Blogging

=Blogging= As mentioned in the course syllabus, a blog is a versatile tool and will be a cornerstone of this semester. A blog can be used as a diary, a quick daily update, an online conversation place, a portfolio, etc. We will be both reading and writing blogs.

Here's a brief video introduction to blogs from Commoncraft.

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Blogs are very useful as a reflection and communication tool. To begin, simply start a blog at one of the following sites that seems most appealing to you (you may always switch at a later time--I've tried several).

[|Wordpress.com] - one of the more versatile and elegant options, especially when upgraded to your own server or a paid version. [|Wordpress guide]. [|Blogger.com] - fairly simple to use, run by Google and so can be linked to some other Google apps easily.

[|Edublogs.org] - education themed, easy to make connections to other educators but displays adds on your pages to help support free version.

Two of the newest and easiest blog sites are [|Tumblr] and [|Posterous]. Posterous is the simplest to use and has many ways to easily post to your blog (from your phone, email, etc.), but it has only one clean simple design. Tumblr is similar to Posterous but has many templates to customize the look of your site, but it isn't quite as simple as Posterous. Also, Tumblr is not set up for comments; there is a workaround for this in their FAQ but it makes things a little more complicated. For a comparison, read [|Posterous vs. Tumblr: A Head to Head Guide].

Other resources
Blogging - Full tutorial, with tasks from MSU's EdTech Labs

[|Blog Fodder] - some topics/resources pulled together to help you write by edublogger [|Dean Shareski]

Blogs by Discipline - wiki collection of education related blogs by subject and levels, thanks to [|Dr. Scott McLeod].

[|Supportblogging.com] - another excellent wiki collection of ed blogs, thanks to [|Will Richardson].