Want to blog while abroad?
Many students choose to share their experience abroad with family and friends via social media such as Facebook, online photo albums, and blogs.
We've developed, and, in some cases, borrowed the following tips for sharing and blogging while abroad.
- Duke has a Wordpress site that makes it easy to set up a blog. Some programs have blogs where you can merely be a contributor.
- Photos are easy to upload to blogs, either in single form or in slideshows. Illustrations of any type, but especially photos of your experience, make blog posts much more interesting to readers.
- You can choose to set your blog or photo albums' privacy setting to "invitation only" or "open to the public".
- Regardless of your privacy settings, keep in mind that whatever you post to the web, whether in Facebook or a private blog, will be in circulation long after you post it. Essentially, you are posting for posterity's sake and what you post could be viewed by future employers.
- When blogging, focus each post on a single topic or issue. Of course, that could be as broad as "Segovia in a day" or as specific as "My new socks".
- Make your post headlines descriptive! Most blogging software uses headlines to link to archived posts. Isn't it easier to recognize "Edinburgh - Day 1" than "On the road again"?
- Link whenever possible. If you refer to a museum, link to the website. If you talk about a book or magazine article, link. It's one of the basics of blogging and very helpful to your readers.
- Update your blog! So many people start out with good blogging intentions, only to stop updates a few days or weeks into the study abroad experience. If it's difficult at first, keep it simple. Don't be afraid to just post a photograph at times, or a favorite new quote, or one paragraph describing what you see on your walk from class. This doesn't have to be the Great American Novel! Just make it yours and share a little and you'll have a great collection of memories and thoughts to look back on when you return to Duke.
- You don't have to write your blog posts while connected to the internet. Write them offline, plan a few photos to post, jot down notes on a napkin, and once you get a connection, you're ready to post. It doesn't have to take out time from real-time connections if you plan ahead.
- Finally, share your blog or photos with friends, family, professors, administrators at Duke, your high school teachers, etc. You'll be surprised how many people will follow your posts!
If you'd like to share your experience with the GEO-U, please send a link to your blog or public album to globaled@duke.edu. We won't go public with it unless we have your permission!
If you'd like to contribute to the GEO-U blog, please contact Amanda Kelso.
You can even turn a blog post into one of our e-Postcards at the GEO-U. The postcard to the right was originally a student blog post!
