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Markdown

Markdown - markdown!

Markdown is a way of writing text in a very simple text editor (like notepad) in such a way that when pasted into a web page it is well formatted. You can use markdown with the simplest of editors for posting into your blog making it ideal for recording notes on field trips for example. You can take notes on your PDA or mobile then transfer them to your blog by simply cutting and pasting it with no need to reformat in a cumbersome wordprocessor.

The main markdown site uses it for the bulk of the test on the site. Compare the main web-page just given to the actual markdown itself. Apart form its very simple structure another reason for using markdown is that the markdown text is itself is very readable (which HTML isn't!) and can be used to print out as is.

To quote the main site:

Markdown's syntax is intended for one purpose: to be used as a format for writing for the web.

Markdown is not a replacement for HTML, or even close to it. Its syntax is very small, corresponding only to a very small subset of HTML tags. The idea is not to create a syntax that makes it easier to insert HTML tags. In my opinion, HTML tags are already easy to insert. The idea for Markdown is to make it easy to read, write, and edit prose. HTML is a publishing format; Markdown is a writing format. Thus, Markdown's formatting syntax only addresses issues that can be conveyed in plain text.

Here are basic details and more advanced details of how to write with markdown. To start with here are a few pointers:

Headings are done by putting a line of either = or - under the words in your title.

    Main Heading
    ============

    Sub-heading
    -----------

which comes out as -

Main Heading

Sub-heading

Bold - put two *s on each side of the word(s) you want in bold.

    **this is in bold!**

This is in bold!

Italics - put a single asterisk

    The word *italics* is in italics.

The word italics is in italics.

An unnumbered list - put an * at the beginning of each line

* item 1
* item 2
* item 3

item1
item2
item3

An ordered list is done by putting a number in front of each line (in fact ANY number will do - try it)

1. item 1
2. item 2
3. item 3

item 1
item 2
item 3

Finally in the brief intro making links - simply surround the text you want to make into a link with square brackets the URL in round-brackets (parentheses). For example

[The Learning Landscape for Schools](http://www.ll4schools.co.uk)

Which comes out as The Learning Landscape for Schools. If you want a title to pop up as well then put it after the URL like this:

[The Learning Landscape for Schools](http://www.ll4schools.co.uk "My blogging site")

Just stop your mouse over this link - The Learning Landscape for Schools. Simple.

To you markdown in this site to to your account settings, look for the Enable visual editor link at the bottom of the page and change this to "No". Now you will not get the WYGIWYG editor but a simple text box where you can enter markdown text.

Welcome to Blogging

An introduction to Blogging (without a computer!)

Objective:

To provide a hands-on, interactive explanation of blogging, and the way that blogs can be used in education as powerful learning tools.

Participants:

Primarily for teachers with no real experience or appreciation of the value of blogging. For a group of 6 or more workshop participants. The bigger the group, the better and more fun.

Materials:

A4 sheets of paper or card - at least one per participant, and preferably in as many different colours as possible
Writing implements - lots of colours of ball-point and felt-tip pens
Post-It Notes - I use 47.6 x 73mm ones. If you can find some colourful ones around this size, so much the better :)

Procedure:

Place the Materials (listed above) in the middle of the activity space. Explain that this represents a Blogging Site: a place that provides you with all of the tools you need to set up and publish a blog.
Invite participants to choose a sheet of Paper for themselves in any colour, as well as a pad of Post-It Notes and some Writing Implements. Explain that this represents how blogging sites allow users to customise the appearance of their own blogs, and personalise them.
Tell the participants that they are about to write their very first blog post. (I like to get participants to blog about "Food and Drink" for this activity, because everyone has their own favourites, and it makes this exercise more fun; but you might have your own topic in mind). Ask them to write a paragraph or so about their favourite food or drink, and to decorate or personalise their page possibly like a tavern poster.
Ask participants to also "tag" their post, by adding some summary words or short phrases of information at the bottom: for example, whether this item is served hot or cold; whether it is a food or a drink; or whether it is served as an entree, main course, or dessert, for adults or children etc.
Now everyone puts their posts back in the middle, and you invite participants to each take someone else's post: ie look for a different coloured sheet. Ask them to comment on the content, by writing their comments on Post-It Notes and sticking them onto the original post: for example, do they agree or disagree with the original poster's favourite food? Do they like the illustrations that the original poster drew? Tell them that blogs allow this kind of commenting by readers, which can help learners to consider new ideas and reflect on their own in new ways.
Get participants to keep putting their commented posts back into the Blogging Site for others to read and comment. They are allowed to review their own blogs at any stage and remove comments they don't think are useful, or comment on each others' comments, too. When this has gone on for a little while, and all of the blogs have at least a couple of comments on them, get everyone to put all the blogs back in the middle and to find their own. The multicoloured sheets of paper helps to make this much simpler. They should have lots of fun reading their comments!
Explain that this is what social software, such as blogs, is all about: sharing and exchanging ideas to build new ideas and new knowledge.
Get everyone on their feet, and ask anyone whose food or drink is (or could be) served hot to stand on your left, and everyone else to stand on your right. Explain that this demonstrates how "tags" or "categories" are used to organise information in blogs, which are usually also searchable, to make it easy to discover new information in other people's blogs.
As a final (optional) activity, ask everyone to write another (brief) blog post on another favourite food or beverage, and to come and stand in front of you when they finish. Explain that most blogs allow readers to subscribe to them in various ways - with RSS being the most popular - which allows readers to be immediately informed if a blogger updates their blog, without having to visit each site. You can certainly expand on and vary this activity to suit your participants, but this sequence communicates most of the important principles of blogging, without a computer in sight, and uses visual, auditory and kinaesthetic aspects to engage learners with all learning styles, which makes this a very fun activity for all.

Acknowledgement: The activity outlined above was offered over the net by a kind person whose identity I have now mislaid. I have modified one or two points and expanded others for a UK audience.

Ray Tolley, June 2007

There are two supporting documents here.

Presentations

Here are some presentations that you might find useful.

Presentation to Liverpool University
E2BN Conference workshop 2008 - Classroom Tools

Using Google Docs

**Using Google Docs with LL4Schools** ***NOTE:*** *You must have a Google Docs account to do what follows. If you want to use it to collaborate with others - i.e. invite specific people to see and/or edit it - they must also have an email address.* So, you have a Google Docs account and want to create a document and let others in LL4Schools see it. You may also want others to be able to work on it with you: to make corrections, add stuff, divide it up and each do some. First you must log in to your account and create an initial document. I've already done that here - its called *This is just a simple text document...* and is in a folder called LL4S in my Google Docs account. I do not intend to show you how to do this - if you have an account you already know. If you need to get an account then there is plenty of help material on the site to start you off. It's very easy! ![googledocs1][1] If I just click on the title it opens and allows me to edit it. To start with I'll just publish it. This means that it will be available online to anyone who knows the URL to read - no-one can edit it but they can read it. In fact you have just published a web-page! To do this you must click on the *Publish* tab on the far right. This opens up this window: ![googledocs1][2] Click on the "Publish document" button. Now it's published and you have the URL. In this particular case it is `http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dqqrwf2_9fvs4gr`. As you can see this link can be used in your blog or wiki to take you to your documents. So now you can create word-processed documents, spreadsheets and presentations in Google Docs to make them accessible in your blog. ![googledocs1][3] Suppose that instead of publishing your work you want to work on it with some other people. They may be members of LL4Schools but don't have to be: as long as they have an email address you can collaborate with them on a document that you have created. Look at at the screenshot below which is reached by clicking on the *Share* tab. ![googledocs1][4] The two important options here are *as collaborators* and *as viewers*. If you just want to share it with a few friends then choose *as viewers*: this is like publishing but to just a few people rather than to everybody. If you want to let these friends edit your document then choose *as collaborators*. Now enter the email address(es) of who you want to work with in the box below. You can enter as many as you like with each one separated by a comma (see the next screenshot). ![googledocs1][5] To keep you work under your control uncheck the two *Advanced permissions* boxes then when you are ready click on *Invite collaborators*. This bring up the following window: ![googledocs1][6] This is the email that will go to those you want to share with: put a message in the text box explaining what the document is and what you want them to do. When you have done that click on the **Send** button. Once the mail has been sent you will go back to this screen which now shows that the document is being shared. If you want to you can change the permissions and invite more collaborators. ![googledocs1][7] Now you have shared and/or published a document you can work on collaboratively. Perhaps you have already created a LL4Schools community and want to share to development of project documentation. You could create you documents in Google Docs, share then with the other members of the community, put links to them in the community wiki, blog or bookmarks, and finally publish to everyone else. Just like I've done with **[this one][8]**. [1]:http://www.ll4schools.co.uk/images/gdocs/gdocs1.jpg "Google docs account" [2]:http://www.ll4schools.co.uk/images/gdocs/gdocs2.jpg [3]:http://www.ll4schools.co.uk/images/gdocs/gdocs3.jpg [4]:http://www.ll4schools.co.uk/images/gdocs/gdocs4.jpg [5]:http://www.ll4schools.co.uk/images/gdocs/gdocs5.jpg [6]:http://www.ll4schools.co.uk/images/gdocs/gdocs6.jpg [7]:http://www.ll4schools.co.uk/images/gdocs/gdocs7.jpg [8]:http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dqqrwf2_9fvs4gr

Child Safety Resources

The [chatdanger][1] site run by [Childnet International][2] has links to many sites and resources around this issue. * [Resources][3] * [SMART rules for being safe online][4] * [Social Networking & Schools][5] [The Internet Safety Zone][6] also provide information on a wide range on both child safety and general internet safety concerns - e.g. "phising" and spam. The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) website - [http://www.iwf.org.uk][7] - is another rich source of information and support on child safety issues. In particular it offers an easy way to report sites that you think may be contain illegal images and other content. Their 2007 report can be downloaded from [here][8] and there is a press release with some key facts [here][9]. The [Information Commissioner's Office][10] website has information about the [Data Protection Act][13]. Their [report][12] on young people's use of social networking sites is there and they have just (Nov 2007) launched a [new site specially for young people][11]. Another very useful site is the *[ThinkUKnow][14]* developed by [CEOP][17] (the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) at [http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/][14] which has sections for young people ([8-10][15] and [11-16][16]) as well as parent and teacher sections.(a 5-7 area is currently under development). You can use the *Flag* button on this site to report abuse to us - but if you see any serious abuse either here or on other websites then you can report it directly to the Police using the CEOP site by clicking on their **[Report Abuse][18]** button. Other potentially illegal activity can be reported in other ways - see [this page][19] for more information. [1]:http://www.chatdanger.com [2]:http://www.childnet-int.org [3]:http://www.chatdanger.com/resources/ [4]:http://www.chatdanger.com/smart [5]:http://www.childnet-int.org/blogsafety/teachers.html [6]:http://www.internetsafetyzone.org/ [7]:http://www.iwf.org.uk [8]:http://www.iwf.org.uk/corporate/page.173.htm [9]:http://www.iwf.org.uk/media/news.196.htm [10]:http://www.ico.gov.uk/ [11]:http://www.ico.gov.uk/youth.aspx [12]:http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/pressreleases/2007/social_networking_press_release.pdf [13]:http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover/data_protection.aspx [14]:http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/ [15]:http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/8_10/ [16]:http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/11_16/ [17]:http://www.ceop.gov.uk/ [18]:http://www.ceop.gov.uk/ceop_report.aspx [19]:http://www.ceop.gov.uk/reporting_abuse.html

Child Safety Resources

Using Google Docs

**Using Google Docs with LL4Schools** ***NOTE:*** *You must have a Google Docs account to do what follows. If you want to use it to collaborate with others - i.e. invite specific people to see and/or edit it - they must also have an email address.* So, you have a Google Docs account and want to create a document and let others in LL4Schools see it. You may also want others to be able to work on it with you: to make corrections, add stuff, divide it up and each do some. First you must log in to your account and create an initial document. I've already done that here - its called *This is just a simple text document...* and is in a folder called LL4S in my Google Docs account. I do not intend to show you how to do this - if you have an account you already know. If you need to get an account then there is plenty of help material on the site to start you off. It's very easy! ![googledocs1][1] If I just click on the title it opens and allows me to edit it. To start with I'll just publish it. This means that it will be available online to anyone who knows the URL to read - no-one can edit it but they can read it. In fact you have just published a web-page! To do this you must click on the *Publish* tab on the far right. This opens up this window: ![googledocs1][2] Click on the "Publish document" button. Now it's published and you have the URL. In this particular case it is . As you can see these link can be used in your blog or wiki to take you to your documents. So now you can create word-processed documents, spreadsheets and presentations in Google Docs to publish in your blog. ![googledocs1][3] Suppose that instead of publishing your work you want to work on it with some other people. They may be members of LL4Schools but don't have to be: as long as they have an email address you can collaborate with them on a document that you have created. Look at at the screenshot below which is reached by clicking on the *Share* tab. ![googledocs1][4] The two important options here are *as collaborators* and *as viewers*. If you just want to share it with a few friends then choose *as viewers*: this is like publishing but to just a few people rather than to everybody. If you want to let these friends edit your document then choose *as collaborators*. Now enter the email address(es) of who you want to work with in the box below. You can enter as many as you like with each one separated by a comma (see the next screenshot). ![googledocs1][5] To keep you work under your control uncheck the two *Advanced permissions* boxes then when you are ready click on *Invite collaborators*. This bring up the following window: ![googledocs1][6] This is the email that will go to those you want to share with: put a message in the text box explaining what the document is and what you want them to do. When you have done that click on the **Send** button. Once the mail has been sent you will go back to this screen which now shows that the document is being shared. If you want to you can change the permissions and invite more collaborators. ![googledocs1][7] Now you have shared and/or published a document you can work on collaboratively. Perhaps you have already created a LL4Schools community and want to share to development of project documentation. You could create you documents in Google Docs, share then with the other members of the community, put links to them in the community wiki, blog or bookmarks, and finally publish to everyone else. Just like I've done with **[this one][8]**. [1]:http://www.ll4schools.co.uk/images/gdocs/gdocs1.jpg "Google docs account" [2]:http://www.ll4schools.co.uk/images/gdocs/gdocs2.jpg [3]:http://www.ll4schools.co.uk/images/gdocs/gdocs3.jpg [4]:http://www.ll4schools.co.uk/images/gdocs/gdocs4.jpg [5]:http://www.ll4schools.co.uk/images/gdocs/gdocs5.jpg [6]:http://www.ll4schools.co.uk/images/gdocs/gdocs6.jpg [7]:http://www.ll4schools.co.uk/images/gdocs/gdocs7.jpg [8]:http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dqqrwf2_9fvs4gr

Markdown - using the non-visual editor

[**Markdown**][1] is a way of writing text in a very simple text editor (like notepad) in such a way that when pasted into a web page it is well formatted. You can use markdown with the simplest of editors for posting into your blog making it ideal for recording notes on field trips for example. You can take notes on your PDA or mobile then transfer them to your blog by simply cutting and pasting it with no need to reformat in a cumbersome wordprocessor. The main [markdown site][1] uses it for the bulk of the test on the site. Compare the main web-page just given to the actual [markdown itself][2] and the [HTML markup of the same page][5]. Apart form its very simple structure another reasons for using markdown is that the markdown text is itself is very readable (which HTML isn't!) and can be used to print out *as is*. To quote the main site:

Markdownâ€™s syntax is intended for one purpose: to be used as a format for writing for the web.

Markdown is not a replacement for HTML, or even close to it. Its syntax is very small, corresponding only to a very small subset of HTML tags. The idea is not to create a syntax that makes it easier to insert HTML tags. In my opinion, HTML tags are already easy to insert. The idea for Markdown is to make it easy to read, write, and edit prose. HTML is a publishing format; Markdown is a writing format. Thus, Markdownâ€™s formatting syntax only addresses issues that can be conveyed in plain text.

Here are [basic details][3] and [more advanced details][4] of how to write with markdown. To start with here are a few pointers: Headings are done by putting a line of either = or - under the words in your title. Main Heading ============ Sub-heading ----------- which comes out as - Main Heading ============ Sub-heading ----------- Bold - put two *s on each side of the word(s) you want in bold. **this is in bold!** **This is in bold!** Italics - put a single asterisk The word *italics* is in italics. The word *italics* is in italics. An unnumbered list - put an * at the beginning of each line * item 1 * item 2 * item 3 * item1 * item2 * item3 An ordered list is done by putting a number in front of each line (in fact ANY number will do - try it) 1. item 1 2. item 2 3. item 3 1. item 1 2. item 2 3. item 3 Finally in this very brief introduction to markdown - making links. Simply surround the text you want to make into a link with square brackets the URL in round-brackets (parentheses). For example [The Learning Landscape for Schools](http://www.ll4schools.co.uk) Which comes out as [The Learning Landscape for Schools](http://www.ll4schools.co.uk). If you want a title to pop up as well then put it after the URL like this: [The Learning Landscape for Schools](http://www.ll4schools.co.uk "My blogging site") Just stop your mouse over this link - [The Learning Landscape for Schools](http://www.ll4schools.co.uk "My blogging site"). Simple. To use markdown in this site go to your *account settings*, look for the *Enable visual editor* link at the bottom of the page and change this to "No". Now you will not get the *WYGIWYG* editor but a simple text box where you can enter markdown text. [1]:http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/ [2]:http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/index.text [3]:http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/basics [4]:http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax [5]:http://elgg.ll4schools.co.uk/docs/page/html+example

html example

**With apolgies for the fomatting!** Daring Fireball: Markdown

Markdown

Download

Markdown 1.0.1 (18 KB) — 17 Dec 2004

Introduction

Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers. Markdown allows you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML).

Thus, “Markdown” is two things: (1) a plain text formatting syntax; and (2) a software tool, written in Perl, that converts the plain text formatting to HTML. See the Syntax page for details pertaining to Markdown’s formatting syntax. You can try it out, right now, using the online Dingus.

The overriding design goal for Markdown’s formatting syntax is to make it as readable as possible. The idea is that a Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking like it’s been marked up with tags or formatting instructions. While Markdown’s syntax has been influenced by several existing text-to-HTML filters, the single biggest source of inspiration for Markdown’s syntax is the format of plain text email.

The best way to get a feel for Markdown’s formatting syntax is simply to look at a Markdown-formatted document. For example, you can view the Markdown source for the article text on this page here: http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/index.text

(You can use this ‘.text’ suffix trick to view the Markdown source for the content of each of the pages in this section, e.g. the Syntax and License pages.)

Markdown is free software, available under a BSD-style open source license. If you enjoy using Markdown, please considering making a small donation to support further development. See the License page for more information.

Discussion List

I’ve set up a public mailing list for discussion about Markdown. Any topic related to Markdown — both its formatting syntax and its software — is fair game for discussion. Anyone who is interested is welcome to join.

It’s my hope that the mailing list will lead to good ideas for future improvements to Markdown.

Installation and Requirements

Markdown requires Perl 5.6.0 or later. Welcome to the 21st Century. Markdown also requires the standard Perl library module Digest::MD5, which is probably already installed on your server.

Movable Type

Markdown works with Movable Type version 2.6 or later (including Movable Type 3.0).

Copy the “Markdown.pl” file into your Movable Type “plugins” directory. The “plugins” directory should be in the same directory as “mt.cgi”; if the “plugins” directory doesn’t already exist, use your FTP program to create it. Your installation should look like this:
```
(mt home)/plugins/Markdown.pl
	
```
Once installed, Markdown will appear as an option in Movable Type’s Text Formatting pop-up menu. This is selectable on a per-post basis:

Markdown translates your posts to HTML when you publish; the posts themselves are stored in your MT database in Markdown format.
If you also install SmartyPants 1.5 (or later), Markdown will offer a second text formatting option: “Markdown With SmartyPants”. This option is the same as the regular “Markdown” formatter, except that it automatically uses SmartyPants to create typographically correct curly quotes, em-dashes, and ellipses. See the SmartyPants web page for more information.
To make Markdown (or “Markdown With SmartyPants”) your default text formatting option for new posts, go to Weblog Config: Preferences.

Note that by default, Markdown produces XHTML output. To configure Markdown to produce HTML 4 output, see “Configuration”, below.

Blosxom

Markdown works with Blosxom version 2.0 or later.

Rename the “Markdown.pl” plug-in to “Markdown” (case is important). Movable Type requires plug-ins to have a “.pl” extension; Blosxom forbids it.
Copy the “Markdown” plug-in file to your Blosxom plug-ins folder. If you’re not sure where your Blosxom plug-ins folder is, see the Blosxom documentation for information.
That’s it. The entries in your weblog will now automatically be processed by Markdown.
If you’d like to apply Markdown formatting only to certain posts, rather than all of them, Markdown can optionally be used in conjunction with Blosxom’s Meta plug-in. First, install the Meta plug-in. Next, open the Markdown plug-in file in a text editor, and set the configuration variable $g_blosxom_use_meta to 1. Then, simply include a “meta-markup: Markdown” header line at the top of each post you compose using Markdown.

BBEdit

Markdown works with BBEdit 6.1 or later on Mac OS X. It also works with BBEdit 5.1 or later and MacPerl 5.6.1 on Mac OS 8.6 or later. If you’re running Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar), you may need to install the Perl module Digest::MD5 from CPAN; Digest::MD5 comes pre-installed on Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther).

Copy the “Markdown.pl” file to appropriate filters folder in your “BBEdit Support” folder. On Mac OS X, this should be:
```
BBEdit Support/Unix Support/Unix Filters/
	
```
See the BBEdit documentation for more details on the location of these folders.

You can rename “Markdown.pl” to whatever you wish.
That’s it. To use Markdown, select some text in a BBEdit document, then choose Markdown from the Filters sub-menu in the “#!” menu, or the Filters floating palette

Configuration

By default, Markdown produces XHTML output for tags with empty elements. E.g.:

Markdown can be configured to produce HTML-style tags; e.g.:

Movable Type

You need to use a special MTMarkdownOptions container tag in each Movable Type template where you want HTML 4-style output:


	  ... put your entry content here ...

The easiest way to use MTMarkdownOptions is probably to put the opening tag right after your tag, and the closing tag right before .

To suppress Markdown processing in a particular template, i.e. to publish the raw Markdown-formatted text without translation into (X)HTML, set the output attribute to ‘raw’:


	  ... put your entry content here ...

Command-Line

Use the --html4tags command-line switch to produce HTML output from a Unix-style command line. E.g.:

% perl Markdown.pl --html4tags foo.text

Type perldoc Markdown.pl, or read the POD documentation within the Markdown.pl source code for more information.

Acknowledgements

Aaron Swartz deserves a tremendous amount of credit for helping to design Markdown’s formatting syntax. Markdown is much better thanks to Aaron’s ideas, feedback, and testing. Also, Aaron’s html2text is a very handy (and free) utility for turning HTML into Markdown-formatted plain text.

Nathaniel Irons, Dan Benjamin, Daniel Bogan, and Jason Perkins also deserve thanks for their feedback.

Michel Fortin has ported Markdown to PHP; it’s a splendid port, and highly recommended for anyone looking for a PHP implementation of Markdown.

Welcome to Blogging

**An introduction to Blogging (without a computer!)** **Objective:** To provide a hands-on, interactive explanation of blogging, and the way that blogs can be used in education as powerful learning tools. **Participants:** Primarily for teachers with no real experience or appreciation of the value of blogging. For a group of 6 or more workshop participants. The bigger the group, the better and more fun. ![A Typical Group!][1] **Materials:** * A4 sheets of paper or card â€“ at least one per participant, and preferably in as many different colours as possible * Writing implements - lots of colours of ball-point and felt-tip pens * Post-It Notes - I use 47.6 x 73mm ones. If you can find some colourful ones around this size, so much the better :) **Procedure:** 1. Place the Materials (listed above) in the middle of the activity space. Explain that this represents a **Blogging Site**: a place that provides you with all of the tools you need to set up and publish a blog. 2. Invite participants to choose a sheet of Paper for themselves in any colour, as well as a pad of Post-It Notes and some Writing Implements. Explain that this represents how blogging sites allow users to **customise** the appearance of their own blogs, and personalise them. 3. Tell the participants that they are about to write their very **first blog post**. (*I like to get participants to blog about â€œFood and Drinkâ€ for this activity, because everyone has their own favourites, and it makes this exercise more fun; but you might have your own topic in mind*). Ask them to write a paragraph or so about their favourite food or drink, and to decorate or â€˜personaliseâ€™ their page possibly like a tavern poster. 4. Ask participants to also **â€œtagâ€** their post, by adding some summary words or short phrases of information at the bottom: for example, whether this item is served hot or cold; whether it is a food or a drink; or whether it is served as an entree, main course, or dessert, for adults or children etc. 5. Now everyone puts their posts back in the middle, and you invite participants to each take someone elseâ€™s post â€“ ie look for a different coloured sheet. Ask them to **comment** on the content, by writing their comments on Post-It Notes and sticking them onto the original post: for example, do they agree or disagree with the original â€œposterâ€™sâ€ favourite food? Do they like the illustrations that the original poster drew? Tell them that blogs allow this kind of commenting by readers, which can help learners to consider new ideas and reflect on their own in new ways. 6. Get participants to keep putting their commented posts back into the Blogging Site for others to read and comment. They are allowed to review their own blogs at any stage and remove comments they donâ€™t think are useful, or comment on each othersâ€™ comments, too. When this has gone on for a little while, and all of the blogs have at least a couple of comments on them, get everyone to put all the blogs back in the middle and to find their own. The multicoloured sheets of paper helps to make this much simpler. They should have lots of fun **reading their comments**! 7. Explain that this is what social software, such as blogs, is all about: **sharing and exchanging ideas** to build new ideas and new knowledge. 8 .Get everyone on their feet, and ask anyone whose food or drink is (or could be) served hot to stand on your left, and everyone else to stand on your right. Explain that this demonstrates how â€œtagsâ€ or â€œcategoriesâ€ are used to organise information in blogs, which are usually also searchable, to make it easy to **discover new information** in other peopleâ€™s blogs. 9. As a final (optional) activity, ask everyone to write another (brief) blog post on another favourite food or beverage, and to come and stand in front of you when they finish. Explain that most blogs allow readers to **subscribe** to them in various ways - with RSS being the most popular - which allows readers to be immediately informed if a blogger updates their blog, without having to visit each site. You can certainly expand on and vary this activity to suit your participants, but this sequence communicates most of the important principles of blogging, without a computer in sight, and uses visual, auditory and kinaesthetic aspects to engage learners with all learning styles, which makes this a very fun activity for all. **Acknowledgement**: The activity outlined above was offered over the â€™net by a kind person whose identity I have now mislaid. I have modified one or two points and expanded others for a UK audience. *Ray Tolley, June 2007* There are two [supporting documents here][2]. [1]:http://www.ll4schools.co.uk/images/docs/welcome_to_blogging.jpg [2]:http://elgg.ll4schools.co.uk/docs/files/29