Moderated Blogging Options for Students

Blogging with students gives them a venue for their thoughts with an authentic audience.  I liked the video with the students saying that they liked comments from their teacher but then when asked if they liked comments from their peer, they all perked up and were excited.  Using the class to comment on each others posts is a good way to start.  They all agreed that they tried much harder if a peer is going to read their post.  This class also connected with a class in England so that was an additonal push to reread and publish.

I found the edublog resources with topics very helpful.  It is a lot for teachers to begin so I like the idea of using Padlet to start blogging to see if it is something that they would like to keep up.  It is no set up comparatively and would be good then move into teaching appropriate commenting. This would work better for gr 3-5 to get started.

My real push was to find the best blogging tool for a moderated class blogging.  We have google accounts and chromebooks in our district at gr 3-12.  A moderated blogging tool for gr 3-8 would be ideal.

I have used Kidblog and Edublog in the past.  This year I looked into Kidblog and Weebly.  I was really interested in Weebly as it is a new resource for me.

This is my Weebly blog and post-  Weebly Blog Post

My thoughts on the set up and look of Weebly....  I like the clean look of the website and blog.  It is easy enough to add components like text, title, and pictures.  I was able to create a class and add students easily although students will have a new username and password to remember.

My biggest issue is that there isn't a login with Google option.  I find account creation cumbersome and just the extra step that may keep teachers from jumping into blogging.
I didn't see that the student blog links are automatically added to the teacher blog page either.  This would also be helpful.  It is the best option for a free blog as it is very simple.

I find Kidblog, although a paid resource, the best for blogging.  The account creation, integration with Google accounts and the Google drive so easy to use.  I find the choices for posting can be a little confusing with the options for a closed community vs a post to available to be found on the web. But once teachers figure out the basic navigation, posting, and the approval process, they are are good to go.

Blogging helps to build confidence in writing and publishing. I'm excited to start blogging with teachers.