BLOGS
After doing this activity you will be able to
- describe what a blog is and list ways you could use a blog in teaching
- access the WORDPRESS dashboard for your blog
- edit a blog post
- create a new blog post
- add tags and categories to help manage your blog posts
- embed media such as photos and video into your blog posts
- create a hyperlink from your blog post to another web site
Time
- It should take you about 60 minutes to complete this task.
Task format
- Primarily individual tasks.
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CONTENTS
Here are the contents of this session. You can click to visit the different activites, or simply scroll down.
What is a blog?
You’ve heard the term, but can you actually give a defintion?
- Go to http://google.com
- Enter this into the search box: define:blog [NOTE: This works for any word or concept that you need a definition for.]
- What are the keywords that describe what a blog is?
- HINT: Copy all the definitions from the GOOGLE search.
- Paste them into http://wordle.net. (Click the CREATE link, paste in your text, and then click GO.)
- Then set the MAXIMUM number of words to 50 (under the LAYOUT menu).
Here is short video about 'Blogs in plain English'. How well did WORDLE pick out the key terms and concepts?
- How do you think you could use a blog to help you in teaching English?
- Jot down your ideas and later you can post them as a comment to your blog at the end of this activity.
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Using a WordPress blog
Follow the sets of instructions to start you on your road to blogging in WordPress.
Let’s start blogging.
Go to the METU blog platfrom at http://blog.metu.edu.tr
- Enter your METU ID (your student number) and your password.
- You will see the DASHBOARD, which gives you all the controls for your blog.
- We will look at how to use the DASHBOARD to edit and create posts.
- You can explore the DASHBOARD in more detail by watching the video in the REFERENCES section at the end.
First use your DASHBOARD to edit the ‘HELLO WORLD’ post.
- Click the POSTS link in the DASHBOARD on the left.
- Click on the POST title “Hello World’ and edit the title to read “Hello CTE319!” and write a sentence or two about why you came to Cyprus.
- Change the date of the post to the date you first arrived in Cyprus (Click EDIT beside the PUBLISHED ON date)
- Add a tag “course task” (TAGs are like 'keywords' and help you find posts about similar things in a blog)
- Add a Category “cte319” (CATEGORIES are like file folders - you can group similar posts together under one heading.)
- Then click UPDATE
- To VIEW your blog click on your name in the top right corner.
Next create your first post.
- Click the SITE ADMIN link under the META heading.
- Click the POSTS link in the DASHBOARD on the left.
- Click on the ADD NEW link beside the POSTS title at the top.
- Write a few lines about your trip to Cyprus.
- How did you travel? How long did it take? Any interesting people you met on the way? Describe in detail the physical appearance of a fellow passenger that you remember.
- You can always come back later and edit or change the text
- Add a tag "trip" to the post.
- Change the date of the post to the date you actually travelled to Cyprus. (Click EDIT beside the PUBLISHED ON date)
- Then click UPDATE
- To VIEW your blog click on your name in the top right corner.
Now insert a picture into your first post.
- Click the EDIT link at the bottom right to edit your post.
- On the internet find a picture of your mode of transport to Cyprus.
- Insert this image into your blog post.
- Click on the HTML tab at the top right of the editing window.
- Click to put your CURSOR at the start of the first line.
- Click on the <img> button
- Copy and paste the URL of the image--make sure it ends in a JPG (it will look like http://--------.jpg)
- Add a a brief title
- Click on the VISUAL tab.
- Put your mouse over the image and click on the icon in the top left.
- Make the photo smaller and make it align on the RIGHT.
- Click UPDATE then view your blog.
Follow this by inserting a video into your first post.
- Click the EDIT link at the bottom right to edit your post.
- Find a short (1 to 2 minute) video on YouTube or Daily Motion video. about Cyprus. Copy the URL from the address bar.
- Click on the HTML tab.
- Paste the URL of the video on a new line in your blog post.
- Then click UPDATE
- To VIEW your blog click on your name in the top right corner.
- Click the EDIT link at the bottom right to edit your post.
- Add an open-ended task for people to add a comment, e.g., Which character in the video would you like to meet? What was the most memorable part of the video for you?
Hyperlink a word in your post to a web page.
- Click the EDIT link at the bottom right to edit your post.
- Open a new tab and search for the Wikipedia page about METU NCC.
- Copy the URL of the Wikipedia page from the address bar.
- Go back to the blog post you are editing.
- Highlight the word "METU.NCC" and click the icon in the toolbar that looks like the link of a chain.
- Paste in the URL in the link box.
- Choose "Open in a new window" as the target option.
- Then click UPDATE
- To VIEW your blog click on your name in the top right corner.
Finally, visit a colleague’s blog and post a comment.
- Go back to our CTE319 page in Facebook. Post your blog URL to the wall.
- Look at the list of blogs in posted on the wall. Visit the blog posted just after you. If you are the last, start back at the beginning.
- Find the post with the video about sights in Cyprus.
- Watch the video and answer the questions by adding a comment to the post.
- Return to your own blog and go to the DASHBOARD (Site Admin under META).
- Check for COMMENTS - you will have to APPROVE any comments to make them public.
Follow up: Over to you
How could you use a blog in teaching?
- Create a new blog post in your blog
- Consider some of the techniques you learned in creating and editing blog posts.
- List a few ways you could use these in teaching. Use the tag "blog teaching ideas" and the categories "cte319" and "blogs"
- Visit some of your colleagues blogs and find their blog post about teaching ideas for blogs. Add a comment to give some suggestions or other ideas to support their ideas.
REFERENCES
Want to learn more about using WordPress?
- Donwload WordPRESS for Dummies from the popular 'Dummies' series. You can find instructions to do most anything you want to do in WordPress here.
More about the DASHBOARD
- Here is a video that gives a brief overview about the dashboard in WORDPRESS 3.0:
Video tutorials about WordPress
Using blogs in EFL ESL
This work by Kristina Smith & Steve Neufeld is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at kristinaweb20.pbworks.com.
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