This week’s tip will show how you can design a collaborative blog where students (or parents, or colleagues, etc) can add entries via email.

Let’s try it:

I’ve set up a blog to use as practice. If you want to add an entry (aka a “post”), just send an email to tammyw1.teachertry@blogger.com 

Then go to: http://teachertry.blogspot.com/ to see if your post was added. (You may need to refresh the page to see it.)

Background:
Last week I took a vacation to Panama. I wanted to be able to share my adventures with others, but I wasn’t planning to take a computer. After some searching, lots of trial and error, and a few new grey hairs and wrinkles, I discovered that “Blogger” offered an option that would make it possible to post to my blog via email.

So what’s the big deal?
I was excited enough to discover that I could send email entries to my own blog, but I was even more thrilled when I learned that anyone could add entries to my blog if they were given the send-to address. And in schools, this could solve some problems:

1. •Many schools don’t allow students to use web tools that require a login.
   

2. •Students may not have access to computers - but many have cell phones with email capabilities. Yes - students can add blog entries from their phones!
   

3. •The teacher can moderate the posts to make sure there is no inappropriate material posted. (I’ll show you how later.)
   

4. •If students don’t have their own email account, they can post from their parent’s account.
   
   

What does this mean for educators?
The email-posting option offers lots of possibilities for educators. Below are a few ideas to get you started. I hope you will share ideas of your own by clicking the “Add Comment” link at the bottom of this page.

1. •Book study - Students blog their reflections from a book selection.
   

2. •Online debate - Students are given a prompt and then post their own arguments.
   

3. •Gathering data - Students could post their observations and results from a science experiment.
   

4. •Photo essays - Students can easily add photos to their blog posts. (Most can take the pictures using their cell phone cameras.)They could be prompted to post a picture that they think portrays compassion, for example. Or they could take and post a picture of their art project!
   
   

5. •Also keep in mind that blog entries can come from anyone / anywhere. Students from different classes, different schools, even different countries can contribute to the same blog!
   
   

How do I set up a collaborative blog?

Getting started:

1. 1.Go to www.blogger.com
   
   

2. 2.Log in using your Google account. (If you don’t have an account, you’ll need to create one. It is free!)
   
   Important note - At the time of this posting (hopefully they’ll fix this soon) this will NOT work if your email address contains a dot anywhere before the @ sign. For example, the email address john.doe@yahoo.com will NOT work but johndoe@yahoo.com will work just fine.
   
   So - make sure you log on using an email address without a dot before the @. You can easily create a new email address using gmail or yahoo if you need to.
   
   

3. 3.Create a new blog.
   This is very easy to do -- Blogger will lead you through the entire process.
   
   

   

   
   

Setting Email Options:

1. 1.Click the Settings tab and then choose the Email link. (See screenshot below.)
   
   

   

   
   
   

2. 2.In the provided box, enter the center section of the email address. It needs to be something short, and should be related to your topic. (Each time you create a new blog, it will need to have a unique email address.)
   
   

3. 3.Decide if you want to moderate the entries before they are posted for the public to view:
   If you don’t want to moderate them, choose to “Publish emails immediately.”
   If you do want to moderate them, choose to “Save emails as draft posts.”
   
   
   

One more thing:

1. 1.Click the Layout tab and the Page Elements link.
   

2. 2.In the Blog Posts area, click “Edit.” (See pic below.)
   
   

   

   
   
   
3. 3.Un-check the “Posted by” option. (See pic below.)
   
   

   

   
   
   
   

Posting Entries via Email:

1. 1.Provide the blog’s email address to your students. In my example, the email address would be: tammyw1.teachertry@blogger.com
   
   

2. 2.When students send a message to the blog’s email address:
   - The subject line of the email becomes the title of the blog post.
   - The message of the email becomes the body of the blog post.
   - Attached photos become part of the body of the blog post.
   
   

   

   
   
   

3. 3.Make sure students sign their names within their email message so that you will know who submitted the post.