As you start to look for the best blogging platform to meet your needs, you should ask yourself this question first... Is this blog going to be used to inform parents and students about the happenings in your class OR are you wanting your students create their own blogs and use them like an e-portfolio? By answering this question, the platform you choose might change. Please keep in mind you can achieve both outcomes with any blogging platform you choose, it's just that a couple of blogging platforms make student blogging a little simpler than others.
Teacher blogs for class information...
The following links Top 10 Free Online Blogging Platforms by Sufyan bin Uzayr and7 Best Blogging Platforms by Harry Marks do a great job of explaining the positives of each platform. Give it a look, and I am sure it will help you make your platform decision easier. As for our blog, we are using Blogger. Simply because we were familiar with the format and because of our uses for Google+ and Google Docs.
Student blogs for sharing...
Any blogging platform would work to achieve this BUT... all of the platforms in Top 10 Free Online Blogging Platforms and 7 Best Blogging Platforms require an email address and would be hard for the teachers to monitor student posts and productivity. For this reason Kidblog.org or edublogs.org are the way to go. Both platforms give the teacher admin rights to student blogs which make management very simple. Kidblog.org is free and edublogs.org has a free aspect but all the good stuff only comes with a pro membership ($40 a year). The following links give pros and cons for each of the platforms: Using KidBlog to Publish Student Work Online by www.maupinhouse.com and Education-Specific Blogging: Edublogs Reviewed by DegreeDirectory.org.
No matter which platform you use they all achieve the same outcome... sharing your thoughts and creating materials for a larger audience. Happy blogging!
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