A blog is a sort of online diary.
It's simple to use and can have many features. It's like an online newsletter
from the blogger to the user at home.
How can a blog help me in the
classroom?
Nowadays most families have
internet at home. Many parents are internet users. While a teacher is in the
classroom, she/he can blog what's going on during the lessons. Homeworks,
reading lists, instructions on how to help children, websites that teacher would
want the pupils to surf....anything can be put there.
How do I start?
First of all, DO NOT BE
daunted. Up to Feb 2008 there were 185620000 blogs online. If all those
people can do it, so can YOU.
A blog is hosted by a blog
website. Blogger.com, wordpress and blog.com and blog.com.mt ( .mt blogged by Maltese bloggers) are famous and reliable ones.
Edublogs.org is specific for teachers and students.
So...go to
www.edublogs.org (or any other blog
site-all are quite easy and fast to use.)
Register. You have to put in
your email account (if you use the educ.gov.mt one it's easier, because you
won't have to publicise your home account) and a password.
You are now the holder of a
blog account. You will have to go to your email account and check your mail.
You will have a link which will be your confirmation.
Try it first with something
simple. Like a welcome note for all the parents to see. Click on 'New Post'
and there you go...the commands are the same as Microsoft word. You can do
italics, bold, change colour and alignment...
On the 'dashboard' (there's a
dashboard button top right hand side) you can find tabs to customise the
look of your blog, to choose the design you like best.
A blog would look nicer if
you inserted a picture. You can either insert a picture from your computer,
or else insert a picture from a site by entering the address of the picture.
(right click on picture, copy what it says near properties). On the picture
upload window you can either put in this picture address near picture url or
else click on 'browse' and you will upload it from your computer.
Uploading videos. Sometimes
you will have videos you've made yourself via photostory, or else a video
you've taken during a class activity. All you need to do is register for a
YouTube account. Then you can upload the video from your computer (go on my
account, click on upload video...then you have to wait for upload and
rendering of the video). When the video is ready on youtube, click on the
link near 'embed', copy the link and paste it on your blog.
If you ever feel stuck, go on
the FAQ (frequently asked questions) list on your blog host or do a simple google search.
On youtube there are many
self help videos. Here is one put up by Blogger.
