Inset Discussion

Some really fantastic ideas came out of today's discussion. Thank you everyone for being so enthusiastic.

Click on the images to enlarge them.

BLOGGING FOR DEPARTMENTS:

BLOGGING FOR TEACHERS:

BLOGGING FOR STUDENTS:

What is a Blog?

“A weblog is a hierarchy of text, images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed in an HTML browser.’’

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/whatmakesaweblogaweblog.html  

Blogs In Plain English

Why Blog?

• Blogging is an accessible, straightforward way of getting information, links, images, videos etc. online and can be as open access or restricted as you choose it to be. 
• It can be as “designed” or as simple as you choose it to be. It can be updated from anywhere with internet access and once set up it is very quick to use.  
• In a digital age, it is a format that students intuitively understand and respond to.  
• It is another tool that you can use.  And it’s free.

Blogging For Departments

• Creating a departmental blog is an excellent way of promoting the department. It can show work by students, share success stories and advertise upcoming events. You will have a unique and easy to remember web address that you can put on leaflets and link to from the website. 
• Within the department every teacher could have access and update it at regular intervals to spread the workload, making it a truly shared space. 
• Rather than being advertised, it could be a space purely for teachers to share good practice (updating with successful lessons or good examples of work)  
• Under supervision, students could run a blog for the department / subject.

Blogging For Teachers

• It’s a useful tool for setting work – you can easily include links, examples and update it at any time, so all students know what they’re doing. 
• It can become a forum for questions and answers – so if a lot of students have the same questions you’re not constantly answering them. 
• You can have separate blogs for different qualifications (AS/A2/EPQ/BTEC)

Blogging For Students

• It’s ideal for anything that requires a diary element (such as EPQ) or is a long term project. Students can quickly put in little snippets of information / links which will then be logged at a certain date. 
• They can update blogs at home and can check others (including yours) at any time they want. 
• By linking a group of students’ blogs together, they can see what each other is up to and you can easily dip in and out checking on their work when it’s convenient. It’s also useful if they’re doing group work.  
• Time needs to be given for students to set up blogs, and also for them to update them.  
• You can comment on their posts (should you want to!)  
• They can become part of a world wide community focused on your subject.

Skills For Students

• Work skills! Students who blog are used to articulating their thoughts and processes (without realising they’re learning these skills) and will find it easier to do so when asked to for their courses / future jobs. 
• They can use these skills to set up their own blogs and websites related to their eventual careers in the future. 
• For creative students, it is another outlet for them that can feed back into their work.  
• Students have been asked to put work onto blogs for university interviews, and even if they’re not, having a good blog can give them an edge at the selection stage.

The Purpose of Your Blog

Before you set your blog up, you need to think about the purpose of your blog:

PROMOTION

SETTING WORK

SHARING GOOD PRACTICE

EXTENDING INFORMATION FROM LESSONS

CENTRALISING INFORMATION

Creating Your Blog

1. Go to Blogger.com and sign up to a google account (use your college email when it asks for an email to keep it separate from any personal work).

2. When signed in, click on the New Blog button, give it a title, address and pick a template  

3. Click on your title to get the edit bar up on the left – this is where you can change the appearance of your blog. The main buttons you will use will be Layout and Template.

Template is exactly what it says – more appearance templates. If you want to customise it more, use a simple template.

Layout allows you to remove or add items and move things around. Good things to add are Links and Blog Roll. Blog Roll will be a list of blogs you want to keep an eye on – really good if it’s a class / student project rather than a promotional tool. If this is the case, make sure they add you (and each other?) too.

In Layout you can add a title image too if you want it to look more personal. There is a template for this on the O drive (O/Art 2012/Blogs)
 
4.  Now you’re ready to post – click the New Post button on the left.

5. Give it a title and start writing. If you want to add a link, image or video at any time, click the icon in the toolbar at the top and it will appear where you stopped writing. When you’re finished, you can preview it or just click Publish and there it is.

6. Your new post will automatically appear at the top of the blogroll of anyone following you. When anyone you’re following creates a new post, it will appear at the top of your blogroll, with the date, so you can keep an eye on how often people are posting.  
 

Some Useful Links

Blogger Buzz - A blog about using Blogger.com
A glossary of blog terms - from Harvard Law
WordPress.com - An alternative free blog hoster