Blogger download for Word

OK - I've been a little off my blogging stride recently, & I guess you've all already picked up on this - but I'm impressed. Being dyslexic and an English (UK) writer, one of my biggest dependencies is on any quick and reasonably accurate UK spell checker. So I'm no stranger to the twilight world of cut and paste, in fact, I think I've been granted dual nationality.

OK - Will Richardson's established that Blogger is not an appropriate classroom tool, and lord knows I'm not in the League of Gates.

On the other hand... how many of us who are running hands on sessions are using Blogger to demo to others how quick and easy it is to set up your own blog, and show that there are high quality free tools available to educators (obviously not as high quality as James Farmer's wonderful, free, edublog.orgs service). And how many of our participants come familiar with word already?

Thanks Jane!

Comments

[Barry Thomas]

Hi
The link to Will Richardson's site doesn't seem to work.
Also I'd like to point out that edublog accounts are only for teachers and not school students.
So - I'm wondering what is really wrong with Blogger?
I am using it very successfully with sixth form students at present.

[Josie]

Hi Barry - I've put in an alternative link - hope it works for you. Will points out that because of the next blog click-through flotsam the relative context of porn and spam blogs is probably too high for use in the classroom. Obviously with your age group you've got less to worry about - unless a parent or student makes a complaint.

I need to point out here that Will (along with a lot of the world) also beat me to the punch on this one - http://www.weblogg-ed.com/2005/08/17 - I'm glad to find the same kind of alarm bells rining in both our heads though.

In terms of James's edublogs, I wasn't suggesting them for teaching use - it was just gratuitous advertising for him on my part (which he doesn't really need by this stage).

Personally - I don't understand why the broadband consortia/LSC's haven't made 'free' blogging tools and support available to every school and college already. But we wait and see what they decide upon in terms of eportfolio specification and provision. Ho-hum.

[Barry Thomas]

Strange I can't get the weblogg-ed site to work at all. In Firefox I'm getting the message -error!

As to Blogger, my students seem to have totally ignored the "Next Blog" button (at least in lesson time).

Has anyone contacted Blogger and suggested an educational version with this button missing? So far things have gone well with students sharing their notes through links and allowing others to make notes for them in their blogs when they are absent through illness or on visits.

Blogger seems robust, is very easy to use and is constantly backed up (I hope!)

As to local broadband consortia, not all of us belong to them or (want to).

I am definitely looking forward to the blog module due in a future release of Moodle.