Blogs+How-To

toc HOW DO I DO THAT? Blogs are a bit more straightforward than wikis because they have a more limited use than a Wiki. The most important thing to remember about blogs is that the posts are automatically arranged in chronological order. You cannot change the order, so the most recent post will always be up first. Therefore, it is important that you give your posts specific names; otherwise, blogger will assign it the date it was created as its title.

There are many blogging applications, but we will show you Blogspot which is the application associated with Google. Other applications are Wordpress, Tumblir, Typepad and others. The only benefit to Blogspot is that you can use your ABschools username and password to login.

= CREATING A NEW BLOG = Since we are using Blogspot (sometimes referred to as Blogger) then you can sign up with your Gmail account. If you don't have a Gmail account, then you will need to make a Google account. Don't worry, you are not making a new email account. This account will be the same as when you made a Wiki account or an account for any other on-line application.

1) Go to your gmail account and look at the top left hand corner at the list of options. Click MORE

2) Scroll down and find the Blogger icon that is listed under Social.



3) You will need to log in to your Google account, which will be your ABschools account, if you are an AB faculty member.



4) Next you will be asked to sign up for Blogger. Your display name is the name that the students will see, so you need to be aware of that.



5) After this, just keep hitting the continue arrow, and you will be blogging away in no time flat! Let's follow this link to walk ourselves through the process. Sample blog

6) Once your blog is established, you will need to go to the dashboard to change the template, layout and fonts. Watch this video to get an overview of how to complete your blog:

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= DESIGNING YOUR BLOG = There are many ways to change your blog. You can change the colors, the fonts and the layout. The layout means do you want one side bar, two sidebars, a larger footer, a small footer etc. Design Template

= SETTING PERMISSIONS = Setting permissions is crucial to limiting inappropriate comments on your blog and reducing unnecessary emails cluttering up your inbox. You need to make sure that you allow only members of the blog who you have added as an author. Click here for directions on how to set permissions. You may need to zoom in to see the important text on the page. Settings Tab

= POSTING = You can create a post or you can have students create posts, since you will have added them as authors of the blog. Posts will be seen by any viewers and are listed in chronological order. You must name the post something useful so that you will be able to locate it with ease; otherwise, Blogspot will simply give it a date. [|Posting Tab]

= COMMENTS = Comments are responses to a post. You cannot comment on a comment and they will only be seen by clicking on the post. Sometimes, I post a writing prompt and the students write their comments, which becomes a graded assignment. You can see see their comments by reviewing the posts or you can review them with the comments tab.



= PERMISSIONS = You can add students via the permissions tab. It is important that you add students as authors and restrict the membership so that you will always know who is posting on your blog.





=TEST=