What+are+BLOGS?

=**What is a BLOG?**= Wikipedia defines a blog as, "A **weblog** (usually shortened to **blog**, but occasionally spelled web log or weblog) is a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles, most often in reverse chronological order."

**Watch this short video, "Blogs in Plain English", for a quick and amusing explanation:**
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Reasons for Use
Blogs are websites in which users post their thoughts, writings, images, widgets, videos, and whatever else they would like to share with a global audience. Then, other users can view and comment on what the author posts. For educational purposes they can be used for:
 * writing - ANY aspect
 * character development
 * journaling
 * creative writing
 * current events
 * class updates/newsletter

Ease of Use
The ease of use is dependent on the site on which to host your blog. The two listed below are fairly easy to learn and navigate after taking some time to view the tutorials and set up your blog. Both sites come complete with many templates and widgets to choose from, making it very easy to customize the look and feel of your blog.

**Popular Blog Sites**
[|Edu Blogs] - "Blogging for teachers and students, made easy..." [|Class Blogmeister] - blogging engine created specifically for classroom use [|21 Classes] - Host and manage blogs for your student and use a Class Homepage to communicate with students [|Blogger]

Class Blogmeister Instructions media type="custom" key="4609902" width="280" height="280"

Resources The Connected Classroom Blog Resource Site Educational Blogging 101 Eduwiki.us Blog page

Examples In need of examples! Do you have any examples? Please send them to carhan@bhasd.org.