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A good article on how teachers can use blogs to benefit the classroom.

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A list of blogging platforms specifically for kids! Reasons as to why these platforms should be used are also given.

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Why Blogging?

The benefits of blogging with students are quite numerous. It is a great platform for teaching online ethics, internet safety, and the responsible role of a digital citizen. Blogging is also a good tool for reinforcing digital copyright laws, practicing writing for an audience, and getting in some extra typing practice. Many teachers also like it as a way to collaborate with other classes and often use it for extra motivation with writing tasks. So, there really are lots of worthwhile reasons to start blogging with your students, and the following blogs for students are great places to get started.

Edublogs

Edublogs is a popular blogging tool for students With over a million blogs created since 2005, Edublogs may well be the natural place to start your search for a educational blogging platform. Its foundations are clearly based on a Wordpress base, but it has been tweaked to offer features that educators really want like calendars, discussions tools, video embedding and more. Edublogs give you a choice of over 100 themes to customize blogs, and it has an almost unparalleled level of support on its help pages. Not all features are free, some are only available on the Pro or Campus packages, but Edublogs is definitely still worth looking into if you are serious about starting student blogs.

Weebly for Education

Weebly offers blogs and other website creation features Weebly lets you create 40 student accounts for free with no student emails required. Blogs can be made public or private and the teacher has full access to them all on their own dashboard. Everything is very easy to create with a simple drag and drop interface, and there are no ads to spoil or distract from a finished blog. There are over 70 blog and website templates to choose from and the ability to upload or embed pictures, videos, maps and more makes Weebly one of the best blogging tools for students.

Kidblog offers numerous features for student blogging Kidblog is relatively new to the student blogosphere arena, but its popularity knows no bounds right now. Based on a simplified Wordpress interface, Kidblog is about as user-friendly as you are likely to find. Blogs are private by default so that they can only be read by the teacher and other class mates. This makes it a great first-time tool for experimenting with the power of blogging without the need or worry about being public on the web. Teachers have full administrative controls over all blogs that are created by students, and passwords can be issued so that parents or other family members can view individual student blogs.

Other Resources

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of all the possible options that a teacher has available to them. There are plenty of other blogging tools for students that include popular sites like Blogger, Posterous and Tumblr. However, while these are all good options, they lack some of the controls and moderation that the solutions above offer, so they are perhaps best reserved for older students.

References

Images are screenshots of the individual sites and were generated by the author. Follow the links below to access each of the websites that were discussed:

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Blogs For Students - The Three Best Blogging Tools Available

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The benefits of blogging with students are quite numerous. It is a great platform for teaching online ethics, internet safety, and the responsible role of a digital citizen. Blogging is also a good tool for reinforcing digital copyright laws, practicing writing for an audience, and getting in some extra typing practice.

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Step by step guide to classroom blogging!

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This course guides you step by step through the process of class and student blogging.

Each step includes links to class blogs being used by educators so you can check out how other educators use their blogs. Many of the examples are from primary grades but the same principles apply regardless of student age including adult learner.

The activities can be completed at your own pace and in any order!
Click on a step below to get started:

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This course guides you step by step through the process of class and student blogging. Each step includes links to class blogs being used by educators so you can check out how other educators use their blogs. Many of the examples are from primary grades but the same principles apply regardless of student age including adult learner.

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This webpage gives the pros and cons of different blog platforms.

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Every classroom needs a moderated, online space where students can share their ideas with others and receive feedback. While blogging has "been around" and used in classrooms all over the world for more than ten years now, classroom blogs are still rare in many schools and communities. Like other kinds of technology, blogging platforms have continued to evolve and change, but the reasons why students should regularly blog have remained consistent.

In this post, I will highlight the advantages and limitations of six different blogging platforms which are used and can be used effectively by teachers and students in classrooms in August 2015. These options are highlighted further in the hyperlinked table I've updated on the "Interactive Writing" page of ShowWithMedia.com. The platforms I'll review include Blogger.com, KidBlog.org, WriteAbout.com, EduBlogs.org, EasyBlog.org, and WordPress.com. I'm currently helping my wife, a 3rd and 4th grade teacher in Oklahoma City, decide on her class blogging site for the upcoming school year. I'm also hoping to help PK-12 teachers at my new school, where I'm the Director of Technology, select and use classroom blogging websites this year. While I could write an entire book on this topic ( and did, in fact, in 2013) I will limit details in this post to hopefully help other teachers make well informed decisions about choosing a class blogging platform with less required reading! If you have suggestions or find errors in anything I share here or on ShowWithMedia.com, please let me know via a post comment or a tweet reply to @wfryer.

Overall Factors to Consider

The blogging platform which is the best "fit" for your class or classes, and your teaching situation, will vary depending on a variety of factors. The past two years I've taught 4th and 5th grade STEM, and I used KidBlog.org websites for all 22 of my classes each year. Cost is certainly an important factor to consider, but the management features as well as media/publishing features of different platforms are also vital. While two of the six options I'm highlighting in this post can be used for free ( Blogger.com and WordPress.com) neither of those platforms was designed specifically with teachers, students, and classrooms in mind. The other four platforms were and are designed specifically for educational blogging. Generally today, I think most classroom teachers are better off using a blogging platform with students like these four which are specifically geared to the unique demands and needs of educational users.

Another important factor to consider is whether or not you are going to make your classroom blog a PUBLIC space for others to view student writing and leave comments. The natural tendency of many teachers, unfamiliar with educational blogging, is to make sites PRIVATE so only users who login can view and comment on posts. While a private classroom blog is better than not having a classroom blog at all, I think it's generally a mistake to make a classroom blog private.

The biggest reason to NOT make your classroom blog private is because you WANT parents and other adults who care about your students to visit your blog and leave comments. I've found that the more barriers (like logins requiring userIDs and passwords) we put up for online student content, the FEWER parents will visit and comment. It's VERY hard to get parents to not only look at student digital work online amidst our busy lives today, it's even harder to get them to comment. If you make your classroom blog private, you'll likely rob your students of the opportunity to receive feedback from outside your classroom walls. Feedback is what makes interactive writing powerful and even feel magical at times.

Be sure to cover your bases with student and parent permission forms. Sample school media and publishing permission forms are linked on the OklaEd Learning Showcase website.

Blogger.com

Blogger is free and does not have a paid version, unless you choose to link your site to a custom domain you "rent" for approximately $12 per year from a service like Google Domains or GoDaddy. Blogger sites allow users to enable "post by email," so a secret email address can be used to post text, images, and links to the website. When post by email is used with Blogger, submissions can become "drafts" first before they are published live for others to view. This is always a good idea if using this function with students. Posts shared by email don't reflect the identity of the sender, however, on the blog they show up as being posted by the teacher / blog owner. Students need to include their first name in the email subject (which becomes the title of the post) or within the body of the email/blog post.

If your students do not have Google accounts or you don't want to manage individual logins for your students, being able to have students post by email can be a wonderful thing. In my STEM classroom the past two years, we had a cart of 20 iPads to use for media creation and sharing. During some lessons, I had my students take photos and post them to a shared class blog on Blogger using a SINGLE email account our IT Department configured just for my iPad cart. Tony Vincent (@tonyvincent) wrote a great post in 2011, " How to Set Up Gmail for School iPads and iPods," which can help with this.

If your students DO have their own Google Accounts (you are a GAFE: Google Apps for Education school) you can invite them by email to become "contributors" to a class site you setup on Blogger.

Another reason to consider using a Blogger.com website is if you teach very young students (PreK / Primary) and have access to at least one iPad. In that situation, I definitely think the app Easy Blogger Jr, paired with a Blogger site and a YouTube channel, is the way to go. This four minute walkthrough video communicates this more effectively than I can with words. Thanks to Gail Lovely (@glovely) for sharing this option with me a couple years ago!

Also note the creators of the Easy Blog apps are rolling out a new service called EasyBlog.org in September. More details about that are included later in this post.

KidBlog

For the past several years, KidBlog has been my personal favorite website to use for interactive writing with my own elementary students as well as teachers I help coach during 3 day iPad Media Camp workshops. KidBlog is a customized version of WordPress, and I have loved how the site uses themes which show titles of recent student posts along with how many comments each post has received. I also love how the sidebar of the site includes links to each student's posts, so it's easy to use it as a digital portfolio to showcase student work throughout the year. KidBlog is the blogging tool I recommended a year ago when I wrote the "Digital Portfolios" book chapter on ShowWithMedia.com. (Incidentally I haven't yet published that in a new book, it's just published online for now.)

Kidblog has transitioned to a new format and platform. It no longer has a native iOS app, but has a significantly enhanced web interface which works well on iOS devices as well as other tablets and computers. The site has become more visual, encouraging teachers and students to always include a "featured image" which is shown at the top of posts and on the site homepage. The fee structure of KidBlog has changed, so if you are a classroom teacher you can have unlimited class blogs for $29 per year. If you need to manage multiple classes with different teachers in the same school, you can contact them for pricing for an "Admin Pro" account.

I like how the new KidBlog lets students choose the audience for each post: Teacher only, Class only, Connections only, or public to the world. This can be great for the writing process. I used KidBlog at several of the iPad Media Camps I led this past summer, and I really like the new features. I still love KidBlog, and strongly encourage you to consider using it. It also supports Google logins, so schools where students have Google accounts already can use those credentials when students use KidBlog.

WriteAbout.com

The blogging platform I am most excited and interested in today is WriteAbout.com. Co-founded by amazing educators I deeply respect, John Spencer (@spencerideas) and Brad Wilson (@dreambition), WriteAbout offers some unique and powerful features that set it apart from the other five blogging platforms I'm reviewing in this post. There is a free version, but your students are limited to five posts each until you pay the $25 annual fee. (That's QUITE reasonable, IMHO.) I love how students can join interest groups within the WriteAbout community, and when they post they can submit their entries to a group so other students with similar interests can read and comment on their ideas. This addresses a perennial problem with classroom blog posts, which is: How do I get the attention of others so they can read and provide feedback on my students' ideas? This also promises to connect students directly to others with shared interests... which is exactly what "real" bloggers outside the classroom do!

I also love how WriteAbout lets students record audio messages within individual posts, without using a separate app or website. The options students have to post privately, for the class, or for the world are also fantastic, and resemble the new publishing options KidBlog has rolled out with their new version. It's also great how the site provides a wealth of visual writing ideas. ( John likes the phrase "writing ideas" much better than "writing prompt.") This 84 second video provides a good overview of WriteAbout. My wife is going to ultimately choose which blogging platform she'll use with her students this year. She used KidBlog last year, but I'm going to encourage her to give WriteAbout a try this year because of the many unique features it offers which will benefit her students.

EduBlogs.org

EduBlogs is the most well established, experienced, and (as far as I know) utilized educational blogging platform in the world. They are currently celebrating their tenth birthday, and in the blogging world that's quite ancient! Sue Waters (@suewaters) has been a HUGE help to countless educators in the past decade as many have taken their first steps into the world of educational and class blogging, and the larger community around EduBlogs is SO beneficial. EduBlogs does offer a free option for teachers, but I strongly recommend their "Pro" account ($40 per year) for class blogs because of the student management features it includes. EduBlogs, like KidBlog, is based on WordPress. Like KidBlog and WriteAbout, EduBlogs also offers pricing and management solutions for entire schools, districts and colleges. CampusPress is their educational enterprise solution. This 2.5 minute video provides a good overview of EduBlogs and why their platform is fantastic for class blogs.

EasyBlog.org

EasyBlog.org is not actually available yet, but is expected to go live in September 2015. I mentioned it previously when reviewing Blogger, because the Easy Blogger & Easy Blogger Jr apps work with it. EasyBlog.org is a homespun web host which will work with their apps but not require teachers to setup a separate Blogger site or YouTube account. The first 1000 teachers to sign up can get a "free class starter kit," and I definitely think this is worth checking out if you teach PreK or primary age children. This 108 second video provides a good overview. I'll be eager to hear how teachers this year like using the EasyBlog platform instead of the Blogger / YouTube / Easy Blogger Jr. app combination. If you use it, please let me know with a comment or twitter reply to @wfryer.

WordPress.com

WordPress is an open source blogging platform and content management system. You can download WordPress software from WordPress.org to run on your own hosting account or server computer, but you can also register for a free website on WordPress.com that you don't have to update or maintain with security patches. I use self-hosted WordPress on over thirty different websites now, and I absolutely love it. The technical learning curve for using WordPress can be higher than some of the other blogging options I've highlighted in this post, however, and WordPress.com is not specifically geared toward teacher or student blogging. That is why customized WordPress versions, like KidBlog and EduBlogs, are preferable for classroom blogs.

Still, like Blogger.com, WordPress.com is available FREE. That four letter word which begins with "F" may be the reason some teachers choose these options over the others I've highlighted in this post. A variety of paid upgrades / extra features are available for WordPress.com, but are not necessarily required to use the site as a class blog.

Conclusions

I hope this overview of these six different blogging platforms has been helpful. I'd love to know if it helped you decide which website you'll use with your students in the weeks and months to come!

I also want to encourage you to check out the "2015-16 Student News Challenge" from Storychasers. If you are willing to help your students share AT LEAST ONE POST PER WEEK of class or school news, Storychasers will mail you a free digital backpack including a digital camera, digital audio recorder, and USB headset with microphone. You just need to record a short video and submit a Google Form, which is explained on this post on Storychasers.org. We need to help our students develop traditional as well as digital literacy skills, and regularly writing on a classroom blog is a fantastic way to do both!

Good luck to you this school year as you engage in more digital learning and digital publishing with your students! Remember: Every idea can get better with feedback! Our students all need interactive, moderated spaces to share their ideas with others!
Full Disclosure: The author is not affiliated with any of the companies which own or maintain the blogging platforms described in this post, other than being a Google Certified Teacher.
Did you know Wes has published several eBooks and "eBook singles?" 1 of them is available free! Check them out!

Do you use a smartphone or tablet? Subscribe to Wes' free magazine "iReading" on Flipboard! If you're trying to listen to a podcast episode and it's not working, check this status page. (Wes is migrating his podcasts to Amazon S3 for hosting.) Remember to follow Wesley Fryer on Twitter (@wfryer), Facebook and Google+. Also "like" Wesley's Facebook pages for " Speed of Creativity Learning" and his eBook, " Playing with Media." Don't miss Wesley's latest technology integration project, " Mapping Media to the Curriculum."

On this day..

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Classroom Blogging Options (August 2015)

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Every classroom needs a moderated, online space where students can share their ideas with others and receive feedback. While blogging has "been around" and used in classrooms all over the world for more than ten years now, classroom blogs are still rare in many schools and communities.

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Students should be open and express their thoughts and opinions. This article gives many reasons why students should blog.

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As a school division, we are deep into developing blogs as portfolios with our students. To do this with approximately 10,000 students is a major undertaking but the work is important and I really believe that students should have a space to share and reflect on the work. This should not be unique, but the standard.

With that being said, as a school division we have decided to use a blogging platform ( Edublogs) for student portfolios, as it can be used both as a "learning portfolio" ( here is what I am learning right now) and a "showcase portfolio" ( here is my best stuff). Through my own experience both blogging, and using my blog as a portfolio, I have seen some powerful benefits of blogging that would directly benefit our students.

1. Open Reflection - How many times do we actually just sit down and take time to reflect on what we have learned? How many times do we go to a conference and it is speaker after speaker after speaker, with no time to sit down and reflect on what we have learned? Instead of simply dumping information into our brains, we have to take time to think about what we are learning and make meaningful connections. Blogging has been hugely beneficial in doing this for myself because I have seen the benefit of sitting down, writing, and reflecting on what I have learned while also learning to create an emotional connection to the information. Through being totally open, I have had the opportunity to learn from the comments and advice of others as well, which has helped me refine my own ideas. By allowing our students to openly reflect, we do not only see what they learn, but they can learn from each other as well.

2. Developing Literacy with Different Mediums - Blogging is a great way to write and share ideas, but there are many other ways that students can share content through this platform. Using a site like SoundCloud can give students an easy opportunity to share their actual voice with the world. YouTube is an obvious one, but even presentations through SlideShare are helpful to tell stories in many different ways. The nice thing about a blog is that basically anything with an embed code can be placed into that space. This gives many different opportunities for students to share their voice while becoming fluent in "21st century literacies".

3. Student Voice - Building upon the last point, giving students a space to share their voice is extremely important. Blogging should not only be "school related" but "learning related". In a blog, you may learn a lot about not only what students are learning in school, but what they are passionate about and hopefully how we could serve them better as educators. In a world where everyone can have a voice, isn't essential that we teach students how to use this powerful medium to share theirs in a meaningful way?

4. Creating an Open Archive of Learning - At any point, I can go back to the beginning of my blog and see where I have learned. Almost 600 posts later, I can see how I have grown and what my thought process has become and how has it developed. I have seen the power of this by recently looking at my Twitter archives, but that is in only 140 characters. Through my blog, I am able to look more in depth into what I have learned, and if I tag and categorize it properly, I am easily able to google my own work, as can anyone else. The opportunity to search that this medium provides makes it a lot easier to go back and revisit what I have learned in the past, as opposed to flipping through notebook after notebook, trying to find something extremely specific. Can you imagine googling your work from your childhood?

5. Developing a Positive Digital Footprint - Recently I spoke to a university class on the notion of developing their digital footprint, and I simply suggested that they learn openly, and their footprint will happen. It has been suggested by Will Richardson that our students should be able to be "positive google", by their name, by the time they graduate and I would totally agree. What are we doing as a school to promote a positive footprint? I wish that I could say that I had the foresight that when I first started blogging that this would happen, but after doing it for several years, I realized that this is only one, albeit very important side-effect of writing a blog.

To be honest, not every student will take to blogging the way that we envision as teachers, and to be honest, that is okay. If we make them do it the way we think it should be done, they might have trouble adopting this past the school setting. That being said, if we do give them the freedom to write or share not only what they are interested in, but also share it how they like, it could develop into something very powerful that will also give them an authentic audience.

Why do you believe students should blog? If they aren't, why not?

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As a school division, we are deep into developing blogs as portfolios with our students. To do this with approximately 10,000 students is a major undertaking but the work is important and I really believe that students should have a space to share and reflect on the work.

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This blogger has given so many topics for kids to blog on.

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Enthusiasm is typically high when student blogs are first set up. Students often can't wait to unleash their creativity and publish for an authentic audience on their own online space.

Sometimes when the initial excitement wears off, students start facing 'bloggers' block' or get in a rut of writing the same style of post over and over (eg. 'My favourite...').

With a little guidance and encouragement, you can ensure your students reach their full potential as a writer, while extending themselves by exploring various genres and mediums.

This post aims to provide prompts to inspire you and your students for a whole year of blogging.
This is a lengthy resource, but scroll down and you will find a PDF version that you can save, print or share! This post was originally published as 50 Ideas For Student Blogging And Writing Online by Ronnie Burt, on The Edublogger, in October 2015. In October 2017, it was updated to 100 Ideas by Sue Waters and Kathleen Morris, with some added links to posts by student bloggers for even more inspiration.
Types Of Blog Posts

Though you can certainly have overlap and combine multiple types into one, there are 10 types of blog posts you commonly see on the web:

5. Marketing/Sales - Typically these are commercial style posts. Students could use blogs to advertise school events and fundraisers etc. The students at Auroa School made a video to promote their school.

10. Curation Posts - Sometimes people use a blog post or page to curate a list of resources on a particular topic. Refer to Curation: Creatively Filtering Content by Sue Waters for more information.

Common Formats Of Blog Posts

The format of blog posts is evolving. Now there are a number of ideas on how to structure posts. They can be long or short, heavy with text or heavy with visuals and multimedia. The choice is yours.

Informal - This style include short paragraphs and doesn't always follow academic writing standards. Lewyliel's Wordle is an informal post.

Long Form - This is a comprehensive post like a chapter of a book. The Edublogger's Twitteraholic's Ultimate Guide to Tweets, Hashtags and all Things Twitter is a long form post. Long form posts aren't common on student blogs but are often popular on traditional blogs when used to share advice or resources.

Micro-blog - These are short posts of a sentence or two that usually link to another site or encourage readers to leave comments. Comments Count is a micro-blog example.

Slideshows - These are sometimes created as an alternative form of a listicle. Thanumi used this approach to share her favorite authors and their books.

Photo Posts - Images can be used as prompts, to demonstrate or to share a journey. Helen's Original Shirt Design uses a series of images to document her process of designing a shirt as part of her portfolio.

Video 'Vlogs' - A video can be embedded with extra information, links, or a summary. Here is Thanumi's comment starter video.

How To Apply Blogging Prompts To The Classroom

Writing is a learning process. The more you write, the more you'll learn and the better you'll get.

- Darren Shan

As you think about writing assignments for your students, try to vary it up. Even better, give your students some choice in the type of posts they write. The end goal is a relevant, authentic and engaging learning opportunity for all.

It can be helpful to keep the SAMR model in mind. Sometimes, you might simply be substituting traditional pen and paper tasks for an online task. As you and your students become more comfortable with blogging, consider ways you can redefine tasks to achieve something that would not be possible without a blog and online tools.
Ready for 100 prompts and ideas? Let's dive right in!
Connecting with Others

Research has shown when students are asked to write for a real audience, their writing has better organization and content, is longer and they learn more than if they were writing for just their teacher.

Below are 14 ideas for connecting your student bloggers with others:

1. The Student Blogging Challenge - This runs twice yearly, in March and October. It is made up of a series of 10 weekly tasks designed to improve blogging skills while connecting students with a global audience. The challenge is supported by a team of blogging mentors.

2. QuadBlogging - This simple project involves connecting your class with a quad group of four classes. Over a four week period, each classroom takes turns being the focal point of the quad. Kathleen's students made a video about QuadBlogging to explain the concept.

3. Global Read Aloud - This is a popular project created by Pernille Ripp that runs each year from early October to mid-November. Participants read the same book aloud to their students and then use whatever online tool they prefer to connect.

4. Twitter - Some teachers use class Twitter accounts to share posts and to connect with other classes and content experts. Drew Frank's Classroom Twitter list is a good place to find class Twitter accounts to follow. He updates the list annually.

5. Comments4kids - #Comments4kids is a Twitter hashtag used as a way for students and teachers to find blogs to comment on, and to get their own posts commented on. You could ask for comments on an outstanding student post, or as encouragement for particular students.

6. 100 Word Challenge - This is a weekly creative writing challenge for students under 16 years of age. Each week a prompt is given, which can be a picture or a series of individual words, and the children can use up to 100 words to write a creative response.

7. 5 Sentence Challenge - Similar to the 100 Word Challenge but for younger students or those learning English, this challenge involves responding to a prompt using five sentences.

8. Projects By Jen - Developed by Jennifer Wagner, this project hub provides a wide range of activities that teachers can use to connect their class with classes around the world.

9. Skype in the Classroom - This Microsoft Community offers teachers and students the chance to connect through Virtual Field Trips, Skype Collaborations, Guest Speakers and Mystery Skype. Mystery Skype involves connecting classrooms by playing a yes/no guessing game. Learn more about Skype Etiquette and Mystery Skype on Mrs Morgan's Superstars' blog.

13. Question for Parents - Encourage families to comment with a question specifically for parents. Miss Jordan's class have an example post on their blog where parents were asked about old technologies. Students could also pose questions on their blog for a specific audience.

14. Celebrate Comments - Use a blog post to highlight recent comments and encourage connections. Linda Yollis has an example on her class blog. Students could create a post like this, or a class blog could be used to showcase posts and comments from student bloggers.

Check out our Teacher Challenge guide for more detailed information on connecting with others.

More Specific Blogging Prompts

If you are looking for more specific ideas for post topics for students, here's a list of prompts that you can modify and make your own. They are divided into broad topics:
Getting Started With Blogging Online Prompts General/Interdisciplinary Reading/Writing History/Geography/Social Studies Math/Science Web Tools
Getting Started With Blogging

These topics are ideal for getting students used to publishing online. Tip: ensure students are aware of what information should be kept private before they begin blogging. You can also use My Class to moderate students' posts and comments.

20. Hero/Mentor - Write about someone that inspires you. What is it about this person that makes them so special? Terapat (Tony) shares why soccer player, Chanathip, is his favorite person.

21. Digital Citizenship - Come up with a set of rules or guidelines for publishing online. How is writing online different to writing in private? Refer to The Student Blogging Challenge's Footprints for resources and ideas.

Online Prompts

There are a number of resources online where writing prompts are published on a regular basis. Two are 100 Word Challenge and 5 Sentence Challenge as described above. Here are some others:

25. Pobble 365 - Every day there is a new photo prompt and literacy starters posted on the Pobble 365 website. Students could respond to these prompts in a blog post.

27. What's Going on in this Graph? - Another initiative from The New York Times, a graph, map or chart is published regularly as an invitation for students to discuss.

29. Practice Your English - MMG's English blog has been created by a teacher with prompts for students to practice their English. You will find jokes, quotes, recipes, videos and more. These prompts could be useful for any students.

31. Creative Writing Prompts - Writer's Digest offers regular written prompts which would be ideal for older students.

32. Writing Prompts for all Grade Levels - Edutopia has published an interesting list of topics that students could refer to.

33. Scholastic Story Starters - This is a fun interactive site for students in K-6 to create their own prompts for a variety of writing genres.

General/Interdisciplinary

36. Wikipedia Entry - Without going to the actual Wikipedia site, publish a post that reads like a Wikipedia article on a topic you are studying. Include references, images, and more. Tsuyoshi's History of Comedy is an example of this approach.

37. FAQ - Write 'Frequently Asked Questions' and answers on a topic. Here's an example of FAQs about blogging by Leigh Cassell.

39. Test Review 'Cheat Sheet' - Use images, videos,and writing to create a post that your classmates can use as a study guide to prepare for an upcoming assessment. Here's an example of a Cheat Sheet for Git/Github.

41. Exit Ticket - Write a summary of what was learned in class before leaving. Include any questions you still have and a list of any assignments or tasks you still need to complete. Check out Shoichi's Session with Kindergarteners post.

46. Photo Blog - A few years ago there was a rise in 365 photography or 'a photo a day' type blogs. This is something Linda Yollis still does with her Yollis' 365 Project. Students and the community are invited to send in photos and captions. Student bloggers could create a similar style blog or post series.

47. Future Me - Write an email to yourself when you are one, five or ten years older. This could be a blog post in itself, or for 13+ students, the FutureMe website could be used to actually send the email.

49. Gratitude Journal - This reflective tool is popular in many classrooms. Students can use their blog to reflect on what they're grateful for. Even young students can get involved like the children from Swoop into Kindergarten.

50. Guest Post - Offer another blogger (or someone without a blog) a chance to publish a post on your blog. Student blogger, Miriam, had her brother, Michael, guest post about hiking on her blog.

51. Meme - These are fun messages that are spread widely online. My Virtual Classroom shares their meme creation activity on their blog.

Reading/Writing

57. Book Reviews - This traditional pen and paper task can easily be shared with an authentic audience on a blog post. Check out a great example by year 8 student, Ella, who reviews Galax Arena by Gillian Rubinstein.

58. Wordless videos - Speech pathologist, Sarah, has compiled a list of wordless videos. You could embed one in a blog post and write a script, recount or reflection on the meaning behind the video.

59. Interactive Stories - Google Slides can be used to create interactive or 'choose your own adventure' type stories. See the examples on The Electronic Pencil blog.

62. Newspaper - Media literacy and fake news are hot topics. Create your own online newspaper to share on your blog. Kathryn made Early Bird News in Google Docs and added the link to her blog post. It even includes fake news stories, advertisements and a comic.

History/Geography/Social Studies

65. Historical Report or Guest Author - Write a traditional report profiling a historical figure, or pretend you are a famous historical figure that is blogging about a significant event. Ellie posted her historical report on Alexander Hamilton.

66. Historical Stories - Create a story based on a certain time and location in history. Amelia created a historical story set in England and Australia in 1788. She recorded it as a podcast for her blog.

67. Historical Comments - The commenting section of a blog can also be used for students to 'be the voice'. Check out Linda Yollis' example where the students commented in the voice of a historical figure they were researching.

68. Maps - Find different types of maps (and from different time periods), that show the same location. What are the similarities and differences in the maps? Refer to Comparing Maps for ideas to help create your post.

69. World Views - If you could live in any other place and time, what would you choose and why? Check out these student posts on 'If I could live anywhere '.

75. Projects - Present your project as a blog post. Anton published his earthquake project as a long form blog post, while also converting the information into a downloadable PDF.

76. List of Items - Create a list of items that would be used in a certain time in history or particular location around the world. The students from Histories and Mysteries of the United States were required to list ten things a witchhunter would have in colonial Salem, Massachusetts.

Math/Science

77. Vocabulary - Choose a vocabulary word that you are learning about and write a post that describes this word in different ways such as: a definition, in a sentence, in an example/image, in a table/graph, in symbols/equations etc. Check out this vocabulary slide deck template by Meagan Kelly which students could fill out and embed in their blogs.

79. Favorite Topic - Write a post about your favorite math/science topic including links to information on the topic and some images with attribution. Seb's favorite topic is the four fundamental fources of nature.

82. NRICH - This project by the University of Cambridge publishes weekly maths problem solving tasks for students. Students can submit answers on the website, but they can also publish them as blog posts. Problems are broken up into age groups. Here are the current live problems for: lower primary students, upper primary students, lower secondary and upper secondary.

84. Math Journals - Student blogs can be used as a journals to reflect on learning. Here are some math journal prompts from Read Write Think that students could base their reflections of their math lessons on.

Using Web Tools

There are countless free online tools that can be used to create, publish, collaborate and present. If working with younger students, it's important to check the terms and conditions on the site as some tools are only suitable for students over the age of 13. For more information and ideas on web tools that you can embed, check out this Teacher Challenge post.

86. Infographic - Use a tool like Canva, Piktochart, Venngage or Infogram to create an infographic and then write a post describing why you included the ideas you did. Alternatively, create infographics using several of these different tools then write a review of the tools you used. Courtney made a Piktochart about Peru, while Milani created one about Japan. Check out The Educators' Guide to Infographics for more information.

89. Image or Artwork - Create your own images using an online tool like Befunky, fd's Flickr Tools, Wordle, CutMyPic, PhotoFunia, Picasso Head, Paper Critters, or Sketch.io. Check out Fluffy Whisker's Create Your Own Image post. Sarah used a tool called Tagul / Word Art (similar to Wordle). She surveyed her class on their favorite foods and displayed the results in her word cloud. If you want to be blown away with what's possible, check out the Fugle Blog where K-5 teacher, Tricia Fuglestad, combines art and technology in truly creative ways. She has produced a lot of tutorials for teachers and students to follow.

Want A Free PDF Resource?

This post has covered a LOT of ideas. To help you refer back to it regularly, we have adapted the information into an ebook in PDF format. You can save the PDF or print it for easy reference. You could even embed it on a page on your blog for students.

Don't Stop Here

Hopefully this list will ensure you or your students are never scrambling for blogging ideas again, however, it is far from exhaustive.

Another idea is to recycle posts. You might take an old essay style post and turn it into a slideshow, podcast or video. Additionally you could make a part two of a post. You might have an old post with jokes, reviews or comics that struck a chord with readers. Why not do a follow up post in a similar style? Reflect on your best content and re-purpose or repeat it.

If you have a class blog, you could create a page with writing ideas for your student bloggers. Room 6 in New Zealand have done this on their blog.

This post is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of getting students to write online.
Do you have any additional ideas to share with fellow bloggers? Have you tried any of these ideas? How did they go? Please leave your comments and links below.
Happy blogging!

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100+ Ideas And Prompts For Student Blogging

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Enthusiasm is typically high when student blogs are first set up. Students often can't wait to unleash their creativity and publish for an authentic audience on their own online space. Sometimes when the initial excitement wears off, students start facing 'bloggers' block' or get in a rut of writing the same style of post over and over (eg.

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This page is full of tips for safety online which is so important for kids!

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The UK's leading awareness resource helping protect people, finances, devices and businesses from fraud, abuse and other issues encountered online.

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This is a good resource to help teachers understand why they want students to blog, topics to discuss with students about blogging, and ways to relate to the students.

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by Pernille Ripp
Three years ago I started blogging with my 4th grade students on a whim. I knew three things at the start: I wanted to get them connected with each other; I wanted to give them a voice, and I knew I had to change the way they wrote.

So I started blogging with them - fumbling my way through the how to and the when to.

What I had no way of knowing was how blogging would change the way I taught, how blogging would give my students a way to speak to the world, and how blogs would make it possible for them to create lasting global connections with other children.

Blogging has since become an integral part of my classroom. It's a way for me to check the emotional temperature of my kids and a way for them to add their voice to the continuing education debate and reach out to other communities.

We no longer just wonder how things are done in other countries. We blog and ask questions and get our answers.

So when I meet with any teacher who wonders how to lower the walls of their classroom and create more authentic learning opportunities, my first advice is to get students blogging.

If they're interested, I share these steps. They grow out of my own experience working with upper elementary-aged kids, and I believe they can help any middle grades teacher successfully launch a blogging program and integrate it into the daily learning experience.

10 + 1 Steps to Meaningful Student Blogging

Here's the checklist I follow myself at the beginning of each year, before I unleash my (now) 5th grade students' voices to the world:

1. Figure out your why

You have to reflect on why it is you want to have students blog. Is it to make connections, for technology integration, to give your students a voice, or for some other reason? If you know the why it is much easier to get students excited about the blogging experience. I don't feel that blogging should be just to show off student work; it can be something much bigger than that. So figure out your reasons why before you move on to the how.

2. Pick your platform

I use Kidblog because of its ease, its wonderful safety features, and the ease with which I can adapt it to fit our purpose. While some feel (as a result of recent changes) that Kidblog is geared more toward early elementary students, I disagree. But it's not the only safe and easy-to-use option: Edublogs is another popular student blogging platform that also comes highly recommended.

3. Get your permissions

Check with your principal, your tech coordinator, and finally get parent permission. You need to be prepared to explain and justify what you are doing - and be transparent throughout the conversation - to receive ultimate support for this endeavor. Student online safety is a predictable concern, and it's much easier to be proactive, seek out these conversations, and present evidence that safety is easily assured and the learning rewards are significant.

I've created my own permission slip to ensure that parents feel well informed as they make their decision about whether to let their child blog. And I have yet to have a parent say no.

4. Blogging versus writing

I always introduce blogging by discussing how it is similar and different to writing. Students often get what blogs are but not necessarily how they can use one themselves. So I showcase my own professional blog and other students' blogs to get them excited about the adventure they are about go on. We discuss what we can blog about, how long a post should be (as a minimum), and what to do about spelling and grammar. These discussions lead to heightened awareness of what is appropriate for a blog post and what isn't and will also lead to the next step.

5. Discuss safety!

Before students ever log into their blog accounts for the first time, you have to discuss safety. I use the analogy of " Why the Internet is Like the Mall " to get students to really think about their online behavior and what they post. This is an in-depth discussion that covers many aspects of internet behavior, not just those that are specific to blogging. This is also not just a beginning-of-the-year conversation, but an all-the-time conversation.

Starting out on paper is a great way to introduce students to blogging and how they can add their own personal voice and flair. (It's an idea I got from Karen McMillan.) By creating and personalizing a paper copy of their dream blog, my students have a tangible piece to work with while we learn the ins and outs of style, substance and safety. Once all of the paper blogs are done, students spend a class period leaving post-it comments on each other's blogs as well as responding to the comments they themselves receive. This is a natural progression toward our next step . . .

7. Discuss commenting

For blogging to be effective, students need to know how to make good comments. Commenting on other blogs is one important way to grow an audience for your own blog. And when people comment on what you have written, you need to be prepared to respond with follow-up comments of your own. So we discuss how to create a dialogue in comments, how to thank people, and also how to give constructive feedback. We set up parameters for our posts and our comments in order to uphold a high standard of writing and we discover how commenting can (and should) become a conversation. We even act out comments from our post-its to see if they work well as conversation starters or act as dead ends. Students quickly realize the power of a comment.

8. Start small

When students are finally ready to blog, have them introduce themselves. That way, as your class starts to reach out to others (because ultimately blogging is about connections), students can showcase themselves and thus spark a conversation.

9. Connect with others.

Use quadblogging or a project like The Global Read Aloud to get students connected - or simply reach out to one or two other classes (preferably far away from you) to establish a blogging relationship. Once you get started, teachers can go on Twitter and use the hashtag #comments4kids to get comments for your students. Kidblog also has a wonderful feature called "Blogroll" where you can build a list of links to other blogs you like to follow in the margin of your own blog. My students use this all year as they check in with classes from around the world.

This is what gets the kids excited about blogging - it's not just that they get to read other posts, they are able to establish a personal connection with other kids in faraway places, maintain that relationship throughout the year, and learn a lot about life in other parts of the globe.

10. Make it their own

Students need to feel genuine ownership of their blogs. I ask them for ideas of what to blog about; I give them free artistic rein over their posts, and I give them time to explore the blog's tools and capabilities. This is what gives students ownership and has them take pride in their blogging. If it is truly their voice being heard in whatever fashion they want to present it, then they are eager to show it off.

Blogging has to be authentic for it to work. I don't correct their grammar and spelling. I don't require editorial changes unless something is likely to lead to hurt feelings or misunderstandings. I will ask them to add more or to explain further, but I give them the time to do so. I also challenge them with a weekly blogging challenge and then find time to do it in school. (Ideas for the challenge come from students or things I wonder about myself.)

11. Give it time

Great blogging and great connections don't happen overnight, so give it time. Let the students develop as bloggers, celebrate their successes, and map their connections. Truly celebrate the blogging they do and spend time on it class. Encourage blogging but don't make it an assignment to just get done. Treat it as an integral part of your classroom and watch it become one. Blogging is not just about writing, it is about bringing the world in and making it a little bit smaller.

In the end, blogging should not be a burden in your already full day. Students should love blogging, not see it as a chore (which is also why I never grade my students' blogs) and they should be eager to express themselves and expand their worlds.

If you are ever in need of someone to connect to or ask questions, please reach out to me @pernilleripp on Twitter. I will gladly help. After all, blogging is about expanding our own comfort zones and creating authentic, global collaboration.

(Bio updated September 2015)
Pernille Ripp (@pernilleripp) is a Wisconsin middle grades teacher who began in 4th and 5th grade and now teaches 7th grade. She is the creator of the acclaimed Global Read Aloud Project, co-founder of EdCamp MadWI, and author of several books about teaching. Pernille also writes frequently at her website Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension. Her book Passionate Learners: How to Engage and Empower Your Students has just been published in a new edition by Routledge/Eye on Education.

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integrating blogging into the curriculum

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10 + 1 Steps to Meaningful Student Blogging

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by Pernille Ripp Three years ago I started blogging with my 4th grade students on a whim. I knew three things at the start: I wanted to get them connected with each other; I wanted to give them a voice, and I knew I had to change the way they wrote.

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This webpage gives a teachers example of starting a class blog among several groups of students. This article gives steps to transition students to blogging

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When I arrived at ISB last year, one of the first major projects I started with two of our wonderful grade 5 teachers was student blogging (um, and did I mention that we started blogging at the same time as participating in Chris Craft's Life 'Round Here digital storytelling project?). I had come from a middle school position where every student in the school (grades six - eight) had their own individual student blog and was ready to continue that experience here.

What I didn't know was that none of the teachers or students really had any experience blogging prior to my arrival (oops!). So, while they (both the teachers and the students) were absolutely fantastic at going with the flow and experimenting, I realized quite quickly that individual student blogs may not be the appropriate "first step" into the world of web 2.0 - especially at the elementary level.

So, over the course of last year I started to figure out an easier, more approachable, entry into participatory writing and reading online. I started with a grade 3 class, whose teacher, Betsy, was so flexible and ready to learn with me that we had so much fun getting this started with her students.

One of the major features of this smoother entry into blogging was having just one class blog that all students can contribute to. Instead of setting up each student with their own blog, they can all have their own username and password (which they love) to author individual posts on one class blog. Being able to leverage one free G-mail account to create individual accounts for each student was a huge step forward for us as well - taking away the need for student e-mail is definitely a huge stress-reliever (for both the teacher and the parents). Finally, adding a global component and pre-organized authentic audience really helped make our student writing purposeful.

After that much more successful, and far less stressful, experience with Betsy's class, I knew it wouldn't be long before another teacher wanted to try something similar. And, just as I expected, my amazingly collaborative colleague, Sonja, approached me at the very beginning of this year to start a reading and writing project with her grade 4 students.

We started off much the same as last year's grade 3 class, with one important difference: we focused on the importance of quality commenting before we gave the students their usernames and passwords for the class blog. We spent several lessons exploring our blogging buddies blogs, learning how to write an appropriate and fair comment, and building our understanding of blogging as conversation.

Interestingly, as soon as this class got started with their collaborative blog, more and more teachers have been asking me to help them set up a blog with their class. Just this week, I helped another fourth grade teacher, Kristen, set up her class blog and was amazed at how quickly her students were able to pick up the basics. At this point, I've got the introduction to blogging organized into five lessons (slightly revamped from last year's version):

Lesson One:

For our first lesson we spent some time examining other quality blogs, looking mostly at Anne Davis' excellent Blogging: It's Elementary WebQuest (just for the blog links, mostly). Each table group had a chance to look at one of the blogs listed on the process page and followed a Visible Thinking routine called: See, Think, Wonder. Each time we had a focused discussion at the table groups (starting with the question: What do you see?) we came back to the full-class and shared our observations, thoughts and wonderings. This was a great way to help students understand the basics of a blog and the concept of blogging as writing.

At the end of this first lesson we developed a list of things we know about blogs:

Blogging is free

People can leave comments on a blog post

People can see other people's comments on a blog post

If you are the author of a blog, you can edit or delete anything on the blog as long as you have the correct username and password

A lot of blogs have things in common: pictures, comments, links, dates, archives, calendar, videos, opinions, recent posts, author's name, conversations

A blog is like a website EXCEPT that blogs invite conversation, opinions and ideas while websites usually just tell their ideas without any feedback

Even though many blogs have the same features, they have different information

Authors put links on their blog because they think their readers will like them

Blogging is like a conversation with other people - some people you might know, some people you might not know

Bloggers want their reader's opinions

Everyone in the world can see our blog

Blogging is reading and writing

Lesson Two:

For our second and third lessons, we watched two public service announcements from the US. We start with a PSA called the Bulletin Board to focus on online safety:

We watch the video all the way through once, then have a "turn and talk" moment to see what we understand about the video after the first viewing. Next we watch the video very slowly, stopping at every event to check for understanding. Again we have a "turn and talk" moment for students to share their revised understanding. Finally, we watch the video all the way through and share what we've learned. We start creating a class list of questions we can ask ourselves before we post and things to remember about staying safe online, which will be finished after watching the second video during lesson 3.
Lesson 3:
This lesson focuses on responsible behavior and discussion is prompted by the PSA called The Talent Show:

We follow the same procedure as the second lesson, watching once all the way through, then stopping to ensure understanding and finishing with a full run through. At the end of this lesson, we complete our class list of questions to ask ourselves before we post anything online. Here is what grade 4 developed:

How will this affect my reputation (what people think of me)?

What will my friends or family think about me after they read (or see) this post?

Could someone find me (in real life) based on this information?

Who is going to look at this, and how are they going to interpret my words?

Is this inappropriate, immature or bullying?

Could I hurt someone else's feelings with this post?

Would I say this to the person's face?

What could be the consequences of this post?

What will I cause by writing this post? Be culturally sensitive.

Would I want someone to say this to me?

Do I have a good reason/purpose to do this?

Is this something I want everyone to see?

We also make a quick list of safety and responsibility tips to help us remember to follow the blogging guidelines outlined in our permission slip. Here is what grade 4 came up with:

Only post things that you would want everyone (in school, at home, in other countries) to know

Think about the future - what will people think a few days, weeks, months from now, if they read your post;

Don't share personal information like: last name, mom's maiden name, address, telephone number, password, birthdate, username, passport information, license plate number, picture of your face, full name of yourself or your friends

Choose a complicated password for others, but easy for you to remember

Think before you post

Use only your first or an avatar (made up name that represents you)

Don't talk to strangers. Get a parent or an older brother or sister to help you.

Only say nice things about other people.

Treat other people the way you want to be treated.

If you think you will regret it, don't post it

If you wouldn't say it to a person's face, do not post it online

Use appropriate language and good grammar and spelling

Think about your readers feelings (embarrassing) when you post online

Be culturally sensitive

Only post things that you can verify are true (no gossiping)

Lesson 4:
We usually model the process of writing a good comment, and then create a comment as a piece of shared writing with the class. After this process we develop our own list of quality comment characteristics. Here is what one grade 4 class came up with:

Constructive, but not hurtful

Think about the author and their purpose for their post before leaving a comment

Comments are always related to the content of the post

Personal connections to what the author wrote

Answer a question, or add meaningful information to the content topic

Follows the writing process - it's like a mini piece of writing.

Use a comment sandwich: start with a positive, add constructive feedback, then finish with a positive.

Make your comment sandwich thick and tasty! Lots of meaningful, meaty thoughts that relate directly the content of the post to keep the blogger satisfied!

I love the idea of creating a comment sandwich - having the visual for the students has been extremely powerful, and focusing on commenting as part of the writing process has improved their commenting considerably (not as many "good job" posts as we had last year).
Lesson 5:
Once students are comfortable with the process of leaving meaningful comments, and have returned their parental permission slip, we introduce them to the actual process of writing blog posts. The basics of logging in, creating a new post, putting your post in the category for your name, and submitting for review. Usually we have the first post be a short introduction to the student.

I love the fact that having a category for each student makes it appear as if each student has their own blog (by listing the name categories in the sidebar) and that no posts will be published until the teacher can approve them after moderation. Such an easy and safe way to begin blogging!

That's it! That's how we're starting to set up class blogs in grades 4 and 5 at ISB. So far we have 6 different classes set up:

I'm sure this is just the beginning! Most of these classes have already decided that if and when students are ready, they will be given the option to have their own individual blog.
Our next steps:
One thing that we still need to work out is how to embed the practice of blogging into the daily routine. We work with laptop carts - four per grade level, 12 laptops per cart - so teachers do not have 1:1 access and often have to schedule specific time with the carts. The organization and pre-planning necessary to naturally and easily use the tools can be cumbersome and frustrating for some teachers. Right now we're thinking about using a rotational strategy - allowing small groups to use the laptops each day for regular reading and writing online.

Anyone have any thoughts on how to introduce blogging to elementary students? Or how to make rotational blogging and commenting practical and realistic for our teachers?

Mac Youngin by shapeshift
Playing on the Computer by fd

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When I arrived at ISB last year, one of the first major projects I started with two of our wonderful grade 5 teachers was student blogging (um, and did I mention that we started blogging at the same time as participating in Chris Craft's Life 'Round Here digital storytelling project?).

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This article gives standard overview on how to do a blog with students. It also gives example programs to use.

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Blogging -- or Web logging -- most often is thought of as an activity for high school students. Did you know, however, that students as young as kindergarten age now blog on a daily basis in a variety of exciting ways? Read on to find out how elementary blogging works, what topics elementary students and teachers cover in their blogs, which software programs and tools to consider, and cautions and tips for starting your own blog. INCLUDED: More than two-dozen links to blogging software and to elementary blogs across the United States.
At its core, blogging -- or Web logging -- is a method of online journaling. Take a look at any blog and you'll immediately see the connection between it and a traditional diary. Often arranged in calendar format with the most recent post first, blogs contain rantings, wishes, commentary and anything else a writer thinks about, often with graphics and perhaps even with audio and video elements.

As David Warlick points out on his Web site, however, the blog has evolved rapidly into something more:

Number 1: A blog is a Web-publishing concept that enables anyone -- first graders, political pundits, homeless people, high school principals, presidential candidates -- to publish information on the Internet.

Number 2: A blog (a shortening of weB LOG) has become a journalistic tool, a way to publish news, ideas, rants, announcements, and ponderings very quickly, and without technical, editorial, and time constraints. It essentially makes anyone a columnist. In fact, many established columnists now publish their own blogs.

Number 3: Blogs, because of their ease of use, and because of the context of news and editorial column writing, have become a highly effective way to help students to become better writers. Research has long shown that students write more, write in greater detail, and take greater care with spelling, grammar, and punctuation, when they are writing to an authentic audience over the Internet.

ELEMENTARY BLOGGING IN ACTION

Want to hear how blogging really works? Check out Brenda Dyck's article Log On To a Blog. In it, Brenda describes her reasons for using blogs, suggests steps for getting started, offers student feedback, provides a rubric she uses to evaluate student blogs, and recommends links to more information.

Educators know that students write better when they have a real audience -- not just a teacher with a red pen. In the past, finding such an audience was a challenge. But with Internet access and some basic software, any student can write for the world to see. Although blogging in schools is still in its infancy, anecdotal evidence suggests that students' interest in, and quantity of, writing increases when their work is published online and -- perhaps even more importantly -- when it is subject to reader comments.

So, what do students in grades K-6 blog about? In its blog, Mr. Brune's 4th grade class at Mamaroneck Avenue School in Mamaroneck, New York, created an online commentary on today's news stories. At Shepard Elementary School in Columbia, Missouri, Mr. Villasana's fourth-graders contribute to the class blogs.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO START BLOGGING?

Many middle and high school classes use such Web-based programs as Blogger or LiveJournal. Although easy to use, those tools are not specific to the education community and might not have all the safety and supervisory features a teacher, particularly an elementary grade teacher, needs.

The simplest way to begin is to download a program like Blogmeister. Developed by David Warlick, founder of the Landmark Project, this free blogging tool is completely online; there's no software to install. The teacher sets up the blog and student accounts, and students can add their own entries. The teacher reviews each post and either approves and publishes the entry or returns it to the student for editing before reviewing it again. Click here to read excerpts from student blogs at Blogmeister.

Another easy alternative is KidzBlog. KidzBlog is an affordable, secure, and simple solution for the elementary teacher wanting to blog on just one classroom computer. Downloads are available for both Windows and Mac OS X, and the program resides on that one computer rather than on a school server or elsewhere. Set-up is a matter of just a few steps (choosing a name, selecting design elements, and so on). Then, students write their entries and illustrate them with the simple drawing tools included with KidzBlog. Password protection ensures that what students write or draw will not go online until the teacher enters the password.

For teachers with advanced tech skills and interest in open source software, Thingamablog might be a good choice. Thingamablog runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux machines, but requires a Web site hosted on a school, district, or other third-party server.

SAFETY, SAFETY, SAFETY

Although every K-12 student must be kept safe, the age and emerging critical skills of elementary students make ensuring their online safety paramount. First, find out what your district or school Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) says about posting student work and names online. Often, students' first names may be published, along with group photos, as long as there is no indication which name belongs to which student. Be sure to check your district's AUP before proceeding, however.

Next, consider using a blogging program/online tool that requires a password to publish. That way, you as the teacher have final say about what goes online, and you can edit out any identifying information (such as a student's home address!) before it becomes public.

Blogging in the elementary grades is an exciting and doable activity. Be sure to check out the information in the yellow sidebar above (one teacher's story) before beginning your blogging adventure!

Article by Lorrie Jackson
Education World®
Copyright © Education World

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How to Blog With Young Students | Education World

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Blogging -- or Web logging -- most often is thought of as an activity for high school students. Did you know, however, that students as young as kindergarten age now blog on a daily basis in a variety of exciting ways?