Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Creating a blog part 4

Customising your blogThemes, Headers, Widgets

By the end of this e-torial, you will be able

to:

Change the look and feel of your blog

using themes

Create and upload a blog banner

Inserting widgets

This e-torial make use of the following

programmes or tools:

Browser: Internet Explorer, Firefox…

A blogging platform: Edublogs

Outcomes

Tools

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Creating a blog: Making it look good!

Before you start

Signing into your dashboard

Choosing and activating a new theme

Modifying your theme header

Uploading a new theme header

“Widgetising” your sidebar

Inserting interactive widgets

Customising widgets

Inserting a RSS feed widget

Activating your Plug-in widget pack

Adding the ClustrMap widget

Adding the Delicious widget

Adding the Twitter widget

Adding the Flickr widget

Embedding external widgets

Self assessment rubric

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Index

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Before you create your blog….

If you have not done so before,

first work through the previous

blogging e-torials:

Why and What of blogging

The anatomy of a blog

Setting up your blog in

Edublogs

So this means that you….

Already have an Edublog

Have created pages for your

blog

Have done the odd

blogpost..

Purpose

•What is your blog going to be about?

•School? Personal? Organisational?

•Who is your audience? Learners? Parents

Ideas

•What posts have to be included?

•Ideas Folder

•Look for opportunities.

Create

•Where are you going to create it?

•Choose a theme

•Insert feeds, widgets, interactivity

Maintain

•Update regularly

•Look after comments

Action plan

So are you ready to customize your blog to support the focus of what your blog

is all about?

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Sign into your new blog dashboard

Go to www.edublogs.org

and log in with your

username and

password

Go to your blog

http://myusername.

edublogs.org and sign in

using the Meta data widget

If you are already signed into your blog,

you can just click on the, Edit this link

on any of your blog posts.

There are 3 ways to sign

into your blog:

You will be logged into your dashboard, where everything happens!

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Choosing a new theme

There are over 90 themes. How do I

choose?

2 columns, 1 sidebar

right, No custom header

It your choose 3 columns, you will have to stick to 3 column themes in future……

Pick a theme that

allows:

Custom headers

Widgets

If you are going to have a lot of widgets, and want lots of categories, pages

links and interactive elements, choose 3 columns

If you want a more clear sophisticated look, choose 2 columns

How many columnswill I need?

Blog Themes provides blogs

with a distinctive “look and

feel”. A theme also determines:

How many columns &

sidebars (1 or 2)

If you can insert widgets

If you can upload your own

header banner

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Activating a new theme

Click on Design

Themes

Pick a theme!

Click on the theme picture

or link

Visit your site to see if you like

the theme, otherwise repeat the

procedure till you are happy with

your new theme!

Can I change my theme often?

A theme gives your blog a brand, so do not change it too often!

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Modifying your theme header

If you feel like a total header change, you will have to upload a new banner

picture…

Click on Design

Custom Image Header

You can hide the text

You can change the colour of the current header text

Save changes

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Uploading a new theme header

It is a good idea to first create your picture and save it in the right dimensions!

Click on Design

Custom Image Header

Make sure that the

picture you are going to

use has the right

dimensions, if not, it will

be cropped!

Browse to where you

have saved the image

Upload

Click here to open video in Youtube.com, pause to practise!

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Uploading a new theme header

You will see your picture with the part that will be

used lit up!

You can move it to where your header text will be

the most visible

Try to pick an image that has an area where you can see the blog title easily

Crop your header

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Customizing your sidebar

A widget is piece of code that makes it possible to view web elements in

different places across the internet.

The sidebar of your blog allows you

to “mash” and embed lots of

interactive widgets and feeds from

all over the internet!

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

The sidebar Essentials widgets

Don’t overcrowd you sidebars!

Some essential widgets to choose

from

Recent Posts

Tell visitors what you have

blogged about recently

Blogroll (links)

A link list to your favourite

blog writers blogs

Categories

Divides your posts into

more manageable “folders”

Search window

Visitors can search for anything

in your blogposts!

Post archives - Links to past

posts

Subscription option –Get a

following

Meta data (have to have this

one!)

Allows you to log into your

blog dashboard

Link to your blog feeds RSS

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Inserting interactive widgets

Sign into your dashboard!

Click on Design

Widgets

Click on Add next to

provided widget that you

want to insert

Drag the widget into the

correct position on the right

hand side

Remember to save your

changes

How do I add widgets?

Click here to open video in Youtube.compause to practise!

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Customising widgets

Sign into your dashboard!

Click on Design

Widgets

Click on Edit link on the

widget button on the right

Complete the edit form

Remember to save your

changes

Some widgets allow you to edit the way they display and what they display

Various widget buttons will give you different options. Eg in the Category

widget you can give it a different name, and choose if you want it as a drop

down menu or link list. You can also choose to see how many posts per

category item

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Inserting a RSS feed widget

First get the RSS feed by going to the

site/blog that you want to “feed” from!!

Look for and click on the

feed icon

Copy the Url address

(HighlightCtrl+C on your keyboard)

Sign into your dashboard and go to

widgets

Add the RSS widget

Paste the Url (right-click paste)

A RSS feed is a frequently updated stream of news or updates to a site/blog

that can be embedded into any website or blog using a widget or read using a

feed reader. It can keep a site looking “fresh” with automatically updated

content of your choice!

Click here to open video in player

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Activating your Plug-in widget pack

Sign into your dashboard

On the top click on Plugins

Activate

You have to register with the external sites before you add the widgets to your

blog eg Delicious, Clustrmaps, Twitter and Flickr.

Edublogs comes with a Plugin- widget

pack that makes it easy to embed

external sites’ widgets into your blog:

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Adding the ClustrMap widget

To add ClustrMaps to your blog:

Dashboard DesignWidgets

Click on Edit link on the widget

button on the right

The form should have been filled

in for you already!

Remember to save your changes

ClustrMaps is a “must-have” widget for class and student blogs because it

reminds students that they are part of a global voice and demonstrates how

interconnected we all are. (Sue Waters)

ClustrMaps give

you a global

picture of who is

visiting your site!

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Adding the Delicious widget

To add Delicious to your blog:

Work though the Delicious tutorial

and sign up for a Delicious account

Dashboard Design Widgets

Add the Delicious widget

Click on Edit link on the widget

button on the right

Fill in your Delicious username

Complete the no of links to want to

show

If you want to restrict it to only one

tag, fill in that tag

Your Delicious widget can keep your blog visitors up to date with new

resources!

Delicious is a social bookmarking

platform and the last few resources

that you bookmarked will

automatically display on your blog if

you add this widget!

mydelicioususername

To add Twitter to your blog:

Work though the Twitter tutorial and

sign up for a Twitter account

Dashboard Design Widgets

Add the Twitter widget

Click on Edit link on the widget

button on the right

Fill in your Twitter username

Complete the no of tweets to want

to show

Save Changes

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Adding the Twitter widget

Your Twitter widget can keep your blog visitors up to date with what you are

doing and add more people to your network

Twitter is a micro-blogging system

where you give a status update and

create a personal learning network!

twitterusername

Go to your blog dashboard

Design Widgets

Add the Flickr widget

Click on Edit and complete

Paste (Right-click Paste) your

RSS url –Save

Go to your photo-stream

page. (Your landing

page)

Scroll down to bottom

and copy your feed url

(Right-click on RSS

Latest Copy)

To add a Flickr photo

stream to your blog:

Register for a Flickr

account (Yahoo account)

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Adding the Flickr widget

Flickr is a photo sharing site, where

you can store your pictures. A widget

automatically pulls in photos from

your uploaded photo collection.

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

External widgets

There are a myriad of interesting

widgets available for use from

the internet, which you can

embed in your blog!

It consist of a piece of code

which you can paste into a text

box or html page….and Voila!!!

A few widget collections (or you can

create your own) can be found at:

Widgetbox.com

Springwidgets

Widgipedia.com

See delicious tag for widgets

Keep your eyes open for widgets on

your favourite sites!

Go to Widgetbox.com

Search for a topic of your choice

Pick a widget and click on it….

Customize it

Click on the embed icon

Click on the embed code and Copy

Go to your blog dashboard Design Widgets Add Text widget

Edit Paste Save

View your blog!

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Inserting external widgets

Keep your eyes open for widgets on your favourite sites!

Say… I want to insert a quotes widget….

Click here to open video in player

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

Self assessment Rubric

Assess your level of skill: 1 MMMmmm still need more thought/practice;

2 Getting there! 3 Cool- No problems!

This e-torial was developed by maggiev

for the Department of Education for use

by subject advisors, teachers and learners

All e-torials can be found on the

Thutong portal:

www.thutong.org.za

Intermediate ICT Skills: Communicate & Collaborate

About this Presentation information

For more blogging resources, see:

http://groups.diigo.com/groups/blogging

101

It forms part of a online learning pathway

and is a self study tutorial

Part 1: Blog: What? Why?

Creating a blog

Part 2:The anatomy of a blog

Part 3: Registering for your blog

and creating posts and pages

Part 4: Customizing your blog

Part 5: Maintaining your blog