If you think of a blog, what do you imagine? When blogs first began popping up on the internet they were mostly diary entries, personal reflections on life. While this is a perfectly acceptable practice, the initial models made us associate “blog” with something self-indulgent and unworthy of being considered serious.
Since the beginning, the blog has grown as a form of writing: It has been a way for people to take the foundational structure of the blog and used it to create many useful and fascinating things on the internet. This has provided blogs an unlimited potential as a writing tool and this is just as applicable to students writing as it is to everyone else. If you’re looking for an interesting, substantial assignment, which in the past might have been an essay or oral presentation, think about the possibility of a blog as an alternative. It’s not just a relevant type of writing and because it’s all online and is developed over the course of time, it could be a great fit for distance and mixed learning.
To assist you in this journey I’ll provide six types of blogs students can create that might be written around a variety of subjects and be able to fit into many different content areas. I’ll also discuss some of the tools and methods that will assist you in doing this job effectively.
Before we dive deep into the details, we need to ensure that we understand our definitions.
In this post:
Difference Between A Blog And A Regular Website?
Let’s first define our definitions. Websites are web sites basically any internet-based “container” that houses at most a couple of pages of information. It’s possible to build an online site that is just one page, but most of them are the result of the fact that the individuals behind them chose not to utilize additional features.
Your dentist probably has websites. A majority of restaurants and mechanics, churches, or gyms that are in your community are likely to have websites. The websites typically comprise just a couple of pages: a homepage that provides general information such as hours, address, and so on, followed by some additional pages with more details about the services and goods provided by the company or staff member, as well as perhaps the background of the establishment. It’s that’s all it is.
The pages listed are mostly static which means that the information isn’t updated often unless something specific to the business is changed (new staff members and menu items that are new, or new services, etc. ).
The blog is part of a bigger website and what makes it special is that it’s constantly changing. It evolves. It is frequently updated to offer new content. Certain companies, such as those in the earlier examples, may choose to include a blog on their existing website for reasons of providing education to their customers or helping their customers familiar with them.
For instance, the dentist’s site could post regular blog entries giving tips on how to maintain your oral hygiene at home such as reviewing toothbrushes or posting before and after accounts of patients who had special treatments such as dental lasers for whitening. Most of the time, however, these blogs don’t have a lot of content since they’re an addition to the primary goal which is to give readers information on the company.
Certain websites are concentrated on the blogging aspect of things. The internet is brimming with websites, sites that utilize the blogging framework to frequently publish content to an audience who is interested in a particular area. Many of them don’t even consider their sites “blogs.” Instead, they’d be referred to as sites that have a lot of content.
Ideas For Content
The following are six ways that students can use blogs to create an assortment of content. In most cases, the “content” is writing, but in some instances, it’s a different type of media. The blogs can be written solely for school, however, If they’re great, and should the students wish to do so, and if parents are willing to allow it, blogs can eventually be read by more people and could be able to turn into an occupation.
1. THE SINGLE PROJECT BLOG
The purpose of this document is to record the entire project from start to end. It should include a detailed explanation of how the concept was born, the research or planning that took place along the way, the progress made on the project in various stages, and the end result and the results or impacts following the completion of the project. If your school has an abundance of project-based learning or has the “genius hour” program or Innovation class This type of blog is a perfect match.
2. THE SPECIAL INTEREST OF THE BLOG
What are your students most passionate about? This kind of blog is regular posts on a particular subject. The idea is for the subject to be broad enough to ensure that it will include sub-topics, too. This type of blog might make a great addition to an introductory science or social studies class, in case you want students to be focusing on a subject that is related to the content area you teach.
3. THE PORTFOLIO BLOG
The idea is to show an assortment of the student’s work within a particular section. Alongside each artifact, it is possible for the student to write a brief introduction or a reflection on the job to offer a glimpse into the process of creating or the motivation behind the work.
4. THE JOURNALISTIC BLOG
Similar to a newspaper or magazine The goal of this kind of blog is to share stories of events that are happening at the moment. The stories could include images or videos that complement the text or solely focus on pictures or videos with no text. Stories can be brief or “newsy” or longer, magazine-style feature stories.
5. THE REVIEW BLOG
A blog of this kind is composed of only reviews, in which the author (or an entire group of writers) reviews new or existing offerings within a specific segment.
6. THE ADVICE OR HOW-TO BLOG
For this type of website, the writer could simply offer directions or advice for how to accomplish things. The content could come from actual readers or the author may create their own by referring to common problems they’ve heard people complain about.
Select a platform on which students can write blogs.
- WordPress will be my recommendation for students looking to utilize a well-known platform that is at no cost.
- Google Sites and Blogger are both free and could be more user-friendly to use, however, they don’t have the same number of options as WordPress.
- Some websites have age restrictions that prohibit users who are under an age limit be able to use the site, so go through the Terms and Conditions and talk to your local IT department before you launch the blog project.
CHOOSING A FOCUS
Like a creative essay or presentation, a great blog should have a distinct purpose. Consider these points:
A variety of blogs mentioned below are able to be mixed. A blog that is specialized might frequently feature articles that provide reviews of products, for instance. A portfolio blog may sometimes feature a tutorial on the expertise being displayed.
When selecting a topic, take into account the intended audience. Who do students write for? Even if blogs aren’t made general public due to age or other privacy issues Students can still create blogs for a hypothetical audience.
Each of these types of blogs could have a personal touch in the event that the writer chooses. The ability to let readers know your personality can make your writing more appealing and interesting. This kind of writing does not just help the writer to reflect and grow, but it can also help readers who can relate to the experiences.
One way to know the possibility of a topic is an ideal choice is to prepare an agenda of topics for blog posts prior to the time. If a student isn’t able to think of more than a handful of concepts, the subject might require a more broad. For instance, If a student wishes to create a blog post about their skateboarding equipment but doesn’t have a lot of ideas to write about, it may be more appropriate for them to focus on skateboarding as a whole as this allows them to have a greater variety of the topics that fall under that broad umbrella.
It’s feasible for a person to run several blogs running at any given time or have multiple blogs at a time. It’s not that you should have more than one blog in any case, but making students aware of this could be helpful when they’re trying their best to pick the topic they want to explore and are unable to choose only one. (By the way, it’s better to have two blogs that cover two different subjects instead of trying to push to put them all together in one place.)
Assigning Student Blogs
The ideal student blog should be a long-term project, in which students have to develop an idea and then develop it. There are plenty of wonderful blogging rubrics available:
- The purpose and audience: The overall focus is well-defined and is constant across the blog. Blog posts are written with clearly defined goals that are in line with the overall theme. The blog posts are written for an intended audience, which is consistent across the individual blog posts.
- Development: The overarching theme is that the site is addressed through posts that deal with sub-categories. Each blog post covers an important, precise idea and explains the idea in sufficient detail.
- Organization: Posts are organized efficiently with tags and categories which makes it easier for users to find what they’re searching for.
- Style and Tone: Each post is written in a manner and tone that is appropriate to the target audience.
The effective use of multimedia is amplified by video or images which expand the text or tie into the content in some manner. - Responsible and ethical usage of media: Images videos, music, and images used are compliant with fair use and copyright laws. Proper credit is given to the authors and other creators of works.
- Writer’s mechanics: Misspellings grammar, punctuation, and usage are rare and do not hinder the overall impression of reading and understanding blog posts.
- Technical capabilities: All features of the website function correctly to provide a seamless, enjoyable reading experience for users. Links function according to plan, all components that are “clickable” work properly, and nothing that comes from”the “back end” (such as HTML code that shouldn’t be seen by the user) is displayed on the website.
It’s often stated that people don’t read or write nowadays and that all we do is play around with our phones. However, I believe we’re writing and reading constantly The delivery systems are just changing. One of the most well-known delivery methods in today’s world is blogging. No matter what field of work they go into in the future, they will likely be writing or reading blog posts in their job.
