Exploring Student Blog Options
Posted by: friedafoxworth in Blogging, Web 2.0, tags: 21classes, Blogging, blogs, classpress, edublogsI have been blogging with students for 4 or 5 years. I am convinced that it is one of the best instructional tools that we have. Sadly, it is also probably one of the most under-used. Several years ago I created a little video, “Top 10 Reasons to Blog with Students,” in an effort to promote student blogging. Now that YouTube is unblocked for teachers in my district, I recently added it there.
What are the most important features of a blog engine? A secure environment with options for monitoring student posts and comments is a must. The ability for students to upload a variety of file types is definitely a plus. Edublogs is a great blog engine, and I have used it for my personal professional blog for years. In today’s financial climate, cost is an inevitable issue, which unfortunately eliminates Edublogs Campus for me.
In the beginning I used Blogmeister with my students, which is David Warlick’s wonderful protected learning community for student blogs. After that first year, we decided we wanted our students to have a few more options for customizing. I’ve used 21 Classes in recent years, which is fairly user-friendly. We did encounter some computers locking up when attempting to save, but we haven’t determined if that’s an issue with our network or on their end. ClassPress is a relatively new blog engine that is currently being tested by another TIS friend, and I’m waiting to hear a report on that one. In the meantime, I created a comparison chart of features:
I’m still exploring and open to suggestions!
Entries (RSS)
October 4th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
I used 21 classes last year, but gave it up when I received absolutley NO customer support, even though I had opted for the PAID account. Tried sending several emails and then noticed this summer that they even removed the email address from their support page. Had to get in touch with the company that processed the credit card payment to stop payment on that account.
What 21classes has to offer is wonderful, but don’t figure on any customer support. Please DO let me know if you hear of any improvements made as I would love to switch back, but not unless they are willing to answer my questions (especially with a PAID account).
November 12th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Hi this is Clint from ClassPress.com. Thanks for the mention! If any of your readers want to give us a try for free, they can sign up with promo code J4DF83Q2 for a free 30-day trial.