How to create your own class blog or website for free

You’ve got information you want to share with your students, and online seems to be the place to go. Queue WordPress and Windows Live Writer—with these tools you can easily create and manage your very own blog. Did I mention that it’s easy? Oh, and did I double mention that it’s free? 

Okay, moving on...

What is WordPress?

WordPress.com is web software you can use to create a website or blog. Nearly a year ago Windows Live and WordPress partnered to offer a better blogging experience to Windows Live Writer customers (WordPress replaced Windows Live Spaces). There are a few important reasons why the Windows Live team chose WordPress, and I think those reasons may help you decide if this is the solution for you.

• WordPress is built on a scalable platform making it easy to create new users, support customer growth, and ensure 24/7 access to your blog. That means this company is reliable.

• They’re leading the charge in spam protection and other security concerns. Let’s face it; you don’t want your students to see anything they “shouldn’t”.

• You can lock down access. When you make your blog invite only, then only those people can read your blog. That way you’ll know your information is secure.

• They have lots of helpful tutorials and how-to steps to help you create, write, manage, and promote your blog. They even let you turn your free blog into a free website.

• And it’s been successful. There are over 26 million sites powered by WordPress. So clearly their customers like what they’re doing and are recommending WordPress to their friends.

Now, back to that free part. There’s a caveat here. Basic blog features are free, but WordPress does have certain paid upgrades and services. For example, if you want your blog or website to be completely free of advertisements, then you will need to upgrade your blog. No Ads is a paid upgrade that costs $29.97 per blog, per year. And when you set your blog to "private", you can add up to 35 users to your access list from the Settings page. But if you need a larger blog community, you'll need to purchase the Unlimited Private Users upgrade in order to continue adding users.

What is Windows Live Writer?

Rather than use a web-based editing tool, like WordPress, you can install Windows Live Writer. Windows Live Writer is a client application that you install on your computer to write and manage your blog posts. The benefit here is you can write your posts while disconnected from the Internet, and then publish them later when you are connected.

Before you get started with Windows Live Writer, you must add at least one blog from a blog service provider. You can create a new blog on WordPress.com in Writer or add a blog that you already have.

Windows Live Writer includes inline spell check, table editing, categorization, support for excerpts and extended entries, and more. You can even insert images and videos into your blog posts.

What about blogging from Microsoft Word?

If you're more comfortable with drafting your blog posts in Word, then it makes sense to just publish from there. If you're using Word 2007 or Word 2010, then you can create and publish a blog post from Word to your WordPress blog. Find out how.

How are teachers and student using blogs?

Here are a few examples of different blog styles and methods of blogging that other teachers and students are using:

• Global History @ LSE, this student is keeping track of all his notes and online essays, so that he can access this information from any computer with an Internet connection.  

• Physics for Class 10, this high school physics teacher created a blog that challenges physics students to try experiments at home, while also providing access to worksheets and home work assignments.

• Ms. Vana’s Earth Science Class, Ms. Vana created a class website using WordPress. She put together top navigation that makes it easy for her students to find class documents, her PowerPoint slides, and extra credit puzzles.

• Two writing teachers, Ruth and Stacey are teachers who live 565 miles apart, and have been blogging together since 2007. They recently wrote a book, which is publicized on their blog.

• Teaching the teacher, Stephanie created her blog while studying her Graduate Diploma in Primary Teaching.

How about it? Are you inspired to blog?

-- Jennifer Bost