Item 3: Blogging - Create a Blog

Now that you’ve done some exploring around this website and learned some more about our emphasis on Lifelong Learning, it’s time to start playing around with these web 2.0 technologies. Today you'll set up your very own personal blog - this is where you'll record your thoughts on Discover 2.0 topics and the activities you take part in.

First, read about blogs. Commentary abounds regarding the value of blogs in libraries and other institutions. Before you get started here, take a moment to reflect on your own opinions about blogs. What have you heard about them? What are you expecting to learn about them? Then, take a look at these articles.

• Take a look at the Wikipedia entry for blogging, particularly the Types section.
• View the Blogs in Plain English video from Common Craft.
  
• Meredith Farkas of the blog Information Wants To Be Free did a survey of what is called the biblioblogosphere (that's all the blogs out there that are library-related). Read through the results of her survey.
• Also, take a look at some of these blogs: Librarian.net, Librarian In Black, Infodoodads, iLibrarian

Now it's time to create your blog. We'll be creating a blog at the popular blogging site "Blogger." If you already have a Blogger blog, you will need to start a new one just for the purpose of this course. Blogger is a blogging platform that is now owned by Google, so part of setting up this blog will involve creating a Google account. Having a Google account is a good idea for this program, because there will be several different online tools that we'll look at the are part of Google, and logging in to your Google account will give you access to all of them.

1. First, go to Blogger.


2. Click on the Orange arrow marked "Create Your Blog Now". This is what you'll see:



















Some notes:
- Feel free to use your FVRL email address for this sign-up.
- Your display name does not have to be your real name - yes, you can go anonymous. The Discover 2.0 Team are the only staff members who need to know your true identity (and we'll ask for it in the next item).



3. Name your blog.

Your blog title? Be as creative as you like - remember, no one but the Discover 2.0 Team will know who you are.

Your blog URL? The easier to remember, the better. And WRITE THIS DOWN...



4. Select a template.

Now you are ready to write your first blog entry! Your first blog post should be an entry about which habits from the "7 1/2 lifelong learning habits" is the easiest and hardest for you and why.

If you are looking at your blog as others see it - with your lovely color scheme and such, then look at the top of your blog for the words "New Post," and click on it. This will take you to a page where you can write your blog entry. If you're in your "Dashboard" (the back end of your blog, where you can keep track of things) look for the New Post link under the name of your blog.

In either case, once you're at your blog entry form, pick a title for your blog entry, like "My thoughts on this whole blog thing," or something like that. Then write your blog entry in the next space.

As you progress through this program, you will usually be writing about something you found online - a web site or a blog post, for example. Be sure to link to it from your blog post. To do this:

• Copy the web address of the thing you want to link to.
• In the post that you are writing, highlight the word or phrase that you want to turn into a link.
• Click on the icon that looks like a chain link.
• Paste the web address into the form, and click OK.

At the bottom of each post, you can create tags for your post - if you are comfortable with creating tags, please do. If not, you can leave it blank and that's OK too. When you are ready to post your entry onto your blog, click the button marked "Publish."

When you publish an entry to your blog, you are putting it onto the Internet, and anyone who looks for it will be able to read it. Keep this in mind as you write and reminisce about the program, work, etc.

If you have troubles posting your blog, make use of Blogger's Help page or Blogger's Quick Tutorial.

If you need inspiration about what to write about in your blog when you're not doing the tasks in the program, check out iLibrarian's article "18 Different Kinds Of Blog Posts."

Questions, comments? Click on "Comments," and add your input. If you have a question, others probably do as well. If you know the answer to a question you see, please post that too!

Activities:

1. Read the blog background information.
2. Create your own blog through Blogger
3. Add your first post to your blog (an entry about the 7 1/2 lifelong learning habits, which is easiest and hardest for you and why).