If you can't see the video, click here to watch it on the Common Craft website.
Discovery Resources
To get an idea of how blogs might be used in education, read the following articles:
- "Blogging to Learn" by Anne Bartlett-Bragg
- "Rationale for Educational Blogging" by Anne Davis
- "Student Blogging Guidelines" by Kim Cofino
Next, click here for a list of blogs created and maintained by and for educators. These have been selected to show you a variety of uses and styles of blogs. Choose 5 from this list to explore.
Discovery Exercises
To complete Thing 1, you must:
A. Create your own blog
B. Register your blog with the 8 Things Facilitator
C. Reflect on Thing 1 on your new blog
A. Create Your Blog
Now that you have an idea of what blogs are, let's see how easy it is to create your own! This is an important task, as you will be using your blog to reflect on your progress throughout this 8 Things program. At the end of each Thing, you will be asked to post to your blog – and the project facilitator will read your blog to verify that you have completed all tasks. There are many blog services available. We will be using Blogger; however, if you are more comfortable with another blogging service, feel free to use it. Watch this video to learn how to set up your blog then go to Blogger and create your own. Be creative when naming your blog --- do not call it "8 Things." Also, remember to use your Google account email and password that you created when you registered for this program.
Need more help? Try Blogger's help page on Getting Started With Blogs.
IMPORTANT NOTE: How you choose to identity yourself on your blog is up to you. You can blog under a screen name, anonymously, or with your real name. Remember that the whole web world can see your blog title and blog address, so you may want to consider creating a blog name that’s anonymous, yet uniquely you. (For example: coolestmathteacher, boblearns8things, tigerteacher, etc.)
Once you’ve created your blog here are two important things to know:
- To add posts: The maintenance interface that you will use to add posts, edit or change the step-up your blog is accessed online at http://www.blogger.com/ Be sure to write down your login and password.
- To view your blog: Your blog address is http://(xxxx).blogspot.com, (xxxx)=the unique identifier you entered when creating your blog. Be sure to also write down your blog address. (Try using this form to keep track of your usernames and passwords).
B. Register Your Blog
Once your blog is created, you must register your blog address by completing this form. Remember, your blog address is "_________.blogspot.com" -- it's a unique address that you created when you created your blog. Yours will be listed under “Participant Blogs” in the right-side column of this blog so that others can see what you’re doing – an important part of becoming an online community of learners.
C. Reflect - Blog Prompt for Thing 1
At the end of each Thing, you will be asked to post to your blog. Your reflective post should provide insight into what you’ve discovered and learned. Write about what worked, what didn’t, what you might try in your classroom, any surprises, frustrations, or eureka moments. I will offer some blog prompts. You do not have to answer all the questions nor should you feel limited by them -- they are just prompts to get you thinking. Click here for more guidelines for your blog posts. Make sure that the title of each blog post refers to the Thing that you are writing about (by number) -- give this first post the title: Thing 1.
- Why are you participating in 8 Things? What do you hope to learn?
- What new insights did you have during Thing 1?
- What is your reaction to the blogs you explored from the "Blogs for Review" list? What did you like, dislike, or find interesting?
- How does writing on the Internet, knowing anyone could read it, change how you write or feel about writing?
- Did you get any ideas for how you might use blogs in an educational setting? If so, please share!
Bonus: RSS
RSS is a special type of computer code that allows users to know automatically when new "stuff" is added to their favorite websites. An RSS feed, which looks like a scary piece of computer code is an incredibly powerful, amazingly useful piece of Web 2.0 technology that is not actually scary at all (honest!). RSS, which stands for Rich Site Summary, or Really Simple Syndication, allows web users to subscribe to multiple websites and have new content delivered to them automatically in one location, called an RSS reader or aggregator. Instead of visiting each website to check for new information, the user simply checks his or her reader, which has collected and organized all of the new content using RSS. In short, when you set up an RSS reader and subscribe to the content (feeds) you choose, it's just like creating a customized newspaper or magazine containing only the stories, media and information you want to read, delivered "fresh" to you every day - spam-free, ad-free, and just-plain free!
- Click here for a video that explains RSS feeds.
- Click here for a video that explains Google Reader, an RSS aggregator.
- Go to Google Reader (http://google.com/reader) to set up an account.
- Click here for a video about how to set up your Google Reader account.
- Start subscribing to blogs! (You might consider subscribing to the blogs of all of the 8 Things participants in order to get automatic updates when they post, or you might want to explore other educational blogs, such as those listed on the Blogs for Review page.)
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