Monday, August 17, 2015

Kidblog moving to a pay only model - consider Blogger

The once "kind of free" Kidblog is moving to a pay only model in September.

From the kidblog pricing page:
Beginning September 2015, free trials are active for 30 days - upgrade for unlimited access

Another free service bites the dust. The service will now cost $29 per teacher per year. This is not a huge amount but with district, campus and personal budgets stretched thin, every additional expense seems daunting.

There are other options available. Austin ISD is a Google Apps For Education (GAFE) district. GAFE provides an array of tools for staff and students to use including Blogger. If you are considering student blogs for your classroom, consider Blogger. 
Students already have accounts they can access through Google Drive.

From the AISD Cloud, launch Google Drive.
Once Google Drive has loaded, open a new tab and type blogger.com.

There are ways to set your blog to private.
In your blog settings, set both privacy options to No.
Reader access can also be restricted. 
Also is settings, the blog can be set to only allows authors to read or allow all those added.
Using group lists, such as campusname.students@grp.austinisd.org, can make the process quick.



Instructional Technology would enjoy the opportunity to help you get up to speed with Blogger.