Setting theTime and Writing Posts

The first thing you should do once your blog is created is set the time. Every post you create will contain a date and time stamp indicating when the post was published. To set the time click on the Settings tab near the top left of the page, then the Formatting tab. Scroll down to Time Zone, select "GMT-05:00 Eastern Time - Montreal" and save your settings at the bottom of the page.

Now you're ready to write a post. Don't worry about making your post perfect, you can always edit (or even remove) posts after they've been published. To write a post, click on the Posting tab (by the Settings and Layout tabs at top left). Then click Create.

At the top of the page you'll see a text box where you can title your post. Think of the title as a newspaper headline--it should tell the reader what the post is about. Below the title is the editing window where you'll write your post. It will look very similar to a text editing window in Blackboard. At the top of the window you'll see some editing tools, including the Link tool. For each post you write you must include a link to the news article you're writing about.

I want to give those of you who've never blogged some time to get familiar with everything, so the first blog posts you create for week 2 will not be graded. Use the first couple weeks of class to practice creating posts.