Learning in Public: Setting up your Invention Blog

To begin, you should create an Invention Blog by following these steps:

1.  Go to blogger.com and sign in with your gmail account.  All Hofstra student email accounts are gmail.

2.  Use this convention to name your Invention Blog:   

   Inventing  FirstName LastNameInitial                  

Note:  You will have much more flexibility choosing the name for your Portfolio Blog.  By naming your Invention Blog according to this standard, we will be able to more easily locate each others' Invention Blogs in Google Reader.

3.  Choose a template for your blog.  You can modify this later, if you like.

4.  Create your first blog post.  Your first prompt begins:  "So here I am at Hofstra and I am blogging.  Writing online makes me feel...."  Keep freewriting for twelve minutes.  Freewriting entails writing in a forward, nonstop approach.  Do not look back.  Do not edit.  Advance only.  Free associate.  Write copiously.

5.  By email, send me the url for your blog.  I will add it to our course Blackboard site.

This Invention Blog is in a public space, unless you elect to limit your readership to our class.  I encourage you to leave it open.  You can invite readers and commenters from other places, as you wish.  You may get interesting readers from some interesting places. I think there is a lot to gain from a far-reaching audience.  Oftentimes, writers write for a limited or protracted audience.  Blogging opens up the possibility of greater access.