e-Learning activity summary | |
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| Title: | Create a new blog on WordPress and publish your first post on the site. |
 | 45 mins to 2 hours (Depending on prior knowledge and extent of desktop research) |
Start here
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Purpose
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Tasks
Complete the tasks listed below. If you get stuck, review the stimulus resources above or search the web for open access materials to find help on competing the task.
- Register an account and create a free blog on WordPress.com (For more information, see the video on the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org published by WP101.com).
- View the Dashboard video published by WP101.com and determine the difference between the dashboard for managing your blog and the published view.
- Do you know how to open the published (public view) of your blog in a new window?
- Have you added a browser bookmark to your dashboard and public version of your blog?
- Complete your personal details for display on the "About" page of your blog.
- Can you see the updates on your about page in the published view of your blog?
- Review and customise your blog settings from the dashboard according to your preferences.
- We recommend that you enable categories and tags on your blog
- Consider whether you want to moderate all comments or in the case of WordPress, you can also enable previously approved posters to post comments without moderation. Conduct a web search on "moderating blog comments" to find out more about the pros and cons on the flow of information when moderating comments.
- Visit the appearance option on your dashboard and personalise your blog by:
- Changing: your theme, header image, background colours or image
- Add at least one widget to your blog -- remember "less is more". One or two of the following are functional choices: Archives, recent posts, categories or category cloud and blogs I follow.
- Draft a blog post reflecting on your experience of this e-Learning Activity on creating a blog. Click on "save draft" (so you can review before publishing live on the web). Your reflection could for example:
- Introduce yourself and reflect on what you would like to achieve by maintaining a blog to support your learning
- What did you think of the activity? Was it easy or hard?
- Share links to any additional resources you found useful in completing the tasks.
- Provide tips for future learners who will be completing this activity. If you were to set up a new blog again, what would you do differently?
- Add anything your readers may find interesting or useful.
- Review your draft post, and when you're happy with what you've written, click on the "Publish post" button.
- Send an email to a colleague, friend or family member with the web address of your blog and ask them to post a comment. This will give you the opportunity to experience how comments function on your blog and to test if they are working properly.
Learning outcome actions
Publish a post on your blog comprising a few paragraphs (about 300 words in total) introducing yourself and what you would like to achieve by maintaining a blog to support your learning. If you are a first-time blogger, you can also include a reflection on this e-Learning activity (see ideas in the tasks listed above). Your blog post must include:
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