Red Space Rocket

What is a blog?
The word blog is short for web log and it is just an online diary. Although this word doesn’t appear in many dictionaries many people use blogs to share a vital information and daily trivia with their friends and family.

It’s not just idle teenagers and middle aged nerds using blogs. Companies, newspapers and educators all use them as well to build and strengthen relationships.

Blogging is not difficult. You just add new content and the software looks after pretty much everything else.

Why should I use a blog as part of my teaching?
Using a blog allows you to quickly, easily and regularly publish information for your students. This might be extension and support activities, interesting information generally, or links to other sites. It allows you to reference and publish resources that there is not the time or resources to photocopy and share with your class.

It’s your own personal notice board or river of news and students can access it from pretty much anywhere. gfdfg

It’s a helpful tool for building up your relationships. You can now provide information for them in access in school or at home.

What would I publish on this blog?
• Post text, pictures, sound and documents generally.
• Publish assignments and worksheets.
This allows students to get a copy if they are away from school or if they have lost their original.
• Provide links.
Rather than hand out a sheet of addresses or putting a word document with links of a school drive you can just link straight to relevant sites from your blog.
• Publish student work.
Although you need to be careful about privacy and audience this is a great place to show off and showcase student work. Students can then show family and friends this work.

Can anyone read my blog?
The short answer is yes. Many blogging providers do allow you to password protect your blog, however, you will get the most use and the widest audience if you leave it visible to anyone with a web browser.

This means that parents can see what their children are working on, students can check your blog easily from home and school, and the wider world can see and appreciate what you are doing with your students.

The downside is you need to be a bit careful about what you say and publish. The good news it that your classroom expands to include a lot more people.
What technical skills do I need?
If you can start your web browser and type an email you have all the skills you need. The software takes care of archiving and presentation so you just need to concentrate on what you have to say.

What about comments?
Students and others can leave comments on individual entries on your blog. Most blogs allow you three options for this and each has an upside and a down.
• Open slather – When anyone can leave a comment it means they are more likely to. However there are risks in letting everyone have their say without moderation.
• Moderation – You can set your blog so that you need to approve each comment before it becomes visible on the site. This slows down discussion between students but keeps things on a sensible track.
• No comments – You might have situations where you want to be the only one speaking on your blog.
Can I have more than one author?
Most blogging software lets you have more than one author. As a rule I would recommend only one or two authors. Any more than this and it risks becoming bland and unfocussed.

What about copyright?
You still own the copyright to the material you create. However be careful about publish other people’s resources on the internet. Just because you acknowledge the original author does not allow you to publish absolutely anything. Often it is best to simply link to resources you want to share or say where you can get a real world copy.

So where do I start?
Here are a few well known blogging providers. I have listed them in my order of preference but have a look at them all and see what you like best.
• Wordpress - http://wordpress.com (free with paid extras)
• Edublogs - http://edublogs.org (free with paid extras)
• Blogger - http://blogger.com (free)
• Typepad - http://www.typepad.com/ (paid)

Staff at Western Heights College can start their blog at http://whcweb.net which also runs Wordpress. There might be software available at your school. It’s worth asking your information systems administrator to see what is available.

How do I actually use the software?
All of the recommended sites have help pages. The basic functions you need to master are:
• Setting up your blog.
• Changing the look of your blog.
• Writing a blog entry.
• How to create a link.
• Editing a blog entry.
• Approving or deleting comments.

This isn’t what I want at all.
Blogs are not a magic bullet for teaching or for information systems.
• If you want students to work collaboratively on documents you would be better off with Wiki software.
• If you want students to converse freely then you would better off with a forum or discussion board.