Thursday, January 28, 2010

Writing your first blog posts

Congratulations on setting up your new science blogs, perhaps your first blog ever.  I'd like you to try some writing before next week's class.  Go ahead and do the following:
  1. Have someone in your group email to me the URL for your blog so that I can link it to the central course blog.
  2. Coordinate with the others in your group to add a post that introduces your blog.  Explain to your readers what your blog is for, what you plan to cover, maybe even how you chose your name.  These are just suggestions.  It is your blog, so your introduction is up to you.
  3. Then I would like each member of your group to add one post prior to next week's class.  This can be on anything sciency that you like, but try to use the discussions we have had on good science writing when crafting your post.  I would prefer that you do not all wait until midnight on Tuesday to post.  Please give me some reading throughout the week.
  4. Check out a new You Tube video I posted today that runs through some tips on using Blogger to write posts.
  5. And of course be sure to read the selection of Tom's writing from my last post.
Lastly, feel free to tinker with the settings on your new blog.  The person in your group who set up your blog will need to go to the "permissions" tab under "settings" and make you an administrator for the blog.

Leave any questions you have as comments to this post and I will get back to you with answers.  Have fun.

4 comments:

  1. I noticed in your "tips" video that you have way more editing buttons than I do in the window for composing new blogs. Is there a way to get more buttons to show up? I'm missing the underline button and a button for font color. Is this because you're using Safari and I'm using Firefox? Or does Blogger just add buttons for the tags that you use most often?

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  2. I am not sure why that is happening. Maybe we can look at it together on a computer in class. It shouldn't be browser specific, but I know there are at least two versions of the editor. I am not sure how to switch back and forth.

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  3. Greg and I found the solution to the horrible editor problem. Since only admins can change between new(good) and old(horrible) editors, he just made us all admins. Now my editor has all the buttons and menus that it should have. You may want to point this out next class because a lot of people are having trouble with the editor, and it was probably because they were stuck with the old one.

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  4. Hello, I am watching your experiment with classroom blogging with excitement. The blogs so far are excellent. It prompted me to write a blog post (I would link here, but your settings do not allow copy+paste function) about classroom science blogging and the potential longevity of student blogs after the class is over - I would appreaciate your comments. We should also discuss the possibility of you (as a group) coming to ScienceOnline2011....

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