Kidblog.org is a web 2.0 tool that allows teachers to create a classroom blog for their students. Teachers who wanted a safe and simple blogging platform that was suitable for what they taught built it. The founder and developer has over 18 years experience in web design and classroom teaching, It is designed to be used for elementary and middle school students. For those who teach several sections of the same subject set up can be done for each class with the one teacher as the administrator.
The basic idea is for students to post and participate within a secure blogging community consisting of their classmates. Because the classroom teacher creates the blog they are able to monitor and control all of the activity within the classroom blogging community. The set up is very simple and took me less then ten minutes to create my class site. All you have to do is create a username and password for yourself, plug in your email to receive notices, and then you are in. Once in you set up your classes with the students’ names. It is that easy. It has a clean design with no advertisements so students spend less time messing with widgets and options and more time posting. Students simply select their name from a list each time they post, which means no passwords and username for them to remember. The central directory for the blog and navigation links are simple making it easy to find classmates blogs. It is also a very safe environment for the students and teacher.
Each blog is set up in a way that no student email addresses are involved and no personal information is required from the teacher or the students. Kidblog has advanced privacy features and student blogs are private by default. The classroom teacher and the students in the class can only view the blogs. If the teacher chooses to allow parents to view the parent is given a password in order to check out the blog. The privacy settings also block all unsolicited comments from anyone other than those in the class.
This is a great site to use in the classroom committed to providing an efficient tool for student blogging in a safe and secure environment. Kidblog is also committed to its users by offering technical support and welcoming ideas for new features to add. Kidblog is a great way to introduce students to the world of blogging.
http://kidblog.org/home.php
Well it would only be appropriate if were to introduce a blog into our classroom while we are studying the same content. I think that this could potentially be a great idea for the classroom. At times we are a bit hesitant to create an avenue for our students such as this. Some educators may be concerned with what the outcome of such activities in the classroom will be. It has been my experience if you provided students with a strict and well managed classroom environment you can quite possibly rid any concerns that arise. Providing engaging and relative learning activities will prove to be a plus for any learning environment.
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