At long last we have released our new and updated version of Classdroid and introduce to the world Classdroid Pro!

For those unfamiliar with Classdroid it is an Android app designed to work with PrimaryBlogger (or any WordPress blog) to allow teachers to instantly photograph pupil’s work, grade it and up it directly to the blog.

The most noticeable update to Classdroid is that it has been given a face lift and an improved lay out which now includes video tutorials and the ability to send feedback about your experience directly to us (both positive and negative, we aim to please and appreciate any feedback).

Along with these cosmetic improvements many bug fixes have been implemented such as issues with resizing of images and posts failing to upload.

Classdroid Pro extends the functionality of the free version of Classdroid and enables advanced features such as:

- Ability to Group Pupils
- Attribute Work To More Than 3 Pupils (No Limit)
- Mutliple Grading Schemes (0-5 Stars, UK KS 1-3 Levels, UK EYFS)
- Record Video and/or Audio
- Upload Media Recorded On The Device Outside Of Classdroid Pro
- Use Proxy Settings Read more »

We’ve just updated PrimaryBlogger to the latest version of WordPress, 3.5! This may mean nothing to you; WordPress is the software that PrimaryBlogger runs on.

The latest iteration brings in a redesigned media (image, audio, video and document) uploader that now allows you to insert more than one file into a post at a time. Just click the Add Media button in the post editor. This will save some people a massive amount of time!

They’ve also added Hi-DPI icons to all the menus, so those of you lucky enough to have an iPad 3 or fancy MacBook Pro will now have clearer images in the admin area menus. Along with the new icons is a streamlining of buttons and other user interface elements, such as the post editor menu bars, to make them look nicer.

If you want some more information on what’s changed with the latest update, have a read of the WordPress blog.

If you have any questions or problems with your blog, as always please let us know at: http://support.primaryt.co.uk.

Due to compatibility issues users are seeing with Internet Explorer and PrimaryBlogger, we’ve decided to try something out over the next few days. Google have created a plugin for Internet Explorer that allows it to run like a modern browser, such as Google Chrome or Firefox, but without having to install another browser.

When you visit the admin Dashboard area without the plugin installed, a popup will show asking you to install Chrome Frame. Once the plugin is installed it won’t ask you again. The plugin can be installed on any machine, in school or at home, and will not harm your computer in any way. In fact it will make it much better, allowing a consistent graphical user experience that we’ve recently designed for modern browsers. You won’t even have to refresh the page, it will automatically load all PrimaryBlogger pages using the plugin.

Hopefully we’ll see a massive increase in happy users and cut down on minor problems that Internet Explorer users are facing.

Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts under this post!

Ed

Hi all,

Sorry for the lack of updates, but we’ve been especially busy readying new products at Primary Technology, so our updating of the blog has been a bit lax.

Anyway, if you haven’t noticed already, we’ve updated the design of the PrimaryBlogger Dashboard area to make it more visually appealing and easier to find things.

Unfortunately for some, you might not get the greatest version of the design due to your web browser if you’re using Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer, isn’t a very good web browser as they don’t adhere to the latest web standards. This means that if we use something like shadows or rounded corners they won’t show up as they’re not supported, couple that with the fact it’s slow and insecure at the best of times and you can see why Primary T dislikes it. Thankfully there’s a solution, but you’ll need to read our next blog post to find out what it is!

If you have any feedback on the redesign, or ideas on how we could improve it, feel free to leave us a comment on here, use the Primary Technology (PT) Support Website, chat to us on our new Live Chat facility on all PT service websites when we’re online or use the request a feature button in the bottom right of the screen in the Dashboard.

In an effort to find out more about our users, cut down spam and guarantee our service is for educational use, we will now require each blog to be attached to a school.

It’s a very simple process; if you’re registering a new blog you’ll be asked to type in your school’s name as part of the sign up process, if you’ve already got a blog you’ll see a new red bar at the top of any admin page that will direct you to the settings page to fill in your details. If your school doesn’t exist in our database you can contact us via our Support Website and we’ll add it for you. We use our My School Holidays service for the database which pulls data from around the world continually, so most if not all schools should be there.

We hope in the future to link allow an overview page of all the Primary Technology services that you use that are attached to your school, making it easier to navigate between them.

Well, it’s been a long time since our last PrimaryBlogger update hasn’t it? We’ve been hard at work on new features for PrimaryBlogger, making it faster, safer and more productive than ever.

It’s been a long 10 months since we moved PrimaryBlogger to new servers and software, we hope you now feel that we’re much quicker than we used to be. We want to thank everyone who’ve supported us this year and congratulate all bloggers who took part in the EducationBlogAwards and other competitions. It’s been great to see so many schools being talked about in newspapers and even mention of Prince Charles and Camilla looking at some of your blogs!

This update is for us to take an opportunity to update you all on recent developments and additions at PrimaryBlogger so you can make use of them all, so here’s a quick overview: Read more »

The UK Education Blog Awards are here to celebrate the best in school blogging. This is the second year of the awards, last year they had over 300 nominated blogs, and 3600 votes cast. The 2011 winners can be found here.

This year they have put together four categories for their awards. You can enter into one or more of these categories.  The categories are:

1. Class Blog of the Year
2. Whole School Blogsite of the Year
3. Teacher Blog of the Year
4. Most Influential Blog of the Year

Read more »