Students’ blogs appear in the sidebar

Blog post No. 1 was due today at 10 a.m.

So at 9:30 a.m., I went into the Dashboard of THIS blog and built the RSS feeds (using the WordPress RSS widget) that you see in the sidebar. Each RSS widget shows the title of the blog and the title and date of the most recent post. This is easy to do because every WordPress.com blog automatically has an RSS feed.

At 10 a.m., I opened each of the posts and saved it as a complete Web page to my hard drive. This enables Curt (my T.A.) and me to grade the actual post that was online at 10 a.m. Deadlines are important in journalism, so I see the 12-week blog exercise as one way to train students to respect their deadlines.

Your first blog post (graded!)

It’s your blog. You can post whatever you want to … I hope it fits the focus of your blog, though!

On Tuesday at 10 a.m., I’m going to capture your MOST RECENT blog post. The one at the top of your blog’s home page.

That is the post Curt or I will grade for your Blog Post # 1.

It needs to be a real blog post that meets the criteria given on the online syllabus. Good headline. At least one good link. Correct mechanics, including AP style. Etc., etc. READ THE ASSIGNMENT. And suitable to the focus of your blog, as we have already discussed.

Some of you have asked me if you can or should post an INTRODUCTORY POST. That could mean many things. If your so-called introductory post does not meet the assignment criteria, then post a NEWER post that does meet them.

If you have not sent me your blog’s URL before 10 a.m. Tuesday, your first blog post will be graded 0 (because I won’t know where to find it). You can send it now — I’m not grading anything till Tuesday.

Where to keep your photos

You might be displaying your photos at any one of a large number of free photo sites, but even if you already have a home for your photos, I suggest you take a look at Flickr.

I’ve been using Flickr since 2004. The free accounts allow you to upload 100 MB per month. There is no storage space limit! You can arrange photos in sets and also in collections.

They have some great groups of professional photographers and photojournalists there.

To get the URL for a JPG to use on your WordPress.com blog, do this:

1. Open the individual photo page at Flickr (example).
2. Click the text above the photo that says All Sizes (result).
3. In the links above THAT photo, click the one with a width of 400 or 500 pixels to fit on your blog (see it).
4. Now you need to get the URL to this size. Look down below the photo for the text “Grab the photo’s URL.” The box below that contains your URL for the JPG.
5. Copy the URL and paste into the image window in WordPress.
6. Click “Insert into Post” button to complete the action of posting an image.

Here is the result:

You don’t have to use Flickr, but if you take a lot of pictures and want a good way to organize them, it does that well.

Tip: Putting links in your sidebar

Go to your dashboard. Click > Design. Click > Widgets.

Add “Links” to your sidebar. SAVE CHANGES!

Click > Write. Click > Link.

Add new links here, one at a time.

By creating a new category, you will create a new subheading for a list of links. The default subheading is “Blogroll.” If you link to sites that are not blogs, why not create a new subheading for them?

First day with our WP blogs

Today each student set up a new WordPress.com blog to use in this course.

I showed a PowerPoint, which you can download or view as a PDF (1.8 MB).

After class, I e-mailed the students with a link to an outline of what we covered today on WordPress.com.

Don’t forget to delete the “Hello, World” post!