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Naketa Ferguson, Regional ICT Facilitator, CORE Education Ltdhttp://blog.core-ed.net/naketa

What's a blog?A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space.

A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world.

Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.

In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your

visitors can read what's new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.

Since Blogger was launched in 1999, blogs have reshaped the web, impacted politics, shaken up journalism, and enabled millions of people to have a voice and connect with others.

Taken from http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g

Image Credit to www.flickr.com/photos/jhhwild

Auckland 2 Cluster Blogs

Next Generation Childcare www.nextgenerationchildcare.blogspot.com, Naketaʼs Blog www.blog.core-ed.net/naketa, Manaia Kindergarten www.manaiakindergarten.blogspot.com,

and ICT in ECE http://www.ictece.blogspot.com/

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Naketa Ferguson, Regional ICT Facilitator, CORE Education Ltdhttp://blog.core-ed.net/naketa

Why blog?“A blog gives you your own voice on the web. It's a place to collect and share things that you find interesting— whether it's your political commentary, a personal diary, or links to web sites you want to remember. Many people use a blog just to organize their own thoughts, while others command influential, worldwide audiences of thousands. Professional and amateur journalists use blogs to publish breaking news, while personal journalers reveal inner thoughts” taken from Blogger.com

Before you consider creating a blog there are a number of things you should take into consideration. For me the most important aspect is the ʻpurposeʼ of creating a blog? Why are you creating it? The reasons for creating a blog are varied, from daily documentation, communication with parents, reflective journals and e-portfolios. To get an idea of different uses take the time to explore blogs on different topics. You can search within blogger to find a wide variety of blogs or for educational blogs in New Zealand visit you will find some here http://www.nz-interface.co.nz/blog/.

Secondly, you will need to think about permissions and consent. How will you seek permission of teachers, students, parents and whānau? Will you upload video, images, writing? When you do acquire parent permission to use images and video on the blog are you comfortable that they have made their decision based on all the information i.e. informed consent. For further information on Cybersafety visit http://www.netsafe.org.nz.

Along with these key aspects think about who will contribute to the blog? What systems will you put in place to ensure the blog is regularly updated? Will you make it private or open to the public?

Getting StartedBlogger is a product of Google so if you have a Google Account you can sign in using your existing Google details. However, if you do not have a Google Account you will have to create one before starting your new blog.

Google AccountIf you do not have a Google Account you will have to sign up for one. Having a Google Account allows you to use a number of applications including Google Docs for collaborative documents, Gmail for Emails, Picassa for photos and a whole lot more...

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Naketa Ferguson, Regional ICT Facilitator, CORE Education Ltdhttp://blog.core-ed.net/naketa

Signing upNow you will have to accept the terms and condition of using Blogger and create a Display Name. I use ‘Naketa’ other people use pseudonyms. The choice is entirely yours. Type in your display name and click on the orange arrow to continue.

Name your blogNow its time to name your blog. Giving your blog a title can be a difficult task but remember you can always delete your blog later on if it doesn’t suit your purpose. I have a blog called “Naketa’s Photo a Day blog”, some of my centres have “Manaia Kindergarten” or “Next Generation” again the choice is entirely yours. You will also have to think about a url address i.e. naketa.blogspot.com or imsocool.blogspot.com. However, popular ones like that could already be taken, check availability to make sure. When you have done that ...click on Continue.

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Naketa Ferguson, Regional ICT Facilitator, CORE Education Ltdhttp://blog.core-ed.net/naketa

Choosing a backgroundLike any website you have the option to personalise the look and feel of your blog. Blogger allows you to personalise the colours and format of your blog. They provide a number of options for you to choose from. You can test them out before committing to a certain one by pressing the ‘Preview template’ link at the bottom of each style. and you always have the option to change the colours, fonts, headers and template later on. Click continue!

You’ve got a Blog!!You will then be taken to a page that says that you blog has been created. Click on the ‘Start Blogging’ arrow.

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Naketa Ferguson, Regional ICT Facilitator, CORE Education Ltdhttp://blog.core-ed.net/naketa

Your 1st post...Now you can post things to your new blog. In the posting tab you will find everything you need to write and personalise your text, upload images and video, add labels, publish and save your posts.

You can use the ‘Save Now’ button to revisit posts and publish at a later date.‘Publish post’ will process

your work and publish straight to the blog.

Create your posts in this section. You can use a variety of images, video and text inside one post.

Type your title here. Ensure your title is relevant to your

content and short and sharp to capture the readers attention.

Preview your post at anytime to get an idea on what it will look like published.

Use labels to easily identify the content of your post. On

the main page you can use labels to find all the posts about teachers,

blue etc. Depending on the labels you choose.

Enlarge or reduce file size and change font

format. Change font colourFont alignment

Quote marks for text, these look quite effective when quoting

another source. Upload video

Upload imageNumbers and

bulletsHyperlink textItalics and Bold

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Naketa Ferguson, Regional ICT Facilitator, CORE Education Ltdhttp://blog.core-ed.net/naketa

Adding an image to your blogYou can add 1 to 5 images at any one time. Ensure you have copyright to use these images on your blog. If you have the image under a creative commons license ensure you give full credit to the owner of the image.

Type your title

Click on add image icon

Click on browse and search for your image

on your computer.A window like this will appear for you to find

the image. Sometimes placing

the images you want to use on the desktop

makes it a much easier process. Click open when you find the one you want

Choose where you want the image to sit

Once you have chosen your images click

“upload image”. This may take a while if the

files are large. A window like this will appear when your

images are uploaded. Click ‘done’ which will take you back to your

post.

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Naketa Ferguson, Regional ICT Facilitator, CORE Education Ltdhttp://blog.core-ed.net/naketa

Continue writing your post and preview to ensure it looks the way you want to.

When you have completed this “Publish Post”.

“View Blog” to see what everyone else will see when they visit your blog. If you find

that you would like to make changes find the pencil on the bottom right hand corner and make your changes. Push publish post to

save again.

Edit posts using this icon

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Naketa Ferguson, Regional ICT Facilitator, CORE Education Ltdhttp://blog.core-ed.net/naketa

Adding a video to your blogYou can add video to your blog in a variety of ways. You can add them from your computer, or use an HTML code to embed video from websites such as Youtube, Animoto or Slideshare.

Click on add video icon

Type your title

Click on browse to find the video in your computer. Click on open when you have found your video.

Name your video

By ticking this box you agree that the video does not

contain obscene materials and you have full copyright of its content. Even background music to the video needs to

be copyright free.

Upload your video. You will not be able to continue unless you have ticked the terms and conditions box.

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Naketa Ferguson, Regional ICT Facilitator, CORE Education Ltdhttp://blog.core-ed.net/naketa

A window like this will appear when you have clicked on “upload video”. This takes a long time

especially if the files are large in size.

Once the movie is uploaded your video will appear like this one shown to the right. Only then will you

be able to “publish post” or “save”. You can still add images and text to your post.

Video looks like this when it is posted to the blog.

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Naketa Ferguson, Regional ICT Facilitator, CORE Education Ltdhttp://blog.core-ed.net/naketa

To add video from external sites like Youtube find the video you like. You will see on all “embeddable”

videos an ‘embed code’. Copy the entire HTML code.

Go back to your blog post and paste the entire code. Then push publish post,

The video will appear in your blog like the one shown to the left. You can get embed codes from

the following sites:

http://www.youtube.com/

http://www.slideshare.net/

http://www.edtalks.org

http://www.ted.com/

http://animoto.com/

Plus so much more....

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Naketa Ferguson, Regional ICT Facilitator, CORE Education Ltdhttp://blog.core-ed.net/naketa

To use a background from ‘The cutest Blog on the Block’, search through the styles and templates listed. When you have found one you like click on the template. Scroll half way down the page to find the HTML code.

Other backgroundsI use a theme from TheCutestBlogontheBlock.com. They have heaps of different looking backgrounds that are quick and easy to install on your Blogger blog.

Copy this code by dragging your mouse and scrolling from top to bottom. Go back to your blog. If you are signed in you will see ‘Customize” on the top right

corner of your blog.

Add and Arrange Elements allows you to add a number of gadgets on the side bar of your blog

including Labels, Widgets, Blog feeds and images etc. Click on “Add Gadget”.

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Naketa Ferguson, Regional ICT Facilitator, CORE Education Ltdhttp://blog.core-ed.net/naketa

Click on the plus sign next to the “HTML/Java Script” gadget. A window like the one to the right will appear.

Copy and paste the code and push save. Your background will appear when you press ‘View Blog’.