Blog

=What is a blog?=

Watch this video. It's a Commoncraft video called [|"Blogs in Plain English"]. You can find it on Teacher Tube.

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A blog is an online journal where entries (called posts) are written in chronological order with the most recent at the top of the blog. Anyone can set up a blog and there are lots of sites that will host your blog for free. Sue Waters from Edublogs says that blogging is about extending conversations, on topics, from those in your immediate environment (i.e. work collegues, family and friends) and gaining from collaborating from a global audience. Increased collaboration with people, will always lead to greater innovation and ideas, because each individual sees a different perspective of the task - giving all involved greater **"food for thought".**

Blogs can be a powerful tool to use with students provided they are used effectively, and you focus on the concept that blogging is about engaging in conversations, and increased collaboration. Check out Anne Mirtschin's [|20 Reasons Why Students Should Blog.]

=How to Get Started with Blogging:= Sue Waters has a wiki on how to get started with Blogging. She suggests starting off by reading other peoples blogs and posting comment on their blogs. It can be a little daunting to try starting a blog before you know what you are getting yourself into. This is a link to her wiki.

Sue has so much valuable information on this wiki. She says to subscribe to blogs that you like to read by using a Feed Reader. Take the time to read how to subscribe to blogs and use a feed readeron her wiki. She uses [|Google Reader].

Sue recommends two main blog host sites: I use Edublogger. They have a lot of [|video tutorials]for you help you with your blog. [|Kathy Cassidy] uses [|ClassBlogmeister.]
 * [|Blogger]
 * [|Edublogger]