YOU CAN GET STARTED IN A FEW MINUTES…
Starting a blog is as easy as creating an email account. You should decide on a user name, a password, and the name of your blog. You can start posting on your blog in a few minutes. Here are some basic instructions for opening a blog on Edublogs. (adapted from Edublogs sign up pages)

o At Edublogs.org, click on the blue link “Sign up here“.
o On the sign up page, choose a user name. Enter your email address. Check the terms of service box. Click on “Gimme a Blog!” Click on “Next.”
o Name your blog. The name should reflect the purpose of the blog.
o Give a title to your blog. Your blog’s title appears at the top of your blog pages.
o If you want your blog to be visible to anyone who visits and in public listings around the site, click on “Yes”.
o Select a blog type. (Teacher, Student or Other)
o Select a language.
o Click on the “Sign Up” button.
o Check your inbox and click the given link to activate your account.
o Get your password and then login to your account. (The page that you see when you login is a kind of a control panel where you can post messages, change the look of your blog, moderate comments, etc.)
o Click on the “Write a New Post” link. Give a title and write your post.
o Click on “Publish” to send it to your blog.
In order to learn more about the features, you can watch the video tutorials on Edublogs.org.
Because I am a highly visual person, I prefer to start by changing the look of my blog. When you click “Design”, you can see that there are more than ninety themes with different features. After changing the theme, I customise the side bars using the Widget system. (There are one or two side bars depending on the theme) This is my second favourite activity:). You should click “Design” and then “Widgets”. The greatest thing is you can add different interesting widgets by adding “Texts” to your sidebar and then pasting the html codes of the widgets you want to add. Here are some widget options:
Clustrmaps: This is a tiny map on with red dots which grow as your blog’s readers, from around the world, visit your blog. Students love watching the red dots grow and it reminds students that they are part of a global audience.
Flickr Slideshow: You can share photos with your students and parents by adding a Flickr Slideshow to your sidebar. First, you must have a Flickr account. After you get familiar with Flickr, you can click this link to see how you can add a Flickr Slideshow to your sidebar.
Feedjit Maps Live Traffic Feed: Students can see from which countries and cities are the visitors from.
Box.net Box Widget: The Box widget is one of my favourites because it makes my life easier. It is a box on your sidebar where visitors can download files. We call it the “Homework Box” and my students always know where the homework is.
Polldaddy: You can now create surveys and polls for your blog.
Daily Factoid, Clocklink, Site Meter are the other Widgets I use on my blog.
And some blog tools…
Smilebox: You can create scrapbooks, slide shows, postcards, and more to post on your blog with this tool.
Voice Thread: You can create online presentations with audio and text. You can incorporate PowerPoint, Flickr, Word, PDF, and more. Teachers get a free account.
MakeBeliefsComix.com: You choose your characters, add word or thought bubbles, and complete with your own text to create your very own comic strip. This is a fun activity for students to incorporate in their blogs, too.

INTRODUCE THE BLOG TO YOUR STUDENTS & MAINTAIN INTEREST…
This is the best part of blogging! When I first introduced the blog to my students, the expression on their faces was worth seeing. I said to myself, “I managed to impress my Digital Natives!”

Here are some ideas to maintain your students’ interest:

o Choose blog assistants every month. Students feel more involved if you give them responsibility. First, talk about the responsibilities of “Blog Assistants”. (e.g Responding to friends’ comments regularly, finding good links and reporting to teacher, helping the teacher find interesting content for the blog, etc.) You can take Blog Assistants’ photos and post a message to the blog introducing that month’s assistant. (I only use students’ first names, not surnames.)
o Reply to student comments regularly.
o Send compliments to your students from time to time.
o Praise students who write comments regularly. This motivates the other students as well.
o Learn about your students’ interests, their favourite things and put some fun stuff up on the blog. Update this stuff regularly. (e.g. Music videos, songs and lyrics, podcasts, funny videos, episodes from Garfield, etc.)
o Give links to other class blogs.
o Give useful links and make sure that the links are appropriate to their level and interests.
o Write your posts in a conversational tone.
o Put some thought into your headlines and try to find eye-catching headlines.
o Reward your top commentors. You can give certificates to the students who write the most and the best comments. Let them know that the students who write the most comments are going to be awarded with a certificate. Don’t forget to mention that not only the number but also the quality of comments is very important. (Click here to see my best bloggers this year.)

We come to the end of the second part. I hope it was useful for you and you enjoyed reading it. In the next and the last entry there will be following headings:

* YOU HAVE CREATED A CLASS BLOG… HOW CAN YOU MAKE YOUR BLOG AN EFFECTIVE LEARNING TOOL?
* MODERATING STUDENTS’ COMMENTS, CORRECTING MISTAKES

HAPPY BLOGGING!

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