Blogging

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Blogging
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What is Blogging?

• "Blog" is an abbreviated version of "web-log,
• A blog is a frequently updatable, personal
  website featuring diary-type commentary and links
  to articles or other Web sites. Blogs range from
  the personal to the political, and can focus on
  one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.
• A blog is also referred to as a system used to
  organize and facilitate collaborative content
  creation.

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Why Blog?

• Blogging gives you the opportunity to easily
  share knowledge and information with students,
  parents and faculty.
• Communicate and Network with students internally
  or from around the globe.
• Develop online relationships with readers.
• Increase UMass Bostons visibility and community
  outreach.

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Some ways to use blogs

• Self-reflective and collaborative journal of
  students experiences at UMass Boston. Allow
  prospective students to read about UMass Boston
  student life first hand from current students.
• Student live journals. Example-Oklahoma Christian
  University
• Real life college experiences. Example- Ball
  State University
• Communicate with prospective students and their
  parents about admissions. Example-Colby College
• Outreach and network with current students about
  their learning environment. Example-MIT

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UMass Boston Blogs

• Academic Blog- Music Theory with Professor David
  Patterson
• Student Perspectives-Technology in the classroom
• Media Center student consultant media reviews
• Media Center WordPress blog

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Other Examples of Academic Blogs

• UCLA Undergrad Admissions
• Maricopa Community College
• Harvard Blogs

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How to start a blog

• The next few slides will demonstrate how to
  create a blog using WordPress

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Start blogging in 5 easy steps!

• Create an Account on WordPress.com
• Design the look of your blog with templates
• Manage your blog
• Start blogging
• Accessing your blog

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Step 1Create an Account

• Log on to www.wordpress.com
• Click on the Start your WordPress Blog icon

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Complete the Username, Email Address form.
Next pick your Blog name! This will be the 1st
part of your blogs URL( so make it good!) Also
here you can choose the Title for your Blog.
After you click on the signup button Step 1 is
Complete!!!
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Dashboard

• The Dashboard refers to your control panel, you
  can access everything for your blog from the
  dashboard.
• The dashboard gives you access to tons of useful
  information, but were going to keep to the
  basics for this lesson.

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Step 2 Designing your Blog

• Inside your Dashboard click on the
  Presentation link in the top navigation panel.
• WordPress has 57 different pre-made themes you
  can choose from, to add a theme to your blog
  simply find the one you like and click on it.

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Viewing Customizing your Blog

• To view your blog in its new theme, scroll back
  up to the top of the page and click on the View
  Site link.
• Most of the themes allow you to customize some
  aspect of them, such as color and the location of
  the navigation. So play around until you get
  something you like!

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Step 3Managing your Blog

• Adding users
• In the dashboard click on users
• WordPress allows you to add users and give them a
  specific role in the blog.
• First your users need to sign up for a WordPress
  account at wordpress.com so back to step 1, but
  this time the users just need to check off that
  they want an account, so no need to set up
  another blog.

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Managing your Blog Adding Users
Under the Users tab in the Dashboard enter the
users email address and then select the role you
would like to give them in the blog, you can
choose from Administrator, Editor, Author or
Contributor
To finish click the Add User Button
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Just incase you were wondering what these mean
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Managing your Blog Monitoring Comments
When someone leaves a comment on a blog post,
you will receive an email notification.
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Managing your Blog Monitoring Comments

• Log into your WordPress account to approve,
  decline, edit or respond to comment.

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Managing your Blog Blog Activity

• WordPress has a feature that allows you to see
  how many hits your blog has received.

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Managing your Blog

• To access the Blog Status click on Dashboard
  then Blog Stats

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Step 4Start Blogging

• Writing a Blog Post-The process of entering your
  writing in WordPress is easy.
• 1. Login to your WordPress Dashboard Panel.
• 2. Click the tab for Write.
• 3. Start filling in the blanks.
• 4. When you are ready, click Publish.
• That's it. For a step-by-step guide check out the
  WordPress tutorial

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Start BloggingAdding Images Docs

• While writing a post you may want to refer to an
  image or document. WordPress allows you to upload
  images files (.jpg/.jpeg/.png/.gif) PDF and Word
  documents and PowerPoint Presentations into your
  blog posts.

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Start BloggingAdding Images Docs

• Under the Write tab you will see two areas,
  the first box is where you write your blog post,
  the second box is to upload files. Click on the
  Browse button and locate the file you would
  like to add to your post. Provide a
  title/description and click Upload

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Start BloggingAdding Images Docs

• Depending on what you upload the next menu box
  will vary, the options for an image are related
  to size and if you would like the image to link
  to a file or another page. To finish click on the
  Send to editor button and the file will be
  added to your blog post.

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Step 5Accessing your Blog

• To access your blog simply
• Log onto www.wordpress.com
• Since your already hip.enter your username
  andpassword.

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Student AffairsBlogging Resources

• Where Student Affairs and Technology Meet
• Student Affair's.com

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Hungry for more?

• You can find more information about blogging on
  the Media Centers - Media Web website.
• And as with all of your multimedia needs you can
  contact me at Jessica.Downa_at_umb.edu for
  consulting and project ideas.