Friday, May 20, 2011

Welcome to FNED 502!!

Welcome to this FNED 502 blogging adventure!

Sometime before June 1, you will set up your own blog to use this summer session for all of your Talking Points assignments, and to keep track of your thoughts about any of the issues we cover.


A blog is your very own, personal online journal. It is public, in that I and your classmates can read it and comment on it, but it is your space and you can control most everything about it. (If you want to make it private so that *only* members of this class can read it, I can show you how to do so).

In the context of this course, your blog has two purposes:

1) Your blog will provide a space for you to keep all of your Talking Points assignments over the course of our semester together. You will not hand in written assignments to me each week; rather you will post them on your blog. In this sense, your blog is merely your assignment notebook that you will use as you read and prepare for class each week. You will also be posting any additional thoughts you have: responses to class discussion, after thoughts, things you forgot to say in class, relevant experiences you have, etc.

But importantly, your blog is a public space and as you post (and comment on others'), you will gain a much richer understanding of everything we read and discuss in class. I want you to think of it as interactive and intertextual in that way.

2) Creating your own blog will also introduce you to the blogisphere if you don't know this place already. I hope that you will discover creative educational uses for this online medium. You will see how easy it is to use blogger.com, and perhaps it will inspire you to bring blogs into your own classroom.

To start your own blog, you will go to:

www.blogger.com


The big orange box at the top right of the page will direct you to creating your own blog on a site called blogspot.com. Follow the instructions to open up a free account. Don't forget your Username and Password!! You will need them to login everytime.




As you fill in the info, you will be asked to name your blog. This title will appear at the top of your blog. (Mine is called "Social Issues in Education")

Then, you need to choose an address:

http://_______.blogspot.com

This will be the web address associated with your site. you can call it anything you like. Be clever or simple (or both) -- it is up to you.

You will also need to choose a design template for your blog. Look through the options listed and see what appeals to you. You can change this later and can even find fun, creative templates at sites like PYZAM.

Once you have the account set up, you can start posting. A “posting” is an entry on your blog. (For clarification, you have one blog, but many postings). Give the post a title and then compose as you would any journal entry. When you are finished, hit the button at the bottom that says Publish Post. It will not appear on your blog until you publish it. You can always go back and edit old posts and create new ones.

Your First Post:
Your first post should be a short introduction to you: who are you, what graduate program you are in, where you teach, what do you do when you are not in class, etc. (Just a short paragraph — no big deal). You will post the rest of the entries as they are due (see course syllabus for dates), or whenever you have something to say!

When you are done creating your site and posting your first entry, please come back to this blog and post a comment at the end of my first posting (scroll down) that includes your blog address so that I can post it in the link list to the right.

Some Tips and Helpful Hints:
  • Once you are in your blog, look at the top right corner of the screen. If you click on the word DESIGN, you will be able to make design changes, create new posts, edit old posts, etc. (You can only do this if you are logged in to your blog.)
  • Once you are in the DESIGN screen, you can do all kinds of things to make your blog a bit more interesting. Change your fonts and colors, edit a post, change your settings. See the tabs at the top of the screen for all kinds of options.
  • Poke around online and make a list of websites related to education, diversity, social justice or anything else relevant and post them on your blog. You can add all kinds of things by ADDING A GADGET from your Design Screen.
  • Just do the best you can with this. If you get stuck, don't fret... I am happy to help you anytime as you work on getting this started. Send me an email, come see me in office hours, or grab me after class. And remember: you can't break it. It is just a blog. Everything can be changed if need be!
Good luck!!

LB :)

25 comments:

  1. Setting up the blog was not as bad as I thought. My address is http://ginaranucci.blogspot.com

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  2. This class sounds interesting and fun for my first education class ever! I am especially looking forward to hearing everybodys ideas on the education system. It seems like we are going to have a diverse group of ideas to learn from eachother, and we can all only benefit from this. :)

    http://fned502summer2011.blogspot.com/2011/05/first-day-of-class.html

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  3. My blog address is http://babyonboardph.blogspot.com.

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  4. This is my blog address:
    http://realmarcia.blogspot.com/

    I think it will be interesting to have my own blog to network with everyone and share ideas. I will try to make my blog look nicer.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. Hi Dr. Bogad,

    I've never blogged before, so this should be an interesting experience! I'm looking forward to learning something new...my blog address is http://klonergan7.blogspot.com. Have a good night, see you Wednesday!

    ~Kelly Lonergan

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  7. Brigette Paton

    http://brigette-fned502.bolgspot.com

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  8. Here is my blog address: http://MissFsFNED502blog.blogspot.com

    Amanda Fonseca

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  9. Hi Dr. Bogad,

    my blog address

    http://futuregraduate2011.blogspot.com/

    Jillian Cannone

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  10. My blog address is http://heidi267.blogspot.com. I've never blogged before but am thinking this could be fun.

    Heidi

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  11. I did it!
    http://summerclass2011.blogspot.com

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  12. Hi Dr. Bogad!!
    My blog address is http://swimmiesunnecessary.blogspot.com. Thanks for helping me to set up a site!

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  13. Hi Dr. Bogad!
    My blog address is http://myclassblog-alison.blogspot.com/. :)

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  14. Hi Dr. Bogad,
    my blog address
    http://nicoleallegra.blogspot.com

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  15. Micaela....http://PLAIDKLASH.blogspot.com

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  16. Hi Dr. Bogad!
    This is my address...
    http://2011FIRSTTIMEBLOGGER.blogspot.com

    Melissa Bullock

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  17. Hi is Clara
    clarablogging.blogspot.com

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  18. Hi Dr. Bogad,
    It's me Laurie. I finally got on my address is lauriedsummer2011.blogspot.com

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  19. hi Dr. Bogad,
    This is Jenn L. I am not sure why this would not post but here is my blog address again www.jennl502.blogspot.com

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  20. Hello Dr. Bogad,
    I am just sending you a blog so that you have my link available to add to your page. When I left class Wednesday night I was awarded Teacher of the Year for The Town of North Providence...Yeah..
    Have a great long weekend.
    NIna

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  21. Maybe it would be helpful if I gave you my address...LOL : )
    nvszumita.blogspot.com

    Nina

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  22. Hi Professor Bogad, sorry I was late in posting my blog. My sister had a baby girl today! Unexpected delivery, but it was about time.

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  23. Hey Dr. Bogad, here is my new blog adress and my posting for this week. Hope your weekend went well :)http://fned502summer2011-sara.blogspot.com/

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  24. Hey Dr. Bogad, I finally got my blog to work!!!!!! So excited :) Here it is, thanks for the patience see ya tomorrow.

    http://sarakara.blogspot.com/

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  25. Dr. Bogad,
    I had soooooo much trouble this time with my blog. Nothing would copy and paste, i lost info and then my post was automatically saved which meant I lost a lot of what I originally did and I AM NOT GOOD at the hyperlink technology. I guess I am glad it's over. LOL Just have a question. It is pretty late and my blog has never showed up on your blog or if I click onto my blog from yours. It said it posted successfully. UUUGGGGGGG Hope you get it.

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