Thing 3

Welcome to Thing 3!

What is a blog?

A blog is one of the core publishing/communication tools of Web 2.0. A blog, at its simplest, is a website containing an archived series of posts (e.g. articles, news items, commentaries, journal entries, stories, reviews, summaries, etc...), organized by categories (or tags), with a place for readers to leave comments. Readers can subscribe to the blog using a special type of code called an RSS (or similar) feed. A blog may have one or many authors, and can be about any topic, from personal to political to professional.

Blogs connect ideas and people.

Blogging can provide writers and readers with an authentic opportunity to express themselves, synthesize ideas from many sources, engage in discussion and debate, write for an audience beyond one's immediate world, reflect on their own learning, teach and mentor others, and connect with peers and experts around the globe. As you work through the next few "Things," and the remainder of the course, you will begin to learn more about blogs and their powerful potential for personal and professional learning, reflection and communication.

Blogging Platforms:

Lots of options but we will use Blogger, for it's ease of use.

Step-by-step instructions
1. Go to http://www.blogger.com/ and sign in at the top right-hand corner with your Google account username and password. This will bring you to a sign up for Blogger screen. Some of the information may already be filled in for you (depending on what you told Google when you signed up for your account) but you will need to choose a display name and to accept the Blogger terms of service.

2. You now need to name your blog, and choose a web address (URL) for it. The address has to be unique so your first choice may not be available.

3. Now choose your preferred layout template for your blog. You can change this at any point for a different one.

4. Congratulations your blog exists. Simple!

Your first post
You now need to create your first blog post.

1. Click on the orange arrow that says 'start blogging' (if you have logged out and are returning, then click on 'new post' by your blog's name on your dashboard - the screen you see when you log in). This will bring you to the posting screen.

2. Enter a title for the post, and then type your text into the box. There is a toolbar at the top of the box which will allow you to format your text and add links and images.

3. Write something here about what you hope to get out of 23 things or your previous experience of Web 2.0 and social media, or whatever you wish. Perhaps you have always wanted to start a blog about a favourite hobby. Now you can!

4. When you have finished writing the post, type in 'Thing 3' in the labels box under the text box. You will need to tag all your posts with the number of the Thing being blogged about and any other descriptive words you want to use to help you find the post later on (just as we librarians add subject headings to catalogue records in order to help users retrieve books)

5. Click the 'Publish Post' button at the bottom of the screen, and your first post will be live.

Any problems?
If you got lost at all at any point above, I can recommend this Blogger tutorial (from YouTube)

To read about what makes a good blog post check out:
What makes a good blog post by Steve Wheeler