ER-1: Create a Blog-Post: Introducing Your “Best-Self”

Once you have the “Blogger” profile created, you will start writing new posts. Here you will learn to create and write a new blog-post, edit a post, include pictures and videos and links. There are 5 Steps to Complete this Assignment.

Write a new post

1.      Sign in to Blogger.

2.      Click New Post.

3.      Create the post.

4.      Optional: To see how your post will look, click Preview.

5.      To save your post without publishing it, click Save. To publish your post, click Publish.

The screen for writing a new post has a lot of different features. The key things to notice here are the following:

•          Title box at top of screen — every post needs a title!
•         Compose or HTML option. Compose is what you will use most of the time.

Before we move on, let’s first get an idea of what you are writing about in your first test-post. This ER-1 is a brief bio describing “you” “at your best”:

·         Think of a specific instance or time in your life when you were at your “best”. Talk about your feelings and emotions as you reflect on the story.

·         Add any images, like your photo, family pictures or of places that are connected to your story. This will make you post colorful and vivid. It is important you know how to add pictures in your blog-post as it is a requirement for rest of the semesters.

·         Also, include details on your pet, family and friends, background education and experiences, skills and strengths, achievements and ambition, career plans and aspirations, personality type and traits, leisure time activities and hobbies, this new semester’s resolutions, your idea about happiness and your expectations from this course.

·         In addition to this add anything you would like us to know about you. This will help others in the class (and me) to get to know you in a deeper level.

Give a title for your post plus add the content you created about you in the post box. Now that you have the main content written out based on the instructions, here are some more pointers to consider that will help you toward setting a quality first blog-post:

• Labels options to the right — and labels are VERY important for blog navigation, as you will see. They are tags that you apply to posts, making it easier to maneuver through the blog. Read this blog to know more about Labels’ function. For this assignment, you the labels- “#AboutMe” and “#ER-1” in addition to however many of your choice.
• Hyperlinks: Wondering how I added this link to the word “this” to the last point? It is through the “Link” option on this toolbar. This button helps you to select a word/sentence/image and link it to an URL (web address). Click on the option “Link” to see description of how to do it. For your post, try out the “Link” option on the toolbar to hyperlink an online content (e.g. your favorite music video or movie from YouTube).
• Tx is the "remove all formatting" function which is really (REALLY) useful if you are cutting and pasting from somewhere else; just highlight anything that has unwanted formatting and use the Tx button to remove the formatting.
• “Add images” and “embed videos”, refer to my earlier blog-post. To help you write quality blog-posts, add a picture or embed a video using the toolbar options.
• There are other options like alignment, bullet points, fonts, sizes, bold, italics, color changes, highlighter, etc. very similar to that of MS Office. In your post, try out some of the formatting like bold and italics and then highlight the text and use the “Tx” button to remove the formatting.
• ABC is a spellcheck feature. When you are done, check for spelling errors as you proof read, and then click “Publish” to publish your first post. Make sure to “View” or “Preview” your post before “publishing” it.

Now Your ER-1 is Published! Yay!!

This ER-1 assignment is both to get to know you and help you learn various settings and options for writing a post. Use this as an opportunity to also practice well and test yourself of your ease in maneuvering through your blog. It is important that you feel comfortable with this platform as all of the assignments of this course are through Blogger.

Next What?

Blog-Post Link Submission in Canvas

You will then see the post listing page. On the post listing page, you just need to HOVER over the blank space under the post title to see the options: Edit and View. You can then click on View to see your post open in a new browser tab.

After you click on “view”, you should see your post in a new browser tab. Take a look at the URL; the address you see here is the address for a specific post.

See an example here to understand:

http://drprispsychology.blogspot.com/2018/01/tips-to-improve-your-blogger-experience.html

Here is what that all means:

drprispsychology.blogspot.com: my blog homepage address

2018/01: year and month of the post

tips-to-improve-your-blogger-experience: title of the post

The address of the homepage (e.g. dr.prispsychology.blogspot.com) is always the same. However, each post has its own specific address (e.g. http://drprispsychology.blogspot.com/2018/01/start-today.html). So, every time you submit a blog-post (ER-1,2, 3…8), the URL will be different. Check before you submit them in “Assignment” section in Canvas for grade.

So, now that you have a blog and a blog post, you have just one more task to complete for this assignment: Share the link with me (for grade) and others in your class (for viewing and commenting). Now that you know the difference between blog-URL and blog-post URL, pay attention to what’s asked.

For this assignment, complete with this step:

      ER-1 blog-post URL to be submitted in “Assignment” section in Canvas. Click on your first blog-post (ER-1) where you have written about yourself. Copy the URL. (It will be something like this-http://drprispsychology.blogspot.com/2018/01/tips-to-improve-your-blogger-experience.html). Another way to get to this link is to go to the page that looks like the email Inbox where your test-post name appears. Below the post title, click on “View” and your blog-post will appear in a new window. Copy the URL on the top, that should be having your blog name, year-month, and your blog-post title. Check that link before your copy.

Once you have copied the blog-post URL, paste it to “ER-1” in Assignments section on Course Canvas page.

ALL DONE! Your blog is up and running, ready to go!!!

Before you close, make sure you have done all of the below in the checklist:

ER-1 Checklist Configured Comments. I have configured the blog for comments, and I chose an email address so that I will be notified about new comments. Time zone setting. I have adjusted the time zone setting. Published test-post. I’ve completed the first blog-post as per instructions provided by the instructor in this post and have published it successfully. Pictures, Videos, Links. I have learned to include pictures/videos and hyper-links to my post. ER-1 Canvas Assignment. I have submitted the blog-post URL on Assignments page in Canvas under “ER-1”.

The next step: you will visit other students’ blogs by visiting the “Blog Homepage Directory” file under Pre-Module: Week 0 in Canvas.  Once you view their post, leave a comment on their post. To learn more about how to comment and requirements, visit my blog-post on comments.