Seven years old and standing in the sweetshop surrounded by jars of temptation. The decision is the hardest choice you have had to make all week and a week is a long time when you are seven. You have your favourites but how do you choose?There are bright colourful sweets that promise to be taste like a Willy Wonka taster trial with bells and whistles and there are the hidden gems that don't look promising but have more depth than you realise.
After being asked which blog platform would be best to use with students I am standing in the virtual equivalent of a blog shop surrounded by promises of ease of use, fuss free set up, support, moderation and so on. How do I choose my favourite? Surely it's blogger, you may ask as that is where I am posting this? Yet that would ignore the other platforms that offer variations for users. I asked on Twitter what others use and have come up with a list of popular choices.
As the blog is for educationalist use I am including Edublogs, Creativeblogs and Glow Blogs (Scotland only). Wordpress, Blogger and Posterous are the favourites from my twitter network.
Edublogs - Edublogs is described as "safe, secure and reliable" and has many features beneficial for educational use including a guarantee of no adult content. This feature not only provides safety for young users but it also means it is less likely to be on the blocked list in schools which is an eternal hazard when using anything web based. The downside is that the free version is limited in features: you do not get mobile blogging, video embedding or plugins which all enhance the blogging experience greatly. The main benefit is the secure environment and this will be more appealing to those who are wary of blogs.
I have two examples of edublogs and how they can be used: the first is from @drewburrett and can be found at http://drewburrett.edublogs.org/
Creativeblogs - Creativeblogs are another educational blog provider. They provide full set up and training in your school with follow up support and further training. The set up and training that they provide sets them apart from other providers. As the blogs are only available for education you need to contact the CreativeBlogs team to set up a blog. You can do so by emailing john@creativeict.co.uk or you can find him on twitter @HGJohn
Creativeblogs are hosts of wordpress and as such have all the word press features. (also see wordpress)
An example of how Creativeblogs can be used can be found on Joanne's page http://joannec23.creativeblogs.net/
Glow Blogs - Glow blogs are also wordpress based blogs. They can sit inside glow and only be accessed by people within the same establishment, all glow users or anybody depending on the privacy setting chosen. Many schools in Scotland are now using Glow and the incorporation of blogs will encourage their use. Like other educational targeted blogs, using glow blogs can provide reassurance for those who are wary of using blogs in education. (Also see wordpress)
An example of a glow based blog will be added here shortly.
Wordpress - wordpress can be set up as an online blog through wordpress.com, through a webhost or under your own domain. Wordpress has many advantages and additional features which make the blogging experience as unique as you wish. Tagging and categories are also very easy to use on wordpress. It is very reliable and simple. In the words of Bill Lord wordpress seems "idiot-proof". There is a great mobile format and posting both blog entries and comments is straightforward. Wordpress is more than just a blogging tool and can be your own webspace with multiple pages. You can also back up your wordpress blog.
Example wordpress blogs:
2Simple - http://2simpleblog.wordpress.com/
Bill Lord - http://lordlit.wordpress.com/
Posterous - Posterous is so easy to set up it's unbelieveable, all you do is send an email to post@posterous.com and they send you your blog link. That is it. The format is simple and there are also additional features including tagging and a mobile version.
Examples of posterous blogs -
Blogger - Blogger has many features that I like and draft blogger has improved my blogger experience with new features such as the stats area which is something that was quite lacking from the site. The main benefit of blogger is the google intergration for all things google related. Tagging is a feature that I under use on blogger and I find it just plain annoys me at times. Speaking from experience if you add third party widgets to your blog you can end up with hours of unravelling to recover your work.
examples of blogger blogs (apart from this one obviously)
Maybe the solution is Ip Dip...
Where do you blog? Do you use one of the platforms mentioned or another?
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