What is Blogging (30 min)

A blog is a website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.

Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.

The term "blog" is a contraction of "Web log." "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. (Wikipedia)

Blog software comparison chart (OLD)

Free Blogging Sites

Blogger

Favorite Features: customizable header, email posts, java in sidebar, can add authors, make blog private

Dislikes: Boring themes, Can't add pages, only way to connect blogs with students is by adding them to a links list in sidebar

WordPress

Favorite Features: customizable header, cool themes, blog and feed stats, add pages

Dislikes: Limited customization, no java in sidebar, only way to connect blogs with students is by adding them to a links list in sidebar

Inexpensive Blogging Sites

Weebly - Freeium - Pay for upgrades or access to certain features.
Page.ly - 14.95 a month for WordPress hosting
Typepad- $8.95 a month for One Blog
Squarespace - $8 a month for One Blog

Moblogging & Micro-blogging

Microblogging is a web service that allows the subscriber to broadcast short messages to other subscribers of the service. Microposts can be made public on a Web site and/or distributed to a private group of subscribers. Subscribers can read microblog posts online or request that updates be delivered in real time to their desktop as an instant message or sent to a mobile device as an SMS text message (Wikipedia). Moblogging (short for “Mobile Blogging”) is, just as the name implies, the concept of blogging on the go. Both are similar but there is a broad range of services and uses, all the way from Twitter, 140 character short burst of information to friends, to Tumblr, which can function and look like a full blog.

Twitter - a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time.
Tumblr - a variation on traditional blogging that favors very short, mixed media posts with little or no commentary. There are 6 distinct types of posts that have their own visual format: a "traditional" blog post, a photo, a quote, a single link, a conversational transcript, and a video.