Blogging

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.

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 Boston’s visibility and

community outreach.

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

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

Other Examples of Academic Blogs

• UCLA Undergrad Admissions

• Maricopa Community College

• Harvard Blogs

How to start a blog

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

Start blogging in 5 easy steps!

1. Create an Account on WordPress.com

2. Design the look of your blog with templates

3. Manage your blog

4. Start blogging

5. Accessing your blog

Step 1Create an Account

• Log on to www.wordpress.com• Click on the

“Start your WordPress Blog” icon

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!!!

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 we’re going to keep to the basics for this lesson.

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.

Viewing & Customizing your Blog

• To view your blog in it’s 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!

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.

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

Just incase you were wondering what these

mean…

Managing your Blog Monitoring Comments

When someone leaves a comment on a blog post, you will receive an email notification.

Managing your Blog Monitoring Comments

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

Managing your Blog Blog Activity

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

Managing your Blog

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

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

Start BloggingAdding Images & Doc’s

• 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.

Start BloggingAdding Images & Doc’s

• Under the “Write” tab you will see two area’s, 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”

Start BloggingAdding Images & Doc’s

• 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.

Step 5Accessing your Blog

To access your blog simply…

• Log onto www.wordpress.com

• Since your already hip….enter your username andpassword.

Student AffairsBlogging Resources

• Where Student Affairs and Technology Meet

• Student Affair's.com

Hungry for more?

• You can find more information about blogging on the Media Center’s - Media Web website.

• And as with all of your multimedia needs you can contact me at Jessica.Downa@umb.edu for consulting and project ideas.