BLOGGING 1Basic concepts

Paul McNultyStevenson College

03/06/2010

What is a blog?

Discussion point

What is a blog?

a content publishing system where entries are added over time

often - but not always - one ‘owner’ most recent content is placed at the top

of the page may contain many different types of data many different applications

What is a blog for ?

Discussion point

What is a blog for ?

expressing thoughts and opinions collecting related information creating a community focus as a journal or diary disseminating resources as a noticeboard

What different kinds of blog are there?

personal business teaching and learning lifestyle news/political magazine

Where do you find blogs?

As with everything on the internet, there are lots of ways to find things, but two good starting points for blogs are:

www.technorati.com www.blogsearch.google.com

Find four blogs

www.technorati.com www.blogsearch.google.com

Activity

Discussion

What interested you about the blogs you found?

What was similar about each blog? What was different?

BLOGGING 2Building a blog

Paul McNultyStevenson College

03/06/2010

Building a blog

Blogs can either be hosted on your own

server or online

We’re going to be looking at online

hosting today

Building a blog

These are some sites you can use: wordpress blogger livejournal Tumblr Typepad (not free)

…there are many others!

Building a blog

We’re going to be using wordpress today

Building a blog

www.wordpress.com will allow you make and host a blog online

www.wordpress.org supplies software to host a blog on your own server

Building a blog

Spend just 1 minute thinking about the name of your blog*

* that’s just for this session – when you do it again, take as long as you like!

Building a blog

First, we’ll need to sign up

Go to: www.wordpress.com

Building a blog

<<< if you see this,

choose another name

Building a blog

You’re in the driving seat of your blog!

explore the interface

insert content

Activity

Building a blog

You can extend the blog with:

tags and categories themes widgets plugins blogrolls linkback methods

BLOGGING 3Taking it further

Paul McNultyStevenson College

03/06/2010

How might you use blogs in your field?

Discussion point