Blogging our Lives: The Intersection of Social Media and Family History, a presentation by Amanda Pape and Dr. Lora Helvie-Mason, at the annual conference of the International Society for Educational Biography, April 6, 2013, in San Antonio, Texas. This panel explored the intersection of digital storytelling, collective biographies, and blogging. Example blogs were shown and a resource list was shared about blogging family histories. Some of this was done through a Pinterest board at: http://pinterest.com/amandapape/blogging-our-lives-iseb-presentation/

1. Blogging Our Lives: The Intersection of Social Media and Family History
International Society for Educational Biography – April 6, 2013
Amanda Pape & Lora Helvie-Mason – Tarleton State University
Links to Tools and Blogs
1) Geneabloggers: http://geneabloggers.com
a. Genealogy Blogs By Type: http://geneabloggers.com/genealogy-blogs-type/
i. Diary Blogs: http://geneabloggers.com/genealogy-blogs-type/diary-blogs/ - the
column on the left is an alphabetical list of blogs; the column on the right shows
the most recent posts in these blogs. Diary or scrapbook transcriptions with one
blog post for each entry in the diary. Most of these blogs also include a helpful
"who's who" post so that you can keep track of names of people and places.
ii. Individual Family History Blogs: http://geneabloggers.com/genealogy-blogs-
type/individual-family-history-blogs/ - same organization as with the diary blogs.
b. Search (by surname, for example) almost 3,000 genealogy & family history blogs:
http://geneabloggers.com/search-geneablogger-member-blogs/
c. Daily Blogging Prompts: http://geneabloggers.com/daily-blogging-prompts/ - at least
five for each day of the week. Many other blogging prompts at sites on Pinterest board.
2) Pinterest board with examples of the above and other links from Amanda Pape’s and others’
blogs: http://pinterest.com/amandapape/blogging-our-lives-iseb-presentation/
3) Use of family/group history blogging in the classroom
a. Crafting assignments with intent for education, biography, and identity research
i. Scoring/reviewing
1. Rubric could consider academic writing, use of images, correct image
citation, depth of search or interviews
ii. Group projects versus individual projects
iii. Private versus public blogging
1. Class blog (read only by authors, students are authors)
iv. Use prompts!
1. Prompts and their role for writing
2. Connecting with history/framing searches and family conversations
v. Offering other options for students
1. Offline
b. Where to blog
i. Blackboard and other LMS features may be available (blog, wiki, group
discussion boards)
ii. WordPress (free) - http://wordpress.com/
iii. Blogger (free) - http://www.blogger.com/