Hi Dionne,
We’ll be updating our list of class blogs on The Edublogger next week. You might want to get in touch with some of the Canadian bloggers to ask them about their approach. 🙂

Hi Rebekah,

Wow, what an awesome example of the power of an authentic audience. It really does have a big impact. Thank you so much for sharing! 🙂

As a middle school teacher, I started with only students in my class being able to view the class blogs. Recently, I’ve announced that we are going to open up our audience to allow parents and other classes to read the blogs. Their immediate response was, “Wait! I need to fix some things up first!” So already they are putting more into the writing process because they are thinking of the audience.

Hi Andrew,

Thanks so much for taking the time to comment and sharing your thoughts.

“Connecting globally is not just a buzzword” I love this! I feel exactly the same. It’d be a real shame to miss this opportunity.

Excellent idea with the custom domain name too. Nice work getting such a short one. If anyone reading this wants to know more about custom domains and Edublogs, they can find the info here.

Your tips about protecting your students’ privacy are very valuable too. They will be so helpful for people.

Thanks again, Andrew!

I have done class blogging both ways (public and private) and can certainly understand a teacher’s choice to make their blog private, even if their school or district allows public blogs. However, I have always found that the easier the blog is to access and to be viewed by others outside the community, the greater the potential gains in so many different areas. Connecting globally is not just a buzzword. It can certainly be real with the right connections.

Another thing I liked about our public class blog was having a custom domain name. Our blog [grade4.co] was so easy for students to access and get important information. Custom domains are cheaper than you think and once set up require no maintenance.

The settings that worked best for me were:
-custom domain
-public but not searchable (in the Reading settings of the blog click “Discourage search engines from indexing this site.”)
-no student faces
-only first names
-never any specific times or dates for future field trips or public events.

Thanks for posting!

Hi Ines, these are very wise words. It’s so important to give students the choice and have a candid and respectful dialogue, as you say. It’s important for students to be aware that even if you have a public space, that doesn’t mean you put everything on there. That’s definitely something young people need guidance on. And if we don’t guide them, who will?

Thanks for commenting 🙂

Good point about taking some basic precautions, Myles. This is always advisable no matter what level of privacy you choose. I agree with you about the power of an authentic audience too. It can add such an unmatched layer to your classroom program.