I had an email from Geoff Ward and Riffa Views International in Bahrain asking about blogging platforms.

This is the advice I shared. Comments welcome.

Hi Geoff,

Most people, myself included recommend Edublogs as a starter. The main reasons for this are:

1. James Farmer, the founder is a great guy and does all that he can for teachers
2. Sue Waters has a great series of “how to” posts and videos in the support area and will go out of her way to assist you via Twitter if you have an issue. She is suewaters on Twitter.
3. It used to be ad free for schools but, like everything, they have to find a way to make it pay so it has the very small text only google ads on some posts. Much better than many companies that blast big ads on the site (I keep getting the one for Hong Kong singles here!)
4. Their are no buttons to take you to a “random blog” with a single click. I HATE this feature on blogger as it is just not compatible with kids.
5. It is really easy to use the “gmail trick” to manage signing up all elementary kids as the teacher. (If you do not know what I mean see below.)

You can register at Edublogs numerous times using your own e-mail address by doing this:
emailaddress+1@gmail.com
emailaddress+2@gmail.com
emailaddress+3@gmail.com
emailaddress+4@gmail.com
emailaddress+5@gmail.com

All activity at our website under these accounts will be sent to your original, derivative e-mail (i.e. emailaddress@gmail.com). This way, you’ll be able to give each student a unique Edblogs account, while also being able to monitor their account’s activity.

6. Edublogs is based on Wordpress so it is an easy adjustment if you want to later migrate to Wordpress MU for the school.

Cheers and good luck

Paul

Photo: Noone ever tells you about blogging http://www.flickr.com/photos/andypiper/341429556/