Blogging

What is Blogging? "Blog" is an abbreviated version of "web-log,” A blog is a frequently updatable, personal website featuring diary-type commentary and links to articles or other Web sites. Blogs range from the personal to the political, and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects. A blog is also referred to as a system used to organize and facilitate collaborative content creation.

Why Blog? Blogging gives you the opportunity to easily share knowledge and information with students, parents and faculty. Communicate and Network with students internally or from around the globe. Develop online relationships with readers. Increase UMass Boston’s visibility and community outreach.

Some ways to use blogs Self-reflective and collaborative journal of students experiences at UMass Boston. Allow prospective students to read about UMass Boston student life first hand from current students. –Student live journals. Example-Oklahoma Christian UniversityExample-Oklahoma Christian University –Real life college experiences. Example- Ball State UniversityExample- Ball State University Communicate with prospective students and their parents about admissions. Example-Colby College Example-Colby College Outreach and network with current students about their learning environment. Example-MIT Example-MIT

UMass Boston Blogs Academic Blog- Music Theory with Professor David PattersonAcademic Blog- Music Theory with Professor David Patterson Student Perspectives-Technology in the classroomStudent Perspectives-Technology in the classroom Media Center student consultant media reviewsMedia Center student consultant media reviews Media Center WordPress blog

Other Examples of Academic Blogs UCLA Undergrad Admissions Maricopa Community College Harvard Blogs

How to start a blog The next few slides will demonstrate how to create a blog using WordPress

Start blogging in 5 easy steps! 1.Create an Account on WordPress.com 2.Design the look of your blog with templates 3.Manage your blog 4.Start blogging 5.Accessing your blog

Step 1 Create an Account Log on to Click on the “Start your WordPress Blog” icon

Complete the Username, Address form. Next pick your Blog name! This will be the 1st part of your blogs URL( so make it good!) Also here you can choose the Title for your Blog…. After you click on the “signup button” Step 1 is Complete!!!

Dashboard The Dashboard refers to your control panel, you can access everything for your blog from the dashboard. The dashboard gives you access to tons of useful information, but we’re going to keep to the basics for this lesson.

Step 2 Designing your Blog Inside your “Dashboard” click on the “Presentation” link in the top navigation panel. WordPress has 57 different pre-made themes you can choose from, to add a theme to your blog simply find the one you like and click on it.

Viewing & Customizing your Blog To view your blog in it’s new theme, scroll back up to the top of the page and click on the “View Site” link. Most of the themes allow you to customize some aspect of them, such as color and the location of the navigation. So play around until you get something you like!

Step 3 Managing your Blog Adding users In the dashboard click on “users” WordPress allows you to add users and give them a specific role in the blog. First your users need to sign up for a WordPress account at wordpress.com so back to step 1, but this time the users just need to check off that they want an account, so no need to set up another blog.wordpress.com

Managing your Blog Adding Users Under the “Users” tab in the Dashboard enter the users address and then select the role you would like to give them in the blog, you can choose from Administrator, Editor, Author or Contributor To finish click the “Add User” Button

Just incase you were wondering what these mean…

Managing your Blog Monitoring Comments When someone leaves a comment on a blog post, you will receive an notification.

Managing your Blog Monitoring Comments Log into your WordPress account to approve, decline, edit or respond to comment.

Managing your Blog Blog Activity WordPress has a feature that allows you to see how many hits your blog has received.

Managing your Blog To access the Blog Status click on “Dashboard” then “Blog Stats”

Step 4 Start Blogging Writing a Blog Post-The process of entering your writing in WordPress is easy. 1. Login to your WordPress Dashboard Panel. 2. Click the tab for Write. 3. Start filling in the blanks. 4. When you are ready, click Publish. That's it. For a step-by-step guide check out the WordPress tutorial WordPress tutorial

Start Blogging Adding Images & Doc’s While writing a post you may want to refer to an image or document. WordPress allows you to upload images files (.jpg/.jpeg/.png/.gif) PDF and Word documents and PowerPoint Presentations into your blog posts.

Start Blogging Adding Images & Doc’s Under the “Write” tab you will see two area’s, the first box is where you write your blog post, the second box is to upload files. Click on the “Browse” button and locate the file you would like to add to your post. Provide a title/description and click “Upload”

Start Blogging Adding Images & Doc’s Depending on what you upload the next menu box will vary, the options for an image are related to size and if you would like the image to link to a file or another page. To finish click on the “Send to editor” button and the file will be added to your blog post.

Step 5 Accessing your Blog To access your blog simply… Log onto Since your already hip….enter your username and password.

Student Affairs Blogging Resources Where Student Affairs and Technology MeetWhere Student Affairs and Technology Meet Student Affair's.com

Hungry for more? You can find more information about blogging on the Media Center’s - Media Web website.Media Web And as with all of your multimedia needs you can contact me at for consulting and project ideas.