Blogs have increasingly become a way for teachers and
writers to post and share their ideas. Using
technology broadly and social media more specifically to enhance the classroom,
to promote digital literacy, and to engage students to become active citizens
seems not only like a good idea in the 21st century, but a necessary one. As one of my students put it, “In short,
social networks are already implicitly part of the educational system and when
effectively integrated into the curriculum, [they] can help improve the
cognitive development of students.” They
can also improve faculty’s teaching and scholarship.
Blogging is an easy way to share
resources, research and scholarship, and lesson plans that are in progress or
complete. And this is one of the
beauties of blogs, that it promotes sharing of ideas in this “real time,” of
the moment kind. This is not
peer-reviewed journal writing. This is
you -- a professor, a scholar, a teacher -- working through an idea, or excited
about an effective lesson plan, or curious about what your colleagues are doing
abut plagiarism or how they are using technology in the classroom -- or any of
the things we struggle with a educators almost on a daily basis. Blogs allow us to post these ideas and get
feedback on what we are doing in the classroom or in our academic work in real
time.
SO WHAT’S A BLOG?
Blogs are short-format
writings addressed to a broad readership.
Blogs tend to be around 1,000 words or less, though they can be quite a
bit longer (or quite a bit shorter). Though
blogs are complete pieces of writing, the goal is not necessarily to be the
final, authoritative voice on the subject of the blog. Blogs are conversations not lectures. As you will see in our MCNY Teaching
Community Blog, many of the blogs present resources for teaching and lesson
plans that have been used in the classroom.
Often times the authors ask for feedback, or ask questions. In this sense, blogs promote the Democractic
classroom as the sharing of ideas and perspectives is encouraged. And everyone is encouraged to contribute to
the conversation.
The Blog format, then, works
great if you are working on a lesson plan, or researching a new idea that you
are presenting to a conference, or want to share your experience in the
classroom or at a conference. There’s a
reader out there who wants to hear about it.
Though academics often strive for rigor and completeness, blogs
encourage a different approach to sharing ideas. Let me be clear: this is not lazy scholarship. This is sharing of ideas and lessons in a
consumable way.
HOW TO BLOG
If you want to try blogging, but don’t want to maintain your own blog, then I encourage you to post to our MCNY Teaching Community Blog. Furthermore, our MCNY Teaching Community Blog puts colleagues in conversation with each other, and there will be a built in audience here for your blog.
Follow these easy steps and
you will be blogging in no time. Here’s
how.
1. Email
lsally@mcny.edu to be added as an author
from the email address you want to use.
Any faculty member, full time or adjunct, may post to the MCNY Teaching
Community Blog. We encourage voices from
all of our community of teachers.
2. Go
to the email account from which you requested to be added as an author. You will receive a message from
Blogger.
3.
Click on the link, “Accept Invitation”. (About the
required Google Account: You can create
a Google account with ANY email account.
I have a Google account connected to my MCNY email address. So you don’t need to make a whole new email
if your MCNY email is your primary email or simply the one you want to use to
post to the blog)
4.
After Clicking on “Accept Invitation”, you will
be directed to the MCNY Teaching Community Blog on Blogger. Click on “SIGN IN.”
5.
From here, you will be directed to your Blogger
page. Any Blogs you keep (through
blogspot.com) will appear here.
6.
To post your first Blog entry, click on the icon
that looks like a white pencil or pen, the first icon to the right of our
blog. (Note: the “New Blog” tab to the left of the MCNY
Teaching Community Blog will lead you to create a whole new blog. If you find yourself enjoying the blogging
process, you can create and maintain our own blog. But to post on the MCNY Teaching Community blog,
click on the pencil icon.)
7.
Here you will be led to the Blog interface. Filling in the blog is as simple as composing
an email. Enter the Title of your Post
under “Post Title.” Then cut and past
the content of your blog into the body of the blog (the big giant
rectangle). Here, you may have to format
your Blog entry. Many times when cutting
and pasting from Word, formatting may change.
So quickly scan through to ensure your post looks good.
8.
Once you have entered the text of your blog, you
can either “Publish,” “Save,” “Preview,” or “Close” your blog. If you are not yet ready to publish and you
want to save your blog as a draft, click “Save.” If you are ready to Publish your Blog, click
on “Publish.” You can edit any of your
blogs at a future date.
9.
If you want to edit or preview a blog entry,
click on the “MCNY Teaching Community” blog.
Then run your mouse over the blog (see my “test” blog entry below), and
a drop down menu will appear: Edit View
Share Delete.” From there, click on the button that
represents what you want to do.
10.
Congratulations!
You have published your first Blog!
Thank you for joining our community of teachers and scholars. We encourage your feedback and contributions.
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