edna.edu.au

Latest BlogFest post

Because of the flakiness of the Rollr blog we use here on me.edu.au I have written my blog post on embedding widgets on my other blog. You'll find it here. 

Only a few applications can be embeded here like YouTube and Voicethread as well as some other video embeds. I should compile a list of widgets that can be successfully embedded and some that I know don't go so well. More to come of that soon I think...

If you'd like to help me get started though, fill in this form to let me know you experiences with embedding content in your me.edu.au blog (item no.1 on the list is embedding this form from GoogleDocs into this blog post!):
Embedding content feedback form

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my progression through the BlogFest challenges and I feel that I am slowly gaining more confidence. I'm still taking a long time to write my posts though... 

Tags: widgets blogging
Posted at 04:30PM Jan 11, 2010 by Alison Hall  |  Comments[0]

The BlogFest begins

To help prepare myself for what 2010 will bring to me I am participating in the education.au BlogFest. The BlogFest will run from Jan 4th through 'till Jan 22nd and will be a way for my colleagues and I to learn a little more about blogging and hopefully create some great community discussion along the way. 

One of my biggest challenges with blogging is that I find it hard to put my thoughts into words. When I do find the right words it can takes forever to pull something together that I am happy with! So one of my goals for this challenge is to actually write a little more frequently but also to be less fussy about the end result. 

I also plan to stop "lurking" in the blogosphere so much. I have around 60 odd blogs which I follow and read fairly regularly (thanks to that wonderful browser, Flock!). I feel it allows me to keep my finger of the pulse of educational technology and educators because I am reading about the real experiences of educators. So goal number 2 is that I start leaving a few more comments around so that people know that I am reading and am interested in what they have to say. We all know how lonely it can feel when feel like we are writing to nobody. 

I'll be spreading my blogging over a few different blogs including this one and my All in Bits and Pieces blog depending on the challenge and the capability of the platform. Feel free to following along with our blogging journey by visiting the BlogFest and checking out the entries in the Mr Linky at the bottom of each post. 

Tags: blogging
Posted at 04:44PM Jan 04, 2010 by Alison Hall  |  Comments[3]

Approving blog Comments

By default the me.edu.au blogging tool is set so that all comments on a blog are hidden until the author of the blog approves them.

To approve blog comments on your blog, go to your edit blog page and then click on the 'Comments' tab.

To approve the comment, mark it as spam or delete it, click in the check box of the appropriate column next to the comment.Scroll down and save you choice.

The comment should now appear at the bottom of your blog post.

You can change these default comment moderation settings in the Preferences tab of the edit blog page in the comments section.

Tags: help blogging
Posted at 01:45PM Sep 11, 2009 by Alison Hall  |  Comments[0]

Adding Images to me.edu.au blog

Adding images to your me.edu.au blog isn't as straight forward as you think, but once you know how to do it, it is easy.

Click the Edit Blog link from your me.edu.au profile

Click on File Uploads



You may like to upload all the images you might use in your blog post first or I personally like to keep one window open on my blog post and the other on the file uploads area.

When an image is uploaded you will see the screen below and will need to copy the address of the image

If you miss this screen, you can find all your uploaded images stored in your File Uploads area.

Back in your blog post, place your cursor in the text area where you want your image to display and then click on the Insert Image button in the text editor.

Paste the URL of the image your copied from the File Uploads area into the Insert/Modify Image window, Image URL box. Click on the Preview button to see the image and write a description of the image in the Alternative text area. Click OK.

The image you inserted should now appear in your blog post.

Note: There is no autosave! If you have to navigate away to your File Upload area to get an image address, SAVE A DRAFT!

Tags: help images blogging showme
Posted at 10:44AM Sep 11, 2009 by Alison Hall  |  Comments[1]

Linking your external blog into me.edu.au

If you currently have an external blog (edublog, or wordpress or blogger etc), you can link in your existing blog to your  me.edu.au profile instead of creating a new me.edu.au blog.

There are two ways to do this:

1. Login and then click on the Create Blog tab
2. Choose the 2nd option which says something like "link to an external blog"
3. You will asked to paste in your existing blog's address
   

The other way you can link in an external blog is by adding the blog's rss feed to your me profile:

1. Go to Edit Profile and then click on the Feeds tab
2. Add the title of your blog and paste in the rss feed for you blog into the 2nd field
3. You can do this for any RSS feed of a site that you are a member of e.g. twitter or delicious
   

Once you've added your feeds or your external blog to your me.edu.au profile, you blog posts will display on your public profile as "what I've been doing".

Let me know if you need any help or have any questions

Tags: blogging rss
Posted at 04:57PM Aug 13, 2009 by Alison Hall  |  Comments[0]

What inspires you to blog?

This fortnight's blogging corner challenge was topics for blogging. What inspires you to blog? Do you have a central theme, or do you blog somewhat randomly?

I tend to be a somewhat random blogger, although I do tend to stick to blogging about ICTs in education. I also tend to blog about people or idea which inspire me. I am not one for coming up with these brilliant ideas myself but instead I try to make my own meaning by re-blogging what they are talking about. By re-blogging I hope to soldify by own ideas and thoughts and maybe even suggest other resources or people who are thinking the same stuff.

So, here are a few topics I have blogged about this year. As I said, tend to blog when I am inspired by the work of others:

• Creative Commons

• The Development of a PLN

• Music Education meets the web

• Dr. Michael Webb and the MMGS

Tags: blogging bloggingcorner09
Posted at 03:03PM Mar 10, 2009 by Alison Hall  |  Comments[0]

Blogging Carnival launched

The first blogging corner carnival has been published on edublogs!

Feburary's carnival is now open for submissions.

Tags: blogging bloggingcorner09
Posted at 09:11AM Feb 02, 2009 by Alison Hall  |  Comments[0]

Help - edna Blog

Can't publish your me blog post?  Can't save your me blog post? Your text has gone haywire and and changed the look of your blog? Keep getting an error message and don't know what to do? Well then hopefully this blog post can help you out.

Most issues arising from the edna Blog tool is related to HTML. If you are unable to complete, save, or publish a blog posting there is probably HTML somewhere in the post which the blog tool does not recognise. It is the same if your entire blog suddenly makes every post you've ever done to bold or italics formatting.

It is often caused by copying and pasting in content which contains its own HTML eg. copying something from a Microsoft word document, or straight off a websites, or from another HTML editing program like Dreamweaver. The error can also occur when you are trying to embed content from other websites such as pictures, widgets, videos etc.

I find that the easiest solution is NOT to go through and try to pick/guess which bits of HTML may be causing the issue (trust me you can waste a lot of time doing this), instead I do the following:

1. Copy the entire blog post and paste it into a plain text document such as Notepad
2. back in me.edu.au, delete all of the HTML from the blog post by clicking the TOGGLE HTML SOURCE icon (looks like <>) and delete everything in view. Unclick the Toggle HTML icon when you have got rid of everything.
3. Now highlight and copy the text from the plain text document and paste it back into the post.
   
4. Save it straight away and keep saving as you start to reformat your post.
   

If you feel you need to write out your blog post in full before you get online and post it, why not write it in a plain text document first? This can save a lot of tears later.

Also always, always save your blog posts as you are writing them. There is currently no autosave function in the me.edu.au blog and if you decide to navigate away from your post or take too long to compose it and get logged out, you will lose everything. Many a blogger has had their heart broken by this...

If you continue to have issues with posting to your me.edu.au blog don't hesitate to contact the edna team at groups@edna.edu.au Someone there is sure to be able to get you back on track again.

Happy blogging!

Tags: edna blog about me blogging showme help
Posted at 12:15PM Jan 16, 2009 by Alison Hall  |  Comments[1]

Roll up, roll up!

To kick off Blogging Corner for 2009 we have set up a Blogging Corner Carnival!

At the beginning of each month there will be a post with contributions from educators and we really hope that many of you will participate.
To start off with, we are looking for blog postings you have done on that you would like to share with other educators. A general guide on topics are:

• Challenges and Events
• Classroom Blogs
• Personal Blogs
• Useful Tools
  

Let us know if you what you are thinking of linking to would not fit into any one of those categories.

What you will need to do to participate:
 Go to http://blogcarnival.com/bc/submit_6037.html and then scroll down to the bottom of the page and you will see the Submit an Article form. Chose a blog post you have done which you would like to share with other educators.

The first Carnival will be published on February 2nd on an specially set up edublog space at http://ednabloggingcarnival.edublogs.org/ Submissions close on Wed 28 January.

If you miss the submission deadline, you can always submit a blog post into next months Carnival - all educators are encouraged to post to the Carnival, even if you are not a Blogging Corner fanatic (in which case you are more than welcome to join the group!)

If you have questions please don't hesitate to contact myself of Kerrie Smith via our whiteboards!

Tags: blogging bloggingcorner09
Posted at 04:08PM Jan 08, 2009 by Alison Hall  |  Comments[0]

Microblogging

This weeks Blogging Corner Challenge is Twitter and was set by Michelle Dodd. Michelle has asked some really great questions to stimulate conversation around this very handy online tool.

I started to use Twitter around 6 months ago and right from the outset I found a truely wonderful group of Educators who instantly welcomed me into their fold. The thing that struck me the most was how much these people were willing to share and welcome newbies! That's the great thing about Educators, they are always willing to offer support and advice. A community like Twittter is both engaging and theraputic, you often get a "heads up" on new tools and tricks from those in the know, but also have the opportunty to contribute your own thoughts and ramblings. I have even had the pleasure of meeting some of my Twitter aquaintances face to face at conferences and workshops.

Recently I have forsaken Twitter for another microblogging site called Plurk. I have to say I actually enjoy using Plurk a lot more than Twitter, as I find the conversations easier to follow and enjoy a greater variety of conversations to join in on. One good thing is that often the same educators who are using Plurk are also Twitter users! The best of both worlds really, though there aren't as many Australian educators who have taken the plunge into Plurk... I think it will catch on eventually though.

So you want to start? The best thing to do is just dive in and give it a go (oh and then join Blogging Corner and let us know how you go!)

Tags: twitter plurk blogging bloggingcorner08 microblogging
Posted at 10:20AM Oct 23, 2008 by Alison Hall  |  Comments[0]