BLOG SETTINGS

Match blogging protocols

Settings

Changing settings is important for the blog to work well for learn, create share and to observe the blogging protocols. View the video and instructions below.

Steps to Register and Build a Blog - Layout and Settings

Download ‘Toki Blog Template’ and ‘Welcome’ xml files to your downloads folder on your computer. Also download the welcome post image.


Register blog

Copy ‘blog title’ on spreadsheet

Open ‘url link’ from spreadsheet

Blog not found - click register

Paste blog title into space

Click orange ‘simple’ theme

Save.


Templates for theme and welcome post

Left menu - theme - click backup/restore (top right)

Choose file - Toki Blog Template (in downloads) - upload.

Left menu - Settings - Other - Import content - I’m not a robot - verify - import from computer - welcome post. NOTE: sometimes this doesn’t work, you’ll need to do it manually, see instructions below:


Manually add welcome post and first comment (if importing the file doesn't work):

Click ‘New post’

Post title: Welcome

Post labels - Paste in: Art, Cybersmart, English, Health, Literacy, Maths, Numeracy, PE, Reading, Science, Social Studies, Technology, Topic, Writing (then click done).

Welcome picture: it’s faster to drag and drop the picture onto the post content area than upload - download the welcome post image onto your desktop - drag and drop - size large - centre

Click - Publish

On the blog home page under the welcome posts, click ‘no comments’

Paste in comment: Welcome to your blog - enjoy sharing your learning with your family and friends.

Click - Publish


In settings:

Settings - Basic - description - edit - paste ‘Welcome to my blog, I’m a student at [name of school], Greymouth [or Hokitika], New Zealand. - save changes.

Settings - Posts, comments and sharing - anyone - never - no - paste ‘Thank-you for your positive, thoughtful, helpful comments’. - save settings.

Settings - Email - comment notification email - blog admin, student email [on spreadsheet], teacher email; post notification email - blog admin, teacher email - save settings.

Settings - Language and formatting - time zone - Auckland (scroll to bottom, then scroll back up a little, it’s near the bottom of the list) - save settings.

Settings - Basic - permissions - add author - add student email and teacher email - invite authors (separate with a comma).

Left menu - Layout - Edit ‘Follow by Email’ - save (all you need to do is open the gadget and hit save, it doesn’t show up on the blog till you’ve done this).


View blog


Open ‘revolver map’ web link https://www.revolvermaps.com/?target=setupmini - in a new tab, scroll to bottom, copy and paste code from step 5

On the blog home page, click the tools bottom right on the ‘World Map’, and paste in the new code - save.

On the Pages bar - click the tools at the right end of the pages bar, tick ‘Digital Badges’ - save.

View blog generally and check that everything is there / showing up, and spelled correctly.

Finish.


Settings.webm

Sample description: Welcome to my blog, I am a student at [name of school] in Greymouth [or Hokitika], New Zealand.

Comments - Post, comments and sharing Settings

Commenting is set to limit the barriers to leaving a comment

Email Settings - Notifications

Comment notifications - The blog admin email address will already be in the box, now add the student's email address. For large schools, also add the blog comments email address.

Post notifications - Add the teachers email address, and parents email addresses. For large schools, also add the blog comments email address. For small schools, you may like to add the principal's email address.

Timezone - Language and formatting Settings

The default time zone is 'Pacific' - this needs to be changed to the 'Auckland' timezone. Do not change anything else.