Week+2

=Week 2 - Blogging=

Spring 2017 student blogs:.

**//Thing 3: Blog your heart out!//**
A blog (short for web log) is a website where you post information regularly. Rather than a static website that gets updated periodically a blog is more like a diary or a newspaper column where you write about your thoughts and link to interesting content that you would like to blog about to share with other people. People might follow blogs and comment on individual postings. For more information on blogs please read [|7 Things You Should Know about Blogs]. It might be even more fun to watch this short video called Blogs in Plain English (see below).

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Libraries can use blogs to post information for their patrons about new books, events, library news, etc. Blogs are also a great way for librarians to stay up-to-date on professional development. As a librarian or future librarian it is important for you to know how to create a blog. Once you are all set up you can post to your blog. Teach yourself how to add links to your post and how to post a photo or video.

Each year the best education blog get awards. Be sure to check out the edublog awards for 2011. Note that there is a category for best librarian / library blog. Browse these winning blogs to see how your school library colleagues are using blogs and get inspired! Another fun thing to try is setting up a classroom blog so you can blog with your students! The latest thing is the Library Blog Center which has a library blog directory and hosts the Library Blog Awards. Check out their search and browse options.

Welcome to Salem's Library Blog Center—an online home of **The Library Blog Directory** and **The Library Blog Awards**.

__Thing 3 Learning2.0 Tasks__
1. Go to [|Blogger] to create your very own blog. Blogger is a free blog publishing tool that is really easy to use. The hardest part might be finding a user name and blog name that is unique! The website guides you through the process in three easy steps (create an account, name your blog, select a template for your blog's layout). Make sure you remember your user name and password! For privacy's sake, do not use your last name and do not mention other people by their last name either.

Blogger provides a [|quick tour] and [|video tutorial] for those new to the process.

2. Write a post about Life-long learning habits (see Week 1) and which habits come naturally to you and which habits you find challenging and why.

3. **Please post your blog's address to the Week 2 Canvas Discussion (D2)! The address should approximately look like this: http://xxxx.blogspot.com** TIP1: Never ever manually copy a web address or blog address. ALWAYS use copy and paste so you know the address is absolutely correct.

TIP2: If you want to create a blog for family and friends you can do so separately from your Learning 2.0 blog. Blogger allows you to set up several different blogs with your user login. Once you log in you arrive at your "dashboard" where you can select which blog you want to work on.