties and then copy the Address (URL) when using Internet Explorer

2.  When viewing a sticky note with an image embedded – click on ZOOM if you want to enlarge the image

3.  When you link to the URL location of audio, SlideShares, Google Presentations, blog posts etc it shows that link using a View icon.  Clicking on VIEW opens up the item on your Wallwisher.

Embedding a Wallwisher in a blog post

Edublogs and Edublogs Campus blogs have been customised so that users can embed almost any HTML code into posts and text widgets.

This means most javascript, iframes and object code can be added e.g. videos, google calendars, vokis, Voicethreads, ebooks, widgets

To add any type of object that uses HTML embed code into a post it is as simple as:

1. Grab the HTML embed code
2. Click on the HTML tab
3. Paste the HTML embed code
4. Click Publish

Embedding a Wallwisher 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.  On your Wallwisher go to Do More and select Embed.

4.  Copy the embed code

5.  Click on HTML Tab on your blog post.

6.  Paste the embed code for your Wallwisher 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.

Presto! Your Wallwisher is embedded in your blog post and others can view and/or add to it!

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Frustrated by the constant logging in and out when switching between online accounts to test student accounts compared to your account?

Since a lot of what I do involves switching between different accounts — I thought it would help to share my quick and easy cheat method using multiple web browsers.

Cheats Method For Testing Online Accounts

The key is to run multiple web browsers, at the same time, with each web browser logged into a different accounts, and quickly switch back and forth between the web browsers while doing your testing.

For example, you might log into your account using FireFox, use Internet Explorer for a student account and Chrome for another student account.

This is considerably quicker and less frustrating than constantly logging in and out between accounts in the one web browser.

About Web Browsers

A common misconception is you can only run one web browser on your computer.

Wrong! Web browsers are programs just like any other software program.

Just as you can run several word processing applications on your computer, you can run several different web browser, at the same time, without causing any problems.

Commonly used web browsers

If you’re only using one web browser now’s the time to install and check out some of the rest!

Web browsers like Internet Explorer and Safari tend to be more fussy; you’ll probably find the alternative web browsers speed up and improve your browsing experience.

Here’s a list of the most commonly used web browsers for you to try:

FireFox

Firefox is one of the original free open source web browser and is regarded by many as the best Web browser.

FireFox and Internet Explorer are the two most commonly used web browsers.

Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer 8 is Microsoft’s current version of Internet Explorer however some educational institutions are still using  Internet Explorer 6.

Unfortunately if you’re using Internet Explorer 6 you will experience problems because most web sites no longer support this version of Internet Explorer.

You can check which version of Internet Explorer you are using by going to Help > About Internet Explorer.

Chrome

Google Chrome is Google’s web browser.

Chrome has a more simplistic look compared to the other web browsers.  The traditional toolbar has been relocated to the end of the browser as a drop down and its tabs are along the top.

Its well organized and fairly intuitive to use; taking tab browsing to a fast new level.

Flock

Flock is known as the social web browser as this Mozilla powered browser is designed specifically for the online social networkers.

It works fairly simlar to FireFox but includes inbuilt tools:

1. That keep you informed when friends or a favorite site is updated
2. For sharing information with your social networks

Safari

Safari is Apple’s web browser which now works on PCs as well as Macs.

Web Browser Tips

I often get emails from people whose problems relate to how they are using their web browser.

Here’s my tips for better web browsing:

#1 Use web browser tabs

All modern web browsers include tabbed browsing.

With the older web browser every time you want to open a separate website or webpage you had to launch another window of your web browser.  With modern web browsers, you can now open them in one browser using separate tabs.

Handy tabbed browsing tips include:

1. Use the shortcut key Ctrl+T to quickly open up a new tab
2. Use the shortcut key Ctrl+W to quickly close a tab
3. To open the link to a website in a new tab hold your Ctrl key and then right mouse click on the link

#2 Use Browser Shortcut keys

Shortcut keys can speed up how you use your web browser and are considerably faster than using your mouse.

The same shortcut keys are used for most web browsers.   Here’s a list of FireFox Shortcut keys.

#3 Check out Add-ons

Add-ons are designed to make browsing easier by providing tools that assist you; they let you personalise your browsing experience.

An example of a commonly used add-on by educators is the Delicious Bookmarks add-on

Here’s where you’ll find add-ons for the common web browsers:

1. FireFox add-ons
2. Flock add-ons
3. Chrome add-ons
4. Internet Explorer add-ons
5. Safari add-ons

#4 Clearing Cachie and/or Cookies

If you are having trouble with a web site or have recently changed your password and it isn’t accepting your latest password — you could be having trouble with your web browser cookies and/or cache.

Any time you ever have trouble it is always worth checking the web site or your account in another web browser.

If it is fine in the other web browser, it means there is probably an issue with your current web browser.

Clearing private data in your current web browser often solves the problem:

1. Clearing private data in FireFox
2. Clearing private data in Flock
3. Clearing private date in Chrome
4. Clearing private data in Internet Explorer
5. Clearing private data in Safari

Please note: This will delete stored passwords for all online accounts

#5 Clearing Stored images from your Web Browser Cache

When you visit a web page for the first time your web browser saves a copy of that page and its graphics on your computer.

The next time you visit an ‘already visited web page’ it grabs the saved copy of the page from your computer’s hard drive.

This makes the page load and render faster because it doesn’t have to grab all the information from the web server that hosts the web page.

This ’saved copy on your computer’s hard drive’ is known as your browser cache.  It’s normally a good feature unless you need to view the latest version of a web page.

However, if you have uploaded a new comment avatar or image header to your blog — the stored images in your browser cache can drive you insane making you think the image hasn’t been changed.

If this happens use the shortcut Ctrl + F5 to quickly clear your cache and refresh your page.

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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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