Tuesday February 6

First, I’ll be checking to see who still needs to sign up for Google classroom and Remind.

Then we’ll continue our discussion about the learning goals and success criteria. You will, in your groups, summarize the success criteria you generated on some chart paper. Make it neat and visible from far away.

Next….

Your blog will be an important tool throughout this course, so in this lesson you will explore blogging as a form of communication.

What is a Blog?The word “blog” evolved from “web log.” It is an online journal or diary, and while some people do blog about very personal things, what distinguishes it from a traditional diary or journal is that it is at least semi-public and usually allows others to comment.

Anatomy of a Blog Post

What Makes a Good Blog Post?

What should be the word choice, level of language, and tone considering your audience and purpose?

Since your blog is a work in progress and your audience includes your peers, your tone may be more informal. However, you’re also trying to explore literary works and their context so use correct literary terminology to show that you understand the material. Here are some other things to keep in mind:

  • Include an effective title that tells your reader what your post is about and encourages them to read further. Don’t just call your post: Blog Post #1.
  • Write in well-developed sentences and paragraphs. Your paragraphs help group your ideas and make it easier for the reader to understand what you’re trying to say. That doesn’t mean you can’t ever have one-sentence paragraphs, but if you make that choice, be sure you’re doing it for a specific reason. You may choose to use a one-sentence paragraph for emphasis. Or you may choose a sentence fragment to add a sense of excitement or drama to a post.
  • This is a more informal style of writing so feel free to inject your personality into the writing. Humour is more than welcome; however, be respectful of your peers and the learning environment. Word choice may include some slang, but it should not be offensive. Be respectful of the diversity of your audience and consider how certain word choices may affect individuals.
  • Blogging should invite feedback; therefore, keep your level of language informal and conversational. Write in first person.
  • Feel free to include images, links, and multimedia.

Tag your posts with key words that help people figure out what your post is about. (Read more about tagging below)

All About Tags

Tags are key words that are used to sort and organize posts. They also help people find your post when doing an Internet search, as well as find related posts within a blog.

In the above example taken from a post on the music blog, Indie Music Filter, you can see that the blog post is has been tagged with key words that identify the name of the band and track. There are also tags that are used as larger categories (Chris, Bands, IMF). Not every blogging platform allows you to tag posts or add categories; however, when they do, they can be very useful for both readers and writers. If I were to click on the key word “moon king” I’d find other posts on this blog that also had that tag.

Think about how key words could be used effectively in your own blog to help the followers of your blog and to help bring other readers to your blog (through web searches).

Comments

Comments are one of the most essential parts of blogging. By enabling comments, writers can open up a dialogue between reader and writer. Ideas can continue to develop or perhaps even change course, but this only happens when comments are effective. What makes an effective comment?

Criteria for an Effective Comment

  • Comment: I agree / I disagree / I think… (point out something significant or important in the post)
  • Support: Because … (Give a reason for your comment. Back it up.)
  • Question: I wonder if…? Have you considered…? (This is optional, but it extends the conversation which is ideal!)
  • Be Polite: It’s important to be a good digital citizen and to conduct yourself online in a way that is polite and respectful of other peoples’ ideas.

Blogging Platforms

Most of the instructions on our site will give you instructions for setting up your blog using WordPress, so that is probably the best choice. However, if you’ve used another blogging platform before and you like it, you can probably use it. Just check with me first. Here is a list of the most common blogging platforms and instructions for how to get started with each of them. Here are instructions for the most common blogging platforms.

 
Google Blogger Getting Started with Google Blogger
Edublogs Getting Started with Edublogs
WordPress Getting Started with WordPress

 

NOTE: When you set up your blogs, you will often have the option to “moderate” comments. If you choose this option, then make sure you check your blog regularly for comments, otherwise, your classmates won’t see when they’ve posted a comment.

Once your blog is set up, send me you blog’s url. If you’re not sure how to find the url, ask me. You can enter it here:

After you’ve set up your blog, I want you to think back to our discussion about the learning goals for this course. Write me a blog post where you tell me about what you think your strengths and areas for growth are with regard to the learning goals.