Welcome to the fifth step in our free professional learning series on class and student blogging!

The aim of this step is to:

  1. Explain how widgets are used on class blogs.
  2. Introduce you to the commonly used class blog widgets.
  3. Show you how to change widgets and add widgets to your sidebar.


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What are widgets?

The term widget refers to any tool or content that you add, arrange, or remove from the sidebar(s) of your blog — these are the blocks that make up your sidebar.

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How widgets are used on class blogs

Widgets are used for a wide range of purposes including to:


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Widgets and blog design

There are hundreds of different widgets you can add to the sidebar of your blog using embed code in a text widget but when adding any widget you need to think about the design of your blog. Widgets can be noisy, take up a lot of space, and may distract readers.

When adding widgets think about whether it adds to your blog OR does it distract readers from your posts? You need to have a balance between widgets and your blog content; you want people to read your posts!

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How to add widgets

Adding a widget is as simple as follows:

1.  Go to Appearance > Widget.

widgets

2.  Click on the arrow on the desired Sidebar to open up the sidebar (so you can add the widgets).

3.  Drag the widget from the Available Widgets into the desired Sidebar.

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

4.  Drop the widget when you see a dashed line appear –- this indicates the widget is in place.

Add widgets

5.  The widget will automatically open — just configure, click Save, and then Close.

Widget Video tutorial


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How to remove widgets

Removing a widget is as simple as:

1.  Go to Appearance > Widget.

widgets

2.  Click on the small arrow on the right hand side of the widget you want to remove.

3.  Click Delete.

This returns the widget to the Inactive Widget area.


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Overview of Available Widgets

Here’s a summary of the main widgets you’ll find in your dashboard and what they are used for:

Archives Used to organize your previously published posts by month. Handy for readers who want to browse for older content. To save space on your sidebar, change the configuration to ‘Display as a dropdown’
Blog Avatar Used to display your blog avatar (uploaded via Settings > Blog Avatar).
Calendar Displays links to your posts by date on a calendar. Can’t be used as an Events calendar.
ClustrMaps A simple widget for quickly adding a ClustrMaps to your blog sidebar. It’s added when the Widget plugin is activated in Plugins.
Custom Menu Allows you to display pages, categories, and custom links with a single widget. To use, you first need to set up your custom menu in Appearance > Menu.
Email Subscriptions A simple widget for adding email subscription to your blog. When readers sign up, they get an email to let them know when you’ve published a new post.
Links Used to display a list of links in your sidebar. It’s commonly used to share your favorite blogs or websites with your readers.
Meta Simple widget for easy log in and log out of your blog, to access your dashboard and to locate your RSS feed.
Pages Displays a list of your pages in the sidebar. Commonly used for themes that don’t have page links in the top navigation.
Recent Comments Displays the most recent comments left on your blog by readers.
Recent Posts Displays the most recent posts you have published. This makes it easier for readers to see what’s new on your blog.
Search Adds a search box to your sidebar that makes it easier for readers to search the contents of your blog.
 Tag cloud Displays a cloud of the tags that you’ve assigned to posts. It helps your readers quickly see what topics you write about.
 Text Allows you to add text or embed code to your sidebar. This is a very useful widget because you can use it to add content from other sources to your sidebar using their embed code (Note: only available on Pro or CampusPress blogs).

Some widgets are also added to your widget area when you activate plugins.


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Add widgets using embed code in text widgets

The handiest widget you’ll find in your dashboard is the text widget.

You can add any other widgets you find on the internet by pasting their embed code into a text widget in your sidebar.

This is how you add widgets from Voki, Flag Counter, Google Calendar and so on!

We’ve added links to popular widgets in our Pinterest cool widgets board.  Clicking on a widget takes you to the website where you can grab the embed code.

Adding a widget from another website is as simple as: 1, 2, 3….

1.  When on the widget website, copy the embed code for the widget you want to add. Highlight the code with your mouse or press Control A (Command A) to select all.

Then copy by right clicking on your mouse and selecting copy. Or, press Control C (Command C). 

Copy embed code

2.  Go to Appearance > Widgets.

widgets

3.  Drag a text widget into your sidebar.Add Text Widget

4.  Click on the text tab in a text widget in your sidebar.

Click on Text Tab

5.  Paste the embed code into the text widget.

Right click on your mouse and select Paste. Or press Control V (Command V).

Flag counter embed code

5.  Click Save and Close.

6.  You should now see the widget in your sidebar.


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Commonly used visitor tracking widgets

Visitor tracking widgets are popular on class blogs because:

  • Knowing you’re writing for a global audience is incredibly motivating for students.
  • Realizing people from other countries are reading what’s been written increases students’ interest and excitement. This can motive students to blog.
  • It also provides built-in geography lessons — many students constantly check for new visitors and enjoy finding out more about the countries where their visitors are from.

Class blogs often use more than one visitor tracking widget as each widget provides different information about visitors to the blog.

Tracking widgets

Here’s a quick overview of the most commonly used visitor tracking widgets on class blogs:

ClustrMaps ClustrMaps is a thumbnail hit counter map widget that shows the geographical location of all visitors to your blog. Number of visitors from a location is indicated by the relative size of the dot.
 Flag Counter Flag Counter widget shows the total number of visitors from each country next to the country’s flag. Every time someone from a new country visits your site, a new flag will be added to your counter. Clicking on the flag counter takes you to your Flag counter page which provides more detailed charts and information about your visitors.
Revolver Map Revolver Map displays all visitor locations and recent hits live and in realtime on a revolving globe of the Earth. A click on the widget opens the live statistics page.

Read more about how to add these widgets to your sidebar.


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Link widgets on class blogs

Links widgets are commonly used on a class blog to provide links to other class blogs, student blogs, and resources— they are designed to help you, your students, and other readers.

Traditionally, the most common type of link widget you’ll hear mentioned is a blogroll. Bloggers commonly use blogrolls to list their favorite blogs. Blogrolls help readers locate other blogs worth reading — you are saying, “These are some blogs I like which are worth checking out!”

Blogrolls on class blogs are used often used to provide links to student blogs, other class blogs they interact with, or resources.

Please note:

  • If you are using the My Class tool, you add links to your student blogs by adding the Class Blogs widget to your sidebar. You don’t have to add each student blog individually.
  • You can read about managing student blogs using My Class here!

Here is how you create links to websites or blogs:

1.  Go to Links > Add New.

Add New

2.  Add the name of the website or blog to the Name Module.

3.  Add the URL to the Web Address module.

Best option is to copy/paste the URL from the address bar of your web browser as you are less likely to make a mistake. 

4.  Select Blogroll in the Category Module or create a new Category then click Add Link.

You use different categories if you organize your links in different locations in your sidebars.  

Once you’ve created the links, you add them to your sidebar by adding the Links widget (via Appearance > Widgets).

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Commonly Asked Widget Questions

Here are some answers to questions the Edublogs support team are frequently asked about.

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1.  I’m trying to remove a widget and I can’t find it listed in my sidebar in Appearance > Widgets. How do I remove it?

The most common reason why you may have trouble removing a widget, or see two of the same widget on a blog, is some themes hard code widgets into their sidebar. Hard coded widgets can’t be removed.

NotePad Chaos is an example of a theme with hard coded widgets. Pages, Categories, Links and a What is this Place are all coded into the theme.


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2.  Why don’t the categories I set up in Posts > Category display in my Category widget?

Categories and tags on posts are used to help readers locate information in different ways. When your readers click on a categories link on a post or in your sidebar, it loads a page with all posts that use that category.

Categories won’t display in your category widget until the category has been assigned to a published post.


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3.  Why are some tags in my tag cloud widget larger than others?

When your readers click on a tag link on a post or in your sidebar it loads a page with all posts that use that tag.

The larger the size of the word in the tag cloud, the more published posts that have been tagged using that term.

The Tag Cloud widget displays a list of your top 45 tags that you’ve assigned to published posts.

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4. Why doesn’t my Calendar widget show the correct date?

The calendar widget creates a calendar in your sidebar with clickable links to your blog posts for particular dates. Dates that appear in bold type indicate dates you’ve posted.

It doesn’t let you set up a calendar of events. It’s only used is to display links to your posts by date.

If you want an Events calendar we recommend you add a Google Calendar to your sidebar or embed it into a page.

Alternatively, if you want to add a simple calendar use this Monthly Calendar.

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Your Task

We’d like you to add your voice and ideas to our ongoing conversation about student blogging by completing the following:

  1. Try adding some of the widgets to your class blog. Leave a comment to tell us which of the widgets you added to your class blog and why.
  2. Read through the most recent comments in reply to this step and leave a response to another person’s comment.

412 thoughts on “Step 5: Adding Widgets

  1. I guess I got widget crazy! I’ve just added a human calendar, online radio, Dogonews, Wonderopolis and the search for famous people. My blog looks much better now!

    1. Hi Maria

      You have a great selection of widgets! The widgets you’ve added work really well with the theme you are using! Well done!

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  2. Well, I’m having too much fun with the teacher blogging challenge. I have also gone a little widget crazy LOL! It is definitely easy to want TOO many widgets on your blog. I have added the Wonderopolis Widget, the DOGObook reviews widget and a tracking widget for now. The Wonderopolis is going to be used to help us “WONDER” and develop our questions for any inquiries we might have. The DOGObook reviews is to help the students find books that they might be interested in reading. Another widget I added was the Sweet Search engine. Last year I stumbled across this search engine and found that it really helped my students to do better research.

    If I can add, Instagrok is another great search engine. Is there a widget for that as well?

    Thanks again for this challenge. It is really helping me get my blog in a better state!

    1. Hi Mrs Gorley

      Great widget choice. Thanks for telling us which widgets you use and why!

      I’ve found some embed code for a Instagrok search widget and have added it to your sidebar. Hope that was okay?

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  3. I’ve added 3 more widgets to my blog (Pop a Joke, Wonderopolis, and the weather of our location) frustrated though because they don’t look right or seem exactly correct. Pop a Joke now sound no next joke, Wonderopolis and weather not aesthetically pleasing w/in the space on sidebar. I know I’m not doing something right but not sure what. I used the cut/paste method via Appearances, add a widget, text.

    1. Hi kdruckmiller

      Sometimes you need to adjust the size of the widgets to display better in the sidebar.

      Would you like me to see if I can make these widgets look better in your sidebar?

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

    2. Hi kdruckmiller! I too had added the Pop a Joke widget to my blog, but found that the only jokes that were appearing were undefined. Are you having that same problem? I have had the same problem with regards to the size of widgets in the past and sometimes I have found that changing my theme helped. Now, I’m pretty happy with my theme right now so maybe play around with the size of the widget as Sue Waters suggests. Good luck and happy blogging.

    3. The weather widget does not look right on mine either. I tried to find some size dimensions in the code so I could adjust it but couldn’t. On the site is says that the widget adjusts to the available size or something like that. It is a shame because it like that this one has the local time and weather where the other weather widget did not. I hope we can get it sorted.

  4. I used a flag counter widget. I also love some of the premium widgets like the Dogonews book reviews. I have a voki one also. Do Glogster poster work on other peoples blogs? I couldn’t get mine to show up

    1. Hi maistirscoile

      We have one teacher who uses the Dogonews plugin in posts for commenting prompts. Let me know if you would like a link to one of his posts so you can see how it is used.

      I haven’t been able to find any Glogster code lately to test which is why I removed the one I had embedded from the Cool Tools to embed. If you can send me the embed code saved in a .txt file I will test it to confirm if it works.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  5. The widgets I ended up adding for my classblog were:

    Recent Posts
    Class Blogs – so they can connect with each other easily.
    Twitter – i put Extra Credit on there, along with other important things
    Subscribe – for those parents
    World Visitors & Translate – i want to use Skype in my classroom and this might be a good connection.

  6. Question: I’d like to get students creating a Wiki that would become a class set of notes, definitions, concepts. How can I create a Wiki page that has multiple subject areas and topics that are listed as a nested menu, with Parents and all. Whenever I try, It lists ALL wikis regardless of which is parent…

    1. Hi “Butterclass”

      That’s a great idea, and fantastic use of the wiki plugin!

      The wiki plugin is designed to automatically show all the sub-wikis on the parent page. The wiki widget shows all the wikis, irrespective of the wiki page that it is open on.

      The trick with wiki’s, is to create one or more top-level wiki pages (usually with no content on them), and then create sub-wiki pages with content.

      For navigation you need to be creative in order to achieve what you are trying to achieve:
      1) Use one or more top-level wiki pages
      2) Create a page and physically insert nested links on that page
      3) Create a custom menu and place it in the sidebar on every page, and or use the JetPack plugin to show that menu on some pages and not others.

      You can look at the following blog and how they use wiki’s – http://sageography.myschoolstuff.co.za/

      Eugene Brown, Edublogs Support

  7. HI I have finally found some time to continue with the course!
    I have added a search widget,, calendar and the text widget. KI would like to use this to include others such as youtube playlist or pinterest and links to other blogs as I would like to be able to share this content with my students.
    This is my blog:
    http://bdebarbara.edublogs.org

  8. I have added a few widgets, and I feel like it makes my site more productive rather than static. I think it will help the students see blogging as more collaborative and social rather than some writing assignment. I added a google calendar for assignments, shelfari, and a badge from a teaching resource site.
    http://mrskoudelka.edublogs.org/

    1. Hi Mrs Koudelka

      Thanks for sharing a link to your class blog so we could check out your new widgets. Your new widgets look really good. Are you going to get your students to do an activity on adding widgets? Would love to know which widgets they like.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  9. I added a few widgets and I already feel like it helps make my site more productive and less static. I think this will help the kids see this as a collaborative and social place to go rather than just a writing assignment.
    I added: a badge from a teaching website, shelfari, and a Google Calendar for assignments.
    http://mrskoudelka.edublogs.org/

  10. I have enjoyed using widgets on my blog! Thanks for the demo page, I added one of the cute animal widgets from bunnyhero labs. My students absolutely loved those, as well as, the voki avatars. You can check out the widgets I have on my class blog at http://lynnquigley.edublogs.org.

    1. Hi Mrs Q

      The Virtual Pets and Vokis are very popular on both class and student blogs. Love your widget choice on your class blog.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  11. I like widigets too! I’ve added Recent Posts, a tag cloud, and a list of links. I love the Human Calendar and tried to add it, but it won’t show up. The widiget bar that says “Human Calendar” is there, but then nothing below it. Ideas?

    Thanks!

    1. Hi Dr Lue

      Thanks for sharing which widgets you’ve added to your blog.

      Most embed code won’t work on a free Edublogs as we can’t allow it due to misuse by spam blog creators (people who create blogs to promote products and websites). Pro blogs and student blogs attached to a Pro blog via My Class can use embed code (or any one using a blog on one of our CampusPress networks). This is why your Human Calendar isn’t working.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  12. A little behind on the steps but just added the US Day calendar (careful that you pick the correct country) and the flag counter. I will add as I go and discuss with students as they will help me decide which widgets we should use.

    1. Hi Ms Adamson

      The US Day Calendar looks really good! I’ve visited your blog and you should now see a flag on your map for my country.

      Great idea to get the students to help you decide which widgets to add. Please let us know their favorites once you’ve added more widgets.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

    1. Hi Jodie

      I’ve sent an email to ask for your blog URL. We need to check your class blog to explain how to add the class blog widget.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  13. Just added Google Calendar, Sun Smart and the ClustrMaps widgets. I had experimented with using google calendar in my sidebar last year, however was trying to use it with the month display, the agenda feature certainly does the job a lot better!
    Not sure if I’m going to keep ClustrMaps, waiting to see once it all starts updating, just not too fond of the style at the moment.

    The Widgets demo blog certainly is a useful way to see all these different widgets in action.
    Here’s my blog with the recently added widgets- http://103classblog.global2.vic.edu.au/

    1. Your blog is looking good. Thanks for commenting. I have to agree that the styling of ClustrMaps doesn’t suit every situation, but it is certainly an interesting tool for watching how your audience is distributed. 🙂 Keep up the good work.

  14. The demo was very informative – in fact, so much information that it took a while to look at all the options.
    Since I already use Google Classroom for my class LMS, some of the widgets that I liked would be redundant on my classroom blog so I decided to keep it simple.
    Events calendar — to keep students organized (even though dates are already on Google Classroom)
    Twitter feed link as our principal and many teachers in our building are on Twitter
    Links to websites — helpful for science resources

  15. I have added a Feejit Live Traffic Feed to my blog. I also added links to other class blogs and Information Literacy blogs within our school. You can see the widgets and links I have added here: http://ops5infolit.global2.vic.edu.au/
    I am based in our school library, so I will most likely add a bookshelf such as ‘Shelfari’ soon. I am looking forward to adding more relevant widgets and links in the future!d Thanks 🙂

    1. Widgets are always fun and add “character” to your blog. The bookshelf is a perfect option for a library blog. Let us know if you find any others you end up really liking.

  16. Love widgets!
    Have added a tag cloud, and a revolver globe to our class blog.
    I love the cumulus tag cloud, and use this in class to play games that focus on the spelling word list. I just add each list of words as a list of tags to play the game. Fun!

  17. I really like the widgets but do not find it very user friendly. I added the links widget and have yet to get it working. I chose the calendar because it will be a great way for students to keep up with assignments that are due. I want the links to provide the students with some of the best science websites.

    1. Hi. I see you have two blogs and was wondering which one you are having trouble getting the widgets working on. I saw one of the sites has several widgets, so I wasn’t sure where you were having issues. I have sent you an email in case you want some help getting the widgets set up.

  18. I can’t remember if I already responded to this widget task..

    I added a clustemap so my students could see where on the globe people are visiting from. I also added a class pet – my dog who sometimes comes to school with me. I should my students how to do this also on their blogs. I already had some links to some You Tube videos but added a link to Edmodo which our school uses.

    I also started to follow edublogs on pinterest:)

  19. Hi Everyone,

    I have set up a few separate widget accounts with twitter, clustrmaps and flag counter but I am still having trouble adding them onto my blog. Can anyone advise. I have an error message with clustrmaps and I can’t seem to find how I add voki at all. Thanks. Here’s a link to my blog so far.

    Thanks
    http://missbryceland.edublogs.org/

    1. Hii Miss Bryceland

      Sorry you had trouble with this. Most embed code won’t work on a free Edublogs as we can’t allow it due to misuse by spam blog creators (people who create blogs to promote products and websites). This is why your Twitter, ClustrMaps and Voki aren’t working.

      We’ve had to restrict the ability to add embed code to Edublogs Pro blogs and student blogs attached to a Pro blog via My Class (or any one using a blog on one of our CampusPress networks).

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  20. I really like having widgets on my blog and they are a great way for the students to get extra information too. I always put a cluster map on so that the students see that the blog is getting visitors from lots of different places and this really highlights how careful they have to be when posting online. I am also using the dogo news feed this time and will see how that goes. I also use a tag cloud which, as we get more posts, will make for quicker searching of the blog. I have enjoyed playing around with some of the new widgets which have come on since I set up my professional blog

    1. Hi Mrs Sandora

      Your widgets look good. I’ve now fixed the problem with your Teacher Challenge badge and it is displaying properly. It was an issue with the code.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  21. I added a couple of widgets to my sidebar–and removed a couple I wasn’t using. I added a calendar and a Google search box. I noticed some of the questions my students were asking on other students posts (I teach multiple classes) and it occurred to me the students may need to do further research to answer some of the questions, so the Google search box on the blog would be handy for that purpose.

  22. Yay! Widgets!

    I’m already using the Calendar blog to keep my students organized, but I found some more great ones on the widget blog:

    1. Local Date and Time – Always good to give kids reminders of time limits.
    2. Translate Our Blog – This is a godsend for ELL!
    3. Books We Like – I love books and love inspiring my students to love them!

  23. I have added the calendar which is useful, but I am looking for more of an event calendar where I can post due dates and school events. But I would rather not use the google calendar option. Does anyone have any suggestions?
    Thanks
    Lisa

    1. Hi Lisa

      Google Calendar is the only option I’ve seen used on Edublogs. We do have a calendar plugin that is an events calendar but it is CampusPress only.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  24. This was a fun session. I enjoyed customizing my site. I added a tiger virtual pet because that is our school mascot. I added a Shelfari widget to show the books that I’m reading to the kids in class. I also added the widget that shows the flags of the counties of people that have visited the blog. Here is the link to my blog : http://swiseman.edublogs.org/

    I also added links to sites that we are using in class. I like the mouse over feature that explains what the link is for.

    I do have a question. If you are not part of My Campus and don’t have access to My Class, what is the best way to set up student blogs so that you as the teacher has some control over the postings and the comments?

    1. Hi Swiseman

      Sorry and it looks like I missed your question about My Class when I was replying to your other responses on widgets 🙁

      Any Edublogs Pro blog automatically has My Class available and this is the best easiest to set up student blogs so you can moderate all posts and comments. It is covered in Step 11 – http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/step-11-set-up-student-blogs/

      The alternative option, if you were using a free blog. is the teacher would need to get each student to add them as an admin user to the student blog using Users > Add New and then need to change the student’s role to contributor.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  25. Hi everyone!

    I found some widgets in the demo blog really useful, such as the class calendar, the links and the posts calendar. I’ve added some of these in my blog: http://danibarra.edublogs.org/

    What I haven’t been able to grasp is how to get the embed code. Can you help me with that?

    See you in step 6!

  26. Widgets are fun!! They were also very easy to use. The video introduced many but I decided on the following. I kept the typical ones like recent posts and archives. But specifically I added a text on sidebar 2 and typed our mission statement for the school. This is very important to us and students and faculty must recite it each morning. In addition, I added the calendar and links. I like the calendar feature and will be incorporating important dates soon. I really like the way the blog is evolving and am happy with the results.

    1. Hi swatkins

      Thanks for sharing which widgets you added and why. Well done using a text widget to add some information about your school to the sidebar!

      The calendar widget you’ve added is designed to display the dates posts are published. For an events calendar you would need to use a Google Calendar – http://help.edublogs.org/adding-a-calendar-to-your-sidebar/

      It is worth removing the Meta widget. The main purpose of the meta widget is to provide a link to your dashboard but it isn’t really necessary with the links in the admin bar at the top of the blog.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

      1. I deleted the meta widget. I guess I was thinking that was something that needed to stay. Glad I was able to delete it thought, because I like the new fresh look. I kept the calendar on the page for viewing purposes and will consider changing it in the future.

        1. It’s definitely nice to be able to customize the sidebars and control what you see there. Many themes have default widgets in those sidebars and those will disappear as soon as you add widgets of your own.

  27. I added and renamed the Links widget to Helpful Links, and added my students’ favorite free time website to it. I also put in a Categories widget to sort my posts by category. This is such a useful widget! I’m super happy to have figured this one out.

    Then for fun I added the ClustrMaps widget, even though I haven’t distributed my blog link to parents yet. Down the road I hope that one will be all lit up! 😉

    Here is my blog link if you’d like to take a look: http://julie7760.edublogs.org/

    1. Hi Julie

      Thanks for sharing which widgets you’ve added to your blog! The category widget is very handy and often an overlooked widget. Really helpful for finding content on a blog.

      The ClustrMaps widget is very popular. Lets see if the students can work out which is my dot on the ClustrMaps.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  28. On the widget demo blog I saw a lot of widgets that I really liked. Some of my favorites included the events calendar, the good reads widget, and the links to the helpful websites. For my blog, I added the good reads widget and links to my tangischools home page. I also added links to starfall (one of my favorite free websites for reading) and to abcya.com which is a great website for both reading and math. Here is a note about good reads. I found this to be a very difficult widget to get because even after reading the instructions and following the links, it took me a long time to get it correctly on the page. If you want to add a widget from good reads you have to first sign up for good reads. Then click on your profile picture –click edit profile–click the widgets tab–then copy the text it tells you to copy (I used the first widget they offered). After you add the widget, you will notice that it is showing a whole bunch of unwanted text lines above the books you actually want to display. To get rid of this text, just go back into your widgets and delete out only the unwanted text that is displaying on your blog. Do not delete any other text or it could potentially mess up your widget and you will have to start over. I honestly had to use a trial and error method to figure this out but I’m very happy with the results and now my widget finally looks correct on the screen! The link to my page is
    http://mholley.edublogs.org/

    1. Hi Mrs S

      Thanks for sharing a link to your class blog and your widgets look really good!

      There was a problem with the embed code you had added for Brain Pop. I’ve replaced the code but it still isn’t displaying. Leave the widget for a few days to see if it starts working. If it doesn’t I would remove it.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  29. I added widgets to my blog but need to know how to get a website or if a student did a power point on Microsoft -how to add that to our blog. Can you help me?

    1. Hi Room 402

      Students can upload a PowerPoint to a post as per these instructions – http://help.edublogs.org/inserting-documents-pdf-and-powerpoints-into-your-posts/ If you want the PowerPoint added within an embedded player you need to upload it to a website like SlideShare or Google Drive and then embed it using embed code. We cover using Embed code in Step 8.

      Do you mean links to another website or something else?

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

    1. I see there are a couple widgets on your current blog. There are a lot of really cool ones to play with. If you like customizing and personalizing try playing with some of the other widgets and fill up those sidebars. 🙂

  30. I love widgets! I use them a lot in my wiki, so it was easy to use them here. Widgets are an awesome way to add valuable content to your site within a limited space. I want to add the bookshelf soon, but for now I settled for the calendar that was provided. I love how it integrated with my theme – looks great!

    https://hwmwhirlwind.edublogs.org/

  31. The Widget Demo Blog provides excellent samples of widgets that would be very helpful and fun for students and parents to use. I decided to add a few that I thought would be helpful for our visitors. The Google Translate widget would be great for some of our families who would prefer to read in their native languages. I added a Search widget to help visitors search for specific topics. For fun I added a Tag Cloud, which also can be used for readers to search the contents of the blog.
    I added a Print widget, which prints a page minus the widgets and videos I have on the pages and posts. For fun I added a ClustrMaps to show our bloggers/and readers who has visited our site. I added Shelfari bookshelf widget to showcase our Battle of the Books being read this year. The widget provides a picture of the book. You can click on the book and get a summary and book reviews. You can even add your own book review if you want. Since my blog is a school newspaper, I thought it would be very important to include an Archives widget. This widget is used to organize posts by month. For fun I added an Image widget. I added a picture of my puppy. I use her for examples throughout the blog.

    Here is the link to my blog: https://sjaslmc.edublogs.org. It includes widgets from other websites that I copy and pasted the embedded code and others that I added by just going to “Appearance”, “Widget” and simply dragging them from the Available Widgets.

    Although I used eight widgets, I don’t’ think it distracts the reader from reading the blogs. I think it enhanced the pages.

  32. Hello!

    Congratulations for the Widget demo blog, is very easy to understand about widgets.

    On my blogue I use:
    – The calendar – because the information on the blog is connected with dates
    – Search – because anyone can visit the blog and search only about one theme, is faster access to this information
    – Recent post – because we can access to the activities that are taking place
    – Archive – Because the posts are organized temporally, easy to access
    – Links – because anyone can access to the link conected with Espaço Crescer, organizer hobbies, were can view more information

    The to my blogue is http://espacocrescer.edublogs.org/.

    1. Hi year6wilderness

      The Weather widget and ClustrMaps widget are looking good. Pet widgets are very popular. Keep up the great work!

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  33. I like the weather widget and the globe. Im going to put them both on my blog. I know my class will love to have pet widget. That’s next!

  34. I tried adding the Twitter feed, but that is not compatible with the Edublog system my Community College is using. I also tried the visitor globe and the weather forecast, which look cool, but on our system neither shows on our web page but rather is a link to a new page. The widgets I’ve gone with are “recent posts” “archives” “topics” and links to Twitter and YouTube. Widgets are cool!
    See them at
    http://profrogers.edublogs.org/

  35. Room 5 Brandon would use the twitter widget so we can see our twitter feed at the same time as we are on our blog.

  36. I removed a few widgets that were defaults and then I added a Goodreads widget to reflect my current reading. I’m interested to come back in a few weeks, when my currently-reading shelf will look different in Goodreads, to see if it updates automatically. If I read the code correctly, it won’t. Any ideas? I copied and pasted the widget code from my Goodreads account…

    https://msnav.edublogs.org/

    1. Hi Mrs. Navratil

      Most embed code won’t work on a free Edublogs as we can’t allow it due to misuse by spam blog creators (people who create blogs to promote products and websites). Pro blogs and student blogs attached to a Pro blog via My Class can use embed code (or any one using a blog on one of our CampusPress networks). It looks like the Goodread embed code is working.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  37. There are a lot of useful widgets…I added a couple to trial but the avatar one is blank so will need to fix that one!
    Live feed is great! Websites will be good to share for the school community but I probably have too many good links so that space will disappear?
    I can see again where the theme is important when you want to add links etc in the columns…I think I’ll be changing again but I like the art in my chosen one?
    Cheers melanie

    1. Hi Melanie

      There are two options for adding links to websites. You can use the links widget in the sidebar of your blog or add a resource page to your blog and add the links to the resource page. Your current theme works well with the widgets you currently have.

      The blog avatar widget relies on the avatar uploaded in Settings > Blog Avatar. Upload the blog avatar should fix the issue.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  38. Hi all,
    The widgets from the demo blog that I would use on my Class blog include:
    • Events Calendar to keep assignment or project deadlines organized.
    • Wonderopolis to provide English language learner opportunities to practice their reading and listening skills students while learning more about general knowledge.

    I added widgets that would be useful to my English language learners including a dictionary, Google search for project research, Google Maps to practicing directions, and a voice recorder to obtain student speaking samples. The following is the link to my blog: http://wjsheban.edublogs.org/

    I also added a link to pronunciation resources and intend to eventually add a blogroll.

    Thanks for reading,
    William

    1. Great ideas for links needed specifically for your English learners! Thanks for the ideas – I can’t wait to share them with my colleagues.

    2. Hi William

      Thanks for telling us with widgets you liked and which ones you’ve added to your blog.

      The widgets look really good. The only issue I can see is with the Vocaroo voice recorder. It is a bit wide for your sidebar. Did they provide an option to customize the width of the widget? Your theme needs widgets of a maximum width of 200 pixels wide. Please let us know if they don’t provide an option to reduce the width of the widget as we may be able to make it a bit smaller for you.

      Sue Waters
      Support Manager
      Edublogs | CampusPress

  39. Trying to add a Twitter widget to direct traffic there– I am getting a hyperlink and then some script gobbledygook. Any ideas of how to fix that? Cutting and pasting the code is not working…

    1. Here is the code:
      Tweets by @MrsSimonsSays
      !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+”://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,”script”,”twitter-wjs”);
      When I hit save, and disappear– is that the problem, and how do I fix that?

      1. Tweets by @MrsSimonsSays
        !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?’http’:’https’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+”://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,”script”,”twitter-wjs”);

        1. Ha– I can’t get it to show what I mean…
          before !function is () [without parentheses]; after “twitter-wjs”); is ()

          1. Oh, goodness, I am really feeling like an idiot. Hope someone can come to my rescue here!

      2. That happened to me also. Edublog says the free websites don’t support the Twitter feed, so that was the issue in my case. Is your school also using the free system perhaps?

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