To Blog or Not to Blog?

Well I am one term in and the class is really starting to hum. Inquiry is huge and continues to challenge me and my traditional views of what a teacher does. I have started to develop learning contracts with my children and have found this really effective in helping me keep informed about what they are doing. It has also been really good in helping focus those children that have difficulty setting goals.

Letting the children go is hard and at times very scary but I am getting there.

My big question at the moment though is reflecting on blogger and Mahara. The children are loving the class blog and at the moment are at that ego-centric stage they often go through when they just want to post about themselves. Next term we will look at developing community online. Posting comments, following blogs, building networks etc.

The class next door has seriously got the blogger bug and it is starting to catch on to my kids too with all the kids wanting to develop personal blogs. So I'm just going to share the pros and cons of Blogger and Mahara. I would love peoples thoughts on this as it is something I am working through at the moment.

Blogger:

i.e. two personal blogs per child - one a showcase of learning (the flashy stuff for everyone) - the other a journal of goal setting, with feedback and feedforward (private)

Pros:

Blogger is free

Blogger is part of the apps suite so everything is connected

Blogger is easy to upload content with videos etc.

Blogger can be passed on to a Private google account/ i.e. not a school one at the end.

Blogger can last forever

Blogger can be shared with friends and family's google accounts

Blogger is easy to use

Cons:

Blogger doesn' have the same levels of security as Mahara

Blogger isn't ministry recognised/compatible

Mahara:

Pros:

different levels of security

Can be removed once the child leaves

Can be uploaded to hardcopy

Can be transferred from other schools with ministry compatible LMS

Mahara is free?

Cons:

Not as easy to share material with parents and grandparents

Doesn't last forever