Widgets are a great way to personalize and add new features to your blog.
This time we’ve searched for the more unique, and possibly unconventional widgets, you can add to your blog’s sidebar and embedded the widgets into this post to show how they work.
Please Note: Some of the embedded widgets aren’t designed to be viewed on mobile device. These widgets won’t load and you may see a white space in place of the widget if you are reading this post a mobile device.
Local Times is a useful site for determining the time of a place around the globe, and for comparing times between places.
Local Times also allows you to change the look and feel of your widget.
This time we’ve searched for the more unique, and possibly unconventional widgets, you can add to your blog’s sidebar and embedded the widgets into this post to show how they work.
Please Note: Some of the embedded widgets aren’t designed to be viewed on mobile device. These widgets won’t load and you may see a white space in place of the widget if you are reading this post a mobile device.
World Clocks
In our connected world, it is sometimes useful for our students to not only know the local time but also the time in another country or time zone.Local Times is a useful site for determining the time of a place around the globe, and for comparing times between places.
Local Times also allows you to change the look and feel of your widget.
Texas City
Cape Town
Perth
Tokyo
MoscowExchange Rates
Another useful tool in our connected world is Exchange Rates. The following Currency Calculator provides embed codes for a number of different views. Colours and size can also be edited if need be.| TO |
Volcano Widgets
The Volcano Discovery website has a number of widgets available. The following widget is a map of active volcanos and earthquakes found here.Prezi
Prezi is a visual storytelling software and alternative to traditional slide-based presentation formats. Embedding Prezi is really easy. You can create your own presentation or embed one of the public presentations available simply by clicking the Embed button.The following is a presentation on Navigating the Flipped Classroom.
Prezi are more commonly embedded into posts however you can embed in a text widget in your sidebar by changing decreasing the width and height of the embed. 200 pixels by 200 pixels should work for most sidebars.
Sudoku
I’m a huge Sudoku fan. Web Sudoku Widget provides three embed codes for easy, medium and hard level games. The following is a medium level game.bubbl.us
bubbl.us is a brainstorming platform that my students and I have used extensively in the classroom. The free version allows for three mind maps to be created.Clicking the “share” icon brings up the embed menu.
The following is an example of a family tree.
TED
TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). Embedding TED videos is as easy as opening a video and clicking the embed icon. Once you have chosen a size copy the embed code and paste it into a text widget in your sidebar.
Here Elon Musk discusses his new project digging tunnels under LA, the latest from Tesla and SpaceX and his motivation for building a future on Mars.
Marine Traffic
When we think of the ocean we don’t really think of traffic and congestion. The following map from Marine Traffic shows just how busy our oceans are.Browser does not support embedded objects.<br/>Visit directly <a href="http://www.marinetraffic.com/">www.marinetraffic.com</a>
You embed an Instagram in your sidebar as follows:
1. Go to Plugins > All Plugins.
2. Activate the Visual Editor Plugin.
3. Locate the Instagram you want to embed and click on the timestamp.
2. You’ll be taken to the Instagram image page. Copy the URL in your web browser’s address bar.
3. Go to Appearance > Widgets.
4. Paste the Instagram URL into a Visual Editor Widget in your sidebar.
5. Click Save.
6. When you view your blog you should see your Instagram displayed in the sidebar.
Here’s what Winter sunsets look like in South Africa
Live Shortcode
The Live Shortcode plugin is normally used to quickly and easily add cool things to posts and pages with minimal effort by configuring and inserting shortcode.However, if you activate the Live Shortcode plugin and Visual Editor Plugin in Plugins > All then you are able to add any shortcode you would normally added to a post or page to your sidebar by clicking Add Shortcode in the Visual Editor Widget.
Cools things you can add using the Live Shortcode plugin includes accordions, toggles, tabs, dividers, buttons, sidebar, Reader content, Sliders. You’ll find a complete list here.
Below is a couple of examples of cool things added using the Live Shortcode plugin.
A button:
And Featured Posts from the Reader:
- Register For The October Student Blogging Challenge!The 21st Student Blogging Challenge beings on October 7, 2018. Registrations are now open! After ten years of running the challenge, Sue Wyatt has passed the baton... over to me, Kathleen Morris!
- Free Course For Teachers: Building Your PLNMany teachers would agree that becoming a “connected educator” and developing a PLN (Personal/Professional/Personalized Learning Network) is the most powerful thing you can do to improve your teaching and provide better outcomes for your students. We have been busy working on a new course to help you become a connected educator. Our free self-paced course guides you through the process of building your PLN in seven steps. ...
- Free Course On Blogging With Students: Join The 30 Day Challenge!We're excited to kick-start a brand new 30 Day Challenge for educators who want to learn how to set up a class blog and blog with students. Whether you're new to blogging or want a refresher on all of the features that blogging can offer, come join us for our four week crash-course. Over 11 steps, we’ll cover topics such as:...
- Back To School, Back To Blogging, and Back to the Team 2 EaglesThis is a guest post by Becky Versteeg who is a Grade Two teacher from Listowel, Ontario, Canada. Becky’s inspiring class blog is called Team 2 Eagles. Her 6 and 7 year old students also have their own blogs. Students blog on their iPads using the Edublogs website....
- Learn To Blog With Students With Our Updated Course!For many years, our Teacher Challenge series of self-paced courses have been a valuable way for educators and students to learn about blogging and edtech. While our friends in the Northern Hemisphere have been enjoying summer over the past few months, we've been busy updating a number of resources to help our community learn and grow. All our professional learning opportunities are free and open to anyone and everyone!...
Add Widget
All these widgets, except for Instagram, are added to your sidebar by pasting their embed code into a text widget as follows:1. Copy the embed code for the widget you want to add.
2. Go to Appearance > Widgets.
3. Add a text widget to your sidebar.
4. Paste the embed code into the text widget.
5. Click Save.
6. You should now see the widget in your sidebar.
Share your widgets
With so many widgets that you can to use, we are certain to have overlooked a few of your favorites.Leave a comment below with any that we missed so that we can add to the list!
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