Bling For Your Blog

Setting up a Blogger Account

2007-01-09T10:00:00.013+13:00

The first thing you need to do is get yourself a Google Gmail Account. This is a really handy on line email account that you can access anywhere in the world from any computer in the world. It has a ton of storage space and you can use it to chat to others who also have gmail accounts.

Some people like to have a separate Gmail addresses or use their School email account to separate your private log in from your school one. There are reasons for and against both ways of setting up a blog log in.

Gmail Account

The big thing to remember with this one is you HAVE TO WRITE DOWN YOUR USERNAME AND PASSWORD as you go because you may have to change it and you don't want to forget what you have decided on.

Then go to Blogger and make yourself a blog. It is quite straight forward but again write down your username and password. I like to keep the same username and password for both so I don't confuse myself.

Here is a download printout that are much more detailed that hopefully will spell it out more clearly if you are stuck...

DOWNLOAD THE PAPER VERSION OF THE INSTRUCTIONS HERE

It may be useful to print it off and have it sitting next to you as you begin.

Click the orange download to download or scroll through.

If you like this clever way to embed a document in a blog John Sutton explains how to with a great video in this blog post.

Fine tuning your blog

2007-01-09T09:57:00.003+13:00

Make yourself a post with a photo just to prove how clever you are. To do that click on the wee icon of a photo in the menu bar.

Now to the fine tuning...

Go to the SETTINGS

Then look for BASIC. Write in the description what the purpose of your blog is. What you hope to achieve.

SAVE the settings.

Next go to Formatting and change the number of posts to ten- you may as well have your posts showing for a decent length of time!

While you're there change the time zone to Auckland- if you're a kiwi!
SAVE the settings

Go to the settings - COMMENTS - and change who can comment to ANYONE.

Write in an email address that you often check for the moderation email to go to. For a school I think you need comment moderation to be turned on- moderation means that all comments get sent to the email address that you nominate and you get to decide whether you want to publish or delete the comment.

Turn word verification for comments off unless you find your self getting spammed- word verification means the commentor has to type a string of meaningless letters before posting so as to stop computers making comments but I have never found it to be a problem- more of a hindrance really.

Now scroll further down until you get to Comment Notification and type in an email address you want Blogger to send a note to to let you know someone has commented.

I have this turned on for when children who are already logged in leave comments- just so I know what is going on?

You may also like to write a statement in the Comment Form Message to let your readers know what to expect when they leave a comment.

And again save the settings.

And you're done apart from any other tinkerings that you might fancy.

Changing the Template and Layout

2007-01-09T09:56:00.005+13:00

To change your blog design go to your DASHBOARD and click on DESIGN and then TEMPLATE DESIGN.

Choose a template from the selection- APPLY IT.

Now click on BACKGROUND and click on the wee arrow to the right of the background that you already have and you will be rewarded with some stunning new backgrounds to apply to your blog.

You can also ADJUST THE WIDTH of the main blog area and the sidebars by sliding the sliders. Apply it.

Adding a photo to your profile

2007-01-09T09:56:00.000+13:00

Here is a HELP page from Blogger to help you add a photo to your profile so that when you comment you get a small photo to accompany it.

I will give you the same thing with a few more screen shots. First of all upload the photo to one of your blog posts as you would normally do and then click on the EDIT HTML tab next to compose.
You will see the code for your photo that similar to what I have highlighted in the above screen grab. Carefully select the whole bit of code but be careful get everything inside the speech marks and not to select the speech mark itself.

Now go EDIT and COPY the code. Now go back to your Dashboard and click where it says EDIT PROFILE.
Scroll down to where it says photograph and PASTE the code you just got into there.
Now scroll down to the bottom of the page and SAVE YOUR PROFILE.

Now when you make a comment people will see a little photo as well as the comment which is quite sweet really!

You may like to leave a comment on this post and let me know where in the world you are!

Getting Rid of the Navbar

2007-01-09T09:54:00.002+13:00

The navigation bar at the very top of your blog can be a worry if your blog is going to be viewed by children as the NEXT BLOG option could lead them to random places that it is not good that they go.

This bar can be removed if you want by placing a little bit of code in the blog template (Look for the tab Edit HTML on the template tab). Tricky but cunning!

Here is how to do it.

To disable the navbar go to the dashboard and look for the tab that says TEMPLATE at the top. Click on it. You will see this bit.
Click the tab that says EDIT HTML. Copy and paste the code given below just before the tag in the css section.

#navbar-iframe {
height:0px;
visibility:hidden;
display:none
}

Click on the photo to get a closer look!

I would add once more that it is a good idea to preview the changes before you actually publish them in case you have put the code in the wrong place. If you muck it up just discard the changes and try again.

One last thing- seeing you have got rid of the NEXT BLOG option you still want a link to the Blogger log in page.

Go to your template and add another element- this time a logo.

Now all you need to do is click on the Blogger logo and it will take you to the Blogger log in page.

Changing your Blogger Header

2007-01-09T09:53:00.006+13:00

Affiliate Marketing have excellently created a screencast video that shows you in detail how to add a banner to the top of your blog. This could be a photo or a piece of art work from your class.

Click on the link or the screen grab to take you to the site.

Basically- you take a photo, crop and export it to make it the pixel width you need for your blogger template and add it to the banner of your blog.

Cropping can be a bit of a hit and miss sort of affair but 150x650 pixels seems to be about right.

Remember as always to preview any changes before saving in case you have mucked things up.

Adding a Standalone Page

2007-01-09T09:53:00.004+13:00

To add a an extra page to your blog that will not disappear down the timeline go to design and click 'Add a Gadget'.
Scroll down the list until you find it and click on the little blue plus sign.

To move the page from the side bar drag it under the header. Or you can leave it in the side bar.
When you save the Pages widget nothing will actually happen because you haven't actually made a page yet.

To actually make a page go to your dashboard and click on 'Edit Page'.

Click to create a page. You can add anything you like to this page like you normally do to a blog post.

And there you are. A whole new page for your blog.

Changing Things on Your Side Bar

2007-01-09T09:51:00.000+13:00

Go to your template

To move things around you only have drag them up or down.

To add a new page element you click on ADD A NEW PAGE ELEMENT!

We will look at these in later posts but editing html is the one that you can mostly use to add bling to your blog!

Adding an email Subscription

2007-01-09T09:49:00.001+13:00

With an email subscription your readers will get an email telling them each time you update your blog.

I think it would be a great way to encourage contributions from parents/whanau as they will quickly know when you update.

There are two ways of doing it- the old way which is really complicated or the easy way. You decide which you would prefer to do. The easy way is first and the hard way is second as I would suggest that most people will chose the easy way.

Easy Way....

Log into your blog like normal. Then click on where it says DESIGN.

Click where it says ADD A GADGET.

Look for where it says FOLLOW BY EMAIL and click the little blue cross. Sweet! That's all you need to do.

The Hard way...

To do it, firstly log into your blog and then go to http://feedburner.google.com/ to claim your blog.

Then go NEXT.
I am not sure what the difference is but I chose the first option for a feed and it worked well.
Nothing to click here and just click NEXT.
You now have a feed for your email subscription widget.
Click on publicize to get the widget.

Chose the 'Email Subscriptions' link.
Change the TYPEPAD tab to Blogger.
Highlight all of the html and copy it.
Go to your blog and add an html widget.

Paste the html into the widget box and save it. Move it to where you want it to be by dragging and dropping it where you want it to be and save it again.

Adding a link to a photo

2007-01-09T09:48:00.004+13:00

The screencast was made using the very free and rather excellent, on the web tool.

http://showmewhatswrong.com/

Of course the video you see above is all too little if you don't go fullscreen so I have made this link to take you to a decent sized video where you can see what is going on.

Link to decent sized video.

Just lately I have found that adding links only works when you use Firefox as a browser. Weird eh?

Adding Links to Your Blog

2007-01-09T09:48:00.000+13:00

To add a set of links to your side bar got to the template again and add another page element but this time add a link list.

You then just type in the Link Group Title and type copy in the web address that you want.
You can add lots of links and different groups of links as well as change the order of the links. It is up to you.
Remember to save the changes.

Adding Text to the sidebar

2007-01-09T09:45:00.000+13:00

Go to your layout template dashboard and click on Add an element as you do and select TEXT.

Type what you want- change the colour etc and add a link if you want and save the changes.

Adding a Label

2007-01-09T09:42:00.009+13:00

If you would like to add a label to your blog it is nice and easy to do and lets your readers quickly find post related to a particular person or topic.

To do it you write your post and add the label that you want your viewers to see. like this...

Then go to your layout and add a gadget that allows the labels to be posted in the sidebar.

Click on add a gadget to add the labels maker to your sidebar.

Scroll down to Labels and click the little plus sign.

Chose how you would like your labels to be arranged- either alphabetically or by frequency of labels.

Then save your gadget. You can move where your gadgets are placed by dragging the rectangle where you want it to be and then save your template.

Your labels will then look something like this...

Adding an email link in the side bar

2007-01-09T09:42:00.000+13:00

My email address for this blog is

bling4yrblog@gmail.com

To make an email link of your own type this into a text element in your side bar but put your own email address instead of mine. You have to type it exactly for it to work. If you can't see it clearly click on the photo to bring it up to a bigger size. I can't make it into something you can just copy and paste because it goes live all the time and you won't be able to see the code behind the link.

When it is inserted a single click will open your email and put the email address in the right spot and you will be able to email. Clever eh?

Adding a Clock

2007-01-09T09:39:00.004+13:00

Adding a clock is one of the simplest things to do.

Go to the link below and choose a clock that you fancy!

Clock Link

Another clock Link

Click on where is says get widget. Select your continent, country and city/town. Then select the colour of the clock you would like.

Then go REFRESH.

You will see the clock that you picked and just underneath it will be the embed code.

Highlight the embed html code and copy it into the ADD NEW FEATURE (HTML/JAVA SCRIPT) part of your design layout that we talked about in previous posts.

Save the changes and now you have a clock in the sidebar!

Nelson

Adding a Site Visit Counter & Clustermap

2007-01-09T09:36:00.010+13:00

A site counter is a great way of recording how many visitors you have for your blog and where they are when they watch. There are some different forms but some that I like are EasyWebCounters, SuperFast Counter, Clustrmaps and .

http://www.easywebcounters.com/

To get the web-counter go to the above website.

1. Select the style of counter you want.

2. Enter the web address of the blog or wiki. Start the counter at zero. I prefer page views so the hit counter goes up faster.

3. Click on 'Get Your Counter Code'.

Just copy the html code, go to your blog design template and add an html gadget. It can either go in the side bar or down the bottom. Don't put it in an ordinary post as it would soon disappear from view!

Chinese Kid

With Superfast Counters you don't actually see the advertising. You only see it if you click on the counter and you get a preview of where the advertising leads to.

ClustrMaps is cool because not only do you get the site statistics but you get a map to see where people are coming from. The bigger the red dot the more viewers you have in that area.

ClustrMaps

You may also like http://whos.amung.us/maps/customize/. Their maps are live maps so little stars light up as people visit from different locations. Kids love it when they see lights in other countries.

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Adding a Calendar

2007-01-09T09:33:00.005+13:00

Use you Google account to go to Google Calendar. You will be able to see it on the top right of your Google search page. The first time you click on it you will be asked to enter your country and time zone, then click save.

You will taken to a calendar that it on the day view. Change it to month!

To enter your new events double click on the empty square of that day. You can make the event for a whole day or a particular time span. Click save.

To embed your calendar click on the down arrow next to your calendar name on the left hand side.

Click on calendar settings.

Down the bottom of that page you will see the html code you will need to be able to embed the calendar in the side panel of your blog.

At the moment it is really big. Change the 800x600 to the size you want. You ma have to experiment a bit here cos blog side panels are all different sizes.

I halved the dimensions to embed the calendar in this blog post.

Adding a Viewer Voter's Poll

2007-01-09T09:32:00.000+13:00

So you want a little feedback on your blog, what about a interactive questionnaire that people can vote on!!!

Nice and simple- go to your dashboard and click on a layout and then Choose a New Page Element. Click on Poll!
Title your voter's poll and add the questions and then choose the closing time for your poll. Publish! You may like to drag your poll to the place you want it in your layout and save the changes! Easy as!

Editing HTML

2007-01-09T09:31:00.003+13:00

I don't know a lot about HTML but it's the code that underwrites what goes on the internet.

What I quite often do is make the Blogger video larger so that it is easier to see without having to go full screen. To do that I upload the video and then click on the html tab of the new post. You will see some html code as below. I then change the height and width to suit.

I sometimes do the same with YouTube videos
If I am gathering an embed code for a web site that I don't want children to be able to click on I can sometimes remove the words that would link to the site by taking out the Title so that the > and < touch.

Sometimes you may want to share a link in your comments. I use Blog Assist to do it for me but you can do it for yourself but putting a bit of html code around the URL address like this adding the black bits around the web address and the text.

I can't put the actual html code here so you can copy it because it actually tries to link it so you will have to copy off the picture below.

The word Nets in the example above will be all that the the people you left comments for will see but it will be hyperlinked to the URL you want to share.

Adding a Generated Graphic

2007-01-09T09:30:00.000+13:00

There are quizzillion sites that offer fun graphics that offer graphics that you can write on and insert into your blog. The idea is that you write what you want on the generator. It downloads a picture to your desktop and you add that picture to your blog.

Here are some of my favourites...

Newspaper Page Generator

Roadsign Generator

Movie Clapper Board Generator

Tombstone Generator

Concert Ticket Generator

IPod Playlist generator

Animated Banner Generator

Einstein at the blackboard Generator

A blog that links to other generator sites

Some great quick bling for your blog!

Adding a Webnote

2007-01-09T09:27:00.000+13:00

Here is a very cool way to make a quick note on your computer when you can't find a pen and paper.

Webnotes

To make your own webnote click on the link above and look up to the address line. Take out the bling4yrblog bit and add your own combination of letters. Voila- you have your own little web page!

To write something click on the little yellow box on the left hand side and a bigger yellow box will pop up. Double click on it to write in it.

Save your webnote by clicking on the little floppy disk symbol next to the yellow box you clicked on to get started.

Now you can cleverly add a link to your webnote in your links that we delt with in the previous lesson!

Link a Delicious Account

2007-01-09T09:24:00.000+13:00

Delicious is a social network for saving your bookmarks between computers. Not only is it handy for saving your own bookmarks but also for sharing them between other computers you use and linking with other people who are interested in the same sort of things that you are interested in.

Have a look at our previous post and download a 'How to' on how to set up an account in Delicious or download it from here...

How to create a delicious account

Here is a link to my delicious account so you can see how it works.

AllanahK's Delicious Account

Then link it in the side bar along with the other links.

Allowing a pdf type download from the Blog

2007-01-09T09:21:00.000+13:00

This can be a bit tricky but cool when it works.
First of all you need to set up another blog or wiki that allows file hosting. Again I suggest you keep the username and passowrd the same to keep it simple.
I have used Edublogs
Edublog Website
Make a post and upload the file you want.

Once uploaded click on it to open the web page it is on and link that to your blog.
How to create a delicious account
Click on the link above to see how the download will look. It is a good idea to make your file that everyone can read like a pdf or if that is too tricky maybe a WORD document that most computers can see.

Adding a PhotoPeach Slideshow

2007-01-09T09:19:00.003+13:00

Firstly go to PhotoPeach and sign up with an email and password.

Then to create a slideshow you can uplaod photos directly from your computer or allow access from to your Flickr sets.

I decided to upload from my computer- it took a little while to upload all the photos but I have lots of other work to do while I waited!

You can then arange your photos or delete them if you change your mind. Then hit NEXT.

Add a title. Then you can either choose their music or search YouTube sound tracks to play the sound track you would like. You can add captions just by clicking on the playing photo.

If you click on edit photos you can also make a cute little quiz with Photopeach.

Now you can embed it in your blog. To get the html embed code hover over the playing movie and you will see a pencil shape. Click on it and you will be prompted to allow public viewing. You get two kinds of embed- the spiral and the story. The story is better!

The embedded slideshow sits perfectly inside Blogger.

Adding VoiceThread to your blog

2007-01-09T09:19:00.001+13:00

VoiceThread is a great tool for collaborative learning where you can record a voice-over to your photos and invite audio comments.

I have made this pdf that you can download that will take through all the steps to making a Voicethread. Click here to get it.

Here is the basic outline of what is in the pdf. Firstly you do the registering thing that you are by now very used to.

Click on CREATE and add a title and description for your VoiceThread. Upload the images that you want to use. This may take a little time at high resolution but be patient.

When the uploading is finished you will see an organiser. You can change the order that you want the photos to play by dragging them to where you want them to be.
Once your order is sorted record your voice-over or type your message. You can re-record your message if you muck it up. Once happy with your sound byte click save and move on to the next photo.
Add some new commenters by adding a name and a photo.
When a new person wants to add a comment click on SWITCH (top right hand corner). Annd add a new avatar and name.

Now you have switched identities to the one who wants to add comment they can record their comment and it will play after your initial sound byte. For the purposes of this practice I have pretended to be my student Jane!

For the security conscious you can of course turn on comment moderation in the options pane and the world (or other children) will not be able to hear the comments unless you approve them.

Be sure to change your Voicethread to public if you want others to be able to see and hear your VoiceThread.

When you are happy click on Share and decide your sharing options- you need to make your Voicethread public, turn on comment moderation and you may like to let it be added to the Browser if you are OK for random others to enjo your Voicethread.

To put your Voicethread in the public arena click on Embed to embed or link from your blog or wiki. Decide what options you want. Clicking on the code selects it- then you can copy it and insert it into your blog. You can change the width and height for your space to fit your Blogger template if you want but be careful to keep the aspect ratio right otherwise your VoiceThread will look lopsided. For this blog post I changed the size to 400x300.

For a Voicethread on how this works click here.

I can see lots of possibilities for this tool. If you can think of some or link to some ways you have used it please leave a comment.

Adding a Animoto Slideshow

2007-01-09T09:18:00.001+13:00

Animoto Slideshows are a little like Bubbleshare Slideshows but they add a variety of cool transitions and music.

To make a slideshow you first have to do the registering thing. Then you add your photos. For the free version you can upload no more than 15 photos as the slideshow lasts 30 seconds. I suggest you put your photos into one folder and go CLICK + SHIFT on the first photo in the list and then click on the last photo and all of them will be selected.
That will whirr away for a bit then go on to the next part- getting the music. You can either add your own or select theirs. Be aware if you select your own music that you need to set a good example and not use copyrighted music.
Now add a title, description and create your animation.
Animoto will now render the video.
When the rendering is done you can send it directly to your blog or just grab the embedding code.
Copy the code into your blog and you are away!!

Full length Educational Animoto Video

2007-01-09T09:17:00.002+13:00

I asked Animoto if I could have permission to have a longer than 30 second animoto video to record our cluster events for Term One, 2008. They did. The bonus is that you can download them to your hard drive and you don't have to be connected to the internet to view the movies.

To get a code for your class talk to Rebecca at Animoto by using this link.

Jig-saw puzzles

2007-01-09T09:14:00.004+13:00

To make a jig-saw appear as a photo in your blog go to the website below and browse to a photo from your computer. The puzzle needs to be reduced to about 300 whatevers so it isn't too big for your posting window. I use iPhoto on my Apple so I'm afraid I don't know what a 'whatever' is- I just export to the desktop at the lowest image size and resolution.

Jigsaw Puzzle Generator

Then select the size of the pieces you want to show and put the html into your blog post as before.

Ignore any error messages you might get. I also go back and take out the code that adds an advertising message bar at the bottom of the jigsaw just to keep things nice and neat.

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Adding a PowerPoint Presentation

2007-01-09T09:12:00.000+13:00

First of all you need to have your PowerPoint presentation made. As you make the slideshow give some thought to the size of the font you are using and try and keep it fairly simple.Go to Slideshare Website and register using your Gmail address and password to keep things simple. They will send you a confirmation email to respond to.

Go to upload slideshow.
Browse to your Powerpoint presentation and upload it. When it is done you may have to wait a few moments before it is converted.Click on your presentation and you will see a box on the left where it says enbed in your blog and click on the html code to select it. Copy and paste it into the new post and there you are!

Adding Scrapbooked Photos

2007-01-09T09:11:00.000+13:00

This is very cool to add a bit of zing to your photographs. With it you can add frames, borders, text boxes and stickers.

Scrapbook Blog Web Site

First of all you need to register like always use the same gmail and password to keep things simple.

Once that is done launch the scrapbook builder.
Create a new scrapbook.
Give this particular scrapboog and name and an URL should you want to look at it separately from your Blogger blog. Decide whether you want to make it private or public.
Select a theme.
Now get some photos to add to the theme you have selected.
Click on the Get Photos link in the top left hand corner.
You can collect them from your Flickr account directly if you have one or upload the photos in batches of three if you want.
Again I have reduced the size of the photos in iPhoto to 500 whatevers to make the uploading process quicker.
You can upload another batch of three or not.
Then add them to your scrapblog.
To get the photos into the frame just drag them. You will have to resize them and fiddle around a bit with the layering of the text, photos and frame but all the menus are on the right hand side and it is pretty easy to work out.
Now I go APPLE, SHIFT + 4 all at the same time and drag the crosshairs where I want the screen capture to be and I have like a photo of the screen. I then upload that to Blogger in the usual way. On a PC you probably need to click the PRINT SCREEN key and drop it into the image editor to crop it to the desired size.
Isn't that very cool with a bit more bling! It is almost like a free on-line version of Photoshop with templates- a good way of introducing the concept of layers.

Adding a Photostory 3 movie to yr blog

2007-01-09T09:09:00.003+13:00

Firstly make your Photostory 3 slideshow. Don't make it too long or it will take forever to upload. Save it as a Photostory in case you want to edit it later but also save it for playback on your computer to compress it.

Mine looked like a black box when it was done.
This is how the movie looked when I went to play it. Close it when you have admired your handiwork.

Now log on to the internet and go to Zamzar to convert it to a .mov file.

Do these four steps. Go and have a cup of coffee or something useful!

Go look at your email and you will have a hello from Zamzar to say they have converted your .wmv file to .mov

Now open up Blogger and make a new post and write the titles etc. Click on the little movie next to the add a photo button.

The screen will go cloudy for a bit then you will get to browse to the movie you want to upload- add a title and promise not to upload copyrighted movies and Blogger will upload it in its own sweet time.

While Blogger is uploading and processing your movie go and do something physical to prove that you don't just in front of the computer all day and night.

Eventually Blogger will process the movie and you will be ale to see the first frame in your post.

Publish it and you are done. You clever thing you!

Adding a Blogger Video

2007-01-09T09:09:00.000+13:00

Blogger have recently added a new feature- adding a video! Next to the add a photo icon there is now a little video icon.
Click on it and you will be asked to find the video, give it a title and agree to the Blogger Terms and Conditions.
It will take a little while while it uploads the video and processes it so it would be best not to upload long movies!
And there you have it. Your own video on your blog.

Adding a YouTube video to your blog

2007-01-09T09:08:00.001+13:00

There are a number of ways of adding a video to your blog.

I like YouTube as you can use your gmail address to log in. Go to YouTube, log in and click on the link that says upload your video.

Fill in your particulars.
Have your short video on the desktop ready to go. Browse to it and fill in all of the fields. Upload the video.

I would also change the comment ability so the comments are moderated.

Click where it says embed this video on your website or blog. And untick the box that says related videos will show. Copy the html into your blog post on the html tab and click SAVE!

I also like Vimeo as Vimeo videos play nicely on the iPad.

How to use Dropbox to add media to your blog

2007-01-09T09:07:00.006+13:00

Using Dropbox is a great way to store your stuff on line but you can also use it to link to other media like pdfs, video, audio and stuff that you have made but that Blogger won't handle. It does all the tricky stuff for you. Dropbox is way easier than using Fileden which is a bit of a complicated rigmarole.

The first thing you need to do is got to Dropbox and watch the little introductory video and then download Dropbox to your desktop.
Launch the application and it will put a little icon on your taskbar. When you click on it it will get an option to open a folder. Now you can put stuff in it. You can now go to any computer with Dropbox installed and get your stuff. If you haven't got Dropbox installed (say you are at a friend's place and want to show them something) you can still go to their website- log in- and download your stuff.

My Dropbox has got stuff in it now but it comes standard with a Public Folder- put the stuff you want to link to in that. I have made my Dropbox folder all pretty cos I'm an Apple user but yours will look something like this but without all the pretty colours and the stuff that I've already uploaded.

Once your stuff- a movie, pdf, audio or whatever is in your Public Folder go to the website by clicking on the wee box in your task bar and clicking Launch Dropbox website.

Now click on the public folder to open it.

Find the file that you want to make publicly downloadable on your blog. Click on it to open the little down arrow and copy the public link.

A little box will come up with a web URL so you can share your files on your blog.
Paste this into your blog and make it into a link by highlighting it clicking up to the link button, paste the link into the pop up box and you are there.

Click publish and all people have to do now is to click on your link and they can listen to or download your media.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/879523/Recorder1.mp3

To go one step further you can tidy it up if you like by going into the EDIT HTML tab and put that link in the place of my word link below. Then going back to COMPOSE and publish.

Download link code

I have made a pdf for you to download because when I put the code in the blog post the blog thinks I really want to do it and you can only see the link.

So what your readers will actually see is

Recorder Music

Outstanding!

Adding Audio with Podomatic

2007-01-09T09:06:00.005+13:00

I found this way of adding audio simpler than using FileDen as I already have a Podomatic podcast page but you may need to create one if you haven't already. Making a podcast page is way easier than registering with FileDen.

Firstly go to Podomatic and register.
Fill out all the fields.
Choose a photo that typifies your look!Click where it says to post your first audio file.
Then upload your podcast .mp3 or .mov file
Fill out all the fields appropriately.
Now give your podcast a title and desciption so people know what it's about. I also like to tell people how long it is and how large a download it might be. My upper limit is 20MB- OK for broadband without taking too long.
Then add a photo that typifies what your podcast is about.
Change the filtering to CLEAN and add some tags to help people find your podcast.
Lastly post your episode. Wait for a bit and Podomatic will format your podcast and you will be able to listen to it.

Plan A: Now click on 'Get the Word out...'
Pretend that you are going to create a bookmark for your podcast so you can get the URL for it.Copy the URL that Delicious gives you and change the word 'entry' to 'enclosure' and put .mp3 at the end then copy the whole URL.

Your link that looked like this...

will now look like this...

Now surround that URL with the following bit of code and put it in the EDIT HTML part of your blog post, publish it and it will play directly into your blog.

Plan B: Now you need to be using FireFox as your web browser which is always a good idea anyway!

Then download Unplug which lets you save video and audio which is embedded on a webpage. After you download and install it open your podcast page and then click on the wee fish.
Here is your media list from Podomatic. Right click on the link and COPY THE LINK LOCATION.
Now carefully insert the link location into this bit of code and publish your post.
To make it easier for you to copy the code I have linked a pdf to this page so you can just open it and copy the text into your blog and change the link location.

PDF with the html code on it.

Your audio will look like this..

If you are publishing a video podcast you need to change the size of the object to 300x400.

Beware though that I can only get this technique to work with .mp3 and .mov files not enhanced podcasts made in Garageband.

To share your enhanced podcasts made in Garageband you need to send them to iTunes and go ADVANCED - Convert selection to MP3 and upload that to Podomatic.

If anyone out there knows of a way to embed .m4a or .m4v files I would love to know!!

It would be great if you could share your successful adding of audio comments through the blog comments.

http://ianlambie.podomatic.com/enclosure/2007-03-25T17_07_05-07_00.mp3

After all that I decided to make a little video that will show you how to do if you are stuck.

I see that Podomatic has changed its look a little so I will have to redo this section when I get a minute.

Blogging from your iDevice

2007-01-09T09:04:00.004+13:00

If you want to blog from your iPod Touch, iPad or iPhone I would recommend the Blogger's own free app: Blogger.

Live Blogging

2007-01-09T09:04:00.000+13:00

This little exercise is not so much a 'how to' but a place to host a live blogging event I want to play with at Learning At School 2008 in Rotorua, New Zealand at 11:15am on February 21. Use this world clock fixed time to work out when the event will take place if you are outside NZ.

The event is called, "Did You Know- New Zealand?" lead by Simon Evans and based on Karl Fisch's compelling video entitled "Did you know?"

What does it mean for New Zealand education? The new curriculum has leeway to build the curriculum that our communities deserve, but how are we, as educators, going to provide the learning contexts that will make education relevant for 21st century New Zealand. We will take a look at the works of Fisch, Friedman and others, and consider the impact upon us in the New Zealand context. This open mic discussion will enable participates to play an active role in envisioning New Zealand's educational future, and our role in it.

To do this I have had to use Blogger as Edublogs does not allow embedding of iframes for security reasons. The live blogging tool I am playing with is Coveritlive. It will be fun if it works all right- with this tool you can join in the live blogging conversation via instant messaging so it will almost be like being there apart from the fact you're not!

Adding a Snap Preview to you links

2007-01-09T09:03:00.000+13:00

This very cool piece of code adds a little web preview to links in your blog so that when you hover your mouse over a link a little preview of that link web page shows on your screen.

Try hovering over this link! Snap Web Link

Very cool! Click on the link where is says GET IT FREE NOW. Put your blog address and email in the boxes. Go to Step Two.

Step two is to confrim and put in an anti-spam code. Now get the html code.

Select the code and copy the template of your blog just before the head tag in a similar way you did to get rid of the nav bar in a previous post. It is always a good idea to preview the changes first before you save them just in case you put the tag in the wrong place. The site page give you the exact instructions as well.

Handing Your Blog on to Another Teacher

2007-01-09T09:02:00.000+13:00

If a teacher leaves the school they may like to transfer their blog on to the next teacher. This involves the agreement of both parties to work.

There are two levels of permissions.

Just being an author lets you write posts but not change any of the other settings or add links to the side bar or anything. This would be the level you would want to give to child authors or co-contributors.

The second level of permissions is that of administrator. This is the level of permissions you would need to hand on to the new teacher so they can add links and customise the blog for the new class.

To do it the administrator of the blog logs in and goes to SETTINGS.

And then to PERMISSIONS.

They then click on ADD AUTHORS.

Type in the address of the new person who is going to take over the administration of the blog.

That new person will then get an email inviting them to be an author of the blog. They will need to have a Blogger log in but the email invites them to create one if they don't already have one. Now they will see the blog in the blogger dashboard.

At the moment the new person can only add posts.

For the new teacher to successfully administer the blog and add links to it and customise it with new widgets and the like they need to be granted administrator privileges.

You will get this explanation pop up.

If the original creator of the blog no longer wishes to be able to administer the blog they can no revoke their own privileges but it does no harm to have two administrators. A nice back up person if somethings goes amiss.

Blog RSS Feeds- Bloglines and Google Reader

2007-01-09T09:01:00.004+13:00

If you want to look for a number of new blog posts at the same time you can use a wonderful thing called RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to bring the new blog posts to your computer without having to go looking- a bit like email for blogs.

Once you get a Bloglines or Google Reader account all you have to do is click on the link to see all of the new blog posts from the blogs or podcasts that you like. I couldn't do without it!

I have changed now to Google Reader which does the same thing pretty much. Here is a link with a video of how to set it up.

Here is a 'how to' to show you how it can be easily done. Bloglines Set Up.

I acknowledge David Warlick for his helpful pdf.

Using Skitch- Apple Only :-)

2007-01-09T09:01:00.001+13:00

You may have noticed a few fancy screenshots with writing on them while viewing this blog. I use the wonderful Apple only tool Skitch. At the moment it is by invite only and I have run out of invites but I suggest you request an invite. It is my best find of the year and I use it a lot as it has an on-line screenshot hosting site- so easy to use.

My mate Chris Betcher made a rather cool video on some of the cool features of Skitch.