Category: blog

If you’ve logged into the dashboard of your blog in the last few days, then you probably have already noticed – but we just rolled out many exciting new features!

Plus, we’re just 11,000 10,000 blogs short of the 1 million we need to keep all blogs advertisement free forever!

It’s just too much to share all in one post, but here is a quick overview of some of what is new:

1. A new dashboard look

This will be the first thing you notice if you haven’t already. Everything is still in a familiar location, but the look and feel is a bit more polished.

As you explore the made over dashboard, you will find several improvements such as better search for themes, easier ways to sort posts and pages, and other little tools built in that should make blogging a bit easier.

2. The Admin Bar

Across the top of your blog you will find a new Admin Bar which will help you navigate around your blog and our site.

You can turn off this bar under Settings > Admin Bar in your dashboard if you would prefer – but we find it handy to quickly add a new post, login, or go back and forth between the site and dashboard.

3. Wikis

You will find a new Wiki plugin which lets you add pages to your blog which are fully functional wikis!

Settings allow you to choose between letting all visitors, only registered users, or a select few to edit the wiki. Changes are tracked and discussion is encouraged. This one we know many of you will love!

Read more about wikis on our help and support site here.

4. Custom Menus

Under Appearance > Menus you will find a brand new area for customizing the order and layout of your menus.

The drag-and-drop menu creation allows you to add links to any site on the web, specific categories, and more.

Adding custom menus is easy, and detailed directions on how are here.

5. Easy Blogging

Our Easy Blogging dashboard got a complete face lift too! This feature was designed so that more inexperienced bloggers can get their feet wet by removing a lot of the less used options. Plus, we just think it looks cool :)

You can go back and forth between the Easy Admin and the normal dashboard areas anytime.

6. Blog and User Creator

We greatly simplified the process of creating new users and blogs by rolling everything into this one new and improved creation tool.

Pro users will now be able to more easily create additional blogs, student blogs or accounts, and set it up so that you can manage them all right from the get-go.

7. Google Maps

There is also a new Google Maps plugin which makes it easy to add maps to your blog – including satellite and street views!

Best of all, it is easy to use, but you can find more details of how to use it here.

There’s more!

There is actually quite a bit more – including the ability to hide parts of a post until a selected time, improved form making, and updates to many themes. We will be sharing those in more detail in the coming weeks.

In the mean time, play around and let us know what you think! 

As always, feel free to contact us should you need any help with any of these new features.

Enjoy!

This is a quick shout out to all of our users and Edublogs friends that are attending the ISTE conference in Philadelphia next week…

We’ll be there and would love to meet as many of you as possible!

The Edublogs ISTE Meet-up on Sunday

We managed to get a group reserved for a tour of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell starting at 2:15 on Sunday the 26th.

The first 10 that send me a tweet (@ronnieburt) or an email (ronnie@edublogs.org) are in!

There is no cost – we’ll have fun and see a bit of American history in the process :)

Want a FREE Edublogs t-shirt?

We’ll be bringing some along!

Instead of just passing them out to random people at ISTE, we’d love to make sure our users get one.

Similarly, send a tweet to @ronnieburt or @edublogs, or send an email to ronnie@edublogs.org with your size and I’ll have one for you in the Blogger’s Cafe on Monday at the conference.

More ISTE tips comming soon

Make sure to check out TheEdublogger.com tomorrow for a detailed guide to ISTE with our recommended sessions, do’s and don’ts, and a calendar of where to be over the exciting week.

Hope to see you in Philly soon!

Did you know that Edublogs hosts free weekly webinars about varying topics in the fields of education, technology, and blogging?

Thanks to a community partnership with Blackboard Collaborate (Formerly Elluminate) which was recently extended, we are able to invite you to attend a live and engaging experience that brings educators together from around the globe.

In fact, there is one coming up in just a few hours from this post being published!

Join the extraordinary Jo Hart as she leads the always informative discussions.

No registration or RSVP needed, just click on this link here to attend.

We’re always looking for webinar topics and ideas – so leave a comment and let us know if you have anything you would like to share or know more about!

For those that would like to learn more about Blackboard Collaborate, this upcoming live event in Las Vegas, Nevada sounds exciting!

We’re also happy to discuss holding professional development opportunities about blogging via our Blackboard Collaborate room. Shoot us an email at support@edublogs.org if you are interested in setting something up for your district or school.

Hope to see you in a webinar soon!

In case you missed it, Larry Ferlazzo published an interview with Edublogs’ founder and CEO, James Farmer, today.

It’s an interesting read – especially with the discussion about how Edublogs was started more than 6 years ago and includes a link to the very first home page of our site.

Man have we come a long way!

You’ll also find a sneak peek at some of the new and exciting features coming soon to a blog near you.

So be sure to checkout the entire interview found here!