The following features are available on our blogs:
Pages:
You can create pages on each blog. Pages are designed for static content. Examples of pages are: Internet links, project resources, or any other static content.
Privacy Options:
We have the ability to create as many blogs as we want. Although our primary goal is to develop teacher websites we have the ability to create a blog for a particular project, event, student, club etc.. Within the privacy options we can setup a blog to allow only registered users (that we select) to be able to view and/or edit . This allows for blogs to be used by students for class projects, journals, podcasts or any other publication. The blogs are protected from the outside world.
Embed Videos :
We can embed videos into a blog posting. This will allow the video to play right within the posting without taking up space on our server. This tool is an added plug-in. Please see the tutorials to learn how to use it. Faculty members can embed a video into a posting and assign the review of it to students. We can also embed podcasts and student digital stories for syndication.
Insert Media:
Our blogs allow for the insertion of pictures, images, audio, and video files.
Subscriptions:
Registered users of a particular blog have the option to subscribe to content on that blog. Once registered a user can access his or her personal profile. On that screen they have the option to subscribe to updates on the blog. All you have to do is select the categories you wish to subscribe to. You will receive an email each time a new posting is added to that category with a link to the post. This can be very useful for parents to keep track of homework and class announcements.
RSS Feeds and Bookmarking:
Throughout our blogs are shortcuts and links to subscribe to the content of a particular blog via RSS feed. You can also add a particular posting to any of your favorite social bookmarking or social networking sites.
Add Users:
Blog owners have the ability to add users to their blog. Adding users allows the blog owner to be able to control who can comment on a blog posting.
Password Protect Posts or Make Posts Private
Blog owners have an option with each post that they publish to either password protect it or make it private for a particular group of subscribers. This can be useful for providing sensitive information to parents or even a particular student. It can also be used to host a private discussion board for a class assignment.
Organize your posts by categories
Blog owners can create as many categories as he or she wishes. By organizing your posts by category you make it easy for readers to find the content that is relevant to them. It also allows for subscribers to your content to select the categories that are relevant to them. Faculty members can create a category for each period they teach, subject, parent corner, homework, etc.
Comments on Posting and Threaded Discussions
Every post and page has the ability to allow for comments. In the settings a blog owner to allow anyone to comment or only registered users. He or she can also disallow comments for a particular post. There is an option to force the blog owner to moderate all comments before they appear live on a post. This is useful for managing student comments. Comments can also be threaded. This allows for students to respond to each others comments on a posting.
Widget
On every blog you will find one to three sidebars with boxes on them. These are called widgets. Blog owners have to ability to add or remove as many widgets as they would like. They control the content that is available in the widgets.
These are just a few of the many great features available to our blog owners. Please visit the tutorials page for information on how these features work. If you have any questions please contact:
Doug Walker
dwalker@jefftwp.org
973-697-3535×5843
