Here’s what you need to do:

Log into your DNS control panel or send a support request to your registrar (the company or organization you’ve purchased the domain name from) and:

1. Full domain (e.g. ourblog.com) – amend your A records to point to the following three IP Addresses: 66.135.49.219, 66.135.49.226 and 66.135.49.227 (It is important that you add all three IPs as separate A records, and that they are the only A records for your root domain).
2. Sub domain (e.g. ourblog.oursite.com) -  remove existing A and CNAME records for the subdomain and add a CNAME record pointing to sb.edublogs.org

10.  Your records should automatically update.

How you disable comments depends on whether you want the change to apply to:

1. New posts and pages you’ll publish in the future.
2. Posts and pages you’ve already published.

Disabling comments on future posts and pages

You disable comments on new posts and pages you’ll publish in the future in Settings > Discussion

This is a simple as:

1.  Go to Settings >Discussion

2.  Deselect ‘Allow people to post comments on new articles ‘ and ‘Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks’ under Default article settings.

3.  Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Disabling comments on already published posts and pages

Any changes to your default article settings on Settings > Discussion only apply to any posts or pages you publish in the future.

You can disable comments on post or page you already published by using:

1. Quick Edit
2. The Discussion module
3. Bulk edit

Using Quick Edit

Quick Edit opens the post options letting you configure features such as title, status, passwords, categories, tags comments and the timestamp without having to edit the full post.

You can disable comments using Quick Edit by:

1.  Going to to either Posts > All Posts or Pages > All Pages

2.  Locate the post or page you want to disable comments on

3.  Hover over it’s title to bring up it’s action menu.

4.  Click on Quick Edit, deselect ‘Allow Comments’ and then click on Update. 

Using the Discussion module

To change the comment settings for a post or page you already published you can open the post or page for editing and uncheck ‘Allow Comments’ and ‘Allow Trackbacks and Pingback on this page’ in the Discussion module and then click Update.

By default, new blogs have the Discussion module hidden.  You can reveal it by clicking on Screen Options and selecting the checkbox next to Discussion.

Once the Discussion module is revealed you’ll see it appear below your Visual Editor on your Edit page.

Using Bulk Edit

Bulk edit allows you to modify multiple posts or pages at the same time.

This is as simple as:

1.  Go to Posts > All Posts.

2.  Select the posts you want to edit.

3.  Then in the Bulk Actions dropdown select Edit and then click the Apply Button

4.  Now select Do not allow from the drop down menu next to Comments and then click Update.

• This hides any existing comments on those posts and stops any one from adding new comments.

Refer to the following instructions to embed:

1. Enhancing your posts by embedding media including slides, quizzes, comic strips, polls
2. Embedding videos from video sharing websites into posts
3. Adding a Voki speaking avatar to your blog’s sidebar

Below’s a list of tools to get you started:

Brainstorming Tools

1. AnswerGarden – is a word cloud site that collects words and phrases.   Great for brainstorming, collecting ideas, feedback etc.  Check out this AnswerGarden embedded in a blog post or here’s another.
2. Bubbl.us – used to create color brainstorms and mind maps.
3. Wallwishers - an online notice board creator.  It’s a really fast and easy way to create engaging activities to use with students.  Learn more about Wallwisher here.

Comic and Cartoon Tools

1. Bitstrips – here’s a BitStrop embedded in a blog post
2. ToonDoo – here’s a ToonDoo embedded in a blog post

Poll and Survey tools

1. Google Forms
2. PollDaddy – Here’s a PollDaddy embedded in a blog post.
3. PollEverywhere

Presentation Tools

1. AuthorStream -  - A site where you can host your presentations and share with others. Check out this Authorstream embedded in a blog post here!
2. Fotobabble – lets  you create a talking photo.  Excellent for speaking practising.
3. Glogster – lets you combine images, video, music, photos and audio to create interactive posters.   Here’s Glogster’s embedded in a blog post.
4. Prezi – is an online presentation and story telling tool that uses a single canvas instead of traditional series of slides.  The images, text, videos and other objects are placed on the canvas and users can zoom in and out.  Here’s a Prezi embedded in a blog post.
5. SlideShare – A site where you can host your presentations and share with others.  Ideal for those who want to embed Presentations in their posts and websites rather than upload their PowerPoints directly and insert as a link.  It’s also an excellent site for locating Presentations created by others.  Check out a SlideShare embedded in a blog post here!
6. Scribd – allows you to upload your MS Word documents, PDFs, PowerPoints and then share them within an embedded viewer on your blog.  Here’s an example of a Scribd embedded in a blog post – check out the Scribd as it contains cool tips for backing up your blog!
7. VoiceThreads – Creates an interactive slideshow using images or videos.  Allows others to leave comments on each photo by adding text, audio or video.  You can check out the VoiceThread in our post for advanced bloggers.
8. Voki – allows you to create talking avatars.  Excellent for speaking practise and engaging students.  Here’s a Voki embedded in a blog post.

Slide Show Tools

1. BookR – Super easy slide show maker.
2. Flickr – Flickr is a PhotoSharing website for hosting and sharing your photos online.   SlideShows of photo sets or tags can be embedded into blog posts.
3. PhotoPeach – lets you quickly upload photos to make great looking slideshows and even simple quizzes. Here’s a PhotoPeach embedded in a blog post and here’s instructions for creating PhotoPeach quizzes.
4. Slides – Super easy slide show maker.

Quiz Creation tools

1. QuizRevolution – allows you to quickly create quizzes with images and/or videos.
2. PhotoPeach – lets you quickly upload photos to make great looking slideshows and even simple quizzes. Here’s a PhotoPeach embedded in a blog post and here’s instructions for creating PhotoPeach quizzes.

Video Creation Tools

1. Animoto – great site for quickly creating professional looking videos from your images.  Here’s an Animoto embedded in a blog post.
2. xtranormal – lets you create 3D animated videos.

Video Hosting Websites

Here’s some of the popular site used by educators who want to embed their videos within embedded players rather than uploading them directly to posts as links.

1. Blip TV
2. Vimeo
3. YouTube

There’s a gazillion online tools nowadays. Most provide code that you can use to embed what you’ve found or created into your blog posts.

Adding embed code to posts or pages is as simple as:

1.   Completely write your post including adding title, text, images, tags and categories.

2.  Click on Save Draft, previewed your post and make all necessary edits.

3.  Go to the online tool you want to use.

• Create or find the media you want to embed in your blog post.

4.  Locate the embed code for the media you created or want to embed.

• If the online tool provides embed code you’ll see a link that’ll use words like Share, Embed or Publish.
• WallWisher embed code is located under the Do More menu on the top right hand side of your WallWisher
• Click on the link and look for any code that says Embed in Blog, or Add to website.

5.  Copy the embed code.

Here’s how to copy the embed code on PhotoPeach

Here’s how to copy the embed code on Voicethreads

6.   Click on HTML Tab on your blog post.

7.  Paste the embed codeinto your post where you want it to appear then immediately click Publish

• Don’t click back to Visual Tab before hitting Publish as it can break the embed code.
• Immediately close your post once you’ve published.
• Change back to Visual Editing mode when you write your next post by clicking on the Visual tab.
• You use this same process for any website that provides embed code.

8.  You should now see your embedded media when you view your Post on your blog!

Please note:

• If the embed code is removed when you click Save, and you don’t see your voki in your blog sidebar,  it means you are using a free Edublogs.org blog.
• To enable the use of almost any embed code in posts, pages and text widgets on your blog, and up to 50 other blogs, you need to upgrade your blog to Edublogs Pro or be using an Edublogs Campus blog.
• Remember to enable extra features, including ability to add embed code,  on your other blogs by going to Pro > Upgrade up to 50 student blogs inside your Pro blog dashboard  (refer to these instructions).

Important tips when working with embed code in blog posts

Tip #1 – Use HTML editing mode

Remember never to click on the Visual Tab to change back to the visual editing mode once you have added the embed code.

This can break the embed code with some types of embeds.   If this happens it can impact how your blog loads in a web browser like Internet Explorer or cause your blog sidebar to be pushed to the bottom of your theme.

If you need to edit a  post that contains embed code make sure you change to HTML editing mode before opening up the post to edit.

The easiest way to do this is to:

1. Go to Posts > Add New and click on the HTML tab.
2. Close the post while still in the HTML tab and then go to Posts > All Posts to open the post for editing.

Tip #2 – Adjusting the embed size

Some embed code is designed to be embedded into normal websites and can be too wide for the width of your blog post.

Ideal width for embedding for most blog themes is 450 pixels wide.

If the online tool doesn’t provide the ability to adjust the embed size you can often do this by editing the code yourself.   All you need to do is try adjusting the scale, width and/or height after you’ve added it to your post.

Here’s an example of adjusting the Glogster embed code.

Glogster embed code is for 960 pixels wide.  Changing the scale in the embed code means your Glogster now fits your blog post.

This is handy when you want to:

1. Change multiple posts back to draft mode to hide the posts, and their comments, from your new group of students
2. Apply same new category or tags to multiple posts.

This is as simple as:

1.  Go to Posts > All Posts.

2.  Select the posts you want to edit.

3.  Then in the Bulk Actions dropdown select Edit and then click the Apply Button

4.  Now all you need to do is select the change(s) you want to apply and then click Update.

For example, you can:

A.  Change post status back to Draft mode by selecting ‘Draft‘ from the Status dropdown menu.

• This removes the posts, and any comments associated comments, from your blog and they are only viewable inside your blog dashboard.
• Drat mode is handy when you want to take last year’s posts off line but be able to refer back to them.

B.  Select new categories to assign additional categories to the posts.

C.  Assign additional tags to the posts (remember to add a comma between each new tag).

D.  Disable comments on the posts by selecting ‘Do not allow‘ from the Comments dropdown menu.

• This hides any existing comments on those posts and stops any one from adding new comments.

E.  Disable pings on the posts by selecting ‘Do not allow‘ from the Pings dropdown menu.

Archiving is similar to deleting a blog.  Once a blog is archived no one is able to view the blog’s content or access it’s dashboard and any one visiting it’s blog address will see the following message.

Except it’s better to archive a blog, than to delete a blog, because if you make a mistake Edublogs Support is able to unarchive an archived blog whereas deleted blogs are permanently deleted.

This is handy when you want to quickly take student blogs offline at the end of the school year.

You bulk archive multiple blogs using the Bulk Blog and User Management on your My Blogs page.

It’s a simple as:

1.  Go to Dashboard > My Blogs in your Edublogs Pro blog dashboard.

2. Select ‘Archive selected blogs‘ from the ‘Chose Action’ dropdown menu.

3. Select the check boxes under the blogs you want to archive.

• You’ll only see the checkbox under blogs you are attached to as an admin user.

4. Click Apply.

5.  This will automatically archive these blogs and remove them from your My Blogs page.

This is handy when another teacher is going to be taking over the management of your student blogs or the students want to keep their blogs but have left your class.

You bulk remove yourself from multiple blogs using the Bulk Blog and User Management on your My Blogs page.

It’s a simple as:

1.  Go to Dashboard > My Blogs in your Edublogs Pro blog dashboard.

2. Select ‘Remove me from selected blogs‘ from the ‘Chose Action’ dropdown menu.

3. Select the check boxes under the blogs you want to remove yourself as user from

• You’ll only see the checkbox under blogs you are attached to as an admin user.

4. Click Apply.

5.  This will automatically remove you as a user from those blogs and remove them from your My Blogs page.

In one simple step, you’re able to add one user to 10′s or 100′s of blogs.

This is handy when another teacher is going to be taking over the management of student blogs or you’re using private blogs and need to quickly add all users to the blogs.

You bulk add a user to multiple blogs using the Bulk Blog and User Management on your My Blogs page.

It’s a simple as:

1.  Go to Dashboard > My Blogs in your Edublogs Pro blog dashboard.

2. Select ‘Assign the user to selected blogs‘ from the ‘Chose Action’ dropdown menu.

3. Select the check boxes under the blogs you want to add your new user to.

• You’ll only see the checkbox under blogs you are attached to as an admin user.

4. Add the person’s username or the email address attached to their existing username.

• They must already have an existing username.
• If the user doesn’t exist you need to first create them using the Blog & User Creator.

5. Select the user role you want to assign them.

6. Click Apply.

Here’s what it looks like when it’s activated on a blog sidebar:

And here’s an example of the email they’re sent:

Setting up Email subscription

To set up email subscription all you need to do is:

1.  Go to Appearance > Widgets in your Dashboard

2.  Drag the Subscribe by Email widget (Edublogs Campus blogs) or Email Subscription widget (Edublogs Pro blogs) into the desired sidebar.

• You drag by clicking on the widget with your left mouse and moving the widget.

3.  Now readers just need to add their email address to the email subscription widget in your sidebar and click Subscribe or Create Subscription.

• Please note some email domains block the email notification.
• If you are unsure if the email notification are being sent we recommend you test it by subscribing using gmail account (which doesn’t block these emails).
• If you receive the emails to the gmail account and they don’t it means they need to use an alternative email address.

Managing your Email Subscriptions

Email subscription on an Edublogs.org blog has less functionality than the email subscription on an Edublogs Campus blog.

On an Edublogs Campus blog you manage your email subscriptions using your Subscriptions menu item at the bottom of your dashboard.  Here you can add/remove email subscribers, check subscriber numbers and control the type of email notification they’re sent.

If you are using the Email subscription widget on an Edublogs.org blog you can’t:

1. Check who is subscribe by email to your blog
2. Remove email subscribers

Configuring email subscription options on a Campus blog

Here’s the instructions for:

1. Importing from a WordPress or Edublogs blog
2. Importing from a Blogger blog

Importing from a WordPress or Edublogs blog

1.  Log into your original blog dashboard.
2.   Go to Tools > Export.

3.  Click on Download Export file and save the file onto your hard drive.

4.   Log into your new blog dashboard. 5. Click on Tools > Import.

6. Click on WordPress.

7. Click on Choose file and browse to locate the Export file you saved on your hard drive.

8. Click on Upload file and import.

9.  Select if you want to assign the posts to an existing user on the blog or import the autthor.

10.  Select ‘Download and import the file attachments‘ and then click Submit.

• This will import all pages, posts,  comments, files.
• You will need to manually set up your blog theme and widgets.

Importing from a Blogger blog

1.  Log into your blogger dashboard.

2.  Go to Settings > Export blog

3.  Click on Download blog and save the file on your computer.

4.  Go to Blogger2wordpress converter (blogger2wordpress.appspot.com)

5.  Click on Browse and locate the blogger file you downloaded onto your computer and click Open.

6.  Now click on Convert.

7.  Save the wordpress-wxr.xml on your computer.

8.   Log into your new blog dashboard.

9. Click on Tools > Import.

10. Click on WordPress.

11. Click on Choose file and browse to locate the Export file you saved on your hard drive.

12. Click on Upload file and import.

13.  Select if you want to assign the posts to an existing user on the blog or import the autthor.

14.  Select ‘Download and import the file attachments‘ and then click Submit.

• This will import all pages, posts,  comments, files.
• You will need to manually set up your blog theme and widgets.