DIGITAL FAMILIES FAMILY BLOGGING
Design: Hannah Dix
TRAINER’S NOTES
OVERVIEW: DIGITAL FAMILIES Digital Families is a series of workshops focusing on the family coproduction of digital media. Its primary aims are to: • Develop parents’ and children’s levels of digital literacy • Promote further family engagement in community services • Foster a culture of family learning to support children’s education • Particularly for children with Special Educational Needs This project is funded by Samsung UK, undertaken by Bournemouth University and supported by Aster Homes and Skills & Learning BDP. Find us at digitallyfamily.com Twitter: @digitallyfamily
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TRAINER’S NOTES
LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end of this, I will be able to: 1. Set up my own Wordpress blog 2. Understand how to customise my blog 3. Write a blog post Core Digital Skills 1. Teach yourself simple tasks using tutorials 2. Set up an online account 3. Create a social media post (blog) 4. Publish work to an online community 5. Customising a public online profile DIGCOMP • Communication: 2.1 Interacting through technologies, 2.2 Sharing information and content, 2.3 Engaging in online citizenship, 2.4 Collaborating through digital channels.
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TRAINER’S NOTES
LINKS TO OTHER ACTIVITIES
• Stop Motion Animation • Augmented Reality T-Shirt Printing
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TRAINER’S NOTES
activity structure
Age group: This activity is best suited to families with children in years 4 - 8 (age 8-13)
Timing: This activity takes approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete
Before you start... Make sure all desktop computers/laptops are connected to the internet.
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WHAT DO YOU NEED? HARDWARE • DESKTOP COMPUTER OR LAPTOP • INTERNET CONNECTION
SOFTWARE • ONLINE: WORDPRESS • EMAIL ACCOUNT
ACCESSORIES • AN IMAGINATION • CREATIVITY
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FAMILY BLOGGING It’s blogging good fun! Digital Families Family Blogging
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
1. Open up WORDPRESS (www.wordpress.com)
2. Click ‘Create Website’ in the centre
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
3. Select a topic for your blog
Select ‘Family, Home & Lifestyle’ for this workshop
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
4. Select a sub-topic for your blog
Select ‘General Family, Home, & Lifestyle’ for this workshop
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
5. Choose a layout
Select ‘A Welcome page for my site’
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
6. Select a theme
• Themes allow you to give your blog’s design a ‘personality’. • Wordpress has a huge variety of free options. • Themes can be customised with a header, tagline, colours etc. • You can change your theme at any time in your blog’s settings.
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
7. Choose a domain for your blog
A domain is a website’s address (what you type into the bar at the top of your internet browser).
Choose something memorable & short that reflects your family. Wordpress will also suggest some domains (these require you to pay to upgrade). Digital Families Family Blogging
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
Note: if your desired domain has already been taken by another user, Wordpress will suggest the closest available alternative... Or you can try another!
8. Click ‘Select’ on the domain you have chosen
Wordpress automatically puts ‘wordpress.com’ after every blog title when users have a free account. Thus, the name here is: digifamilylife.wordpress.com
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
9. Choose the ‘Free’ plan
10. Make an account - enter your email, username & password IMPORTANT: Make sure you use an email address you can access! You will need to log in to verify your Wordpress account before you can write a blog post.
Then click
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
11. Confirm your Wordpress account
If you do not receive the email and want to resend it, or need to change your address, you can do so.
You should receive an email that looks like this: Click ‘Confirm Now’
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
12. Familiarise yourself with your Wordpress
BASIC tools
Advanced tools
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
Dashboard Simplified
Check blog followers & views Upgrade your account
Write a new blog post Edit existing/add new pages
Change & customise blog design Improving navigation of the blog Connect social media accounts Add users/invite people to the blog Install/un-install blog applications Add/change the site domain Edit blog & personal information
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
13. Click on
These are the pages or tabs on your blog
This symbol means it is the first page the public will see when your they visit your blog Digital Families Family Blogging
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
14. Click on ‘About’ to edit the page
Click the arrow next to ‘Paragraph’ to change the font size.
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
15. Click
to get more options
You will then have more options - change the colour by highlighting your text and clicking on the icon
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
16. Add an image (optional)
Click the photo icon & to choose an image for your page. You may wish to save a photo from Facebook before continuing this step. Images from Google are usually not copyright-free so be careful when using these.
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
17. Click ‘Insert’
18. Resize the image using the corners and align it
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
19. Press ‘Update’ and click ‘View Page’ to see your page
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
20. Go back to the Dashboard and select ‘Themes’
Press this icon to customise your blog’s theme in more detail
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
21. Use these options to customise your blog’s design/ theme Extra personalised options* Edit basic info & add a logo Change colours on your blog Change font styles Upload your own header Customise menus Add/remove/edit widgets Change page settings Choose ‘featured’ posts Further theme options
These options may differ slightly, depending on which theme you chose (NB: this one is ‘Gateway’)
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
22. Publish your updated blog design
23. Select ‘Blog Posts’ & start a new post
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
24. Write your first blog post!
Don’t forget: you can use the toolbar to change the font size, style & colour. You can add an image (or more) if you want. Just click the speech bubble icon to add a caption.
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
25. Publish and view your blog post!
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STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE
Now you’re ready to use your family blog!
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