The Steps of Creating a Blog

Setting up a weblog:

      There are many websites featuring free blog hosting services. Creating a blog at Blogger will be used as an example here to give clear instruction. After you enter Blogger website (http://www.blogger.com), it will take you only about ten minutes to create a personal blog. Blogger offers 3 easy steps to create a blog – (1) create an account, (2) name your blog, and (3) choose a template. In the first step, you only have to fill in all the basic information such as user name, password, and email, etc. Then, you have to give your blog a title and decide its URL address. If you would like to host your blog at Blogger, you have to choose a unique name before blogspot.com. Finally, after you pick up your favorite template, you can start writing down your own thoughts and publish them in the cyberspace. Most data you fill in except user name and password can be altered later if you change your mind.  Once you set up a blog, you are the administrator of that web site and own every right to create, edit, and delete postings.

      To sum up, the steps of creating a blog are: a) Go to www.blogger.com b) Create an account: Click ‘Create your Blog now’ written on the arrow. After filling out the form, click ‘Continue.’ c) Name your blog: Give your blog name and URL, and click ‘Continue.’ d) Choose a template: After choosing one of the pre-made templates, click ‘Continue.’ Your blog has been created!

         There are three main steps for setting up a new blog, namely, a)creating a blog,     b)naming your blog and c)choosing a template. Undre these three main steps there are

other sub-steps.

a)Creating a blog

     setting up a new blog in blogger is very easy.To do that, go to.You will see the following main page. www.blogger.com

       In this page, you will be asked to enter your e-mail if you have one using youy use name and password  or to create a new google account id you do not have one.Then

you will see the following page requiring you to fill in some information about

yourself in order to create a new account.

      After completing the information about yourself you will see the following page telling you that you have already created a new account.

 

 After that you will be casked to choose from two choices either Google+ profile or Blogger profile. You have to choose Blogger profile as it is clear in the following page.

     After choosing Blogger profile, the following page will appear requiring you to write the name that will appear on your blog posts beside "Display name" and then you click on "continue to blogger".

 

  (b)-Naming your blog:

    After writing the name of your blog beside "Display name" you will  see the following page. From this page you will choose"new blog".

 After choosing "new blog", the following page will appear.

      At this stage you are required to give your blog a title. Beside the "address" box, write a simplified version of the title above. This is where you will be able to see your blog on the internet. It is very important to keep the title in mind because you will use it every time you enter your blog.

(c)-Choosing a template:

     After  giving your blog a title,  you have to choose a template. Once you have chosen a specific template, click on "create blog".

Click on new post to make your first post to see the following page.

     Now you can post your first message to your blog. Beside the word "post" you have to write a title to your blog and it is better that your title reflects what you write. In this page, you can see all the options of office, namely bold, italics, underline, the size and the type of handwriting and so on. You can write a welcome message as in the following page.

    To add an image to your message, you can click on "insert image". The following page shows this.

 

     After clicking on "insert image", you have to choose "upload" to choose a certain photo and put it on your post. This is clear in the following page.

 

    You have to upload photo either from the photos on your computer or from the internet. The photo will then be uploaded to your post. You can move it anywhere either under or over your post. This is clear in the following page.

 

    After uploading the photo, you can then publish your photo to your blog. You can preview your message before it is posted to your blog by clicking on the preview link in the toolbar, on the far right.
Reflective thinking and its importance:

1-What is reflective thinking?

Dewey (1933:p3) defined reflective thinking as a kind of thinking that consists of turning a subject over in the mind and giving it serious and consecutive consideration” . Reflective learning is a way of allowing students to step back from their learning experience to help them develop critical thinking skills and improve on future performance by analysing their experience. Reflective thinking is a part of the critical thinking process referring specifically to the processes of analyzing and making judgments about what has happened. 

 2-What is the importance of reflective thinking?

Anwar (2002) explained the importance of reflective thinking for both learning and personal life. He asserted that the process of reflective thinking is of great importance to the learner and is an essential part of the learning process.

Reflective thinking  helps learners develop higher-order thinking skills by prompting learners to a) relate new knowledge to prior understanding, b) think in both abstract and conceptual terms, c) apply specific strategies in novel tasks, and d) understand their own thinking and learning strategies.

Kathpalia and Heah (2008)  indicated that reflective thinking helps students to combine experience and knowledge together to produce new learning, apply theory to practice, gain insight into personal development, and mange their emotions throughout the learning process. Also, Tok (2008) assured that reflective thinking enables one to learn from one’s experiences.