Sue’s blogging, and you can too!

August 18, 2008 by Aaron Sumner

SIM Professional Developer extraordinaire Sue Woodruff has started her own blog. Says Sue:

I’ve decided to document this year’s journey with a blog. I will invite other SIM professional developers to tag along. I am involved in adolescent literacy projects around the country, and I am going to share my experiences. (At least some of them.) I would like to pose questions and get advice, and I would love to hear from other SIM professional developers and instructional coaches. It is sort of an experiment. We talk about about making our teaching public; let’s make our professional development public, too!

I’m really glad Sue’s taken the initiative to start a blog and share her own perspective with others. Check out her blog for yourself to learn more. Don’t forget that RSS makes it really easy to follow along as she adds new posts–refer to Amber’s great RSS write-up to learn how.

How can I start my own blog?

Blogging is easy! Well, the technical part of it is, anyway–the writing part is as easy or difficult as you make it. Let’s get the technical part out of the way.

Sue is using Blogger, a popular, free blogging service from Google. (Sue, maybe you could leave a comment here or make a post on your blog about this process? I haven’t used Blogger myself but from what I hear it’s pretty easy to get started.) Or check out one of these options:

WordPress.com
TypePad.com (not free)
Tumblr (this is a neat alternative to regular blogs–Tumblr is tuned to sharing quotes, clips, and other materials you find online, or your own abbreviated musings)
Edublogs (I haven’t used this service myself; if you try it out let me know what you think)

There are tons more out there, of course; if you use a blogging service you particularly like let us know in the comments. Better yet, if (when!) you start a blog of your own make sure to tell us about it!

Aaron Sumner

Aaron Sumner is the Director of Technology for Research and Development at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. He has worked in web development and instructional technology since 1994.

Amber

Way to go Sue!
Amber

Way to go Sue!
http://foryoursimformation.blogspot.com/ Sue Woodruff

I’ve looked and (kind of) attempted starting a blog before. Some of the programs were a little complex. This one was free and it really was very easy to do. I picked a format, changed the colors to that I liked them, and then just played with it. You can go in and edit anything. I made a few mistakes, so I just revised it. Also, I didn’t like the wording of something, so I went in and revised it. It was a little bit scary – a little unnerving because you really don’t know who is going to read it. I think I will blog about that! Then I saw how it could be used as a cool communication and expression tool. I would say to everyone – go for it. Blogger, which is a Google product, is very easy to use. There are no advertisements, and it is completely free. Let us know if you start one!
http://foryoursimformation.blogspot.com Sue Woodruff

I’ve looked and (kind of) attempted starting a blog before. Some of the programs were a little complex. This one was free and it really was very easy to do. I picked a format, changed the colors to that I liked them, and then just played with it. You can go in and edit anything. I made a few mistakes, so I just revised it. Also, I didn’t like the wording of something, so I went in and revised it. It was a little bit scary – a little unnerving because you really don’t know who is going to read it. I think I will blog about that! Then I saw how it could be used as a cool communication and expression tool. I would say to everyone – go for it. Blogger, which is a Google product, is very easy to use. There are no advertisements, and it is completely free. Let us know if you start one!
http://stratepedia.org/ Aaron

Thanks Sue–as you say, I think going for it is the key.
http://stratepedia.org/ Aaron

Thanks Sue–as you say, I think going for it is the key.