Edublogs recently upgraded their security system. This has resulted in all users having to reset their passwords. When you attempt to log into your blog, you will be prompted to reset your password. The process is easy, but if you would like, here’s a handout on resetting your password that will lead you through the steps.

UPDATE 8/30: It appears that the issue has been resolved. Edublogs emails should be deliverable to our school email addresses. Yippee!!

It appears that our email spam filter, which is through MOREnet, and which we have no control over, has started blocking messages from Edublogs.

• This means if you register for an Edublogs account with your school email address, you will not get the email you need to verify your account and complete the registration process.
• This means if you have an existing Edublogs account that you created with your school email address, you won’t receive any emails pertaining to comments awaiting moderation on your blog or informational messages for Edublogs.

Ugghhh!

The only solution I have at this point is to use a different email address. Many of us have additional email accounts through our home Internet providers, or through free services such as gmail, yahoo, or hotmail. If you don’t, watch this short screencast on how to register for a gmail account.

• New Users: Use an alternative email address when registering for Edublogs, not your school email address.
• Existing Users: Edit the email address for your Edublogs account. You need to change it in 2 places. 1) Click the Setting link in the top right corner and change your email address. When you click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen, your email address will revert back to school email. But after you receive the verification email in your non-school email account, and click the provided click, it will be changed. 2) Click Users in the top right corner and then choose Your Profile from the menu bar across the top. Change your email address here as well.

This means that all emails from Edublogs will be delivered to your nonschool email account. Which is not ideal but doable. Many email services provide the option to forward copies of incoming emails to another email account. You can view this screencast on forwarding Edublogs emails to your school account that are addressed to your gmail account.

Maybe the setting on the MoreNET email spam filter will be changed in the near future to allow messages from Edublogs. Until that time, we can use this work around.

UPDATE: Please read this post from James Farmer on his blog incorporated subversion.

At the end of May, Edublogs 3.0 was rolled out with a new dashboard and several upgrades. You can now customize your dashboard’s colors and select its widgets. The menus have changed, with easy access to all your blogs provided across the top of your dashboard. The visual editor has a new look, including a “kitchen sink” button. The uploading process is improved and the ability to embed code in a post simplified. A new feature allows you to easily create student blogs and accounts. I appreciate the new option to convert any categories to tags. The sidebar widget management has also improved.

I’ve published a new Blogging with Edublogs handout. You will also find a new set of screencast tutorials on the Fusion: Blogging webpage. I would also recommend reading The Edublogger by Sue Waters. It is a great blog to learn more about using Eublogs and blogging in the classroom.

You may have noticed that your Edublogs’ Visual Editor is missing the Embed Flash and the Media buttons. These buttons are no longer need. Which is good news. The sky’s the limit on what we can now embed. The embedding process is now even easier, but with a quark.

Sue Waters, The Edublogger, provides step-by-step directions for embedding flash or media in an Edublogs’ post. An important tip she shared recommends pasting the embed code as the last step before publishing. Clicking Save and Continue Editing button may break the code and cause your embed not to display. Embed then publish, embed then publish, embed then publish. Got it?

tag: k12, edtech, blogging, Edublogs, embedding, flash, media, Sue Water, The Edublogger

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when my attempt to embed a Google Gadget in an Edublog’s post was successful. I didn’t anticipate it working, since the embedding of javascript and other code directly in a post has been disabled due to security concerns. After having a little time to read some RSS feeds last night, I see that Edublogs now allows you to embed javascript, iframes, and object code. You can just copy the provided embedding code, click the code tab while composing a post, and paste. This will also work in text box sidebar widgets. See Sue Water’s Edublogger post with some Tom Barrett’s screenshots illustrating the process.

Tips

• If you click the Visual tab after pasting in the code and don’t see anything where you embedded the object, that’s to be expected. It will show up when you publish or preview.
• Sue Waters recommends pasting in the code as the last step before publishing. As Mr. Farmer explains, if you edit and resave a post with embedded object code, it will break the code. He is hoping to fix this bug soon.
• Sue Waters also states that if you are embedding flash (swf) or a video, you should still use the toolbar buttons on the Visual tab. See the examples on Edublogger, along with the screenshots of how to embed a VoiceThread or Animato presentation.

I know of several teachers who will be thrilled with this new feature.
tag: k12 edtech Edublogs code javascript embedding widgets Sue Waters Tom Barrett James Farmer

Image Credit: Greasemonkey by xrrr