Blogging 101

Here are the basics on effective blogging.

Reading blogs

1- You will find interesting blogs in the blogroll. These blogs in turn will link you to further blogs of interest, and so on. You can also use a search engine- just write the topic of interest and ‘blog’.

2- Leave comments and later come back to the blogs you have found interesting. See if there have been further comments.

Make your own blog

3- Start your own blog. You may want to set yourself a goal, such as to explore the possibilities of the blog, provide a place to write your thoughts and get feedback on them, etc. Do this before you try out a class blog. Possible blog providers are blogger, wordpress, motime, elgg, booomer, etc

4- Share your URL (blog address) with as many people as possible and encourage them to read and leave a comment.

5- If you can’t log on or otherwise have problems, go over the steps again. Check your user name, your e-mail address, your password. The problem can probably be overcome with a clear head and calm nerves. If all else fails, start a new one.

RSS (Really Simply Syndicate)

This is very important to know if you want to be a blogger! It is a method in which you are informed of any changes to either your blog, ie. comments, or blogs you are currently following. The sign stands for RSS. It allows you to subscribe to feeds. If you have subscribed to a blog , you can follow it through these feeds. If you click on the icon above, it will take you to the description in wikipedia for a more exact definition.

You can collect feeds in a number of ways. There is a short explanation under ‘Greetings‘ in the first post, but here is another very short list:

Netvibes – http://www.netvibes.com/ is a site which has a number of fun and useful tools on it. You can adapt it and remove anything cumbersome.

Bloglines – http://www.bloglines.com/ is a useful and simple one to use. If you have firefox, you can subscribe to RSS feeds simply by clicking on the icons in the corner of the URL.

Feedblitz– http://www.feedblitz.com/ is a very simple one to use, especially if you don’t have a large number of blogs you are following. Whereas the others are a separate program you have to open, this one sends you an e-mail whenever there is a new post in any of the blogs you are subscribed to.

And now, here is a short and simple tutorial on how to make blogs!

Blogging for the classroom

Now here is an interactive presentation to show you how you can integrate blogging in the classroom.

http://www.wisc-online.com/objects/index_tj.asp?objID=ETO506

I would appreciate a message from you about the usefulness of this presentation. Just click the comments link to write your opinion.