Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Thursday: Part 1 Blogging Important: read the entire presentation before attempting to do any of it.

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Introduction  Blogs are a way to create your own space for your own classroom needs – for free  There are some effective blogging platforms of which Blogspot (ranked 21 of the most visited sites in the world) and WordPress (ranked 41 of the most visited site in the world) are the most commonly used  Since this is an online classroom and we are learning new topics each day, I will teach one platform, and I am choosing Blogspot, for the obvious reason of its rank  Once you use Blogspot, WordPress will be easy to navigate – I use both  You may already be familiar with using a blog or you may already have your own blog, however, the final product I will use as a grading mechanism (in addition to your mashup and contributions) is the blog. Also, the blog will be a be a point of access for the online tools you plan to use in your classes. Therefore, it is necessary for you to create a blog for the purposes of this class  I am assuming you have your gmail account ready to start

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Some Research  The best place to start is by looking through other well-rated blogs and take careful note as to what makes them easy to navigate, interesting, useful, attractive - and what they have in common. Here are some examples: (scroll down to look through categories)  the initial instructions are covered generally in this helpful tutorial:  I have created screen shots, that are mostly step-by-step. Try to follow them as much as possible  The only way to really build a blog is to explore and experiment; the results are worth the effort  You have the rest of this week and next to keep building on your blog  this is YOUR blog for your class/ lesson plan. It should reflect your needs. This exercise is to encourage you to investigate the tools available for you in blogging platforms. Each of you will have a unique blog.

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your Blog:  Sign in to gmail  Then in the same browser tab, type and start creating your own blog  You may need to click on the orange “Continue to Blogger” button

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Have you read through the entire set of slides before starting?

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your Blog: give your blog an appropriate title  now click on “new blog” and get started! Your blog name should be appropriate to your module/ topic/career/profession al interests  Choose your template (you might want to start simple, up to you though)  Click on “Create blog”

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your Blog: layout and template tabs  you already know your target audience, and as you build on your blog, keep it in mind  the “layout” and “template” tabs are very useful (see the screenshot). I would also suggest that you try several templates to find one that suits your style  experiment with the layout, background and heading picture of your blog template

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your Blog: layout page  this screenshot is that of the all-important “layout page” which will enable you to build your blog  you will keep need to keep coming back to this page  whatever changes you make to the layout, be sure to click on “Save arrangement”  look through the left hand side navigation bar  in particular, note “Posts” “Pages” “Layout” “Template” “Setting”

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your Blog: gadgets  try the different gadgets by clicking on any “Add a Gadget” button and use the ones that you find appropriate. You can search for gadgets too – but note there may be many that have embedded advertising

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your Blog: the layout page of my sample blog, so far  you can change the order of your gadgets by pulling them up or down  an “About Me” should generally be at the top

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your Blog: creating your first post  click on “New post”

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your First Post: your first post  write your first post and “Publish” or “Preview”

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your First Post: insert an image  Go to the image you want to use. Right-click and “copy image URL”

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your First Post: insert an image

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your First Post: adding a link  click on “Insert image”

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your First Post: adding an image  you can link directly to an image (just investigate and try using the various icons)

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Next Steps  now “preview” or “publish”/ “view blog”  go back to “Layout” view

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Adding a Header  from “Layout” view, edit one of the “Headers” at the top (see below)  add image and wording  “Save”  “Preview” or “Save arrangement”

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your Blog: preview of my sample blog, so far

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your Blog: important reminders  click on “preview” often to keep track of your progress – and remember to save  when you are viewing the blog, and you want to return to adding new elements to the blog, click on the “design” tab on the top right and then click on the “layout“ tab  you can edit any gadget easily when you are in the “view” mode of the blog, by clicking on the lower right hand icon next to each gadget

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your Blog: restricting comments  click on “setting” tab  look through the options for “Posts “and “Comments” to control who can read your posts or who can leave comments  you can always adjust these settings to suit your specific needs

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your Blog: creating new pages  create an additional “page” by clicking on the “pages” tab  place a list of professional/ academic accomplishments (much like a resume)  OR your page can contain some list related to your audience. The point is to have additional pages that may be useful

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your Blog: creating new pages  be sure to mark the “show pages as” option to “top tabs” as opposed to “don’t show”

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Thursday: Part 2 keep adding to your blog

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Picasa and Slideshow  we will be using Picasa for our slideshow  as you are already logged onto gmail, open a new tab and go to this url com/home com/home  click on upload button and drag appropriate pictures from your computer (perhaps ones you have collected from Tuesday exercise)

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Slideshow  Here is my collection  Click on “Embed Slideshow” (lower right hand column)

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Slideshow  copy the part in blue (you are embedding HTML code that you could modify if you wanted to, now that you are aware of the language underlying the Web)

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Slideshow  go black to your blog tab and go to “layout” view

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Slideshow  click on “Add a Gadget”  choose “Configure HTML/JavaScript”  paste the code you had copied from Picasa  “Save arrangement”  “View Blog” or “Preview”

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your Blog: next steps – work in progress  link to our class blog: and feel free to use it as basic guideline – but your blog is your unique product, so do be creativehttp://nazlihardy11.blogspot.com/  the “About Me” should always appear somewhere at the top of your page  add a list of at least 5 useful sites and other links you found yesterday that are relevant to your audience  these links can be placed on the side bar on your blog using gadgets, or they can be placed in a new page (possibly called ‘useful links’).  click on “preview” often to keep track of your progress – and remember to save  link to any relevant videos  these links can be placed on the side bar on your blog using gadgets, or they can be placed in a new page (possibly called ‘useful links’).  at this point, feel free to link your blog to your Facebook and other social media pages  work on your blog profile – professional and interesting. You can include an appropriate picture of yourself.

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your Blog: next steps – work in progress ( for Friday)  there should be at least 2 entries to your blog by the time I look through them for grading purposes next week (I will be submitting grades on Monday July 29)  keep building on your blog – this is an assignment that cannot, and should not be completed in a few hours – instead you should continue to work and build on it all week. You have already visited blogs that are popular and useful and valued - strive to make yours one of those  this is your online presence over which you have control – take it seriously but have fun with it  create a blogroll that includes the class blog as well as all the blogs created by the other educators (see screen shot on next page)  you can de-roll them once the class is over, but for the next week it will be extremely helpful to see and assess your classmates’ blogs – to that end, include your blog address so that your classmates can add you (temporarily) to their blogroll  you can customize or change your template as often as you wish

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your Blog: creating you blogroll (of the other educators)

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your Blog: the layout page of my sample blog, so far

Introduction to Blogs Dr. Nazli Hardy Millersville University EDW 647 Creating your Blog: my sample blog, so far