How to Use Your MSSU Student Blog

OK, you've got your blog. You know the address and how to log in. Now what? Here are the procedures for adding content:

Posting:
After logging in you will see the "Blogger Dashboard." This will list all the blogs you now have with blogger (you can create more if you like).

Find the blog with your name (your personal MSSU Honors blog) and choose "New Post." Use the editor window for text, photos, hyperlinks, etc. When you are ready, click "Publish Post."

From your main blog page you can access the "Blogger Dashboard" by clicking on the Blogger logo in the top left corner of the page.

Editing:
You can always do back and edit an existing post, but going to Dashboard and choosing "Change Settings" and then "Posting" then "Edit Posts." This will give you a list of all your posts. You can edit or delete any of them.

Remember that after you post something new or edit a post, you must go follow the instructions for "republishing" the blog. You may also need to refresh your browser to see the changes.

You can always change your Blogger password. Right after you log in you will see the "Blogger Dashboard" screen. There will be an option in the upper right corner of the screen that says "change password." Just follow the steps from there.

Another thing you can do to increase the privacy of the blog is the following:

Under Blogger Dashboard, choose "Change Settings"; then under the "Settings" tab, choose "No" under "Add Blog to our listings?" setting.

Keep in mind these points:

1) These blogs are PUBLIC. Anyone on the Internet will be able to view them. Thus, we want you to think of whatever you put on your blog as a sort of "dispatch" to the public at large, rather than a personal diary. Do not include any personal information that you would not share with a newspaper or other public organ of information. We strongly recommend that you keep your own personal diary, entirely separate from your blog, where you can record private or sensitive information that you don't want to forget, but which would not be appropriate for the blog.

2) These blogs are linked to MSSU Honors. This means that you are representing the Honors Program and MSSU when you post material, including pictures and links to other sites. We want you to be creative, original, spontaneous, funny, etc., but we also want to be sure that everything you post reflects positively on both you personally and the Honors Program at large. This doesn't mean that we want you to refrain from criticism or to avoid sensetive subjects: far from it. We definitely want you to tackle such things on your blogs. Just think of this as a public presentation: How would you present your thoughts and experiences to a large mixed group of people? Which pictures would you show? How would you phrase things, especially when dealing with sensitive topics? We trust you judgmentur best judgement along with your intelligence, wit, and creativity. If you have any doubts about posting something, please e-mail Dr. Kluthe or me for advice.

3) Be sure to properly attribute any quoted material. Clearly state the source, put the quoted material in quotes and provide a link, if possible to its original source if it's online.

4) Keep track of other student blogs through the current student pages of the new Honors sites. We want to see creative and productive competition between bloggers. We'd like to see students learning from each other and pushing each other to new levels of observation and analysis. If you read something on another blog that makes an impact, write about it on your own blog and provide a link to it. See if you can learn from this and use the ideas and/or approach to enrich your own blog.

5) Surprise and delight us. These blogs will be exhibit A in our presentation of "the college within" to the world, and we can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

Happy Blogging,