Posts Tagged ‘blog’

blogging for Confucius Institute

Minutes from the Oct 17 meeting:

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Plan for August 17

Introduce students to the blog idea. Short link to this planhttp://bit.ly/blog4ci

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2017/08/17/blogging-for-confucius-institute/

  • Why blog
    • What is social media, when SM started
    • What is blog, when blogs started
    • Why blog
      • Blogging vs microblogging

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2015/12/31/social-media-and-the-devaluation/
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2016/01/01/blog-future/

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handout on basic functions with your blog

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7 blogging tools

7 Blogging Tools for Teachers Compared and Ranked – Updated for 2017

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2017/02/7-blogging-tools-for-teachers-compared.html

here as a Google Doc

1. Blogger – It’s free and easy to set-up. It can be integrated into your Google Apps for Education account which means that you and your students can use the same usernames and passwords that they use in all other Google tools. You can make your blog private (up to 100 members invited by email). The drawback to it is that a lot of school filters flag it as “social media” and block it on those grounds.

1a. Edublogs – Probably the best option for elementary school and middle school use. Blogs and individual blog posts can be made private, password-protected, or public. You can create and manage your students’ accounts. The latest version of Edublogs allows all users to include videos in blog posts. Outstanding customer support.

2. Weebly for Education – It’s free to have up to 40 students in your account. You can manage your students’ accounts. You can have students contribute to a group blog and or let them manage their own individual blogs.

3. SeeSaw.me – SeeSaw was originally launched as a digital portfolio tool. The addition of a blogging component was made in January 2016. The blogging component of SeeSaw allows you to import and display your students’ digital artifacts publicly or privately. There is not much you can do with SeeSaw in terms of customization of layout and color scheme.

4. WordPress.org – If you have the technical accumen or the time to learn it (it’s not that hard), self-hosting a blog that runs on WordPress software will give you the ultimate in control and flexibility. You will be able to create and manage student accounts, have a nearly infinite variety of customizations, and you’ll be able to move your blog from server to server whenever you want to. That said, you will have to pay for hosting (or convince your school to give you server space) and you will be responsible for maintaining security updates and backing-up your blog regularly.

5. Kidblog – Allows you to manage your students’ accounts. Requires you to pay for a subscription in order to get the features that you really want. Those features include embedding videos and other media from third party sites. Powered by WordPress software.

6. WordPress.com – It’s easy to use and is free, but with some serious limitations at the free level. The free version displays advertising on your blog which you cannot control. The free version also doesn’t allow embedding content from many third-party sites.

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more on blogging in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=blog

Social Media: 4 Blog Tools to Get Your Articles In Front of More Blog Readers

4 Blog Tools to Get Your Articles In Front of More Blog Readers

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/4-blogging-tools-to-get-more-blog-readers/

#1: Reveal Content After Shares

Social Locker is a clever WordPress plugin that allows you to show part of a post, and then ask your readers for a social share in order to see the rest. It’s a win-win exchange. Your reader gets access to additional content and you get the social shares you need to reach more people.

#2: Make It Easy for Readers to Share

SumoMe (a WordPress plugin) helps streamline that process for your readers. When a reader highlights a sentence in your article, SumoMe opens a window that’s pre-populated with the highlighted passage—along with Twitter and Facebook share icons. You let your visitors share the most interesting bits of your post with a single click.

#3: Automatically Distribute Articles

Dlvr.it offers a number of ways to automatically publish your blog posts to popular social platforms. But did you know it can publish Google Alerts in your RSS feed?

#4: Share Evergreen Content

The Evergreen Post Tweeter WordPress plugin selects older articles from your archives and tweets them to your audience for renewed exposure.

5 Creative Ways to Drive More Traffic to Your Blog Posts

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-creative-ways-to-drive-more-traffic-to-your-blog-posts/

5 Creative Ways to Drive More Traffic to Your Blog Posts

Promote Your Article Across a “Wider” Variety of Platforms

Here are some examples of smaller networks:

  • Quora.com—A question/answer-based website founded by two former Facebook employees. What makes Quora unique is that all content is created, edited and organized by its user community. The user base tends to be more business- and academic-oriented.
  • Tumblr—A microblogging site that recently made headlines when Yahoo! acquired it. Its user base tends to be younger and more “hip,” making it the perfect platform to share edgier, niche-based content.
  • Empire Avenue—Part social network, part social media marketing tool, Empire Avenue uses gamification to enable users to broadcast content across all of the other social networks. The primary members of EAv are small businesses, social media professionals and blogger

Grab Viewer Interest With Different Types of Media

promote your posts with images, audio and video.

#1: Use Dubbler to Give a Short Audio Introduction

#2: Create a 6-Second Preview of Your Post with Vine

#3: Create a SlideShare Overview of Your Post

#4: Pin Your Post to a Pinterest Group Board

#5: Instagram an Image From Your Post