Oh my blog!

I have just begun my journey into the PIDP 3250 Instructional strategies course. Until now, I thought I was a young woman. That was until our assignment involved creating a Blog.

Say whaaaaaat?!

I mean, I have heard the word, don't get me wrong, I am not THAT old. I have always told our 12 year old boys that I am 'young and hip' (to which we get many snickers - apparently the word 'hip' ain't so 'hip').

So I used my technical abilities of utilizing YouTube to learn how to blog. Hours were spent watching videos while the kids were at school. I was getting frustrated and confused as I entered this whole new galaxy of technical learning.

I found out that anyone can create a blog by visiting sites such as Wix or Wordpress (along with several others). Ok, great :-) I can now put my creativity to work - insert an excited giggle here!

But....then I learned about another new term - 'Hosting'. Say what? Why do I need a host? This certainly does not feel like a party to me.

Oh, there are 'cheap' ones for only $56.00 per year....'Cheap' - mmm hmm. I did not want to pay that amount of money on top of the costs associated with taking a college course, back to school season, and hockey starting up. So, I opted to put my super sleuth skills to the test and I searched and searched for another way - certainly there must be a free blog hosting site.

Somewhere.

Anywhere.....?

My son then arrived home from school. I don't know if I have ever been so happy to see him. He sensed my frustration and asked what was wrong. I told him. His answer was simple: 'Why didn't you just text me and ask me Mom?' Yes, why didn't I? I guess I was determined to learn this all on my own. I did not want to admit that perhaps I was not as 'young and hip' as I originally thought. ;-) He explained that I can create a free blog on Wix, but that my blog name would be something like: shannonsblog@wixsite.com. If I preferred to have a simple 'domain name' of shannonsblog.com, then I would require a website hosting service such as BlueHost.

Well....how simple was that? I could have saved myself so much time if only I had asked a 12 year old!

Sept 24, 2016