to blog or not to blog_ blogging for beginners

8/14/2019 To Blog or Not to Blog_ Blogging for Beginners

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11/3/2008

Professional Development Day | Larry Neuburger MillerHigh School

SPRINGRIVERVALLEYCONFERENCE

TO BLOGOR NOTTO BLOG BLOGGINGFORBEGINNERS


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Introduction - Why Blog?

As the demand for technologically savvy students rapidly increases, more and more

schools scramble to integrate technology to meet the demand. According to Wolsey

and Grisham, Indeed, if students are to become adept at using technology for theirlearning and in their lives, schools have a responsibility to teach those technology

skills and new literacies necessary for students to succeed, regardless of their

access to technology outside the school.(p.30) However, research indicates that

schools do a fairly good job finding money to buy more computers, but fail

miserably when giving established teachers the training on how to integrate

technology beyond the basic word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation

software. On top of this, teachers in core classes become resistant to using new

teaching methods if they have found success with state standardized testing.

Furthermore, Wolsey and Grisham state, Technology in the hands of capable

teachers has the potential to assist them as they work with students to connect withthose in the world around them through proficiency with the written word mediated

by thoughtfully chosen technologiesteacher candidates who know that the power

of technology is less reliant on the technology and more so on the ways that people

use it are likely to be the successful teachers of the 21st century.(p.35)

One method of using technology to tap into these new literacies occurs through the

use of weblogs or blogs. The primary use of blogs when they first appeared was as

an online personal diary. However, within a short period of time blogs could be

opened to the public and authors could invite others to join in on conversations.

With the advent of Web 2.0, blogs also became a place for storing all sorts of digital

content.

I use blogs for several reasons but the primary reason is because students writing

fluency increases almost immediately when they know peers will be reading what

they write. It can be hard to get students to write, so, I also appreciate the fact that

students seem to enjoy engaging their peers online. It is easy to monitor students

writing on a blog, and the need for paper is greatly reduced.

I am not the most technologically savvy person you will meet. For me to engage

something technological, it must be a relatively simple process. Setting up a blog is

really as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Citation:

Wolsey, Thomas D., and Dana l. Grisham. "Adolescents and the New Literacies:."

Action in Teacher Education 29.2 (2007): 29-38.


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Agenda for Today

Blogging vocabulary

Creating a blog

Navigating the Dashboard

Privacy settings and inviting a person to the blog

Accepting invitations

Creating a blog post and posting to the blog

Write a comment

The Blogger icon

Blogging Vocabulary

Blog noun, short for weblog; a place to store different types of digital content;content may be private, public, or shared with invited guests only

verb, the act of creating, reading, monitoring or posting a blog

Posting a post starts the beginning of a thread in a blog. It can be in the form ofmany types of digital content

Comment- a textual response to a blog post

Web 2.0 a new way of looking at how the World Wide Web is used. Utilizing asocial-networking platform, internet users can easily upload and

download files.

Dashboard a blog management/control center tool. You can manage multipleblogs, posts, and settings from this handy tool


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Step by Step ProcessesCreating a Blog

1. Type blogger.com into your address bar and select enter.

2. If you have a Google account already, go to step #4. If you do

not have a Google account, create one by selecting Create Your

Blog Now.

3. Fill out the required information on the next page and select

Continue.

4. Create a blog title and select a blog address. Check availability

before selecting continue.

5. Once you have the address you like, type in the word verification

and select Continue. You may have to repeat this step if you do

not get the word verification correct. They can be tricky at times.

6. Choose a template. For today select Minima Black.

7. Select Continue.

8. Glory Hallelujah! You have done it! Select Start Blogging.

Navigating the Dashboard

9. Look for the Dashboard link next to your email address in the

upper right hand corner of the page and select it.

10.Under your blog title select Settings.

11.By default, you will be looking at the Basic settings for privacy.Select your privacy settings.

12.Select Permissions.

Inviting Others to Join the Fun

13.Click on Add Authors.


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14.Invite yourself or someone near you willing to give you their

email address. If you invite yourself, you need to use a different

email account than the one used to create the Google account.

Accepting invitations

15.Go to your email account to accept the invitation.

16.Open the email and click on the link provided. Go to step 19.

17.If there is no invitation in your inbox, check your spam or junk

folder. Sometimes filter settings send these types of emails to

the junk or spam folders.

18.If you still cant find the invitation, repeat steps 14 17.

19.Type your Google account email and password and accept theinvitation. It must be noted here, if you are creating a classroom

blog and you are inviting students, they will need to create

Google accounts before they can accept invitations.

Creating a Blog Post

20.Go to your Dashboard

21.Under your blog title, click on the New Post link.

22.Give your post a title

23.Enter some text and select Publish. You should get a

confirmation screen saying, Your blog post published

successfully.

24.Select View Blog and your post is displayed on the blog.

Commenting

25.At the bottom of your post there is a Posted by a time

stamp, and a number next to the word Comments. Click on theComments link.

26.Type a short comment and select Publish your comment.

Editing


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27.From inside the post there is a little pencil next to

Comments. To edit, click on the pencil and edit as needed.

The Blogger Icon

When I first started with blogs, I found it sometimes difficult to find my way back tomy dashboard where I could start over if I got lost or stuck. There is a very easy

way, I discovered, to get to your dashboard. If you are logged into Google, you can

click on the blogger icon from anywhere and it will take you to your dashboard. So,

if you get stuck or lost, click on one of these:

to blog or not to blog_ blogging for beginners

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