Blogger – How to set up your class blog

Setting up your class blog with blogger.com is a breeze. There is potentially one thing that could cause problems, but I will get to that after the break. Blogger is the second most popular blog platform in the world (after wordpress). Thanks to its ease of use and very visual and easy to navigate settings. It does not offer the power or options as wordpress.com but still many people use it (including my wife). Read on past the break for all the how to goodness.

*NOTE* Blogspot.com and blogger.com are the SAME. There is no difference between the two anymore as Google owns them both.

Step 1 – Get G-mailed

If you don’t have one, there is no need to go to gmail.com. You can sign up for one through blogger.com. Take a look at the pictures below to get a better sense of what I mean.

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After you click Get started, Blogger.com will take you to a page that will sign you up with Google.

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Now that the formalities are out of the way it is all Blogger.com. As I did in the WordPress.com guide, I will not hit all the features that Blogger.com has to offer. Instead, I will just show you how to quickly create a blog, invite your students, and get publishing. With that being said, let’s move on to the next step.

Step 2 – UH-OH!!

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I don’t know why this happens, but it happened when I initially tried to use blogger.com with my class and boy what a pain. I have no idea if it will happen to you or not-the good news is, I did put in my mobile number, received the text message (after three attempts), and was on my way. As I said, I don’t know why this happens, but if it happens to all of your students, it may be worth jumping ship to wordpress.com Just my opinion here.

Step 2 – FOR REAL – Template design

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Don’t worry if none of these really speak to you. As with wordpress.com, you can change and customize your design at anytime during the life of your blog, so there is no need to pour hours over your choices.

Step 3 – Blog name and URL

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This step is pretty straightforward. Just pick your Blog title and pick your blog address (URL). Just like the blog theme, if you decide to change your title or even your blog address, it is no problem to change.

Step 4 – The Dashboard

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This is what you think. Here you manage your different blogs. you can create and edit posts, change your settings, manage your comments, and more. If you want to make any real changes to your blog, just click on any of those links. It will take you into the blog where you have access to the Menu bar.

Step 5 – Posting a blog

Now it is time to actually post something. From the menu bar (or dashboard) click on Posting. This will take you to the post page which looks like this.

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As you can see, very straightforward. No real hidden potholes here. It is a nice, clean, familiar word processing page that will allow you to add pictures, videos, etc. and spell check as you go along. There are some other options though that are found by click Post Options. The Post Options gives the author more choices such as some very basic HTML, allowing reader comments, and scheduling posts for a later date. When everything looks perfect. Click Publish Post and you have uploaded the post to your blog for the world to see! Congrats!

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Step 6 – Adding your students

This is quite easy. First you need to go to Settings -> Permissions.

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From here you need to click on Add Author.

A new drop down menu will be displayed asking for their e-mail addresses. Their e-mail does not need to be a gmail address for the invitation, but they will have to make a Google account (like we did in step 1) in order to officially join the blog.

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What is very nice, is that you have a very easy to view list of those who have accepted the invite and are now part of the blog and those invitations that are still waiting.

I’ve blacked out the names for obvious reasons, but you get the idea.

That is it! You have created a blog, invited your students and are now blogging towards, fame, fortune, and hopefully towards helping your students reaching their educational goals.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave those below. We here at IT Babble love those little remarks.