Using NUS Module Blogs : Using Community Server

Blogging using a desktop blogging client

Kenneth Gerard PINTO — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 08:33:00 GMT

If you do not want to use the online interface to blog, you might want to consider blogging using a desktop blogging client or desktop blogging software.

Why would you want to do this? Using a desktop client offers several advantages:

If you manage multiple blogs on different platforms, a desktop client allows you to manage everything from a single place.
Posting to blogs from a desktop client is generally faster.
Cross-posting content to several blogs is easier.
You won't lose a draft in progress due to an accidentally closed window/tab or sudden loss of connection.
You can save offline drafts and publish whenever you have internet access.
Some clients allow post backups.

The catch? A lot of the better desktop blogging clients are not free. Still, there are edubloggers like Siva who cannot live without it!

A few desktop blogging clients
Ecto Mac/Win
MarsEdit Mac
Qumana Mac/Win (Free)
w.bloggar Win (Free)

Using the Ecology and Environmental Processes module blog as an example, I've illustrated the settings which will work for MarsEdit. Replace the Name, Home URL and Blog ID to match your module blog, if you want to try this out. As preferences in desktop blogging clients are described differently, you'll have to use a variation of the settings below for the other software listed above.

Settings (MarsEdit)
Name Ecology and Environmental Processes
Home URL http://moduleblog.nus.edu.sg/blogs/lsm3251/default.aspx
Software Other Metaweblog-compatible
RPC URL http://moduleblog.nus.edu.sg/blogs/metablog.ashx
Blog ID lsm3251

Embedding Google Videos in blog posts

Kenneth Gerard PINTO — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 04:15:00 GMT

Recently, there have been links to Google Videos in blog posts on Happiness and Dictionaries.

Instead of linking to the videos, you can embed them directly in your blog posts. However, Google Videos does not make this feature very obvious. Here's how you can embed videos in your blog posts.

Navigate to the video you want to embed.
From the video page, click .
Then click the Embed HTML link. Copy the code (click in the text field, Ctrl-A, then Ctrl-C).

In the Write a Blog Post or Edit Post page, make sure you are in the HTML edit mode (bottom right of the text field). Then paste (Ctrl-V) the code you copied.

Publish it, and you should be able to see the video embedded in your post.

It's always a good idea to provide the direct link to the video in the post as the embed might not turn up in feed readers.

You can also embed YouTube videos in your presentations.

Create a Module Blog

Kenneth Gerard PINTO — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 02:20:00 GMT

IVLE 8 includes some changes to the interface. The Module Blog creation process has changed, so here are the latest instructions for creating a Module Blog.

1. Log in to IVLE.

~~2. Click Resources on the left-hand sidebar.~~

~~3. Click , next to Module Blogs.~~

2. Click Module Blogs under Services.

3. Click Create Module Blog.

4. Select the relevant Module Code from the drop-down list, then click Apply.
(The Module Codes will only appear if you are a module administrator in IVLE.)

Notes:

Your Module Blog URL will appear in the module information page. It will be in this format:
http://moduleblog.nus.edu.sg/blogs/yourmodulecode/default.aspx
Please bookmark the URL for direct access to the blog. You need not go through IVLE to access it.
After you have created your Module Blog, check out the FAQ for more information about how to use the blog. You can also read tips about using the module blogs.

Interpreting your views

Kenneth Gerard PINTO — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 02:19:00 GMT

Yesterday, I published the statistics for March . If you don't want to wait for a monthly update, you can monitor the popularity of individual posts in the Control Panel. From the Control Panel, go to Manage Content . Click All Posts . As you can see,...(read more)

Creating a static page

Kenneth Gerard PINTO — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 07:54:00 GMT

In a previous post (see point 4) , I mentioned that it is possible to create static pages in these blogs If you use the module blog as a website, you might have some information which will remain relatively stable over the course of the semester. This...(read more)