Hey, Get Your Own Blog

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Hey, Get Your Own Blog

• Soup Seminar
• February 4, 2005

Sponsored by the Clark College Assessment
Committee
Presented by Kitty Mackey Reference Instruction
Librarian
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Blog the noun

• A shortened form of web log or weblog
• From the OED
• A frequently updated web site consisting of
  personal observations, excerpts from other
  sources, etc., typically run by a single person,
  and usually with hyperlinks to other sites an
  online journal or diary.

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Blog the verb

• From the OED
• To write or maintain a weblog. Also to read or
  browse through weblogs, esp. habitually

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Anatomy of a Blog

• Dated Entries, called Postings, like a diary
• Postings in reverse chronological order
• Comments (options)
• text, art, images, navigation links
• Archive of postings

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More Basic Vocab

• Blogger
• The author of a weblog
• Blogging
•  The activity of writing or maintaining a weblog.
  
• Blogosphere
•  Information that resides in weblogs.

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How Much Blogging?

• Jan 2005 report
• Est. 8 million people created blogs
• 58 increase in 2004
• 32 million American read blogs 9 political
• New blog created every 5.8 seconds
• Pew Internet American Life
• http//www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_blogging_data.
  pdf

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Finding Blogs to Read

• Blog Search Engines (LOTS!)
• DMOZ Open Directory
• http//www.bloogz.com/
• http//www.blogsearchengine.com/
• http//www.blogwise.com/
• Google search terms
• blog directory
• blog classroom discussion, etc.

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Free Blog Hosting Sites

• Just a Sample
• blogger.com (owned by Google.com)
• Moveable Type
• Livejournal.com
• See a List from Google Directory

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What Kinds of Blogs?

• Personal journals
• http//dear_raed.blogspot.com/
• Alternatives to media
• http//instapundit.com/
• Keeping up with the news
• http//www.southerner.net/blog/
• Keeping up in a profession
• http//www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/
• eric-digest.blogspot.com

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Blogs in the Classroom

• Classroom Management
• portal to foster a community of learners
• Collaboration
• teachers, students work to develop skills
• Discussions
• equal opportunity to share opinions
• Student Portfolios
• present, organize, protect student work.
• Using Blogs to Integrate Technology in the
  Classroom
• http//www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/education
  upclose.phtml/47

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Options for Classroom Blogs

• No comment!
• info-lit.blogspot.com
• Comment by invitation only
• newthingilearnedtoday.blogspot.com
• Anyone and everyone can comment
• libr105.blogspot.com

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Lets create a blog!

• Go to www.blogger.com
• Click on
• (on the following page is a list, in teeny-tiny
  print, of the information you will need to
  provide to set up your blog. Remember what you
  select for a user name and password!)

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• Record your blog information
• user name ____________________________________
• This is your sign-on name. No spaces. Hyphens OK.
  I recommend not using your full name. Pick
  something easy to remember. Have a couple of
  options in mind.
• examples kmackey, kmackey-instructor
  kmackey-libr105.
• password ______________________________________
• Must be at least 6 characters long. Try for a
  combination of upper case, lower case, characters
  and numbers.
• Display Name _________________________________
• This is the signature that will appear at the
  bottom of your posts. Spaces are OK.
• email address __________________________________
• May want to use an anonymous email address
  separate from your home or work.
• Blog Title _______________________________________
  
• This it the name of your blog -- it will appear
  as a heading on your blog pages.
• Blog address ____________________________________
• Choose carefully -- this will become the URL for
  your blog. All lower case. No spaces. Hyphens OK.
  
• examples newthingilearnedtoday, info-lit

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Thank You for Attending!
P.S. If you set up your own blog, please send me
the URL and I will add it to the Clark College
Faculty Blog Im setting up.