First log-in (look for the Log-in link under the “Meta” section of the sidebar).

Enter your username and existing password. This will bring you to the Dashboard.

Look for your name in the upper right corner:

Click on your username to go to your Profile.

Scroll to the bottom of this page and enter your preferred password twice.  Then click on Update.

From the Dashboard, you can add a post in one of three ways. Click the image here to see a larger version.

We recommend using #1 or #2 as they give you more layout and embedding options, but if you only have a brief “shout-out”, go ahead and use #3, the “QuickPress.”

Once you are in the “Add New Post” screen, add your title and the content you want to appear in the post.

Use the “Rich Text” / WYSIWYG editor (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) to format the text the way you want. Highlight sections, for example, and then click the “Bulleted List” icon to do just that. Play around. Experiment. The exact way your text appears once you publish the post depends on the IWB Blog’s style sheets, so don’t fuss things too much – some is out of your control…

The colorful icons starting with YouTube are all for embedding videos from a range of Web sites. Use the right one for the video you want to embed and it will play right in your post.

To add other media, you can upload / insert it. Use the clip below as a guide.

Once you have the content the way you want, it’s a very good idea to add Tags/Categories so that your post can be filed and retrieved more easily. Use the boxes to mark your post appropriately.

The first time you post your page, you’ll use the “Publish” button. Every time after that, the button turns into “Update Post.”

To see your post actually online, I like to use separate browser Tabs for the Dashboard and the published blog. To do this simply right-click on the link at the top of the Dashboard to open the Blog in a New Tab.

You can see a video from YouTube that covers roughly the same process

Why Wordpress.com?

Wordpress is the best free blogging software and it just keeps getting better. There are three main ways to get a Wordpress blog:

1. from Wordpress.com
2. through a Web Host with a Wordpress.org installation
3. with a free educational version of Wordpress MU (multi-user)

After many years helping educators get started with a ClassPortal / Blog / Web page, I’ve found that beginning with Wordpress.com is the best way. The main reason is that you can get started easily, have access to the very latest version of the software, and can easily export your information if you ever want to host the blog in any other way.

Let’s Get Started

1) Go to Wordpress.com

2) Click on the “Sign Up Now” button.

3) Completely fill in the fields. Use the hints from Wordpress and those in the graphic below to have the greatest success.

4) Chances are that the name you chose might already be taken. Consider adding numbers or varying your username to increase its uniqueness.

5) Once you have a unique username, you can see how it becomes the main part of your Web address. You can change the Blog Title to anything you want. It usually appears quite large at the top of the Web site.

6) To make sure that the person creating the blog is you, Wordpress sends a confirmation email to your account. Click on the link to activate the blog.

7) When you click on the link in your email, you are greeted by the friendly message below. Keep your username and password handy and private. Beneath this information, you’ll see two links to your blog: basically the “behind the scenes” Dashboard where only you create content and the “public” face of the site that everyone sees.

A handy way to work on the blog is to use the right-mouse click to open each of the links in a new Tab (or window if you don’t have Tabbed Browsing). This way you can flip between the “inside” and outside” of your site as you build it to see if it looks the way you want.

9) Clicking on “View your site” reveals it in all its “default” glory. You’ll soon learn how to change the “look-and-feel” to something the you like better.

10) Entering your username and password logs you into the Dashboard.

Note: a new Dashboard looks like this:

The “Dashboard” you see may be a slightly different versions than this, everything works the same. Tthe functions are just slotted into slightly different places.

Either way, take a look around and explore.

Fill in the required information:

Click on the Menu button to open the control pane.

Click on whatever “Flakes” (RSS feeds) look interesting to you. You can get rid of them if you don’t like them.

Now it’s time to look for RSS feeds from other sources. Begin by opening another Browser Tab or Window.

Now search / surf to sites you like for information and see if they have an RSS feed link. For example, you might go to the ABC website and search the page for “RSS”. Then click on the link.

Look through the RSS feeds available. Really good sites, divide their content into sections so you can get the latest on your main interests (like “science,” “world news,” “movies,” etc.). When you find a section you want to get the updates on, copy the link.

Then go back to you Pageflakes page and look in the lower left of the Menu / control panel for a link that says “Add RSS Feed”.

Paste the RSS feed address you copied into the field and then click the “Get Feed” button. You’ll see the new feed added to the top panel of feeds on the page. If it doesn’t work, then you didn’t get the RSS feed address quite right. Just try again.

Here are some sources for great RSS feeds:

• The ABC
• The New York Times
• The Guardian, UK
• TED Talks

Part 2

Now let’s make it so you (and students) can get to these great feeds as a Web page. Start by giving the Page a name:

Cool. Now we need to give the page a solid Web address. From the Menu / control panel, click on “Make a PageCast.”

Click on the “Public” radio button and fill in all the information.

Save the Changes and then look in the upper corner for the Web address of the page. Copy the address and then paste it into the browser’s URL line to go right to the page with a set address. now you can add this address as a link to you blog.

Great stuff! Now you and students can easily find out the latest on just about any subject.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can browse all the PageFlakes and find some pretty cool things. Just be careful, some bite!

Fill in the required information:

Get the Browser buttons so you can quickly add great sites to your social bookmarks.

Follow the instructions to see if the buttons were added to your browser. Everyone in your class / school / faculty should add the buttons and set them up for your group account.

Once the browser buttons have been added, you can Log-in to your group Del.icio.us account and everyone who uses it, adds sites to your group account. Great for departments, classes, clubs, enrichment programs, etc.

You can add sites quickly, by dragging across text on a page you like, then just clicking on the “Add Tag” button and filling in the information. If you use some agreed upon tags, everyone will be able to find things better.

Now that you have this ability for a group of learners to contribute to a shared set of bookmarks, how might you use it?

If you’re stuck, get help from Del.icio.us tutorials

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is…”

Aw, chrissakes, why don’t I just tell you myself!

Everyone seems to have an opinion about what’s wrong with me. My family, people at school, hell, even the goddamn cleaning lady probably has an opinion if anybody’d ask her. So you might as well join the crowd. You might as well add your comment on what you think is wrong with good ol’ Holden Caulfield, esq.

(note: this uses a special Plug-in for podcasting that is available when you host a site yourself. Keep looking for an equivalent at WordPress.com)

In our last session, it was decided that between then and our next meeting on May 7th, we would all have a go at podcasting. Exactly what this means is unique to each individual: some participants with more advanced skills will likely be full-blown podcasters by May. Those who are newer to technology are encouraged to make an audio recording to bring along in May. It’s really important that everyone realise their is no judgment connected to these outcomes. Just as we want our students to start wherever they are, the same holds for us. It’s the individualised learning that’s important, not any comparisons or standardised expectations. Grapes, wine and sultanas are all lovely!

Overview

Here are some main pointers on creating Podcasts as well as a comprehensive tutorial for our specific purposes. Also remember the Podcast Resources page on this blog as well as many other great online guides.

Definition

Let’s start with a basic description of podcasting.

“Podcast – A Podcast is like a broadcast of media, usually audio, that nearly anyone can create. Podcasts are downloaded, usually onto Portable media device, like an iPod so they can be played back at a later date. These are great for traveling when you might not have the ability to listen to live broadcasts, like in an airplane. They are also fairly easy to create and share, so even the average user can tell a story to capture your attention and share it with the world.” from A through Z computing

We’ll start with the notion that a podcast is an audio file. This was how they began even though now many of the best podcasts are “enhanced” with images or actual video podcasts (sometimes called “vodcasts”). If you like to work with video best, begin with that, otherwise, let’s record some audio.

PC / Windows

Most beginning podcasters on Windows machines use free software called Audacity. It works fine for the purpose of recording your voice.

Jason Van Orden presents great support from his site “How to Podcast”. I’ve linked to what I found to be the most important guides.

Overview: Podcast Tutorial: Four Basic Steps

• How to Download and Install Audacity (get the latest stable version)
• Good flash tutorials on recording and editing with Audacity
• A note about ID3 Tags

Here are other good tutorials for people using Audacity.

• Creating a Podcast with Audacity on a Windows PC – from PennState (video)
• Audacity Tutorial – from Guides-and-Tutorials

Macintosh

You could use the same software and tutorials above for Audacity as it is cross platform, but the software on a Mac is far easier and powerful, so let’s use that. Here are a few online guides:

• Podcasting with QuickTime Pro (pdf)
• Podcasting with QuickTime Pro from Apple
• Recording your Podcast with Garageband from Apple
• Podcasting with Garageband 3 – from Lynda.com – great movie tutorials
• Creating a Podcast with Garageband – from PennState (both video & complete pdf)

Uploading your audio file

Download this tutorial, to add a link to an audio file within a blog post like this: Bright Ideas for Education Intro. You could also get a podcast icon from this page (or another) so that you have an image to signal a linked podcast file to your visitors.

Thinking About Content

Again, Jason Van Orden does a great job helping us think about what we should actually podcast about and how to organise it. Look through these link and consider making this a class activity where students participate in the overall design of a program.

• Choosing a Topic for Your Podcast
• Choosing a Format for Your Podcast

Just to get the creative juices flowing, here are some possible topics:

• “A Day I grew Up”
• Our Real World Heroes
• Famous speeches that changed the world
• “Books on Tape” for the visually impaired or younger learners
• Radio Program (like the ABC’s Encounter, Background Briefing, etc.)
• Public Service Campaigns like World Vision’s Stir Your World or Connect
• Music Video
• Mashup like these Imagines (audio / video)
• Museum Tour
• ??

Use the Comments on this post to ask questions, share resources or announce your podcast.