Introduction: Blogs are a type of website, generally characterized by the use of time sensitive information and ongoing updates that prominently feature the most recent information as well as older “posts” that descend chronologically from down the page. Typically blogs consist of short “posts”, tagged with a category. Categories make up a portion of the navigation panel and allow all posts to be sorted category for improved searching. Most blogs allow users to create static pages for information that is not time-sensitive, and on pages or posts users can add inline links to images, documents, and videos to push rich content to users. In addition to a blogroll of external site links, blogs allow for the use of widgets to add rich features like rss feeds and other plugins.
Blog Examples:
Things to Consider:
- Your Blog is a personal web page on the World Wide Web and may attract a much larger audience than you intend. Be prepared to moderate comments as readers respond to the information you publish.
- As a personal web page, you may need to request the district unblock access to ensure the sited can be viewed within the SPS network.
- Blogs work because the content is meaningful and updated regularly. Some of the most effective instructional use of blogs is to communicate information about learning and teaching on a regular basis.
Getting Started: Listed are the steps for starting a Blog for instructional use.
- Find a hosting solution: Edublogs, Classblogmeister, Blogger, and Wordpress and are common hosting solutions.
- Create an account and configure your blog
- Plan for what kind of information you want to communicate-Organize!
- Begin adding content (Word documents, images, movies, etc.) to your posts and pages
- Teachers First: Blog Basics
- Why Should I Blog with My Students? (IT Blog- Intro to Edublogs)
- Edublogs Intro Videos
- Edublogs and Classblogmeister are not blocked by district filter. If you want students to have their own blogs right away, take a look at Classblogmeister as it automatically requires teacher approval of student posts and comments before they are published.
- Blogging tools for teachers great site that lists lots of blog hosting solutions and features for extending your blog
- Thoughts on blogging in the classroom