#1 Create your own blog, then post about it

After you’ve done some exploring around this website and understand how this program will work, it’s time to set up your very own personal blog to begin recording your thoughts, discoveries, and exercises. For this program, you may use any one of several free online blog hosting services including Blogger, Wordpress, or Typepad. (Although we are recommending Blogger, you may find that your organisation may block websites with the name "blog" in them or it may have a preferred blog service.)

Grab yourself a blog in 3 steps:

1. Create an account.
Google asks you for an email address - this becomes your username. Use your work email or a personal Gmail address.

2. Name your blog
Remember that the whole web world can see your blog title and blog address. You probably don’t want to use your real name. Consider creating a blog name that’s anonymous, yet uniquely you. The URL for your blog will look like these examples - http://librarywriting.blogspot.com/ or http://preilly.wordpress.com/ or http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/ (these are real blogs so of course you need to give your own blog its own unique name.) The format is name.blogspot.com when you use blogger.com software. Note: There are no www in the address when using Blogger.com software. Please remember your URL address and/or bookmark it.

3. Select your template.
Blogger has several templates - have fun choosing one for you! If you run into problems, check out Blogger's Help file and Tutorial

Discovery Exercise:
1. Set up a blog for yourself through Blogger.
2. Play around and add a test post or two.
3. Take a look at the Template tab. Try adding some page elements to your blog.
4. You will create a discovery post for each of the ’5 Things.’ Please clearly label each entry in your blog in the following way: Week 1, Exercise or Thing #1, subject. Each of your posts should provide insights into what you’ve discovered and learned. Feel free to share what worked for you … and what didn’t … what surprised you … what frustrated you … what amazed you.

For example: Your ‘Thing 1’ post will talk about how difficult or easy you found it to set up your blog.