One of the effects of upgrading to Wordpress 2.7 is the fact that it’s not compatible with the previous codes to embed Rockyou slideshows. The above slideshow is created using the Myspace embed code provided by Rockyou. So, for new slideshows simply copy the Myspace embed code and paste it into the html tab on the post screen. For existing posts that no longer display the Rockyou slideshow, you’ll have to edit the post by clicking on the html tab and removing the existing Rockyou code (it will be in square brackets with a long number and the words Rockyou id. (example: [rockyou id=76656570&w=426&h=319] )and replacing it with the Myspace embed code.

Here are a few examples of mine:

The way they work is quite simple: an avatar is associated with your email address and wherever you enter your email address in a comment on an avatar enabled blog your avatar will appear alongside the comment.

There are three prerequisites to using an avatar:

1. You need an email address;
2. Your image and email address need to be uploaded to the Gravatar website;
3. Your own site needs to be avatar enabled.

Creating an avatar

Avatars can be created in a number of ways:

• Use an existing digital portrait or image (e.g a school crest, a piece of scanned artwork, a piece of digital artwork)
• Use an avatar creation tool. The Simpsons avatar generator is a popular one, as is Doppelme, although a search will reveal plenty of others – some of which are definitely not suitable for children. Note, most avatar sites require registration and login. For Doppelme I find the easiest way to use it is to register and create your avatar then right click on the image and save it as an image file on the hard-drive ready for the next step. The Simpsons generator has a “save image” option built in

Registering with Gravatar

Once you have created your avatar and saved it to your hard-drive as an image, you need to register with Gravatar.com in order for your avatar to be recognised by other websites and blogs. Gravatar stands for Globally Recognised Avatar and is a service used by lots of blogs and social networks. Simply register your email address and upload your chosen avatar image. If your class don’t have individual email addresses, why not register a class avatar or school avatar using a school crest or by holding a “design the class avatar” comp.

Note that Gravatar will require you to rate your Gravatar as G, PG, R or X. Assuming you are creating an avatar for use on school sites the avatar should always be rated as G and the content of your avatar should be suitable. Important note: your private life is up to you, but if you are registering any other type of avatar for private use DO NOT associate with it an email address that you use to comment on school blogs etc.

Enabling your blog to support Gravatar

Even if you don’t take this step, it’s still worth registering an avatar as more and more blogs and social networks are supporting Gravatar.

If you have a Creative Blogs site we have already installed the Gravatar software. All you need to do is switch Gravatar on for your class blog. Click “Settings” > “Discussion”, then scroll down to the bottom of the page. Here you will see the Gravatar options:

Simply choose “Show avatars”, then tick the avatar rating required (this will always be G for a school site) and choose a default avatar for visitors who have no avatar of their own.

If your blogsite doesn’t have the Gravatar options, you’ll need to refer to the support site for your blog software (if it’s Wordpress, you’ll need the Gravatar plugin).

That’s all there is to it. Try with your own teacher email first and once you have figured out the technique let it loose on the children: they’ll have great fun creating their own avatars and will you can build in some valuable e-safety into the lesson, too.

If you want to use a video from Youtube in class, I suggest you register at Zamzar.com and use this to download a Youtube video to your PC. This can then be put on a memory stick and taken in to school for use in class.

And if the slideshow doesn’t make sense, Clustrmaps themeselves have helpfully put up their own instructions on adding their widget to Wordpress:

http://clustrmaps.wordpress.com/html-setup/clustrmaps-on-wordpress/

All Creative Blogs feeds follow exactly the same format: http://creativeblogs.net/feed/ is the RSS feed for this blog. In other words, take your chosen blog’s URL and add /feed/ to the end of it. Other blog platforms won’t necessarily have the same format of URL for feeds, but you can usually spot them easily enough by looking for the link to the feed on the blog itself (often in the footer) or by looking for the orange RSS button. Most modern web browsers will automatically detect if a page has a feed on it.

However, if you follow the link above and look at the Creative Blogs RSS feed you’ll be looking at something that is pretty unpalatable to attempt to read. So, you need an interpreter.

There are a number of ways in which you can read and subscribe to feeds, and I’ll mention three here.

Web Browsers

The first is to use your web browser. Most modern browsers have feed readers built into them. For example, if you have Firefox you will notice that the browser will automatically identify if a web page has a feed on it and shows the orange RSS button. Simply click on the orange button to subscribe to the feed and Firefox will keep tabs on that site for you.

The problem with this method of reading feeds is that it is tied to one computer i.e. only that browser has your list of feeds in it. So it’s better to use a web based feed reader. Also, older browsers such as Internet Explorer 6.0 won’t have this type of feature (you have updated by now, haven’t you?)

Google Reader

If you have a Google account you can use Google’s free Google Reader. Simply log in to Google and click on the Reader link at top left. Every time you enter a feed into the browser address bar or click on an orange RSS button Google will ask you whether you want to add the feed to Google Reader. Within Reader you can organise your feeds into folders and share interesting articles with friends. Because Google Reader is web based, you can log into it at any browser, or even on your mobile if you have a mobile web facility.

Pageflakes

One of the easiest ways to introduce RSS is to use Pageflakes. Pageflakes is a web-based desktop that allows you to customise your own web homepage. On this page, you can include RSS feeds. Here is an example page I have set up for an ICT co-ordinators course. Each course member has their own blog in order to reflect on the course and they can all see what each other is writing by visiting this Pageflakes page.

Each box displayed is a separate blog’s feed.

To add a feed to a Pageflakes page, click on the big “Flake” button, then on the left there is a small link saying “Add an RSS feed”. Simply click on this link and paste your feed into the box.

Here’s the link to the aforementioned ICT co-ordinator’s course.

Why not have a go at creating a school homepage using Pageflakes? You’re not restricted to feeds from blogs, you could add the BBC education feed, local weather feeds, image galleries, games and all sorts.

Explore

Whichever way you choose, do make the effort to explore and understand RSS. It will literally transform the way you use the web.

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[slideshare id=253134&doc=how-to-add-a-bubbleshare-slideshow-1202219855904319-3&w=425]

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