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Blogging for the 21 Century Teacher
What is a Blog? A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world. Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules. In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not. Since Blogger was launched in 1999, blogs have reshaped the web, impacted politics, shaken up journalism, and enabled millions of people to have a voice and connect with others. Reference: http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g
Educational Benefits of Blogs Fortunately for teachers, blogs are surprisingly easy to use. They require minimum technical knowledge and are quickly and easily created and maintained. Unlike many traditional Web sites, they are flexible in design and can be changed relatively easily. Best of all, students will find them convenient and accessible via home or library computers. In addition to providing teachers with an excellent tool for communicating with students, there are numerous educational benefits of blogs. Blogs are: • Highly motivating to students, especially those who otherwise might not become participants in classrooms. • Excellent opportunities for students to read and write. • Effective forums for collaboration and discussion. • Powerful tools to enable scaffolded learning or mentoring to occur. Reference: http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/educationupclose.phtml/47
Using the Blog in the Classroom As an educational tool, blogs may be integrated in a multi-faceted manner to accommodate all learners. Blogs can serve at least four basic functions.
Classroom Management. Class blogs can serve as a portal to foster a community of learners. As they are easy to create and update efficiently, they can be used to inform students of class requirements, post handouts, notices, and homework assignments, or act as a question and answer board.
Collaboration Blogs provide a space where teachers and students can work to further develop writing or other skills with the advantage of an instant audience. Teachers can offer instructional tips, and students can practice and benefit from peer review. They also make online mentoring possible. For example, a class of older students can help a class of younger students develop more confidence in their writing skills. Students can also participate in cooperative learning activities that require them to relay research findings, ideas, or suggestions.
Discussions A class blog opens the opportunity for students to discuss topics outside of the classroom. With a blog, every person has an equal opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions. Students have time to be reactive to one another and reflective. Teachers can also bring together a group of knowledgeable individuals for a given unit of study for students to network and conference with on a blog.
Student Portfolios Blogs present, organize, and protect student work as digital portfolios. As older entries are archived, developing skills and progress may be analyzed more conveniently. Additionally, as students realize their efforts will be published, they are typically more motivated to produce better writing. Teachers and peers may conference with a student individually on a developing work, and expert or peer mentoring advice can be easily kept for future reference. Reference: http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/educationupclose.phtml/47
How Do I Get Started? 1. Go to one of the available free blogging sites (Blogger at www.blogger.com is a very popular one). 2. Provide the necessary information requested. (user name, password) 3. Create a title for your blog. 4. Accept terms and select a template. 5. Publish! FYI: You are NOT allowed to refer to CISD, use the CISD logo, or mention the district in any way.
Using Blogger to Set Up Your Classroom Blog
Go to www.blogger.com to create a blog. Choose the “create a blog” icon.
Step 1: You must first create a Google account. Record your email used and password. You will need this to sign on to Blogger.com the next time you log in. • Complete the information (email, password, display name, etc) • Display name—this is the author of the blog...I always just use my real name here. • Press CONTINUE when finished. •
Step 2: Blog Title—this is the name of your blog. Be creative. This is what the students will see when they pull up your blog. • Blog address (URL) - this is how the students will access your blog. You can use your name or the title of your blog here. I suggest the title. • Press CONTINUE when finished. •
Step 3: Choosing a Template For convenience, choose one of the templates shown. You can go back later and customize the template. • There are hundreds of FREE templates online that you can use. •
OPTIONAL STEP: Customizing Template: • • • • • •
Find a website that has free templates for blogs. Download the templates and save them in a folder. (You might want to create a folder and label it “Blogger Templates.” From your dashboard, choose Layout. Choose “Browse” and find the templates that you saved in your folder. Then choose “Upload”...You can delete all widgets if it asks you if you want to keep them. I keep mine but then edit them in the HTML box below. Scroll to the bottom of the page and choose “Save.”
Free Template Sites: • • •
http://btemplates.com/ (152 pages of templates) http://www.allblogtools.com/category/blogger-templates/ (60 pages of templates) These are the best two sites I found and the easiest to use. The files are in a “zip” format. Click “extract all files” before saving the template to your folder.
Step 4: • •
You are ready to enter your first post. Click “Start Blogging” to begin.
Customizing Your Blog Before Publishing Setting/Formatting: How to set up the correct time zone
If your posts are extremely LONG, then you may want to show less than 7. I usually keep 4 up at a
Correct the Time: Choose Central Time from the dropdown box. Then choose SAVE! The correct time should
These changes are visible on your blog so you want to make sure that you have the right timezone listed. All posts have a timestamp on them. Posts are kept on your blog according to the timestamp. They will be archived according to this date.
Setting/Email & Mobile: Posting to your blog from a mobile device
Emails sent when your blog is updated. You can only choose 10.
Choose the words to assign an email to this blog. Once done, anyone who has this email may submit a post to your blog.
Recommended if you are the only one posting to your blog. Recommended if you are allowing others to post to your blog.
Benefits of Email/Mobile Settings: • • • •
As the owner of the blog, if you have access to email from your phone you can send pictures or posts directly to your blog without having to have a computer. You can assign students tasks that require them to send pictures or posts to your site. Parents can email pictures directly to your site. Read “learn more about mobile devices” to find out how to also post through text messages.
Setting Comment Restrictions for Your Blog
I choose “anyone” because the comments have to be approved FIRST! Choosing “register users” requires them to have a Google account.
Example of Backlink
Backlinks allows others to see that there was a comment on a post. They can then click on “comments” and read them.
Just leave this area BLANK!
Setting Comment Restrictions for Your Blog
ALWAYS is the best way to monitor what comments are posted. NO comment can be posted without your approval by choosing “always.”
Enter your email here:
Choosing NO makes it easier for people to leave you a comment.
NO images...you don’t have control of what they upload on their page.
Enter emails here for where you would like notification to be sent to you when you have a new comment.
Don’t forget to SAVE your settings!!
How to Moderate Your Comments on Your Blog Moderating Comments from Your Dashboard on your Blog: Choose “Postings” then the “Moderate Comments” tab; you can see a list of all the comments that have been created but have not yet been approved or rejected.
Each line in the list displays the beginning of the comment, the author's name, and the time it was created. Clicking the triangle to the left will expand the row to show the full text of the comment, along with "Publish" and "Reject" links, which you can use to approve or disapprove the comment. You can also select multiple comments and publish or reject them all at once, by using the check boxes on the left hand side and the buttons at the top or bottom of the list.
Moderating Comments from received Emails: This entire process can also be done via email. If you entered an email address for moderation, you will get a message for each comment which will contain "Publish" and "Reject" links, as well as a link to the main moderation page for the blog. For example:
Created by KJohnson. Revised Jan. 2010
Using Blogger in Draft to Utilize New Templates •Choose Layout. •Choose Template Designer. •You will be directed to a new
page.
Using the Blogger Template Designer: •
There are four areas to work with inside template designer: ♦
Templates ∗ ∗
♦
Background ∗ ∗
♦
You can choose the background you want displayed. There are 18 different categories with a good selection of images found in each category.
Layout ∗
♦
The overall design of your blog. You have to choose a template before you can complete then next steps.
This is how you want the “gadgets” to appear on your page.
Advanced ∗
In this section you can change fonts, font colors, heading titles/ colors/fonts, sidebar font colors, etc.
Entering Your First Post:
Enter the Title of Your POST here
Use this toolbar just like the you are in Word/Publisher/Excel!
Enter YOUR text here! You can add an image/picture to your post by clicking this button on the toolbar.
IMPORTANT: Don’t forget to hit “Publish Post” when you are finished! This puts your post on your blog for others to view.
You can add a video to your post by clicking this button on the toolbar. Labels are a great way to keep your posts categorized. This helps visitors/students search for specific topics on your blog!
Make sure you SAVE your work. There are times it will “auto” save as you type.