so long, rooster.

so long, rooster.

This morning blogs@psu was upgraded to MT 4.23. It is thanks to the hard work of TK Lee and James Vuccolo that this upgrade went smoothly and that existing users shouldn't have even noticed.

In addition to the upgrade to MT 4.23, this update included several new features developed here specifically for the way we use blogs here at Penn State.

This update includes the Pack-It-Up tool that is being piloted by Carla Zembal-Saul and her students this semester. The pack-it-up tool creates a zip file of a student's blog/portfolio using a custom index page template that allows the portfolio to viewed offline. This allows the students/faculty to capture snapshots of their portfolio at various points in time. This zip file could also be uploaded to an assessment management system used for accreditation and reporting.

There are two things that have changed for new blogs created after the update.

First, there is a new default banner image on the professional website template set. Instead of the rooster, we now have a wonderful image of the lion shrine created by Dave Stong. If you'd like to use this banner in your blog, it is available in the style catcher.

Second, in the search widget, there is the option to search tags for full text. The option of searching tags allows you more flexibility when it comes to filtering your own content. For example, now you can search on "ethics + media" to find posts tagged with both "ethics" and "media". I feel this will be an important feature for those that use the blogs@psu as a personal content repository.

All blogs created since the update will have this widget. You can add this in your existing blog by doing a template refresh.