Each week there will be a couple of 'Things' for you to do at a time convenient to you. Don't worry if you don't manage to do them within the week, you can always do them later or miss them out if you prefer. We’ll also provide extra information and links for exploring resources and tools further if you are interested and have any extra time to spare.
To kick off Week 1 we'll be focussing on blogs. What are blogs?
A blog (or web-log) is essentially a webpage that displays entries in a chronological order, a bit like an online diary. They are easy to set up and there are lots of free providers. Blogs are usually interactive and allow readers to comment on the posts being made. They also feature RSS so that readers can set up feeds to alert them to new posts or comments on the blog (more about RSS later). Feeds can also be used to publish the blog content on other websites without having to update them separately. If you want to know more about blogs in general, check out the Wikipedia article on blogs.
Why blog?
People blog to share and disseminate information. On a personal level individuals may blog to share news with family and friends. On a professional level, reasons that researchers, academics, students and clinicians blog may include:
- to disseminate their work and gain global impact quickly without the constraints of traditional scholarly communications
- to publicise their publications or events they are involved in
- to share ideas, comments, news or information and to build up professional networks
- to exchange information or progress with a particular group of people, such as a research or project group
- to reflect on their work or events attended to aid their professional development
- to keep up to date by monitoring blogs created by other people or organisations
Can you think of any other reasons why researchers, academics, students or clinicians might use blogs? Why not post a comment below?
Thing 1: Create your own blog and register it with us.
Throughout the 11½ Things programme we'll all be communicating and sharing our experiences through blog entries. You'll need to write on your own blog about each 'Thing' you complete.
Blogs are usually set up using a blogging platform, but then you can customise and personalise your blog to make it look like your own webstie. This blog is made available using Blogger, which is fairly simple to use so we shall give instructions for setting up your own blog on Blogger. Feel free to use another platform if you prefer, such as WordPress, Tumblr or TypePad. Alternatively if you already have a personal blog and prefer to use that for 11½ Things then please do. Once you have created your blog please email 11andahalfthings@gmail.com with the website address for your blog so we can create a link to it from the 11½ Things blog.
Did you know? UCL hosts its own blogs at http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/. For the purposes of this course we suggest you use a publicly available service as you are setting up a personal blog to express your own views and opinions, not as a public face of UCL.
How to set up a blog with Blogger
- Go to Blogger and log in with your Google account. (If you don't have a Google account you will need to set one up - click on the 'Don't have a Google Account? Get Started' link). If you're not an author on any pre-existing blogs you will need to choose a Blogger display name and accept the Blogger terms and conditions. You may then need to click on Create a blog.
- Choose a name and URL (website address) for your blog and click on Continue. NB. You might need to spend some time thinking of a URL as many are already in use. Try to think of one that is easy to spell, remember and say (for when you're telling people your blog address!)
- Choose a template for your blog and click on Continue. You should now have a page confirming that your blog has been created. On the next page click on Start blogging. This takes you through to creating your first post but don't worry about that for now, we'll show you how to create a post as part of 'Thing 2' (below). At any time you can view your blog by clicking on View Blog.
- Now please email 11andahalfthings@gmail.com with the URL of your blog so we can link to it from this blog.
Feel free to play about witht he design of your blog and customise it if you have time. You might want to look at some other blogs to get ideas about the layout and design and what to include.
- Templates: Blogger is quite limited in the templates it provides but you can download alternative templates for free, eg. from BTemplates.com (these are downloaded as zip files from which you'll need to extract the .xml file). In the Design tab in Blogger, click on Edit HTML. Browse for your template saved on your computer and select Upload.
- Gadgets: From the Design tab in Blogger you can choose to add or remove the various gadgets, or elements, that are displayed on your blog page. Click on Add a Gadget to browse and select new gadgets. You can always Edit or Remove these later. You can also move them around on your screen by dragging and dropping them.
Thing 2: Find an example of a blog and share it on your blog
We've already discussed some of the reasons that researchers, academics, students or clinicians might want to use blogs. Now we'd like you to find an example (or more than one if you're feeling keen!) of a blog that might be of interest to these types of people in biomedicine and health, or another subject area if you prefer. You might be able to identify a blog that is written by these types of people, or a blog written by an organisation or connected to an event that might be of interest to this user group. Where possible it might be most useful if you were able to find UK examples. Then we'd like you to make your first post on your blog telling the rest of the group about the example(s) you have identified. How much you write about it is totally up to you.
How to search for blogs
So where do you start if you want to find other people's blogs? You might want to try one of the following blog search tools: Google blog search, Technorati blog directory, IceRocket. The academic blogs website is a useful list of blogs in various academic disciplines.
How to create your first blog post
If you are using Blogger you can follow these instructions to create your first blog post:
- Click on the Posting tab and then New Post. (Or if you are continuing on from the instructions in 'Thing 1', click on the big orange Start blogging arrow).
- Enter a title for your post and start typing! You can format the text using the toolbar at the top of the box.
- Tell us a bit about a useful blog and don't forget to include a link to the blog. To make text link to a website, highlight the text, click on Link on the toolbar and paste in the URL.
- You can add tags to your blog post by entering words separated by commas in the Labels box below the main box. These can help people find entries in your blog later, just like we might add subject headings to a catalogue record when cataloguing a book. We suggest you add the tag Thing 2, and any other tags of your choice.
- Click on Preview to see your post before you publish it. When ready you can click on Publish Post.
We look forward to reading your blog post. The next set of 'Things' will be posted on this blog next Friday, 8 July 2011.
Optional extras
Every week we'll have some optional extras which will take you beyond the basics of the topic being covered, which you can investigate if you are interested and have the time.
Following other people's blogs
There are various ways of keeping track of feeds:
- Web browsers: Some Web browsers, including Internet Explorer 7 and above (not available via UCL WTS) and Firefox, have built in RSS readers and work in a similar way to saving web pages in your favorites or bookmarks. The disadvantage of using your Web browser to keep track of RSS feeds is that you will only be able to see them from the computer on which you saved them.
- Through your email: Some email programmes, such as Outlook, have built in RSS readers so you can look at your RSS feeds much as you would look in a folder in your email.
- Web-based RSS readers: These are freely available websites that allow you to log in and manage your feeds. Popular examples include Google Reader and Bloglines.
- Personalised web portals / start pages: You can set up your own personalised home page where you can keep track of your feeds, monitor your email and add gadgets to access information from all sorts of Web sources, such as news headlines, weather forecasts, stock market data, bookmarks to favourite websites, etc. Examples include iGoogle, MyYahoo!, NetVibes and PageFlakes.
Have a go at setting up your own personalised web page using iGoogle or another provider of your choice and add some gadgets to it.
Then add an RSS feed to your personalised web page linking to the 11½ Things blog. To do this:
- Go to the 11½ Things blog.
- Under the SUBSCRIBE TO heading on the right hand side click on Posts and select the personalised web page service you have been using. If using iGoogle, for example, click on Add to Google Homepage.
- You will be taken to your homepage and you should now see a link to 11½ Things. Every time we post a new entry on the 11½ Things blog you can now read it through your personalised home page.
Wow, thank you so much for your contribution! The information you've provided is a brilliant thing for bloggers-beginers! Thanks a million one more time! Everything works like a charm!
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