1. Blogs, Blogging, Blogosphere
A new way to
communicate & collaborate
Dr. Gambari, A. I.
E-mail: gambarii@yahoo.com
Website: www.gambari.mgfglobal.com
Blogsite: www.drgambari.com

2. What is a Blog?
• Blog is short for Web Log.
• Think of it as a journal of fact
based opinions.
• People can read your posted
writing and comment on it.

3. Do’s of Blogging
• Treat your blog as a classroom space.
• It is not a place for personal and private issues that are not
related to school topics.
• Blogs are about ideas. Agree or disagree with idea, not the
person.
• Make specific suggestions and back up your opinions with facts.

4. Don’ts of Blogging
• Do not post or give out your family name, password, home
address, phone number, or any personal information that would
give information that would help someone directly locate you or
contact you in person.
• Use these same guidelines when referring to class members.
• Do not post anything you would not want your family, teachers,
or friends to read.
• Use correct English and be aware that everything you post is a
reflection of you.
• Don’t always believe everything you read online. You need to
make a judgment about whether it can be trusted.

5. Steps to Using a Classroom Blog
1. Register a
Classroom Blog as
a Teacher
1a. Write, edit and
publish class blogs as
a teacher
2. Add students to your
classroom blog so that
they can post blog
articles
3. Student composes
an article related to
an assignment
4. Student gives the
article to teacher for
review
4a. Teacher reviews
the student article
5. Classmates or
other audiences read
and comment to the
student article
5a. Teacher reads and
approves comments
before they are
published

6. Terminology: Blogosphere
• Blogosphere is the collective term
encompassing all blogs as a
community or social network.
• Many weblogs are densely inter-
connected;
• Bloggers read
– others' blogs
– link to them,
– reference them in their own writing,
and
– post comments on each others' blogs.
– See http://technorati.com)

7. Blogs: Educational Uses Generally
1. Standard Class Webpage(s):
• Address recurring questions/issues
1. Interesting developments that relate to the theme of the
course (via instructor)
• Current events, Web sites mentioned, etc.
1. Organization of in-class discussion
• Blogging has distinct advantages over more common
threaded discussion in its support of style, ownership and
identity
1. Group Blogs: students create (and present?) a group project
using a blog

8. Primary Beneficial Outcomes
• Students learn course material both individually and
collaboratively
• Learning from peers is enhanced through blog visits
• Students improve writing skills
• Students write for a “public” audience
• Students learn the potential uses of blogs and how to
manage them

9. Secondary Beneficial Outcomes
• More teacher-student contact through e-mail
• Teacher learns from the students
• Forum for peer social interaction
• Students express their individuality and values
• Affords shy students the opportunity to find their ‘voice’

10. How to write your blog
• How to find topics to write about
– Ideas from the work you are doing
– Books you are reading
– Tools you are using
– Problems you are facing
– Interesting news and information you have found on other
blogs or other web sites

11. How to write your blog
– You can write longer articles using a dedicated blogging text
editor (Windows Live Writer –
http://explore.live.com/windows-live-writer) which
displays them as they will appear in the blog.
– You can start writing more important articles in longhand,
then edit and change them until you are satisfied, and paste
them in Windows Live Writer, for the final layout touches.

12. How to write your blog
• You can edit your blog posts using Style Writer (available from Editor
Software: http://www.editorsoftware.com), a program that helps
tighten your writing.

13. Starting your own blog
• Starting a blog
– When you arrive at blogger
1. Create an account,
2. Name your blog, and
3. Choose a template.

14. How to start your own blog
• Domains
• You should get your own domain for your blog.
• Your blog address will end up in the
http://sojiadewumi.blogspot.com format.

15. How to start your own blog
• Free blogging platforms
– Blogger and WordPress.
– Blogger (owned by Google) is free.
– WordPress also is free, but you may have to pay for some
features.
– Other blogging platforms available are TypePad Micro, etc.
• Blogger: https://www.blogger.com/start
• WordPress: http://wordpress.com
• TypePad Micro: http://www.typepad.com/micro/features

16. How to start your own blog
• Creating an account
– Blogger
• Go to https://www.blogger.com/start
• Sign in using your Google Account login
• Click on Create a Blog
– WordPress
• Go to http://wordpress.com
• Click on Sign up now

17. How to start your own blog
• Selecting a template
– Blogger
• Once you have created your blog, you have access to a
dashboard for all your blogs.
• Select Layout
• Select the Template link, and browse from the available
templates

18. How to personalize your blog
– Reader comments
• Decide how to handle comments
– Allow them or not
– Moderate them or not
– Moderate only those that are older than a certain
number of days.
– Beware of blog spam (comments left on blog posts
with the only purpose to attract visitors to some Web
site or other page).

19. How to personalize your blog
– Tabs and info about your blog
• If your blogging platform features them, use tabs or
separate pages.
• You can have one page for your posts, and other pages for
more permanent information (about links to your articles,
and so on).

20. How to personalize your blog
– Statistics
• Some blogging platform tells you
– how many hits you got,
– but also which pages attracted the most visitors,
– where your reader came from, and
– technical information such as the operating system and browser used by
your visitors.
• Some blogging platforms offer tools to track statistics. In Blogger
you can use Blogger’s own, or you can add them yourself.
• http://www.google.com/analytics/
• http://sitemeter.com/
• http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/counter/index.php

21. How to personalize your blog
• There are others ways in which you can personalize your
blog
• Many gadgets are available to help making your blog more
attractive:
– Blogroll (a list of links to other blogs)
– Buttons that show your blog ratings
– Links to your archive (the list of your older posts)
– Categories or tags to help users find your posts on a specific subject
– Search box to allow readers to find specific topics
– Slideshows
– Polls
– etc.

22. How to personalize your blog
– All blogging platforms offer many templates you can choose
from.
– You can add an RSS / Atom feed to your blog (so people
may subscribe to it and follow it with readers such as Google
Reader)
– Reader comments
– Tabs and info about your blog
– Statistics
– Other things

23. An account will
only require
 A working
email,
 A unique user
name, and
 A unique blog
address.

24. • Next, you need to choose the title of your blog.
• In order to make sure that you are in fact a human blogger,
(rather than an automated system which is phishing) you will
need to verify the wacky words in green.

25. Blogger tells you what its progress is and should reward you
with a start posting arrow.

26. • The first thing you will see it a rich text editor, also known as a
WYSIWYG editor.
• This should emulate your experience with Ms Word.
• The rich text editor allows you to blog and link and italicize.
• When you finish
with your post,
click Publish Post.

27. You will be rewarded with a Publishing in Progress bar…

28. And when you are done, you can click
on the View Blog button and…
And that is it. You have just created a blog and
published your first blog post.

29. Online Collaboration
Dr. Gambari, A. Isiaka
E-mail: gambarii@yahoo.com

30. You will require to be connected to the
Internet to access www.pbworks.com (your
wiki host)
Go to www.pbworks.com
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32. The next screen asks you to “Choose a
plan that fits”
PBWorks has several options for
educational wikis.
The features vary (as does the cost), but
the basic wiki features will meet your needs
Click on “Select” for the Basic Plan
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34. You will be asked to sign in with some basic
information
I suggest you choose an address that is easy
for you and your students to remember e.g.
profabass.pbworks.com
Click “Next” once you have completed adding
your information
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37. You will need access to a printer to
complete this step
You can set up accounts for your students
by clicking the “Classroom Accounts” link
on the settings page (on the left side
navigation bar

39. Choose the number of accounts you will need for
your class (or classes)
Choose “Writer” for their permission level for
limited access
Click “Continue”

41. On this page, you will be able to give your
students usernames for their wiki accounts
It is recommended that you use initials or
first names only for privacy and safety

43. You will be asked to confirm your students’
usernames and passwords
After confirming, a PDF of the account
information will be generated for you to print,
cut, and distribute to your students

45. This page will ask you to print your account list.
The list will be divided into strips for you to cut and
distribute to your students
You may want to copy a master list for your
records

47. Your print out will include a master list at the
top and a divided list (for individual
students) at the bottom.
You may want to make a copy before giving
to your pupils

49. • You can upload images and files to your wiki
• When in “Edit”, you will see an option on the
right side of the screen to “Insert Links” to files
• Click on the type of file you want to upload or
link (“Pages” or “Images and Files”)
• Follow the prompts to complete the upload