Technically speaking, a geoblog is just a weblog with a geographical or cartographical component. As such, the only thing that is necessary to start a geoblog is a blogging tool and weblog platform, such as WordPress, which is what we use for the Virtual University Geoblogging Project.

However, integrating your geoblog with an interactive map is a rather nice option. There are a number of popular interactive maps online, and we decided to use Google maps for our geoblog, primarily because the interface seemed to be the easiest, not to mention that you can geolocate multimedia.

If you need a space to store media such as photos and video, then Flickr and YouTube are useful. We use both to store multimedia for the Geoblogging Project. Of note, both Flickr and YouTube allow you to post (or “moblog”) to your geoblog by mobile phone. If you are an instructor who is particularly invested in mobile learning, then this is convenient feature, a feature which we also used for the Geoblogging Project.

In terms of student privacy, all of the above freeware permits either private/password-protected composition (in which case you can assign a class ID and passcode) or “unlisted” composition (which simply means that – as is the case with Google maps – your material is not included in search engine results). From our experiences with geoblogging and/or blogging in composition courses, most of the work comes at the beginning of the quarter or semester when you have to set up the site for student access. Otherwise, students tend to be comfortable with blogging in an English course. As such, we rarely have to spend more than a class period or two instructing students how, exactly, to post entries or map captures.

WordPress permits multi-authored blogging, so, after you design your geoblog, the next step is to distribute user accounts to your students. We typically use something obvious, like the student’s first name for the ID and her or his e-mail address for the passcode. As far as settings are concerned, we have always granted students “author” or “editor” privileges, thereby allowing them to post and upload information, but not alter the overall design and administration of the geoblog.

To post captures to a geoblog, the easiest route is the e-mail-based option through Flickr or YouTube that we already mentioned. That way, photographs and video can be easily sent via an e-mail client or mobile phone and even posted directly to your geoblog. Aside from saving yourself server space and bandwidth, another perk to this approach is that you don’t have to spend time manually uploading captures to the blog. The minus is that—if you use a single Flickr and/or YouTube account for the entire class—then it gets tedious when you try to identify who is the author of a particular capture.

The other approach to posting captures is to manually upload each in individual posts. We have tried this approach before, and the main drawback is the time that it takes to upload each capture and post it. Plus, it requires more storage space and bandwidth. However, it does allow for more accurate documentation of student participation and does not rely upon or require access to unnecessary third-party sites.

Once you have a method for posting captures, then you need to choose a way to map them. For the Geoblogging Project and in our own courses, we always just set up and share a Gmail account and then use Google Maps. Google has a series of excellent tutorials for how to map media, and, frankly, students pick up the map interface quite quickly, if they are not familiar with it already. Ultimately, to map a capture in Google Maps, you have to include either the capture’s source URL or its embed code.

After you have ways of posting and mapping your captures, the final step is equal parts aesthetics and practicality: Should you embed your map in the geoblog itself? For the Geoblogging Project and in composition courses, we have found that students enjoy this option. It’s faster, because they don’t have to leave the geoblog to see the class map. It’s also a nice way of making associations between the map and the blog itself. From our experiences, we have found My Maps + to be a helpful site, as it gives you a number of options to choose from when designing and embedding your map. Here’s what we came up with with:

While these steps might seem somewhat complicated, most time will be spent in familiarizing yourself with WordPress and Google Maps, time which we argue is well spent! After all, we have found an overwhelming number of benefits to blogging and geoblogging in the composition classroom. For more, read our argument!

If you want more details on how to geoblog in the composition classroom, then please don’t hesitate to e-mail us—or Jentery Sayers in particular—at jentery@u.washington.edu.

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