Blogging

=Blogging at WAHS=

Getting Started: Check out this blog entry from Pernille Ripp on The 14 steps to Meaningful Student Blogs

Project Ideas (from Gaggle)

 * __Free Journaling/Creative Writing__ - Teachers can use blogs as free journals for students by requiring them to create daily or weekly journal entries. This activity helps students learn how to properly convey their thoughts in writing. This also provides a good outlet for young authors to share their creative writings and poetry.
 * __Writing Prompts__- Blogs can be used as a place for students to submit responses to writing prompts given to them by their teachers. For instance, this is a great way for English and Literature teachers to have their students post responses to different stories and books they are reading in class. Since the students can read each other's responses, they can easily read their classmates' thoughts on the responses and learn from one another's feedback. Writing prompts can help the students better prepare for class discussions.
 *  __Literature Reviews__- Students can use their blogs to post their literature reviews or book reports. Using blogs for book reports puts a new twist on this traditional assignment. Blogs can help promote literacy among students by allowing them to recommend and review books for their peers.
 * __Current Event Log__- Students can post a weekly blog entry on a current event from their local community, the country, or the world. They can write a short paragraph about the event and post a related picture in their blog. This activity helps students develop their writing and reading comprehension skills and increases their knowledge of current events.
 * __E-Portfolio__- An e-portfolio is an online archive of a student's work. This is a great way for students to keep a record of all of their papers, research projects, and other assignments throughout their school career. High school students can use e-portfolios to submit college applications online.
 * __Message Board__- Blogs can be used as another type of message board. Since students have the ability to post comments to other students' blog entries, a blog can become an elaborate online discussion with many different participants.
 * __Research Findings__- Students and teachers can share interesting research findings and statistics on their blogs. These research findings and statistics can be used to help educate others or for collaboration with other classmates on group projects and assignments.

Great Blog Examples
From/by/for Teachers: >
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 * [| http://blog.mrmeyer.com/]

Blog Settings
As with all Gaggle features, safety and security are an important part of the blogs. We give each school and district the power to determine the level of security that is appropriate for them.

__General Public Password Required__ Educators have the option to password protect blogs that are available to the general public. This setting will prompt non-Gaggle users to provide a password in order to view the blogs.  To password protect a General Public blog, select **Yes** in the **General Public Password Required** drop down menu. A text field labeled General Public Password will appear when the page is refreshed. Type the desired password and click **Save**.
 *  Blog View Restrictions || Controls what blogs can be viewed by students. ||
 * Blog Access || Controls who can create/view student blogs. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">General Public Password Required || <span class="PdfCharStyle3" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Determines if a password is required to view General Public blogs. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Blog Approval Required || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Determines if all blog entries must be approved by an administrator before posting. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Comment Access || <span class="PdfCharStyle3" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Determines who is allowed to make comments to students' blogs.  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Comment Approval Required || <span class="PdfCharStyle3" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Determines if all comments must be approved by an administrator before posting.  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Commenter Name Viewable || <span class="PdfCharStyle3" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Determines if the name of the person making comments to a blog will be viewable <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">and if so, by whom.  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Commenter Email Viewable || <span class="PdfCharStyle3" style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Determines if the email address of the person making comments to a blog will be <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> viewable, and if so, by whom.  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Theme || <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Controls the default Them for the blogs. ||

Blog Approval Required
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This setting allows educators to decide if they want to view all student blog entries before they are posted. When this feature is turned on, all blog entries will be sent as an email to the educator's Inbox. The educator can decide to unblock or delete the blog entry by clicking on the links provided in the email. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> If an educator is viewing a student's blog and there are entries waiting for approval, he or she will have the option to unblock the entry while viewing the blog. The entries waiting approval will have the word "BLOCKED" next to the title and there will be links to unblock, delete, or edit the blog entry highlighted in red. To unblock an entry, click **Unblock Blog**.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">__Comment Access__ <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The access levels allow educators to decide who can make comments to the blogs. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> **None -** No comments will be allowed on the blogs. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> **Class Only** **-** Only users in the same class can post comments. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> **School Only -** Only users from the same school can make comments to the blogs. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> **District Only -** Only users from the same district can make comments to the blogs. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> **Gaggle Only -** Only Gaggle users can make comments to the blogs. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> **General Public -** Anyone, including non-Gaggle users, can make comments to the blogs.

__Comment Approval Required__
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The Comment Approval setting allows educators to decide if they want to view all comments to the student blogs before they are posted. When this feature is turned on, all comments will be sent as an email to the educator's Inbox. The educator can decide to unblock or delete the comment by clicking on the links provided in the email. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> If an educator is viewing the comments on a student's blog and there are comments waiting for approval, he or she will have the option to unblock the comments while they are viewing the blog. The comments waiting approval will have the links to unblock, delete, or edit the comments highlighted in red, below the text. To unblock a comment, click on the **Unblock Comment** link provided.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">__Commenter Name and Commenter Email Viewable__ <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Educators have the ability to control if the names and email addresses of the people posting comments to the blogs will be viewable. These are two separate menus on the Blog Setup page, but the access levels are exactly the same for both menus. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">__Color Scheme__ <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">This feature determines which interface color scheme will be used for the student's blog. Users can change their color scheme after they create their blog.

Deleting/Restricting Blogs
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Educators have the ability to delete a student blog at any time. By deleting a blog, all of the entries and comments will be lost. (NOTE: if you do this please follow up with the student and tell them why it was deleted .) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The following instructions explain how to delete a student's blog from his or her blog page. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">__Turning off Blog Access__ <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Educators have the ability to turn off the blog feature for their students. By turning off this feature, students will not be able to create their own blogs. Educators can turn off blogs for the entire school, a group of students, or on an individual basis. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> The My Blog link will be removed from the students' Applications menu. Turning the blog feature off in this manner will only affect users whose Blog Access level is set to Default. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">An educator can turn off the blog feature for a group of students or an individual student via the User List page. The following instructions describe how to disable blogs from the User List page: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Other blog settings can be changed for individual students or groups of students in this same manner.
 * 1) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> When viewing a student's blog, click **Edit Blog Controls** in the top right hand corner. This will display the student's specific blog settings.
 * 2) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">At the top of the page, click the **Delete this Blog** link.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Turning off Blogs for Entire School
 * 1) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Select **School Setup** from the **Admin** menu on the left.
 * 2) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Select the **Advanced** Tab and open the **Blogs** drop-down menu
 * 3) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Click the **Blog Access** drop-down and select **No Blogging**.
 * 4) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Click **Save**.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Turning off Blogs for Select Students
 * 1) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Select **User List** from the **Admin** Menu on the left.
 * 2) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Select an individual student or group of students from the list.
 * 3) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> At the bottom of the page, click on the **Advanced** tab.
 * 4) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Click on the **Blog** turndown menu.
 * 5) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Select **No Blogging** under the **Blog Access** drop down menu.
 * 6) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> Click **Save**.

Blog Filtering
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In addition to the teacher controls, Gaggle is the first web site to provide powerful tools for filtering blogs. Each blog entry is scanned against a blacklist of inappropriate words and phrases, and all graphic files are processed through Gaggle's Anti-Pornography Scanner. The APS filter even scans URLs to block web sites that contain pornographic content. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">If a blog entry is blocked by the Gaggle filters, the entry is re-routed to the student's administrator for review before it can be posted. The blocked entry will be sent to the administrator in an email. The email will contain a link to the blog in order to unblock the entry or to delete it. Administrators can then determine if the entry should be allowed and unblock it, or they can delete the entry.