Peter Ford @ ICT4Schools

As long as its free…

There are many sites on the internet where you can create a blog for free. A quick search on Google will bear testament to that fact. However, when looking for a free blog to use with a class or students, you need to think carefully about the appropriateness of site advertising or the content of other people’s blogs sharing the same site. If you want to shortcut your exploration of the hundreds of free blogging sites on offer, here are two tips to cut down your research time.

Recommendation - See if the LEA offers blogs.

Perhaps the first place to turn to for blogging support is you local education authority (LEA) or district. They may be have formed a blogging community where schools can create their own blogs. The English Educational Bloggers’ Wiki that categorises educational blogs according to education authority might be helpful in getting an overview of any local educational blogging projects. There is a Scottish equivalent as well, full of good examples.

Do not be surprised, however, to find that your area or authority does not provide any blogs. If that is the case, which it often is, then you need to find your own place to create a blog.

Recommendation - Edublogs.org

Instead of dragging through the pros and cons of a host of blogging software sites, we will offer the ICT4Schools recommendation for free educational blogs.

We recommend considering edublogs.org for educators to create free weblogs with educational use in mind. Based on the the excellent Wordpress MU, many thousands of blogs have already been created by educators at edublogs and it will provide a rich source of both inspiration and like-minded support.

It is run by James Farmer, an educator with comparatively long experience of hosting blogs and crucially, one who understands the importance of effective pedagodgy.

The edublogs sister-site is learnerblogs.org where students can create free weblogs for educational use.