Fusion Finds

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.

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