Lutherlearn Blog Network

So, you have set up your blog at lutherlearn.info and now want to post something.  You can always log in and use the built-in Word Press tools.  But you should also know that there are a few other options.

1)  Use the mail Plug-in. I haven’t enabled it for you yet, but if you are interested then I am happy to do so.  With this plug-in you can actually send an email to your blog and it is automatically posted.  That is it.  Posting to your blog is as simple as sending an email.

2)  Use Word 2007.  Click the Office button in the top left corner of Word, select publish, and then choose blog. It will walk you through the rest.  The first time that you do this you will need to provide the address to your blog, your login and password.  After that, just go to publish, blog and then Word will set up a blog entry page for you.  Type in your post and select Publish.  The formatting works pretty well and it will automatically upload any images that you include.

3)  You can use ScribeFire. This is a plug-in for Firefox.  Once you download, install, and enable it, you will see a little icon in the bottom right of your browser.  Click on it, set it up with your blog address, provide a login and password the first time, and start blogging.

According to the 2006-2007 Lutheran School Statistics report, there are 2488 Lutheran Schools as well as 18,000 teachers in these Lutheran schools. But those numbers only represent the schools in the United States. This doesn’t include numbers of Lutheran schools and teachers in China, Brazil, India, and Australia to mention a few. At times there are wonderful partnerships among these schools and between these teachers. In addition, there are a few instances of online efforts to connect people. The LEA Networks and the Lutheran School Portal are two of the more notable and recent efforts.

However, especially given the vast capabilities of the web, I sometimes lament that there is not more networking and sharing of resources. With this in mind, I am offering this as one more place to encourage networking and the sharing of resources. It is a place where any Lutheran Educator (of any sort) can host a blog, but also connect with other Lutheran schools and educators.

In the near future, I am hopeful that places will arise on the web (or that this will become a place) where Lutheran educators are increasingly sharing curricular resources, collaborating on the writing of curriculum, sharing integrating the faith lessons, engaging in collaborative projects with with between classes at different Lutheran schools, and hosting online clubs with other schools. These are just a few ideas. There are so many more possibilities.

Also, I am sure that the technologies will change. I have started with blogging, but without too much effort it would also be possible to have a resource for Wikis, a Lutheran School version of YouTube, or an online database of freely shared integrating the faith lessons and school curriculum.

Welcome! A couple of days ago it occurred to me that there are few places on the web where Lutheran educators and church workers could have their own blogs…especially using what has come to be one the most powerful and popular tools for blogging (Word Press).  Well, there are actually a plethora of options on the web, but there isn’t a network of Lutheran education bloggers, a single place where any Lutheran educator can set up his or her own distinct blog alongside others who have a common commitment to Lutheran education.  While there are plenty of of places where you can set up a free blog (blogger.com, for one) this place is intended to be a collection of blogs for Lutheran educators and church workers. Any Lutheran educator or church worker is welcome to create their own blog here and mange it as they see fit. It could be on a topic of interest, as a class blog, an educational resource, a communication tool to family, a series of devotional thoughts, or whatever else you decide. While I will loosely monitor content for things that are clearly offensive and inappropriate I leave most of the editing to you, the individual bloggers. If anyone else notices a blog with inappropriate content I encourage you to apply the lessons from Matthew 18.

Please know that this is a bit of an experiment and I make no guarantees about the support or protection of your content from loss :). Of course, I will be backing up the site occasionally and it is also possible for you to export/backup the content of your individual blog in case of technical difficulties. I leave that decision up to each of you individually.
By the way, blogging these days is as simple as creating a Microsoft Word document. If you have the latest version of Word you can actually blog right from there to here. Open up Word, type your blog entry, click on the icon at the top left, choose “Publish”, and select the blog option. It will take you through the steps to post the current and future documents to your blog. Of course, you need to set up your account here first.

To get started with your own blog, just click on “Start Blogging” and fill out the requested information.