In the admin area of the blog, you can set up your classes, and your adult login details.
Getting Started
- To get started, click the blue ‘Admin Area’ button on the blog home screen, you will then see the below screen appear.
Setting up Adults
- We always recommend first setting up your adults. This can be done by clicking the fourth tab at the top, ‘Manage Adults’. You will then see the below appear.
- You will see a list of any existing users and can reset their passwords, edit their blog permissions or delete them, should they no longer require access. Click the blue ‘Add New Adult’ button to add a new user. You will then be able to enter their details and assign them their blogging permissions.
- People with school admin permission will be able to create, delete and edit adults, whereas those with teacher permission will not. Anyone who requires full admin rights to the blog will need to be set up as a school admin.
- An adult’s username will automatically be generated as you type their first and last name into the free text fields.
- When adding an adult, you will need to select the ‘assign this class’ link next to the class dropdown before the adult is assigned. Please do remember though, that assigning an adult to a class is optional rather than mandatory.
- When adding an adult, you will need to select the ‘assign this class’ link next to the class dropdown before the adult is assigned. Please do remember though, that assigning an adult to a class is optional rather than mandatory.
- You will also need to remember at this point that all adult posts are auto-approved on the blog and that their posts are public.
- Any adult post that is created, and should the adult be assigned to a class, that post from the adult will automatically populate the class page.
- Please note there is a minimum (3) character requirement for the first name field when adding a new user.
- A password must be set up for new users before they can log in. They are created by clicking the Reset Password link on the Manage Adults table. Please note for any of you users that have been migrated from the old blogging system you will retain your old password.
- The requirements for password resets are; a minimum of 8 characters, at least one of which must be a lower-case character and at least one that is an upper-case character.
- Please note if a person’s name is only two letters, this will not be recognised on the system and you will see an error message line. We would recommend, trying to populate the two-letter name with a hyphen or adding a space between the middle of the name. This will show the username on the blog homepage as having that space when displayed.
- Should a username already be taken and used within the system, this will automatically generate the same name but with a number to follow at the end of the name. The example below shows this username name as the number ‘2’ after it.
- Once you are happy that all the details are correct, click the blue ‘Add New Adult’ button in the bottom left.
Managing Classes
- Next, we would recommend, adding your classes to the blogging platform. To do this, you will need to select the second tab titled ‘Manage Classes’.
- If you can see the red padlock within class settings, it is locked and, no children can add any new posts to the blog.
- Should the ‘eye’ symbol bed red and have a strike-through, this will hide a class from the public view. However, the post will be available for all logged-in users to see.
- Click the blue ‘Add New Class’ button to create a class
- You now can add your class name in the free text field and assign your adult to the class using the drop-down box.
- Please make sure that you click the assign this adult link after choosing the adult from the dropdown.
- In the manage class area, you can also set your privacy settings for the blog posts, using the radio buttons. Using these will dictate who can read the children’s blog posts; if they require approval, who may leave comments, if comments from children need to be approved and if children’s profiles will also need to be approved.
- By default, it will show that a child’s post needs to be approved before it will be posted. It is our recommendation that posts are reviewed. However, should you feel you do not need to approve the posts of your children, please do remember that you cannot individually turn this on/off for each child, it is managed on a whole class basis.
- Once you are happy, click the blue ‘Save’ button.
Adding Pupils
- The next step we would recommend is to add your children to the blogging platform. To do this, you will need to select the third tab titled ‘Manage Children’. You will then see the below screen.
- At this point, please check that all classes are set up first before adding the children under the relevant class for them to be able to blog, you will first need to make sure you select using the drop-down box.
- There is the ability to add one child at a time, using the ‘add new child’ and you can also ‘add children in bulk’
- This allows you to upload your class of children in one go but do remember you will have to wait a few minutes, for this to happen, as it will be dependent on the amount of data being uploaded.We recommend if you would like to add children in bulk, that you use a txt or csv file to do this.
- There is also the ability to paste data into the relevant section, remembering to look at the example you will see on screen, as we require the data to be set in a certain way, for this to work for you uploading your children. It is; last name, first name, and class. This order will need to be separated with a comma and must follow that pattern.