Blogging at York
The Blogger service can be used with your University of York username and password.
You can use blogs to create a simple diary or news-like websites - they can be used as public marketing, for departmental news, or for personal reflection.
Note: Although integrated with your York Google Apps for Education account, it is not fully integrated with York Google Apps. This means that you can't limit access of your blog to, for example, only members of the University or only members of your department.
Some examples of Blogger blogs currently in use at York include:
Tom Smith, our Collaborative Software Specialist, can help you learn more about blogging, or answer any queries you may have. Where necessary, he can arrange one-on-one introductory sessions, or team presentations/demonstrations. You can contact Tom by emailing itsupport@york.ac.uk.
Why blog?
Much of the popularity of blogs is that you decide their content and purpose. Whilst behaving like a news site, where most recent news appears at the top of the page, this one simple feature can be put to any number of uses, including:
- Personal notebook
- A reflective Learning Journals for yourself or a class
- Departmental news
- Personal profile raising
- Prospective student outreach
- Improving management and co-worker transparency
- Public or University of York-oriented marketing
Further Reading
- Blogs in Plain English (4 minute video introduction to blogs)
- Blogs in higher education - some ideas about their benefits and downsides
- Using Blogs in Higher Education
- To blog, or not to blog? The academic's conundrum
- Seven reasons why blogging can make you a better academic writer
Creating your blog
Creating a blog is as simple of choosing a name. Go to http://www.blogger.com and log in with your University username and password. The URL of your blog will be http://your-project-name.blogspot.co.uk/
As you create your blog you will be asked to choose a theme to use. We recommend using the Simple theme, although there are many available.
You can then create information pages about your blog, add a logo and set the colour scheme, and add Widgets to your layout.
Finally, you may want to change your Time Zone to United Kingdom (London) in Settings | Language & Formats.
You are now ready to either add colleagues as authors in Settings | Basic... or to start posting blog posts.