getting started

--definitely recommended to tinker around with a blog of your own before using it in a classroom space.

1) go to www.blogger.com (if you don't already have a google account, you will be prompted to create one), www.wordpress.com, or www.livejournal.com. Remember or write down your sign-in name and password. Blogger and Wordpress seem to work the best for classroom spaces. Also, most blogger blogs allow only blogger or google account-registered users to comment, so if students need to comment on one another, they should probably be all or none on blogger or wordpress. The important thing is to be consistent. Livejournal gives access to only one post at a time without easy links to or labels of others, and is a bit more journal-like.

2) follow the on-site instructions to create a blog to your liking, customize the layout, etc.

3) on blogger, the "dashboard" is your starting place, and the green plus sign is where you create a new post. all three systems have very clear instructions and help files.

4) begin posting, and share your blog address (for this blog, it's the one which appears in the browser bar, http://jsger.blogspot.com) with others.

adding an image

To add an image: click on the small picture in the posting menu, load your image from the source or from your chosen weblink, choose the size and alignment, and fertig. You can add text above, below, or to either side of the image.



pretty cute, no?
Also, you can choose languages for your blog (under the "formatting" tab), so you can have your entire template in German if you wish.

blogging & German lit.

some examples of literary/academic blogs:

http://oneinten.blogspot.com/

http://marcelproust.blogspot.com/index.html

http://long18th.wordpress.com/

http://www.printculture.com/

blogging & pedagogy sources

Here are a few links to resources about blogging and pedagogy, developed by a group at UW:
http://community.uwblogs.org/index.php?blog=10

a few other blogs used in connection with classes (examples of wordpress blogs, used very successfully, and with additional resources about blogging):
http://com460.wordpress.com/
http://com300.wordpress.com/

articles:
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/remediation_genre.html
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/moving_to_the_public.html


more collections of articles:
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/

consolidating blogs & RSS feeds

One can simply add links linking to different blogs when you have found a blog address you wish to link to, but if you want recent posts listed along with the blog, you need to do a bit more.

To consolidate the blogs and recent posts, you need to have the RSS feed for each blog.
A RSS feed basically enables your blog to run over to another blog in cyberspace and take any new posts, then listing the new posts in a different place, such as your own blog.

The RSS feed for blogger blogs is the blog's homepage followed by "atom.xml" (it's different from Livejournal's RSS feed, however)

So the RSS feed for this blog would be: http://jsger.blogspot.com/atom.xml

To link to others' blogs on your blog, go to the "Template" tab and choose the option: "Add a page element", then choose "add feed." Type the feed in, and then choose the title and how many posts from each feed you'd like to show at once.

other options:
Using Google services: google spreadsheets, can also share online journals, put all RSS feeds on Google & view all new blog entries on a single page. (consult Tim Coombs for more)

citing blogs

When you take up thoughts presented in other blogs in your own blog posts, you have two options for citing them (remember, a blog is intellectual property, and stealing ideas without citing them is like stealing any other sort of property): you can link to other blog posts when referring to them on your own blog by opening a new window with the original post in it, and then copying the link to your post, and/or by writing, for example, "H. Tilghman asked in her "Snowy Weather Forecasted" post of Jan. 9th" if...."

When you write formal papers, please follow the following guidelines to cite blog entries:http://kairosnews.org/node/3542

And for citing other electronic resources, look here: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/09/

feedback re: Vienna blogs

-- most students really enjoyed blogging and said it really helped them learn, but suggested doing 1 rather than 2 posts per week