safe blogs for students

[Tracy Richards]

Hi everyone,
I am finally ready to start using blogs with my students for an upcoming middle ages project, and am worrried about 'safe' blogs. Can anyone recommend a safe blogging site? I don't want strangers to be able to access the student's work, etc...

Thanks

[Krissy Neddo]

I use 21classes.com with my fifth graders. This is our portal. Just started last month. Wanted to try it and my tech dept said I could start with them. It does have a bit of a learning curve for the administrator (me), but I am new to blogging, so maybe it's just me. I can lock up access or let it go public. I approve all comments and entries. I have one student who is determined to let her comments go public. I can edit her account and entries to click off public. Since I approve her entry and all comments to her entries, I can catch the "unsafe" or "inappropriate". All email connections are clicked off, too. My fifth graders are making Camtasia how to videos next week on how to login, write an entry, post an entry, leave comments, and customize the color schemes in their blogs. Then we need to get down to what it's really all about... writing. Adding pictures is so popular... be sure to set ground rules about what to write, how many pictures, where to find pics they can cut and paste, how to post a comment, etc. I look forward to the replies. I need some guidance too.

[Durff]

Yes! ClassBlogmeister is David Warlick's blog engine. You can preset the controls for your situation!

[guybrarian]

How about Think.com? It hosts blogs, etc. and an host of levels of security and privacy. There are always the oldies but goodies..Gaggle.net .host email accounts and I think now blogs. Folks say they really like David Warlick's Bloggmeister too.

[Richard Beaudry]

Hi Tracy,

Up here in BC we often use edublogs - http://edublogs.org/ It is simple enough to set up and can be password protected to let only your students access the blog.

Richard

Richard Beaudry
Teacher Librarian

[Elizabeth Crispino]

Our district has access to Blackboard, which now has an internal blog component. Obviously this is not really what you were asking, but it's another option, if you do have the tool. The blog component is designed to be private, controlled, etc. so that you basically have nothing without being enrolled by a teacher or administrator. It's not the most impressive in terms of functionality, but it was the one way we could actually "blog" with our students in our district, as any actual blogs or blogging software are blocked by our filter!

[Tracy Poelzer]

Hi Tracy,

If you are having students write their own blogs, I would recommend Classblogmeister (which someone already mentioned). I haven't used ePals yet, but they have free educational blogs which look like they would be really good: http://www.epals.com/ I have built my own blogs using Google's "Blogger", which I liked. For password protected school use, however, I'm with Richard in suggesting Edublogs. It's "prettier" than Classblogmeister, but it would be best used as a teacher blog. It would be difficult to set up student accounts and link them all together, etc.

Tracy

[Collette]

Our district uses Schoolwires for our website management, and there is a blogging capability in that. I've also recently discovered Edublogs, and I've been impressed with what I see. Wet Paint sponsors it with NO ADS, which is a nice feature....you never have to worry about what's being advertised.

[Carolyn Foote]

We also use edublogs and learnerblogs which are geared for the education community. You can "moderate" all comments, so you approve them before they are posted, if that is a concern for you.

I've heard great things about 21classes as well. I'm not that familiar with Imbee, but I've heard that is a good site for younger students. Anyone familiar with that?

[karenklieg]

Absolutely, hands down, Class Blogmeister. David Warlick runs this - all articles and comments are screened by teacher before being published. There's a great yahoo group for it where teachers really help each other.