More about blogs

When it’s time to set up your very first blog to begin recording your thoughts, discoveries, and exercises you may choose one of several free online blog hosting services including Blogger, Edublogs, or WordPress. Blogger is a Google product and a very popular blogging platform. WordPress is more sophisticated, and Edublogs is the WordPress product delivered for the education market by James Farmer, right here in Australia.

Edublogs aims to support teachers, librarians and all educators; K-12 students; university and college students; and English language students. Thanks James

Grab yourself a blog – easy does it!

BLOGGER

1. Create an account
Google asks you for an email address – this becomes your username.

Note:

• You do not need a Gmail account

• Remember to write down your Username and Password.

2. Name your blog
Remember that the whole web world can see your blog title and blog address. You probably don’t want to use your real name. Consider creating a blog name that’s anonymous, yet uniquely you. The URL for your blog will look like these examples – http://librarywriting.blogspot.com/ or http://taspd.edublogs.org/ or http://heyjude.wordpress.com/ (these are real blogs so of course you need to give your own blog its own unique name.) The format is name.blogspot.com when you use blogger.com software. Note: There are no www in the address of these blogging products.

3. Select your template.
Blogger, WordPress and Edublogs have several templates – have fun choosing one for yourself! If you run into problems, check out the Help files or grab a Tutorial.

EDUBLOGS

Edublogs video
Edublogs handout – from David Warlick
Getting started with Edublogs – comprehensive resources from John Pearce. Includes good video tutorials from Michigan State University which covers posting, creating pages, moderating comments, and using the dashboard.
Simple Edublogs Setup – from Wollongong
Edublogs Tutorials – This blog from Mike Temple is designed to get you started in blogging with simple tips and hints on how to improve what you are doing.

WORDPRESS

Blogging in WordPress- for Edublogs
WordPress Tutorial – 16 -page introductory Word document for Edublogs also.

BLOGGING SMARTS

Blogging Toolbox: 120+ Resources for Bloggers
How To Be An Incredible Blogger
Why Webblogs?
Discovery Blogging Rules
Why Bloggers Should Use Creative Commons
Blog Rules for Educators

Once you’ve started blogging, keep these ideas in mind…

Think before your post!

Learning in the New Millenium