Tip #110 – Selecting a Blogging Service
A big part of setting up a blog is the selection of a blogging service. That decision will hinge on factors such as: ease of use, intended audience, restricted membership needs, cost, and preferred server hosting. Below is a comparison of three widely-used online blogging services.
Blogger – http://www.blogger.com/home
A free service affiliated with Google; one can restrict blog posting and viewing to members only; user-friendly interface; can publish to Blogger’s server or your preferred server; online help area, can choose WSYIWYG or HTML interfaces for composing postings; free Blogger for Word software to publish from Microsoft Word.
Class Blogmeister – http://classblogmeister.com/
David Warlick’s “school-sheltered” system is explicitly designed with teachers and students in mind; teachers can evaluate, comment on, and publish students’ articles in a controlled environment.
Gaggle.Net – http://www.gaggle.net/gen?_template=/templates/gaggle/html/blog/index.jsp
Gaggle Blogs provide a safe way for students and educators to interact online with people around the world. The blogs filter out inappropriate words and phrases, and all links and images are scanned for inappropriate content. If any rules are violated, the offending blog entry will be blocked and sent to an administrator email address.
