Setting up an Educational Blog :Setting up an Educational Blog


What is a Blog? :What is a Blog? ‘Blog’ is short for ‘web log’. A blog is a kind of online diary. It is a website kept by an individual, which provides regular updates, usually listed in reverse chronological order. A blog can include commentary, photos, links, diagrams, graphics, video...pretty much anything that the user wishes to post. The world is becoming a little swamped with them...there are well over 100 million registered blogs.


Why are they useful to teachers? :Why are they useful to teachers? A blog can also be used as an educational resource. A blog is a simple and effective way to manage electronic resources for your students, and can be used for homework, extension work, and revision.


Advantages... :Advantages... Blogs are easy to set up, and are free They are easily accessed by students – and most students enjoy using the internet for study purposes They enable you to post videos, photos, articles, links, and other information They enable you to guide your students’ use of the internet They can enrich and extend on what you cover in class They save money on printing and photocopying!


Setting up your blog :Setting up your blog There are a variety of free sites. I use blogger.com, simply because I am used to the format. Others include: iblog.net.au wordpress.com blognow.com.au livejournal.com 21classes.com


Posting :Posting A ‘post’ is simply a new entry on your blog. You can write anything you like, and then add photos, or links, or video. You can then add labels so that your posts are categorised by subject. This helps students find what they are looking for.


Comments :Comments A key feature of blogs is the ability to give and receive comments. This allows students to pose questions, or discuss issues which have been raised in class Don’t worry – you can set up blogs so that you can moderate all comments before they become public (I’ve had no dodgy ones yet...)


Other features... :Other features... Most blog sites let you change the layout to suit your own needs Blogger lets you add useful tools, such as polls, clocks, news feeds, games, link lists, photo galleries...there are 105,000 gadgets to choose from! I post all of my powerpoints on a separate free site. This allows me to embed them onto my blog.


Monitoring your blog :Monitoring your blog I also add a ‘site meter’ to my blog. This keeps a record of the number of visitors to the site...by time and location. This enables me to monitor when my students are visiting, and which posts are proving most useful. Sundays and the day before assessment tasks are very popular!


The finished product... :The finished product... Enough powerpoint slides...here’s the actual blog itself: www.mrgriffo.blogspot.com


Some useful links :Some useful links For a basic blog (there is a 2-minute video tutorial on how to set one up): www.blogger.com For a site meter to monitor your traffic: www.sitemeter.com For a site that hosts your powerpoint presentations (you need a third party site for this feature with blogger): www.authorstream.com