The following information will guide you through the process of turning your blog into a language e-portfolio.  Read it carefully and follow the instructions.  If you have questions please ask your language instructor or the LRC assistants.

THE DESIGN:  Blogs.rice.edu has provided you with about 36 different themes (designs) that you can use for your BLOG.  We suggest that you use one of these because they have been tested by IT.  To change the theme follow these instructions:

• Under the ‘meta’ heading, click on “Site Admin” 
• Click on “Appearance” then click on “THEMES”
•  Scroll down through the different themes and choose one that you like
• You can  go back later and choose a different theme to edit the appearance any time.  This is your e-Portfolio.

 WIDGETS: Once you have a theme you need to add widgets or internal links to your blog.   You may add as many widgets as you want but there are a few that are required… see below.

• Click on site admin
• Click on ‘appearance’ 
• Then click on  ‘widgets’
• Choose which links you want to add to your e-portfolio. 
• You must add:  “Search”, “Categories”, “Meta” (this is a list of your tools such as ‘site admin’ and ‘logout’), “Pages”, “Archives”, and “Tag cloud”.  You may want to add external “links” too.
• Be sure to save after adding the widgets.

PRIVACY:  Because privacy is very important in this electronic age, we have included a separate section in this instructional blog on dealing with the privacy issues.  Later you can go to the main page of this instructional blog and click on the privacy link to read about setting the privacy level for your e-portfolio.  However, for now we suggest that you choose:  “ I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors” as a default level so that your e-portfolio will be accessible to  your family, friends, instructors and prospective employers.

• click on ‘Settings’
• Click on ‘privacy’ in the drop down menu
• choose the second setting on the list: I would like to block search engines but allow normal visitors. 

PAGES:  Create a static page for the initial or welcome page of your e-portfolio.  To do this follow the instructions below.  Later you may want to look at some of the sample language portfolios we have linked to this blog for some ideas and then you can edit your welcome statement on the initial page. 

• Click on “site admin”
• Click on “pages” on the left side of the admin page 
• Click “add new”
• Give the page a title.  This can be “my portfolio” or “Spanish e-Portfolio” or “Chinese e-Portfolio” or simply “e-portfolio” etc.  [NOTE this is just the name of this introductory page.. not the title of your portfolio/blog.]
•  Type in a welcome statement or introductory paragraph to your e-portfolio.  Remember you can go back later and edit the statement, add to it or simply start over.  (example:  Write….“Welcome to my e-portfolio”  typed in the foreign language that you are studying at Rice. )
• Type “1” in the “order” box on the right of the page so that this will be the first page you see when you look at your e-portfolio. 
• Be sure that “allow comments” is NOT checked for this page. 
• Click on UPDATE PAGE
• Set this page as your front page.  To do this  click on ‘settings’ on the left.  Then on the drop down menu click on ‘readings‘.  You need to choose the title of your welcome page as the front page.
• Be sure to click on  update page before leaving site admin.

BLOGS:  Next you need to set up your BLOG.  This is where you will post all your work such as essays, recordings, videos, powerpoint presentations, etc. that you have done in your language classes. 

• Click on Site admin (if you are not already there)
• Click on “pages”
• Click on “add new” and give it a title.. BLOG or MY BLOG is a good simple title. 
• You can now type the first post to your blog .. again a welcome or introduction to your blog.  
• Check “allow comments” on your blog postings.   
• To set this page as your blog page, click on ‘settings’
• click on ‘reading’ from the drop down menu
• choose the title of your blog page as the “posts’ page

Next we will explain how to mark your blog postings so that your best work becomes your e-portfolio. 

CATEGORIES:  You will use categories and tags to mark your postings in order that they be seen as an e-portfolio.  Whenever you post something for a specific class you will need to indicate the correct class that the work is for by checking the course name listed in the category area. This will group all work for one class under that class category.

Follow these instructions.

• First you need to add categories to your BLOG. 
• Click on ‘Site admin’
• Click on ‘categories’ (on the left of page). 
•  Add a category by typing  the name of the language class you are currently taking at Rice (or have previously taken)  in the ‘category name’ field.  For example you may type SPAN 101 or CHIN 301 or GERM 201 or  ARAB 102, etc.  
• Do not give it a category parent. 
• You may type a description if you want such as ‘beginning Spanish Language’, ‘Intermediate German’, etc.  Or you can leave this blank. Now click ‘add category’. 
• You may add as many language courses that you have taken or want to take in the future. 
• Be sure to click on UPDATE PAGE when you finish.

TAGS: Next create Tags.  We suggest you create a tag for your best works.. and label it “Best Works” or “Best” or “my best works” etc.   You can decide at the end of the semester which works that you posted in your blog are your best works.  You will then tag these postings as “Best Works”  (or whatever your tag is named).  Then when someone clicks on “best works” from your static Welcome e-portfolio page they will see only what you believe to be your best works, and your e-portfolio will exhibit your proficiency in a foreign language.

• Click on Site Admin
• Click on Tags
• Add a new tag by typing in the name.. such as “Best Works”
• Click on “Add Tag”
• When you want to display your work as “best works” be sure to tag it.