What blog host should we use?

[Angela Harridge]

Greetings all,

At Plenty Valley CC I have primary teachers wanting to start class blogs (each child having their own, as well as a general class one). What are YOU using, and what are the pros/cons of that host (is that what they're called???).

Angela

[Sandra Gould]

Hi Angela,

I'm at Bayside, teaching grades 3 & 4. Have had personal blog for a few years. Class blog for 2. Class blog through edublogs and personal through blogger. class blogging is fun, kids love it. I assign weekly homework tasks, add class photos, lots of things pertaining to our class. when kids are away, they can access work, parents can see what has to be done, kids can comment. we can upload games, resources, and share with other classes around the world. edublogs allows limited free space, but has many helpful tips to get you started. for a small fee, you can subscribe and have a wider access to applications. blogger has these applications for free.
cheers,
Sandra

[Angela Harridge]

Hmm ... more thoughts ... was at the AQTP PD with Tom March today, and he suggested use a Ning instead of a blog - more 'control', more application availablity. Any thoughts?

[Ann McGrath]

last year we had a class blog and initially lots of the students set up there own. By the end of the year we were left with two active blogs, the class and one of the students. maybe it had something to do with the way I used them - not sure. This year we have a wiki, using wikispaces. I find the most difficult thing is to find time to work on it frequently.

[Naida Ginnane]

Hi All
I have been using Edublogs as a class blog for my year 12 Visual Communication and Design (VCD) and Media classes for the past 15 months. I set them some stimulus to respond to corresponding with class content. I have found this to be a highly successful method of teaching and learning for many reasons... firstly, students learn from each other as well as from my corrections ( yes I edit each response if necessary), secondly, I don't need to make the same corrections ad nausea. Thirdly students are twice as likely to consistently respond to all tasks if they are in blog format.I can almost certainly say that incorporating this method has improved my class results. Lets face it, they're on the internet anyway.....

http://baysidemedia.edublogs.org/
Take a look if you're interested
Naida

[Lisa Dumicich]

Hi Angela Have you ever looked at 21classes.com? We have soem of our teachers using it and they are very happy with it. There is lots of control for teachers and you don't have to go live online straight away and you don'tneed email addresses to set up the student accounts. The only limitation is the small amount of storage space given per student in the free version (2Meg) but this can be upgraded for a fee. (of course!!)