BLOGS IN EFL How to create a free blog using blogger.com & worpress.com
Written by Anna Drakotou
Laskarina Polemi
English MA TESL/TEFL 3ο Senior High Helioupolis
English MA Lit 1ο Senior High Kessarianis
Athens 2013
ISBN 978-960-93-5668-8 @ Άννα Δρακωτού & Λασκαρίνα Πολέμη Πρώτη έκδοση : Άννα Δρακωτού & Λασκαρινα Πολέμη. Αθήνα, Ελλάδα 2013 @ Anna Drakotou & Laskarina Polemi First edition: Athens, Greece 2013 by Anna Drakotou & Laskarina Polemi 2
“Blogs in EFL : how to create a free blog using blogger.com & wordpress.com” -by Laskarina Polemi (MA Lit) & Anna Drakotou (MA Tesl/Tefl)
To Dr Thalia Hatzigiannoglou, school advisor, in A’ Athens District state schools for her ongoing support and encouragement throughout our teaching journey.
Athens 2013 3
Contents Introduction: Blogs in EFL .............................................p.5-6 Chapter 1 : WordPress 1.1.Get started with WordPress.......................................p.7 1.2.Theme (in WordPress)..............................................p.8 1.3.Customize (your WordPress blog)..................................p.9 1.4.Write a Post or more (in WordPress blogs)....................... p.10 1.5.Edit a Post (in WordPress blogs).................................. p.11 1.6.Insert a Picture (in WordPress blogs)............................. p.12 1.7.Embed videos (in your WordPress blog)........................... p.14 1.8.Add a New Page (to WordPress blogs)............................ p.16 1.9.Categories (in WordPress blogs)................................... p.16 1.10.Tags (in WordPress blogs)........................................ p.17 1.11.Adding Widgets (to WordPress blogs)........................... p.17 1.12.Invite users (to WordPress blogs)................................p.18 Chapter 2: Blogger /blogspot.com 2.1. How to start with blogger.........................................p.20 2.2.Dashboard........................................................... p.20 2.3. Write a Post....................................................... p.21 2.4. Add an image....................................................... p.21 2.5. Add a video ........................................................ p.22 2.6.Customize............................................................ p.22 2.7.Add a Widget........................................................ p.23 2.8.Blog authors & administrators...................................... p.23 2.9.Privacy and permissions............................................. p.24 Resources: Webography ................................................. p.25 Bibliography .............................................................. p.26 4
Introduction Web blogs, or blogs for short, have been with us since the 1990s. The main difference between a blog and all other kind of websites is that the posts appear in chronological order with the most recent posts showing first. Educational blogs (Edublogs), i.e. blogs created by educators, seem to have attracted many users recently. Higher Order Thinking, also known as Higher Order Thinking Skills, is the principle lying behind the use of blogs for educational purposes. Based on learning taxonomies, a case in point being Bloom's taxonomy, Higher Order Thinking advocates critical thinking leading to the acquisition of skills that can be used in novel situations. Rather than memorising and answering facts, students get engaged in problem solving via understanding, inferring, synthesizing and using the information they know. Edublogs are used by educators for various purposes, which range from citing references to contacting students and parents, as well as encouraging problem solving and collaboration. As EFL educator, we have used blogs to disseminate project work so far. Besides that, blogs can be used with language classes. Aaron Campbell (2003) has outlined three types of blogs:1.The Tutor Blog run by the teacher is limited to syllabus homework, assignments and the students can view it but write no comments. An example of this is Aaron Campbell's own 'The New Tanuki': http://thenewtanuki.blogspot.com/ .2.The Class Blog is a shared blog, with teacher and students being able to write to the main area. Students are given a greater sense of freedom and involvement. A very good example of what this type of blog is Barbara Dieu's 'Bee Online' http://beeonline.blogspot.com/ 3. The Learner Blog needs more time and effort from the teacher to both and involves giving each student an individual blog. Why blog with students? - As an online portfolio of student written work: bykeeping a portfolio students evaluate the progress they have made during a course. -To help build a closer relationship between students in large classes. 5
- As online student learner journals that can be read by their peers. Attention: watch out for:
Privacy. By their very nature blogs are public. Anyone with access to the Web can find and read a blog, and write comments (if this feature has been turned on). If privacy is an issue, then you will be better off using a blogging tool that allows different levels of access rights. Live Journal http://www.livejournal.com is a good choice very popular among youngsters
Unwanted comments. To avoid unwanted comments, you can always restrict comments to people in the class or to registered bloggers.
Correction. It is difficult to use a blog for correcting students. Student written work can always be corrected before posting to the blog, or you can do class correction sessions using work published in the blogs.
More ideas on activities : https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/blogging-elt. Even if you do not feel too computer-savvy, a wide variety of platforms ensure that you can easily find a type of blog that suits your needs.
So, in the first chapter, we have selected basic ste-by-step guidelines for creating a blog with WordPress. In the second one, you will read about blogger or blogspot.com and an example of an eTwinning project published in blogger. WordPress is a versatile platform offered by WordPress.com and has been used by millions of people around the world. Even if you believe that creating a blog can be quite a hassle, you might change your mind after trying it out! The layout looks great and you have a wide variety of themes and widgets to choose from. Blogger is one of the earliest dedicated blog-publishing tools, it is credited for helping popularize the format acquired by Google. In 2010, Blogger introduced new templates and redesigned its website.
6
1. WordPress 1.1. Get started with WordPress! In order to get started, visit WordPress.com.
Select Get Started. The following page will appear.
Now, type in your email address, provide a username and a password and then choose a blog address for your blog. The address has to be unique, i.e. it cannot have been taken up by another user. You will get a page that looks like the following screenshot. Type in the address of your blog, go on to the next space to give it a name and then decide on whether you want to make it public or not. Scroll half way down the page, find the "Privacy" option and select: I want my blog to be "viewable by everyone", or "viewable by everyone but to block search engine" so that you can use it with your students!
7
Then, select Create blog. Choose the free version. You can upgrade later if you wish to! You will see a message on the screen of your computer informing you that the address you have chosen is officially yours.
Now, as you can see in the picture above, you have three options. You can write your first post, change your blog description or permissions, or you can change your blog's theme, i.e. its appearance. Let's change the appearance of your blog!
1.2.Theme Click on Change your blog's theme.
8
You will see the dashboard of your blog on the screen of your computer. Click on Appearance. Select Themes. You are given lots of options but make sure you select a free theme. NB: Not all themes offer the same options concerning the layout of your blog. When you find a theme that suits your needs, you can use the Live Preview feature or activate it (both buttons are found right under every free theme).
1.3.Customize your (WordPress) blog Now, once the choice is made, you can customize your blog. If you have followed these instructions step by step, click on Appearance and then select customize. (If you have logged out in the meantime, place the cursor gently over the blog's title and then select customise on the bar that will open).
Decide on the background colour, the colour of the header, i.e. your blog's title, whether you want it to have a background image as well as on the "front", i.e. what you would like your front page to look like; you can choose between a static page or the display of your most recent posts. The picture below depicts how you can change the header and the background colour. The little circle in the pallete shows your current choice of colour.
9
Click Save if you are happy with your choice or Cancel if you would like to try something else. Both icons are at the bottom right hand side of the page.
1.4.Write a Post (or more) There are quite a few ways of adding a post. Type your blog's address in the address bar.
Click on the icon that reads "New Post", located on the top bar of your blog (right of the screen).
The page will expand. Click on the "Text" icon.
Give your post a title. Write your ideas in the space provided. You have lots of options (B for bold letters, I for italics e.t.c.) . 10
Click on Publish (or Preview if you just want to see what it looks like on your page). If you have changed your mind about it, click on Cancel Post. Alternatively, you can create a post if you place your cursor over your blog's title next to the WordPress symbol
(top left of the page).
Click on Dashboard. Click on New and then on Post. Start writing! Click on Preview or Publish depending on your needs.
You can also create a post if you place your cursor over your blog's title (top left hand side), then click on Dashboard, scroll down to Posts and click on Add New (see picture below).
Now you can decide on the visibility options (i.e. if you would like it to be public or not), whether you want to publish it immediately or not (see picture above). If you have changed your mind, you can always delete it (Move to trash).
1.5. Edit a Post Place your cursor gently over your blog's title next to the WordPress symbol
.
Click on Dashboard. Scroll down the page as far as Posts. Click on All Posts. Locate the post you would like to edit. Place your cursor over its title and select Edit. Make any changes you wish to in the text body. 11
Press Update. Press View Post.
1.6. Insert a picture Feel like spicing up your page? Let's see how you can upload a picture you have already saved on your computer. You can follow the same steps as before: Type your blog's address in the address bar. Click on the icon that reads New Post (top right of the screen). The page will expand. Click on the Photo icon. Click on Select Photo. Locate the photo you want to upload amongst the ones you have saved on your computer. Click on Open. Wait for the picture to load. Click on Publish Photo (or Preview). Tip: The method just described regards only new posts and does NOT normally work if you want to upload a photo using its Url, i.e. its location on the web. However, there is a way around it. Let's say you have already written a post and you wish to add a picture to it. Place your cursor gently over your blog's title as seen on the top bar (left hand side).
Click on Dashboard. Scroll down to Posts. Select All posts (see picture below).
Find the post you would like to edit. Click on edit. 12
Click on Add media.
A new page will appear. Select Insert from Url and then paste the url of the image in the space provided. (Tip: If you are not sure about the url of the picture, it is very easy to discover it if you right click on the picture and choose Copy Image Location).
Click on Insert into Post (bottom right hand side of the page) The picture will appear in your post.
Tip: If you are in the Visual mode, you will see the picture straight away in your post. You can place it in the desirable place (left, middle or right) using these symbols:
. If
you are in the Text mode, you can still change its alignment as well its dimensions. Just change the information you can see circled in the main body of the post. Do not erase anything else!
13
Click on Update and then View Post. Done! If you want to Edit your picture after it has been published, click on edit at the bottom or at the top of your post (depending on the selection of your theme). Your post will appear in the edit mode. Left click on the picture. You can either edit or delete it (see picture below) if you click on the respective icon. Once you have clicked on the edit option, you can decide on its size, alignment and so on. Click on Update.
1.7.Embed videos WordPress does not officially support all types of video formats at present. However, it does support the ones mentioned below (list copied from the official WordPress support page): [flickr] embeds a Flickr video. [blip.tv] embeds a Blip.tv video. [cnnmoney-video] embeds a CNNMoney video [ted] embeds a TED Talks video [dailymotion] embeds a DailyMotion video [vimeo] embeds a Vimeo video. [wpvideo] embeds a VideoPress video. [youtube] embeds a YouTube video. 14
[hulu] embeds a Hulu video. [vine] embeds a Vine video (for androids). As long as your video falls in one of the categories above, you can easily embed the video of your choice in your blog. (Actually, there are other formats that can be embedded but they require special knowledge and they are not approved by WordPress for security reasons). Let's say you want to embed a video from YouTube. First, you need to locate the video in YouTube. Right click on the address bar of your video and select Copy.
Go back to your blog. Go to New Post on the top bar and click on it. A new page will appear. Click on Video, right click on the blank space to paste the video url and then click on fetch video. Press Publish Video. Done! What we have just described seems fine as long as you are creating a new post and you are happy with the video dimensions set by the page itself. However, should you feel like tampering with them a little so that the video will not take up lots of space on your page all you need to is... Go to YouTube. Locate the video you want to embed. Copy the video's url from your browser's address while viewing the video.(right click on the address bar and press copy).
Open a new tab with your blog's address. Place your mouse gently over your blog's title next to the WordPress symbol
.
Click on dashboard. Scroll down the page and locate Posts. Click on All Posts if you want to embed a video in an existing post, or on Add New if you want to create a post with an embedded video from scratch. 15
Click on Add Media. Click on Insert from You Tube. Paste your video's url address in the box (right click in the box and select "paste"). Click on Search. Your video will appear. Click on your video and then on Insert into Post. If you want to resize the video's dimensions, while in the editing mode write, for example, &w=300&h=199 next to your video's title. (The dimensions may vary but 300×199 are recommended as Custom size). Press Publish or Update and then View Post. NB: Video formats not supported by WordPress appear as a link.
1.8. Add a New Page Place your cursor gently over your blog's title next to the WordPress symbol. Scroll down to New. A new submenu will appear. Click on Page. Give your page a title. Then give a description of your page in the space provided. Click on Preview or Publish.
1.9. Categories Categories help you organise your blog and group relevant posts together. Before you publish your post, you can add a category to your post. Go to Categories (right hand side of your post)
Click on Add New Category. Give your category a name. Click on Add Category in the box that will open. You can also decide whether you want it to be a category on its own, or for it to be a subcategory. You can always edit or delete a category. 16
Click in the box to the left of the category you have created. Click on Publish or Move to Trash.
1.10. Tags Tags also help you group your posts so that the readers can get a clear idea of what the post is about. They are more specific than categories and you can edit or add new tags at any time. Their use is optional. Go to the post you would like to edit. Click on edit right underneath the post. Scroll down the page and locate Tags (bottom right of the page).
You can add a new tag to your post or you can choose one (or more) from the most used tags. Click on Publish. NB: In order for all your tags to appear on your home page, you need to add the widget tag to it (see Adding Widgets).
1.11. Adding Widgets Widgets are small applications within a webpage. One of the most common widgets you are bound to have come across while visiting blogs is the Search one. Most themes of WordPress allow the use of widgets. Place your mouse gently over your blog's title. Select Widgets
17
. As you can see in the screenshot below, all you need to do is: Drag the widgets to the sidebar to activate them. Some of them are already activated depending on the choice of your theme.
NB: It is always a good idea to start by adding an About me widget. Write a few things about yourself, so that the readers will know what to expect when coming across your blog. Do not overdo it, though! A detailed CV is not required!
1.12. Invite users Now, it is about time you shared your blog with your students. Place your mouse gently over your blog's title. Click on Dashboard. Scroll down the page. Find the word Users and place the mouse gently on it.
18

Click on Invite New.

A new page will appear. Type the e-mail address(es) of the invitee(s) and then decide
what roles you would like to assign them.
An administrator has full access to your blog. They can even delete it, so it is advisable you reserve that role for somebody you really trust. An editor can do almost everything but delete the blog; they can moderate all comments, delete posts, manage tags, upload images. An author can write, edit and delete their own posts and upload files and images but they cannot moderate others' work. A contributor needs to get the administrator's approval before they see their posts published. However, once approval is granted, they can no longer edit their posts. A contributor cannot upload files or images. A follower is someone who has signed up to receive your blog's updates. (Tip: assign the role of the author to the majority of your students and maybe grant the role of the editor to a student who has amazed you with their computer skills).
19
2. BLOGGER or BLOGSPOT.COM :It’s easy to create a FREE blog
2.1.How to start with blogger 1. Go to www.blogger.com - If you have any mail account, but not
gmail click on Get Started red button. Fill in the form and click continue 3. If you have a google or gmail account use ιt to fill in: email and password and click on sign in
4. Sign up with a name, and a Display name, which people will see publically tick in ‘I accept” box and click on Create your Blog , then click on continue 5.You are now on Dashboard, you may click on edit profile to add a photo now, or later write a name for your blog, check availability, when OK, click continue 6. Choose a starter template for your blog, click continue. You have created a blog.Click on Start Your Blog -->Dashboard: This is your starting point. 2.2.Dashboard: This is your starting point.
20
2.3. Write a Post 1. Click the orange pencil icon to write a new post, you’ll see the Post Editor page.
Then, enter the post , when you're done, click the Preview button at the top right to make sure it's ready to go, then click the Publish button to publish your post.
2.4. Add an image - Click the image icon in the Post Editor toolbar. - A window appears for you to browse for an image file on your computer, or enter the URL of an image on the Web. - Select your image, then a layout of how your image will appear in your post - Select the 'Left', 'Center', and 'Right' options to customize it in your blog text - The 'Image size' options will show how large the image will be within your post. - Click UPLOAD IMAGES to add your image, and then click DONE - Wait for 'Your image has been added.' - Back to the post editor, your image is ready to be published to your blog.
21
2.5. Add a video - Click the film strip icon in the Post Editor toolbar above your blog text. - A window appears prompting you to 'Add a video to your blog post.' - Click Browse to select the video file from your computer - Add a title in the 'Video Title' box and agree to the Terms and Conditions (you'll only have to do this the first time that you upload a video with Blogger). Then click UPLOAD VIDEO. - Note that Blogger accepts AVI, MPEG, QuickTime, Real and Windows Media files and that your video must be less than 100MB in size.
2.6.Customize
When creating a new blog, you're first asked to choose a default template, this is the basic design of your blog. You can choose from many templates for your blog; simply pick the one that best fits your needs.
Once on the Template tab, you can either click on the orange Customize button to get started with our easy-to-use template designer, or choose one of our many default
22
templates. If you’d like to edit the HTML of your blog, just click the gray Edit HTML button.
2.7.Add a Widget -Click Layout from the drop-down menu on your dashboard below the blog you would like to customize. -From there, click Edit to edit existing gadgets, or Add a Gadget to add new ones. -To add a new gadget after you've clicked Add a Gadget, simply click the plus sign next to your desired gadget. You can choose from gadgets by category, or search for a specific gadget in the top right of the pop-up window.
2.8.Blog authors & administrators An administrator of a team blog has access to the blog's settings and template, can edit and delete posts made by other members of the blog. Additionally, they can add or remove other team members. Any number of members can have admin rights on a single blog. You can invite a person or student to join your blog and if they accept your invitation, they are listed as an "Author" by default. Authors can only create and edit their own posts. You can see a member's status in the "Permissions" section of the Settings | Basic tab, and it looks like this:
To change an author into an administrator, use the drop-down menu next to that author's name. If there's only one admin member of a blog, it's not possible to revoke that person's admin rights. 23
2.9.Privacy and permissions By default, your blog is completely public, and can be read by anyone on the internet. However, if you want to keep it private, you can do that, too. You can change these settings on the Settings | Basic tab.
-Under the 'Blog Readers' section, you'll probably see 'Anybody' selected as the default. When you change this to 'Only these readers,' you'll get an Add Readers button. -Click the Add Readers button and then enter the email address of a person to whom you'd like to grant access to your blog. To add multiple people, separate their addresses with commas. -For each address entered, the Google Account associated with that address will be given access to view your blog. If an address is not associated with an account, that person will receive an invitation email with a link allowing them do one of three things: a. Sign in to an existing account. B. Create a new account. C. View your blog as a guest (no account required). An example of a blog used to make a collaborative etwinning project public: youngeuropeanactivists@blogspot.gr created in 2012-13. It is a tutors’ blog with no interaction. It was created as a publishing tool for the project “Our political Party”.
24
Resources : Webography http://en.support.wordpress.com/ The official guide to creating a WordPress blog .Read all the dos and don'ts, and what types of widgets are supported!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqJUSOs70Ig Craig Chamberlin gives us a clear idea of how to add, embed and resize videos in WordPress.
http://theedublogger.com/2012/07/26/the-state-of-educational-blogging-in-2012/
A
survey regarding educators and their use of blogs. http://shongjog.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/how-to-have-flash-embeds-in-awordpress-com-blog/ A page that will help you with experimenting when it comes to embedding flash widgets in your WordPress. www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/how-to-add-javascript-in-a-wordpress-post-or-page-1845 Tips on how to embed Javaplayer in WordPress. It requires advanced computer knowledge. http://www.readwritethink.org/parent-afterschool-resources/tips-howtos/encouragehigher-order-thinking-30624.html. Higher Order Thinking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_widget Helpful article on the use of widgets. http://easywpguide.com/ Visit this page. Download this popular guide for WordPress or read it online. https://support.google.com/blogger https://www.youtube.com/BloggerHelp: Blogger’s channel https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/blogging-elt.Article with ideas (2005) http://blog-efl.blogspot.com Iinformation and comments for teachers of EFL/ESL using blogs by Graham Stanley, British Council, Barcelona Brady, Mark (2005). "Blogging:personal participation in public knowledge-building on the web".
Chimera Working Paper Number 2: 1–16.
Campbell
AP
(2003).
'Weblogs
for
use
with
ESL
classes'
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Campbell-Weblogs.html 25
Bibliography – Further reading
Churchill, D (2008). "Educational Applications of Web 2.0: Using Blogs to Support Teaching and Learning". British Journal of Education 40 (1): 179–183.
Curran, Kevin; Marshall David (2011).”Blogs in Education”Elixir Online Journal 36: 3515–3518
Kajder, S; Bull, G (2003). "Learning and Leading Technology". Scaffolding for
Struggling Students 31 (9): 32–35.
O'Donnell, M (2006). "Blogging as Pedagogic Practice: Artefact and Ecology". Asia
Pacific Media Educator 1 (17): 5–19.
Poling, C (2005). "Blog On:Building Communication and Collaboration Among Staff and Students". Learning and Leading with Technology 32 (6): 12–15.
Richardson, W. (2006). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and the Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press
Athens 2013 26
“Blogs in EFL” is a brief basic guide ebook for EFL educators who have no or little experience on ICT use and wish to create a free blog using blogger or/and wordPress as a teaching and learning tool and disseminate their work worldwide . It is written in simple language in order to be used, primarily as a quick or time saving
self – learning
tool. It includes a very brief theoretical background because the emphasis lies on guidelines and empirical advice on how to create best a free blog. Apart from EFL teachers , we believe that it may interest anyone who is used to working with the stepby-step method of guidelines in a document instead of experimenting with a variety of video and site tutorials.
ISBN 978-960-93-5668-8
27
28