PART III – MAKING YOUR BLOG DYNAMIC Adding Polls, Video Bars, Feeds, News Reels, and Cluster Maps. Also, learn how to embed video, audio, and documents.

Navigate to your blog and Sign in: Click on “Customize” to add functionality to your blog.

ADDING POLLS Let Your Readers Weigh In on Issues

Add a Page Element: Click on the “Template” tab and then click on “Add a Page Element”.

Add a Poll: Click on “Add Poll”.

Add A Poll: Type in your question and the response choices. You can also add more than 4 choices, and change the closing date for the poll. Then click “Save.”

Your poll will look something like this. This is my blog on Teens ‘n Technology.

Have students vote on a issue. Number and percentage for each choice will display on the blog, as shown below. Students can also change their vote, if they choose.

ADD A VIDEO BAR A Picture is Worth a 1,000 Words, so a Video is Priceless!

Add a Video Bar Page Element: Click on the “Template” tab and then click on “Add a Page Element”.

Add a Video Bar: Scroll Down and then click on “Add Video Bar”.

Add a Video Bar: Type in a title, and then type in a search expression (e.g. “wildfires”). Search expressions use boolean search methods.

Move Page Elements Around: Click on and then drag the page element to the position you want it.

Remember to Save: Click on “Save” to post the video bar. Once you have saved it, the button will appear opaque.

Watch the Video: Here’s how it could look. You can watch the video by clicking on it.

ADD A NEWS REAL OR AN RSS FEED Keep your Readers Updated on the Latest Issues.

Go to Google News to create a News Feed for a particular topic. Google News:

Type in the Search Text: Type in the text you would like Google News to search for. Then click the “Search” button. Your search should look something like the picture below.

Click on the “RSS” Button to have Google News create the feed string. RSS stands for “Reel Simple Syndication”.

Check to see if the URL ends in “RSS”. Copy the URL in the address line of your browser. If it doesn’t the feed will not work.

Paste the RSS Feed URL in the box shown below, then click “Continue”.

Preview the Feed before publishing it. You can also choose to display dates and news source by clicking on the appropriate checkbox.

Here’s how Your RSS Feed could look.

ADD A CLUSTER MAP See Who is Visiting Your Blog.

Add a Cluster Map: Cluster Maps show who has visited your site and where they are from. Open a browser and navigate to

Register to get the necessary code to embed in your blog.

Fill out the Registration Information and click on “Register Me”.

Add a ClusterMap Page Element: Click on the “Template” tab and then click on “Add a Page Element”.

Add a ClusterMap: Click on “Add HTML/JavaScript”.

Add the HTML/JavaScript Page Element, then past the code in the editor. Click on “Save Changes”.

Here’s how your cluster map will look.

Encourage Others to Participate: Overtime your cluster map will display a number of hits. One of the great ideas of blogging is to get people to participate from other walks of life and other regions of the world. This ClusterMap is from my GoAPES blog which as users from all over the world.