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What is a blog?
The short answer: this
The long answer: A blog (web + log = weblog = blog) is a lot of different things to a lot of different people. One of its more powerful incarnation is as a new journalistic medium that is turning upside down journalism’s traditional economic and political structures. The simple personal blog may be less grand in its aspirations, but is no less meaning to its author. Some blogs are simple websites providing convenient online access to digital resources. Some allow a dedicated group of editors to reach an otherwise geographically dispersed community focused on a niche interest.
At its best blogging creates a space for community and binds that community’s members together trough the sharing of ideas. At its worst blogging can foster insular communities bound not by the exchange of ideas but by the affirmation of a single idea. In the middle, blogging can be whatever suits you best.
Sample blogs from the Blogosphere:
For a look at what Dalton faculty are doing with blogs check out our blogroll or visit the blog index.
Blogging at Dalton
Dalton is currently using a open source blogging platform call WordPress MU. It is design to allow a small group (New Lab) to administer and support a large number of blogs (currently over 100). There are a lot of benefits to this centralized platform, but the most important ones for teachers are:
- All technical issues can be handled by New Lab
- All New Lab members can help resolve content issues
- All blogs are backed up nightly
If you need help with anything, we can help, often from wherever we are.
Getting Started
All blogs at Dalton have an outside that your students (and if you want the world) can see and an inside from which you control the outside. Thus the first thing you will need to do is to Login using you Dalton Network credentials
Making Yourself At Home
There are lots of ways to make you blog feel more like your own. In the current internet paradigm, customization = ownership, ownership = investment in the communit, a robust community = (your reward of choice here). A great place to start is to change the title of your blog by going to the Options page:
The General Option let you change basic (but still important) things such as your blog’s title and tag line. You are welcome to title you blog as you see fit, and should you ever experience a change in mood you may always return to the General Options and reinvent your blog-self.
Theme
Sidebar Widgets
Using a Blog (Teacher Mode)
Adding a new post
Adding a page
Adding a link
Inserting media to a post
Managing categories
Interacting With a Blog
Polls
Commenting
Other Blog Interfaces
Calendar
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