Making The Move….Literally or How to Use the Domain Mapping Tool to Connect your Edublog to Your Custom Domain

When I first started this blog, I was teaching sixth grade.  When I made the transition to my new job, I didn’t want to lose the memories that this blog had, but I was no longer “surviving sixth grade”….I guess I’d “survived”…lol.

Two years ago when I first become introduced to Google Apps and we were trying to find away to get our 6th graders email accounts so they could share things that they’d created with us, I bought a domain from GoDaddy to apply for a school level GAFE.

I’ve been working off and on (waaay more off than on) to mask the “Surviving Sixth Grade” url with my “mrsjeff2u.com” domain.  I’m not much of a informational text reader, so I was just like….eh….I’ll figure it out.  I did…but I didn’t…ya feel me?

But after the initiation of @EdTechBoC I figured….I better figure this out! And I did. 🙂  So if you have a custom domain that you would like to use – but you don’t want start your blog all over again….here are the steps.

  1.  Log into your Edublogs account.
  2. In the Dashboard, click on Tools > Domain Mapping
  3. Enter your custom Domain and then click “add”.  Domain Add
  4. Log into your DNS control panel. (For me that meant that I went to www.godaddy.com, clicking on Domains > My Domain > DNS Zone File).  DNS Zone File
  5. Configure your DNS records using the DNS configuration information on your domain mapping page.  Screen Shot 2016-04-29 at 9.55.38 PM
  6. Click the Edit icon in the @ row under A (Host)
  7. Change Points to the A record IP address shown on your domain mapping page (copy and pasting is fine) and then click FinishScreen Shot 2016-04-29 at 9.57.12 PM
  8. Scroll down to www. under CName (Alias) and click on the Edit icon.
  9. Change Points to  the CName record shown on your domain mapping page and then click Finish. Please note that GoDaddy doesn’t allow you to use the dot of the end of the CName, so don’t add it.  Screen Shot 2016-04-29 at 9.57.37 PM
  10. Click “Save Changes”.
  11. Go to back to Tools > Domain Mapping inside your dashboard and click Activate.  It normally takes at LEAST an hour for it activate.

I Love Smore! And No, Not The Treat….

Screen Shot 2016-04-29 at 3.38.54 PM

Today’s blogging challenge: What tech tool are you loving these days? Why?

Whenever I get asked the question, “What’s your favorite tool?”, I always sigh.  Is it because I’m a tech geek that I have difficulty answering that question?  Probably so.  But it is always such a hard question for me!  So I mostly have to drop the multiple names in a random name selector and have it make that choice.

So today’s choice is Smore!  Smore allow you to quickly create great-looking webpages. It boasts of creating online flyers, but it’s way more than that. To me “flyer” implies that you’re creating a single-use PDF and posting it online. Smore’s flyers are not single-use PDFs….they are alive!   The Smore flyers can include so many different media types:  images, embedded links, even video! Creating and making changes  is super easy because it’s pretty much just drag and drop.

They’ve recently created the “Educator Hive” that provides educator examples that can be viewed, adapted and/or remixed!  It just launched last week and they already have or 500 submissions!

Smore could be a great way for extracurricular clubs, teams, or school organization to build simple announcement pages and/or share updates and featured news.

I use Smore for many things, including the weekly DCSD Tech Tidbits newsletter that I share with our entire district once a week.  Since my format stays the same and I just add different information, I just duplicate the one from the previous week to prepare for the one that will be shared out next week.  I also embed them on my blog.  You can find old copies here.

Earlier this year, I used it to highlight activities completed during Digital Learning Day.

So although I will never refuse a piece of graham crackered, chocolate marshmallowy goodness – you can definitely see why this Smore is my favorite!

Until the next time,

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