Setting up a blog



This page outlines some different ways to setup a blog.

First, Watch the video entitled Blogs and the Juvenile Delinquent.



Sources for Blogs and the Juvenile Delinquent

Setting up an External Blog
When setting up an online blog for your classroom, you have a number of free online websites that offer blogs to choose from. The basic steps are these:

1. Find a decent blogging provider that appeals to you. Some may include classblogmeister.com, JournalHome.com, Blogger.com, WordPress.com, TheDiary.org, Mindsay.com, Blog.com, Diaryland.com, or Blogdrive.com. Most of these sites are pre-made with templates and push-button publishing that don't require much technical know-how.

2. Once you sign up, you'll have a gallery of ready-made templates to choose from. Select one and personalize it. Add your name, interests, images, etc.

3. Decide on whether or not you want your blog to be private or personal: do you want any Internet visitor to be able to read your blog, or do you just want your class to be able to read it? Most blog sites offer the ability to password-protect your published posts so only those who you approve of can view what you've written.

4. Decide on how you want your blog to look. You can pick a color scheme and layout. Most sites come with a set of predefined layouts and schemes that you can choose from, or you can edit your own.

5. After you've set up your blog, write a few posts to test it out, and make any adjustments to the layout or style that you see fit.

6. Setup your blog to allow your students to post on it.



If you are interested in setting up an external blog use the following resources:


 * Movie about how to setup blogger blog
 * Tutorial on how to setup a classblogmeister.com blog
 * Wordpress.com sign-up site

Setting up an Internal Blog
Most districts have a tech support team to help you setup a district blog. Internal blogs will be installed on a district webserver and usually only can be accessed from district computers. Contact your school or district tech support team to have them set a blog up for you. There are thousands of free blog software packages out there that can be downloaded and installed including:


 * Wordpress
 * Drupal
 * b2evolution
 * pMachine Free
 * Nucleus

Return to the Main Page Using Blogs and Wikis in Education or move on to Setting up a wiki.