Electric Chalk

Today we wanted to add a resource directory to ElectricChalk – we found one that did almost EXACTLY what we wanted, unfortunately, it was broken

SeanBluestone.com has made an amazing WordPress plugin called: “WordPress Link Directory”.

You can read more about the plugin here.

The WordPress Link Directory Plugin (at the time of writing this post) was Version: 1.8.
This doesn’t seem to work with the latest version of WordPress: 2.7.

So we’ve had a little look and got it working. We haven’t tested all the features. But these work on our site: adding/updating/removing links and categories. (We haven’t looked at the “Premium Links”, as we wont be using them – let us know if it works)

We cannot wait for the next update by Sean, and are sure you’re all the same, but until then, if you want to get your Directory working again, or add it to your site, you could try this fix. (We have only tested this on ElectricChalk, with the versions shown above)

Guide:

1. Download and Install The WordPress Link Directory.

1. From: http://WordPress.org/extend/plugins/WordPress-link-directory/
2. Or: http://www.seanbluestone.com/wp-link-directory

2. Make sure you upload it to /plugins/wplinkdir This is hard-coded into the plugin. So uploading it as “WordPress-link-directory” (which it unzips as) will NOT work!

3. Replace the “link-directory.php” file with this one here: Updated File

That should be it.

NOTE: This was a hack that we made for us. There are no guarantees, do not blame us if it loses all your links, or messes your WordPress installation up.

If you need help, or have any thoughts / comments, please leave them below, I’ll do my best to help you get your links directory working again. (But check the main sites for guides on using/Permalinks/etc)

(p.s we installed ours with a fresh installation not an upgrade, so if this gets your directory working again after you’ve updated your WP, let us know)

Cheers

We get a lot of readers from the USA and we’re a little conscious we have a UK/Europe bias.

We’d love to hear from education professionals in the States so please drop us a line or join our nascent forums (fora? not sure on the correct grammar there).

• How much support is there for ICT in US public schools?
• What are your favourite IT tools to use for learning?
• How has IT changed the way you teach or your students learn? 

Teachers

image: http://flickr.com/photos/ush/528223663/

We love free stuff at Electric Chalk so Teachers’ TV occupies a wee niche in our hearts. For those of you in not in the UK or who haven’t come across it, Teachers’ TV is a digital channel aimed at spacemen…sorry, teachers. There are tonnes of programmes about hot topics in UK education as well as practical hints and tips for teaching and non-teaching staff.

The programmes are broadcast on TV but also streamed on the Teachers TV website and made available to download under the Creative Archive License agreement (sign-up required, UK only).

I’ve just been watching the latest instalment in the “From Good to Outstanding” series about developing teachers’ skills to OFSTED’s “outstanding” criteria and it contains plenty of good exemplar stuff on pedagogy and classroom management.

If you’re school has a learning platform I’d strongly recommend putting up a link on your staff area and highlighting programmes with a particular link to issues in your school.

If you are looking for an online teaching forum – electric chalk can help! We have setup a new forum, to let teachers, educators and anyone else who wants to talk about teaching online.

The forum has been setup specifically to talk about education, resources, sites, tools, or any other aspect of education. If you have any questions you would like to ask about learning and teaching, the forum will let you get a wide range of answers.
 Talk about resources – let us know any that you have found. Do you think Learning Platforms are the way forward? Or Just talk. Give our new online teaching forum a go!

Regenerating like Colin Baker into Sylvester McCoy (1980’s Dr Who reference if you’re struggling with that one…), this is the new look, all-powerful Electric Chalk site.

We might make some cosmetic changes as we go on (the logo needs a bit of work) but go and register as a “Chalkie” and you can leave messages on the forum.

As if you haven’t got enough to do!