How to create a "blog hub" to keep all your students blogs in one place

So, you have lots of students with blogs.. But its getting a pain to keep track of all of their individual addresses and you can't keep copying and pasting their addresses into your web browser. This is there a blog hub comes in useful. Basically it is a little box that you can add to the side of your exiting blog (or you can create a new blog especially for this) which contrains links to ALL your students blogs which you can just click on.

Why have one?

• It contains all your students' blogs in one easy to reach place


• You can easily share your students' blogs with other staff in your department without the need for spreadsheets or paper copies of the students blog addresses


• You can give the main "blog hub" address to your students and they can look at other students' work easily to allow them to compare their work to others.

Here is my example. Down the sides you can see the links I've added (following these

instructions) to all my A2 student blogs.

http://cbscmedia20112012hub.blogspot.com/

In order to do this, open the blog that you want to add the links to. Look at the top right of the screen and click on the word "DESIGN". This will take you to a screen that looks like the one below.

On the right hand side you will see A box that says "Add a Gadget". Click on that. A box will pop up that looks like this.

Scroll down the list on the pop up box to find the one that says "LIST". Click on the PLUS sign next to it. Another box will pop up.

In the TITLE box, call your list something. For example "Biology Year 9 Top Set Blogs".

You then need to add in each students blog address individually in the NEW SITE URL box. eg: www.bensmithbiologyblog.blogspot.com

Add their name into the NEW SITE NAME box. Eg Ben Smith.

Click on the blue ADD LINK button and repeat the process until you have added in ALL the student blog addresses that are relevant to that list. When you have finished, click on the orange SAVE button.

When you go back to your blog, your list (with links you can click on to their work) will appear down the side on the right. You can have multiple lists (eg one for each class). You just have to repeat these steps. If you wish to edit your list, scroll to the bottom of your list and click on the "crossed tools" to the right hand side of your list. This will allow you to make changes.