This recipe will describe how to get started with the Edublogs blogging platform.
Edublogs is a blogging platform based on WordPress, an extremely robust platform for long form writing and content management. Edublogs customizes this specifically for educators and students, by adding features that will help them to be more effective. Blogging is a vehicle for becoming a truly reflective practitioner, and connecting with other passionate and dedicated educators online. The recipes in this book will take you from setting up the initial blog, to writing regularly, managing content, developing an audience, customizing it with advanced plugins, and developing a personal identity.
To begin writing and managing a blog on Edublogs, we need to do some preplanning. During registration, we choose our blog URL and title. In this case the URL would be http://mytitle.edublogs.org, where mytitle is replaced with whatever it is that we choose as our title.
Online readers have a tendency to make quick judgments based on first impressions of a website, so it is imperative to make a great first impression. The first two things that make an impact on a reader are the blog URL and title, which is displayed prominently in most themes.
The title of a blog should reflect its purpose. While the idea of purpose will be discussed more fully later in this book, it is helpful to have some ideas in mind for both the URL and the title. Following are some ideas on inspiration for URL ideas:
A URL that is reflective of your current teaching assignment, such as grade level or content area. That is, http://englishteacher.edublogs.org or http://4thgrade.edublogs.org.
A URL that is reflective of your specific point of view on education.
A URL that reflects something specific to you, or your school, such as your room number.
A URL that demonstrates you are going to talk about many different topics in education. Some examples are http://avenue4learning.com or http://educationontheplate.com.
Your name; your name is not going to change often. It makes sense to invest in your personal brand and online reputation. If you take another name, it is possible to change your domain name.
Whatever you choose for your URL, try to have a few backups in mind as well. It is helpful, although not essential, that your title integrates well into your URL. In the last 2 examples, the titles are Avenue4Learning and Education on the Plate. This makes the blogs easy to identify if they are subscribed to by e-mail or with an RSS reader.
If at some point in your blogging journey, you decide you want to change your URL and/or your focus, it is possible to do so. However, it can be disconcerting for your readership. Our readers subscribe and come back to our blogs because they appreciate, like, or are challenged by what we say. Changing the URL adds an extra step between the readers and what we have to communicate to them. It is wiser, if possible, to have a memorable title and URL that articulates your intent from the start.
Once you have the ideas for your title and URL, the following steps are actually quite simple:
When you go to http://edublogs.org for the first time, click on the link on the bottom-right that says Get your free blog now, as you will see in the following screenshot. Websites are updated frequently, so it is possible that the button may move. However, there should always be a button to create a free account.
The username is important as well. When you leave a comment on someone else's blog, your username is displayed. As educators, everything we do publicly needs to be professional. Online reputation is extremely important. Generally, we do not want something silly or irrelevant. Variations on your name or the title of the blog are acceptable; your name may be preferable, as it is possible to run multiple blogs on the same account. The following screenshot shows how your username will be shown with any comments you leave:
Lastly, there are different types of accounts in Edublogs. Make sure that you choose Teacher as your account type. Unless you are a student, Teacher is most likely the best choice. Upgrading your account to Pro is always possible later on. The following screenshot shows the different types of user accounts:
Unlike many similar services, you do not get a confirmation e-mail, nor do you have to have to prove your identity by checking your e-mail. This can be helpful when students are registering, but make sure to keep track of your username and password as you will not get a copy in your e-mail.