Looking for examples of class blogs? We’ve just completed the latest update of our list which we’ve maintained since 2008.

Our class blog list is updated twice a year and always proves to be a popular resource.

Perhaps you’re looking for insights into how other educators use blogs? Maybe you’re seeking lesson inspiration? Or perhaps you’re wanting to make global connections? Our class blog list is a useful starting point.

In our latest update, we’ve removed blogs that have been deleted, moved, or haven’t been updated in the last 6 months.

Note: This is far from an exhaustive list of class blogs around the world. Scroll down to find out how to add your class for our next update.

The Class Blog List

The complete Edublogger’s class blog list is embedded below.

The list is separated into:

• Grade or year level, then
• Subject areas such as Maths, Science, English, History, etc, or
• Type of blog such as library or school news

The columns on the spreadsheet help you identify:

• Class Blog Title
• Country
• Blogging Since — This is the year that the teacher began blogging with students (perhaps not with the same blog they’re currently using)
• Blogging Platform
• Student Blogs — Class blogs with individual student blogs are listed as “Yes” under this column. Most student blogs can be found on the sidebar of the class blog under the class blog widget or student list. The platform that student blogs are hosted on is indicated in brackets on the spreadsheet (EB = Edublogs, CP = CampusPress, KB = Kidblog, and SS = Seesaw)
• Class Twitter account where applicable
• Teacher(s) Name if we have that information

Click on the blog title to visit the class blog!

Click here to open the list in a new tab for easier viewing.

Add/Amend Your Details

Is your class blog on this list but you’ve spotted inaccuracies or missing information? Please leave a comment on this post and let us know what details we need to update. Scroll down to find the comment box.

Would you like to add your class blog to our next update of our list? Complete this Google Form. Your class blog must be public to be added to the list. It should also be active and established (i.e. not brand new).

Important Notes:

• We update the list twice a year so your blog might not be added to the list until our next update which will be published on The Edublogger around May 2020.
• This list is for class blogs. It’s not for teacher blogs or promotional sites.
• You don’t have to use Edublogs to be on the list!

We’d love to hear from you if you’ve found this list of class blogs helpful. Scroll down to find the comment box.

Related Reading

You might also be interested in:

10 Elements Of A Quality Blog Post: Tips For Teaching Students

8 Reasons Why WordPress Is The Best Choice For Student Blogging

My Class: Student Blogs Made Easy

Different Approaches To Using Student Blogs And Digital Portfolios

In an era of remote teaching and learning due to the global pandemic, teachers and students are relying on video more than ever before.

Video in education can mean a lot of things:

• Teachers finding and sharing videos someone else has made
• Educators create their own videos, often as a screencast or piece to camera
• Teachers hosting video conferences
• Students create their own videos — tutorials, reflections, stop motion, animation or more

Video is an everyday part of most students’ lives and can be a crucial tool in a remote learning curriculum.

But what tools and equipment should you use to create videos, screencasts, or live conferences? Where can you find high-quality videos that others have made? And what’s the best way to share videos you’ve made with others?

This guide will help.

Contents

This post walks you through all aspects of using videos in education. 

Click on the links below to navigate this resource.

Note: This post includes honest reviews of a variety of tools. We have no affiliations with any of the brands mentioned in this post. 

Creating Videos For Students

When you can’t teach your students face to face, personalized video can be the next best option.

Even during regular school times, many teachers see the advantages of flipping their classrooms. That means students can learn some content outside of class time (often via video, podcasts, or reading). That frees up time on campus for deeper work, discussions, and projects.

So how exactly do you create videos for your students? And should you be pre-recording videos or just running live video conferences?

This is a question we weighed up a little in our guide to teaching online due to school closures. Let’s recap.

Synchronous or Asynchronous Videos

There are two main options for sharing videos with your learners: synchronous or asynchronous.

Let’s weigh up both options.

Synchronous Videos (Live streaming/Conferences)

This means real-time streaming. It could be a live stream (like on YouTube) or an interactive video conference (like on Zoom).

Pros:

• Some synchronous videos can be recorded so they can be viewed again at a later date. This is useful if students can’t attend the live stream, they have technology issues or need to revise the content.
• Some schools find synchronous videos to be a powerful way to keep the class connected.
• Students can gain feedback, seek clarification, and get answers to their questions quickly.
• Synchronous video conferences can be used in a range of ways: class meetings, office hours (drop in to ask a question), live recess (just for fun), or focussed study groups.

Cons:

• There can be privacy issues if students are shown in synchronous videos and they’re recorded.
• There is also the issue of internet access if students are required to attend regular long live conferences. This can really chew up families’ home internet and can be a major barrier in rural/disadvantaged areas.
• Passively sitting in on lecture-style video conferences can eat into time that could be used on more productive learning and projects.

Asynchronous Videos (Recorded Videos/Screencasts)

This means you record videos that can be viewed (and reviewed) when it suits the student. Your videos could be a simple “piece to camera” or a screencast.

Screencasting is where you narrate a video recording of your computer screen. Sometimes it’s just audio and sometimes you can see your face in the video as well.

Pros:

• For some students, asynchronous learning can be more convenient and allow them to learn at a time and place that works.
• Students can work at their own pace and revise information as needed.

Cons:

• It can be hard for teachers to know whether students watched the videos or were engaging with the work.
• It can be time-consuming to request clarification if some concepts are not fully understood.

You might find it useful to use both synchronous and asynchronous videos at different times.

Here’s a brief summary of what synchronous and asynchronous remote learning looks like:

Now you know more about the options, we’ll take a look at some popular tools for recording both synchronous and asynchronous videos.

Popular Tools for Synchronous (Live) Video Conferences

There are many tools out there that allow you to connect with students via video. This can really help to unite the class.

Four of the most popular video-conferencing options for teachers and schools include:

• Zoom — Robust software designed exclusively for video conferencing.
• Google Hangouts Meet — The evolved version of classic Hangouts that’s part of G Suite.
• Microsoft Teams– a communication and collaboration platform that is part of Office 365.
• Webex — Cisco tool for video conferencing, online meetings, screen sharing, and webinars.

These tools all allow video conferences with screen-sharing capabilities.

• The teacher can start the conference and share the access link with the students.
• Students can access the conference at the specified time using any device (e.g. laptop or tablet).
• Some people like to use external microphones, headphones, or webcams, however, the camera and microphone attached to your device are probably fine for getting started.

Here is a quick comparison of the free plans for Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts Meet, and Webex Meetings:

Notes on Live Video Tools:

• Safety comes first! Your school or district probably has advice about which video conferencing tool you should use and which settings should be employed. As an example, Zoom has released some best practices in this PDF. 
• Zoom, Meet, and Webex temporarily upgraded their free plans for educators but these offers have now ended for Meet and Webex. If your school Zoom account hasn’t already been upgraded, you can apply here to remove the 40-minute time limit.
• Some teachers are also experimenting with live streaming on YouTube. For teenagers, it’s a platform they’re often already familiar with and they can comment in real time.

Popular Tools for Recording Screencasts

There are a number of tools available to record screencasts (asynchronous videos). Like many online tools, there are free plans and paid plans.

Let’s compare four of the most popular screencasting tools teachers are using for recording lessons.

• Loom
• Screencastify
• Screencast-o-matic
• Zoom

This chart compares the features of the free or free education plans (paid plans have more features).

Notes On Screencasting Tools

• I’ve written a blog post specifically about Loom if you want to learn more. There are no age restrictions so students can use Loom if you want them to make screencasts. The pro Education version is free to teachers and students forever.
• You’ll remember that Zoom is a popular tool for video conferencing. The 40 minute time limit on free accounts has been temporarily removed for educators. To record a screencast using Zoom, you start a meeting with yourself as the only participant and record the conference. You can’t record if you’re using the Zoom iOS app.

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Free Online Tools For Making Educational Videos

Making your own videos is easier than ever! Apart from the screencasting tools mentioned above, there are online video creation tools that are:

• free/paid
• simple/complex
• for editing/creating
• for all ages/restricted to over 13 or 18

Here are six free options for creating different sorts of videos using online tools. Feel free to share your own ideas too!

• Lumen5
• Animation (Powtoon and Biteable)
• EdPuzzle
• Animoto
• Flipgrid

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Lumen5

Lumen5 is a free drag-and-drop video creator. You can turn images, short clips, GIFs, and music into engaging and educational videos.

It can even “automagically” make your blog post into a video (for best results you’ll need to edit it slightly).

Here’s a one-minute explanation:

Lumen5 contains a library of Creative Commons Zero images and music so you don’t need to search for content either (although you can use your own pictures and video).

The free plan is becoming increasingly restrictive. As of November 2020, it allows you to make 3 videos a month with the Lumen5 watermark.

The only downside (apart from it being a 13+ tool) is you can’t embed your video directly onto your blog. So you have to put it on social media or YouTube first and then get the embed code from there. Or you could download the video and upload it directly into your post/page if it’s a small file.

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Animation (PowToon or Biteable)

There are a number of ways you can create simple animations online. Two free tools you might be interested in exploring or using with your students include PowToon and Biteable.

Both of these tools have free plans and can be used by students under 13, however, they do require students to sign up via email.

Powtoon’s free plan allows you to make 3-minute videos with the Powtoon branding visible. Biteable’s free plan allows you to create as many videos as you like (with a watermark) and share 10 of them.

One benefit of PowToon over Biteable is that you can download your finished product as a PowerPoint or PDF file. You can only download your Biteable creation with a paid plan; you have to share your Biteable video by embedding it or sharing a link with the free plan.

You can embed both PowToon and Biteable videos into your blog posts or pages.

PowToon

PowToon is a quick video that gives you a glimpse of the drop and drag editor.

Biteable

Here’s a quick video tutorial that shows you how to use Biteable from Kyle Niemis.

EdPuzzle

EdPuzzle is a popular tool to turn any educational video into a lesson. The videos can come from YouTube, National Geographic, Khan Academy, or other sources, including your own videos.

EdPuzzle’s tools allow you to check if students are watching your videos and understanding the content through inbuilt questions and narrations.

EdPuzzle has free plans where you can store 20 videos.

This one minute video explains what EdPuzzle is all about.

You can embed EdPuzzles into your blog. These instructions show how to find the embed code.

Animoto

Animoto allows you to create videos from photos, video clips, and music either on the web or on an app on your mobile device.

It’s an intuitive tool that allows you to create a professional-looking video in minutes.

Educators can sign up for a free account which allows you to create student accounts as well.

Animoto has been around since the early days of “Web 2.0” and continues to improve.

You can embed Animoto videos on your blog. This help guide shows you where to find the embed code.

Here’s an example template for a vocabulary lesson.

Flipgrid

Flipgrid is a video discussion platform from Microsoft. It’s 100% free (even pre-pandemic).

Using Flipgrid, you add topics to a grid. A topic can include text, links, videos, images, or more. Students respond to your topics with their own videos — you can set the video maximum video length from 15 seconds up to 10 minutes. Students can record themselves or their screens.

Flipgrid allows you to facilitate engaging asynchronous video discussions. You can include your whole class in the grid and even families and students from other schools.

This Getting Started video for educators explains how to get going with Flipgrid.

You can embed Flipgrid videos on your blog (or LMS). This will allow students to watch and/or record videos without having to leave your class blog. Here are the instructions to find the embed code.

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Video Creation Techniques

Online tools are great but you can make videos in the traditional way too, as can your students. You don’t need any fancy equipment either — a phone, tablet, or webcam can work just fine!

Let’s go through three popular techniques for creating videos:

• Piece to camera
• Teach in front of a whiteboard
• Green screen videos

Piece To Camera

I know, I know… who likes getting in front of a camera? Most teachers would avoid it at all costs! But it is really a great way to connect with students and families.

There are lots of reasons you could create a piece to camera:

• Welcoming students and families at the start of the school week if you’re learning remotely, or at the start of the school year during normal times.
• Thanking your class and families at the end of the school week/year/term and reflecting on what went well.
• Explaining learning tasks or giving feedback.

You might encourage students to create these sorts of videos too. As always, check your school guidelines if student videos are going to be shared digitally.

Here is an example Linda Yollis made to welcome her new students to the classroom last year. She cleverly used a “B roll” to show some footage while talking but you can keep it simple.

10 Tips For Filming A Piece To Camera

Filming a piece to the camera on your phone or tablet? While it doesn’t have to be perfect, there are a few easy things you can do to enhance the quality of your video.

• Lighting: This is really important! Sit near a window if you can or add lamps. Aim for even natural light. Don’t have a window or other light source behind you? Walk around your house with your device while looking at your screen to find the best lighting.
• Audio: Your mobile device will record video just fine (in good lighting) but the audio quality won’t be great. Add an external microphone if possible. Personally, I use the Boya Lavalier lapel microphone. It’s under $30 and works great (no affiliations here!). If you use an iPhone/iPad, you’ll need the headphone jack adapter to plug in your mic.
• Tripod: If you’re using a phone, it needs to be steady. Many discount stores now sell basic phone tripods (for example, I got this $8 one from Kmart Australia). You can elevate these on furniture or books as needed.
• Location: Keep your background simple but it doesn’t have to be totally bare. Remember, if you’re using a phone, the background won’t blur like it does with a professional camera — just be aware if you have personal belongings in the shot. Aim to film in a quiet location.
• Clean your lens: Especially if you’re filming on your phone, wipe that dirty lens before you start. It’s a simple tip that’s often overlooked (you should also do that before you take photos).
• Horizontal: If you’re using a phone, turn it on its side. That way, it will fill the whole frame when people are watching the video on their computer/device/tv. If you want to know more about why your video should be horizontal, you might enjoy this funny video.
• Raise your device: You want your device to be around eye level. If it’s too high or low, your face proportions won’t look right. You might need to prop up your device on books.
• Front facing camera: If you’re alone, switch the camera so you can see where you are in the frame (consider positioning yourself slightly off center in the frame). If you have someone else to film you, the quality will be better filming the regular way.
• Look at the lens: Find the tiny hole and try to make eye contact with it. You don’t have to stare at it. You can look away occasionally but don’t look at yourself on screen if you’re using the front-facing camera. Smile!
• Record: Whether or not you want to actually script what you want to say is up to you. A more natural approach may be to create a few notes or an outline, rather than scripting or reading. Pace yourself and enjoy!

Remember, your video doesn’t have to be long. A short video is often a good video!

Want to share these tips with colleagues or students? Download the PDF.

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Teach In Front Of A Whiteboard

One of the simplest ways to create a video is to do what you know best — film yourself teaching.

Eddie Woo is a Sydney maths teacher who has been filming himself teaching maths for years. He has a huge following not just from his own students but from students across the world.

Eddie has a YouTube channel and houses his videos on his blog too.

Here is an example…

These sorts of teaching videos come into their own during periods of remote learning but are useful at any time of the year.

Another teacher who is producing maths videos is Joel Speranza.

Joel is publishing his videos to YouTube and housing them on his website.

What is different about Joel’s videos, is he is using a variety of techniques, including a homemade “Lightboard”.

This short video demonstrates Joel’s video techniques.

Of course, students can “be the teacher” too and record tutorials for other students.

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Green Screen Videos

You’ve probably heard of green-screen videos? This is where you replace the real background of a video with a digital background. To do this, you need to film against a green screen. This could be either a screen bought specifically for video creation or something more ad-hoc — a piece of green cloth, green paper, a green shower curtain, or a wall painted green.

A green screen can even be a shirt!

Love experimenting with the green screen app by @doinks and thinking of different ways of using it in #physed…will be showcasing this tomorrow with my Ss #physed #pegeeks #pechat #ukpechat pic.twitter.com/6Zfovmb8JP

— Adam Llevo (@MrAdamPE) October 4, 2018

Here’s an example of a remote learning video that uses a green screen video from a kindergarten teacher from Texas.

I may have a slight addiction to @DoInkTweets and @PicPlayPost! #eLearning #ObsessedWithGreenScreens pic.twitter.com/3pQ1tpV4VS

— Rachel Doran (@rachel_doran_) April 15, 2020

Want to learn more about green screens?

• Green Screen by DoInk is a popular app you can use on an iPhone or iPad.
• Tony Vincent has compiled some different green screen setups.
• LitFilmFest has shared 7 tips for using a green screen in the classroom.
• Green Screens projects can be “mini” sized too as explained by Anita Goodwin.

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Video Editing Software And Apps

Most people know how to record a video. It can be as simple as opening the camera function on your phone and hitting the record.

But then what do you do with your raw video?

It’s not always essential, but you’ll generally want to do some basic editing. This can include things like:

• Adding text titles or captions
• Adding music
• Chopping out certain parts of the video
• Mixing together video and images

Let’s go through some options for editing videos on the cloud, on a computer, or on a mobile device.

Editing Software (Computer)

WeVideo (Cloud editing software)

WeVideo is a cloud-based video editing tool that allows students and teachers to get creative.

Educators can make videos for their classes, while students could have fun responding to some of their learning tasks as a video. They can also collaborate with peers on projects.

WeVideo also recently introduced screencasting.

While WeVideo For Schools was free for schools affected by COVID-19 in early/mid 2020, this offer has now expired. Therefore the main barrier to using WeVideo is cost. There is a free WeVideo plan but you can only create 5 minutes of footage per month, it includes WeVideo branding, and most features are missing. You can read more about WeVideo pricing here.

iMovie  iOS app | macOS

If you use a Mac computer, the go-to program is generally iMovie. You can also use the iMovie app on your iPhone or iPad if you have one.

iMovie is a free and robust tool that allows you to create anything from a short video clip to a full-length movie. There’s only a small learning curve involved in getting the hang of iMovie, and it comes with templates for layout and music.

If you have a recommendation for a free Windows editing software, please let us know in the comment section below. Windows Movie Maker used to be a popular choice for simple editing but it has been discontinued now.

Editing Apps (Phones/Tablets)

There are a lot of video editing apps out there. They’re not all created equal and most have “in-app purchases”.

For quick video editing on my phone, I love a free app from GoPro called Quik and another one called Splice. They don’t have in-app purchases.

• Quik puts everything together for you with music, transitions, and other cool effects.
• Splice is handy if you want to make more manual edits and don’t necessarily want too many effects.

Let us know your choice of video editor in a comment.

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How To Share Your Videos With Others

Videos can be quick and easy to make but sharing them can be more difficult due to large file sizes.

You’ve probably already figured out that most video files are too big to email.

So what do you do if you need to share a video with students, teachers, or families?

Firstly, consider whether the videos you’re making are too long. Educational videos should be as long as they need to be in order to meet the learning objective but no longer. Studies show that after 6 minutes, engagement drops off.

If you’re an educator asking your students to create videos for assignments, you might want to be specific about length so you don’t run into problems receiving and viewing their work.

When it comes to sharing your videos, there are a few options:

• Add your video to an online hosting site (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, TeacherTube)
• Add your video to Google Drive
• Upload to another Cloud service like DropBox or OneDrive
• Add your video to social media (many services have limits on video length e.g. Instagram 60 seconds, Twitter 2 minutes 20 seconds, LinkedIn 10 minutes, Facebook 120 minutes)

Once you’ve uploaded to one of these services, you can embed the video on your blog, website, or LMS, or share a link. Many videos are too large to upload directly to your blog or site. If you’re embedding a video, you can use the instructions we covered earlier in the post.

If you’re uploading your educational videos to a platform like YouTube or social media, check your school/district guidelines for advice and choose your privacy settings carefully.

If your students are making videos and have a Google account, there is an option for students to upload their video file in a Google Form. You can find out more about that here.
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Using Videos That Others Have Made

We’re fortunate to live in a time when there is a massive library of video content available to us.

The problem is, that it’s often a case of searching for a needle in a haystack to find the right video. Because it’s so easy to make videos, there is a lot of low-quality or inappropriate content out there.

Choosing Videos For Your Students

When considering sharing a video with students, you need to ask yourself:

• Is the video age-appropriate?
• Is the video accurate? Remember, you can’t believe everything you see online.
• Does it meet the learning needs of your students?
• Is it designed to educate about a topic or is there another purpose? (e.g. to entertain or to teach English)
• Is the video made by an educator or someone with appropriate credentials?
• Is the video the right length for your students? i.e. just long enough to cover all the content but not so long that students will tune out.

Remember: Watch the whole video before sharing it with students. It’s tempting to just watch a short snippet but it’s best to screen the whole thing. Of course, if you work with a team of educators, you could share this responsibility.

Tip: Increasing the playback speed a little may help if you need to get through reviewing a YouTube video in a shorter amount of time! Click on the gear icon and then “Playback Speed”. You can then increase the speed to 1.25 or 1.5, for example.

Free Online Video Libraries

So where can you start looking for video content that will meet the needs of your students?

YouTube is the obvious choice but there are some issues to think about with YouTube, and more importantly, there are other useful video libraries:

• TED-ed (free videos and lessons)
• BrainPOP and BrainPOP Junior (teachers and families can request free access due to school closures)
• CommonCraft (classic explanation videos mainly about tech and society with lots of free options)
• GoNoodle (engaging movement and mindfulness-based videos for students. Great for brain breaks)
• Storyline Online (actors reading storybooks)

There are also sites that curate and organize useful educational videos from a variety of websites. One example is WhatKnowLearn which brings together 50,000 videos that are screened and categorized by educators.

Many Australian teachers are enjoying ClickView and ABC Education. Some American teachers have recommended PBS LearningMedia and PBS Kids. Perhaps there are local video libraries in your area too?

Some teachers have also pointed out they like using the short videos shared on Instagram. For example, to introduce students to authors or share art or coding skills. While there may be a plethora of options, Instagram would obviously need to be screened carefully.

Do you have a favorite site to find educational videos? Let us know in a comment.

How to Embed A Video On Your Blog

Many teachers and students like to embed videos they find online on their own blogs. That means you can play it within the post without having to open new tabs or leave the blog.

If you use a learning management system, you should be able to embed videos too.

Let’s take a look at how to embed a video in a blog that’s hosted by Edublogs/CampusPress/WordPress.

An embedded video looks like this.

Tip: When embedding a video, it’s a good idea to also put a link to the video near the embed, like this:

Check out the video, What Is A Blog?

Educators or students might embed videos from sites like:

• YouTube
• Vimeo
• TeacherTube
• Google Drive
• TEDEd

Methods For Embedding Videos

Videos from video-sharing websites can be embedded into posts or pages by using:

1. The video URL: Paste the URL on a line by itself in your post/page editor where you want the video to appear. This method only works with certain services, like YouTube.
2. The embed code: Find the embed code on the site you’re using (e.g. YouTube) and copy it. Then in your post put your cursor where you want the video. Click on Add Media and then Insert Embed Code. Paste the code and press Insert into the post. Note: embedding isn’t available on free blogs to prevent misuse from spammers.

You can find the full instructions on how to embed videos in this Help Guide or check out the PDF below for detailed instructions for YouTube.

Download a copy of the PDF

Copyright And Videos

You may be wondering about copyright because we know we can’t just take an image from another site and use it on our blog. So can you embed a video from YouTube (or similar sites) on your blog?

In short, yes.

If a video creator leaves the embed functionality enabled on YouTube or a similar site, that means they agree for it to be shared.

That being said, you can’t necessarily download or make changes to the video (for example, cutting it up, remixing, adding audio, and so on.). So steer clear of that!

YouTube And Safety Concerns

Access to sites like YouTube is a contentious topic in schools. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any experiences with that issue.

The YouTube Terms of Service are very clear in that YouTube should not be used by children under 13 – even with parental permission.

In some countries, this age can be even older, and you should check youtube.com/t/terms for the latest and the requirements where you live.

The biggest concern involves the ads that will play before most YouTube videos, as the ad that shows with a teacher previews a video may not be the ad that shows when a student goes to watch it.

Another concern is the comments that may be shown below a YouTube video.

If you still choose to use YouTube, here are a few tips we recommend to minimize potential problems:

• Set up a class or teacher account if you plan to upload videos or create playlists. This helps separate your work videos from your personal videos. The University of Massachusetts has a guide to creating YouTube playlists which you can access here.
• Look for videos that have comments disabled.
• Embed the video in your blog or LMS when possible which will usually have fewer ads and distractions.

An alternative to embedding videos, especially for younger students, is to give a “safe” link such as the ones described below.

Use Safe.link

If you really have to link to a YouTube video, then video.link may help.

You simply visit the video.link website, paste in your YouTube link, and generate a new ‘safe link’ that you share with your students.

One of the main benefits is no registration is required. The ‘safe link’ will do its best to block any ads and not show any comments.

In this video, Richard Byrne from Free Tech for Teachers explains how to use four distraction-free YouTube sites — SafeShare.tv, Quietube, Watchkin, and Google Slides.

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Conclusion

In this post, you learned:

• Pros and cons of synchronous and asynchronous videos
• Popular tools for live video conferences and screencasts
• Free online tools for making educational videos
• How to film a piece to camera and other educational video techniques
• Popular tools for editing videos
• How to share videos you’ve made with others
• How to find and use videos that others have made
• How to embed videos on your blog
• Copyright and safety concerns when using videos from sites like YouTube

We’ve covered a lot and hopefully, we’ve inspired you to have a go at using some of the tools or techniques mentioned in the post. If you do, we’d love to see what you create or hear about it in a comment!

Scroll down to find the comment box.

We’d also love to hear your own suggestions for finding or creating videos.

Lights, camera, action … and over to you!

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In fact, our services in accessibility, security, hosting, and support, along with an extensive suite of other tools, power millions of education websites, blog networks, and portfolios. Learn more about our school website services or request info today!

Deciding when to use blog posts vs pages can be puzzling so we decided to write a post to explain the difference between a Page and a Post, plus share ideas for separating topics or classes on a blog to help address some of the confusion.

Posts properties

• Blog posts appear in reverse chronological order by default so that the most recent post is the first post that your readers see.
• Posts are dynamic (updated regularly) and have time stamps i.e. display the date posted.
• You can assign tags and categories to organise blog posts.
• Posts appear in RSS feeds – i.e.: your readers who subscribe to your blog will receive your latest post in their feed reader.

Page Properties

• Site pages are displayed independently of their creation date and are more static – i.e.: they remain the same from day to day since they are rarely updated.
• You normally use pages for information that you want to share with your readers but don’t expect to update frequently. School & District Websites and Student ePortfolios are pages.
• Pages don’t have time stamps – i.e.: they don’t show the date they were posted.
• Pages can appear anywhere on your blog depending on your theme.
• You can change the order pages appear. Pages are normally displayed in alphabetical order but their order can be changed using Page Order.
• You can’t assign tags and categories to pages.
• Pages don’t appear in RSS feeds so readers need to visit your site to view the latest updates to pages.
• You can create sub-pages which you assign to a parent page to build a more complex site.

Ways of separating topics or classes on a blog

If you don’t want students from different classes seeing posts or information that don’t relate to their class, the best solution is separate blogs for each class. Benefit is students have an increased sense of ownership. However if you want to use just one blog, the best way of separating topics or classes is using categories.

By using categories, students can access their posts by:

• Clicking on their category link in the blog sidebar
• Subscribing to the RSS feed for their post’s category using a Feed Reader like Google Reader.

FINAL THOUGHT

We hope this has helped you understand the differences between Pages and Posts.

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Traditionally, blog posts were all about text and images. However, videos can really bring your blog alive and make the visitor experience more engaging and interactive.

Blogs are the perfect place to house videos that are made by you, your students, or someone else. If you’ve never tried adding a video to your blog, or you’re looking for some additional tips or ideas, you’re in the right place.

It’s clear that when defining the meaning of literacy in the 21st century, being a fluent reader and writer of only print materials is no longer enough. Silvia Tolisano has suggested that our notion of being literate or illiterate needs an update. Being a skilled communicator, creator, and consumer of multimedia is so important. This includes video.

No doubt your students are avid consumers of videos so why not tap into this interest in the classroom?

This post demonstrates 3 ways that you can use videos in your blog posts.

Click on the links below to navigate this resource.

1. Embedding Videos That Others Have Made

2. Online Video Tools

Screencasting

Make your post into a video

Animation

3. Offline Video Creation

Piece to camera

10 filming tips

Film your lesson

Interviews

Editing software

1) Embedding Videos That Others Have Made

Many teachers and students like to embed videos they find online on their own blog. That means you can play it within the post without having to open new tabs etc.

An embedded video looks like this.

Tip: When embedding a video, it’s a good idea to also put a link to the video, like this:

Check out the video, What Is A Blog?

Educators or students might embed videos from sites like:

• YouTube
• Vimeo
• TeacherTube
• Google Drive
• TED Talks

Methods For Embedding Videos

Videos from video sharing websites can be embedded into posts or pages by either using:

1. The video URL: Paste the URL on a line by itself in your post/page editor where you want the video to appear. This method only works with certain services. 
2. The embed code: Find the embed code on the site you’re using (e.g. YouTube) and copy it. Then in your post put your cursor where you want the video. Click on Add Media and then Insert Embed Code. Paste the code and press Insert into post. Note: this option isn’t available on free blogs

You can find the full instructions with visuals on how to embed videos in this Help Guide.

A Note On Copyright And Videos

You may be wondering about copyright, because we know we can’t just take an image from another site and use it on our blog.

It’s fine to use videos from sites like YouTube that give you the embed option. That being said, you can’t necessarily download and make changes to the video (for example, cutting it up, remixing, adding audio etc).

A Note On Safety

Access to sites like YouTube is a contentious topic in schools. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any experiences with that issue.

If you use sites like YouTube, it can be a good idea to set up a class or teacher account if you plan to upload videos or create playlists. This helps separate your work videos from your personal videos.

Most video sharing websites are not designed for children. In fact, you’ll find most Terms and Conditions state that children under 13 are not allowed to use the service.

Therefore, there are a few things you can do if you’re working with younger students.

Embed Options

When you’re embedding a YouTube video, you’ll notice there are embed options. You’ll find these when you click on Share and then Embed.

You might want to uncheck suggested videos and player controls, and consider enabling privacy-enhanced mode.

2) Online Video Tools

Making your own videos is easier than ever! There are online options that are:

• free/paid
• simple/complex
• for editing/creating
• for all ages/restricted to over 13 or 18
• designed for video footage/images/animation

Here are three options for creating different sorts of videos using online tools. Feel free to share your own ideas too!

Screencasting (Loom)

Screencasting is where you narrate a video recording of your computer screen. Sometimes it’s just audio and sometimes you can see your face in the video as well.

One free tool that I’ve found particularly useful is Loom. There are many advantages to this tool including the fact that there are no age restrictions.

I’ve written a blog post about Loom if you want to learn more.

Screencasting is such a versatile way to use video in the classroom. Not only can teachers and students make tutorials, but students can share their learning as a screencast by narrating their digital creations.

For a very simple example, students could narrate a Google Slide presentation as I’ve done below. This is a video I made for our Better Blogging With Students course which we ran in early 2018.

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Make Your Post Into A Video (Lumen5)

Back in December, I made a promo video for our Better Blogging With Students course.

I created that with a free online tool called Lumen5.

It’s a simple way to make a slideshow type video.

It can even “automagically” make your blog post into a video (for best results you’ll need to edit it slightly).

Lumen5 contains a library of Creative Commons Zero images and music so you don’t need to search for content either (although you can use your own pictures and video).

The only downside (apart from it being a 13+ tool) is you can’t embed your video directly onto your blog as far as I can tell. So you have to put it on social media or YouTube first and then get the embed code from there. Or you could download the video and upload it directly into your post/page.

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Animation (PowToon or Biteable)

There are a number of ways you can create simple animations online. Two free tools you might be interested in exploring with your students include PowToon and Biteable.

Both of these tools have free plans and can be used by students under 13, however, they do require students to sign up via email. I contacted both companies to confirm the age restrictions. PowToon recommended supervision or using a paid classroom account (obviously, supervision is always a good idea!)

One benefit of PowToon over Biteable is that you can download your finished product as a PowerPoint or PDF file. You can only download your Biteable creation with a paid plan.

You can embed both tools into your blog posts or pages.

Biteable Example

Another student taking part in the challenge created this Biteable about YAPPY.

What is YAPPY? on Biteable.

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3) Offline Video Creation

You and your students can make videos in the traditional way too. You don’t need any fancy equipment either — a phone, tablet, or webcam can work just fine!

Here are three ideas that might work for your blog posts.

Piece To Camera

I know, I know… who likes getting in front of a camera? Most teachers would avoid it at all costs! But it is really a great way to connect with students and families.

You could even create the occasional piece to camera for special occasions like:

• Welcoming students and families at the start of the school year (publishing the video before school returns is a good idea!)
• Thanking your class and families at the end of the school year/term and wishing them happy holidays etc.

Depending on your privacy settings, you might encourage students to create these sorts of videos too.

Here is an example Linda Yollis made to welcome her new students to the classroom last year.

10 Filming Tips

There are a few things you can do to enhance the quality of your piece to camera.

• Lighting: This is really important! Sit near a window if you can or add lamps etc. Aim for even natural light. Don’t have a window behind you.
• Audio: Your phone or computer will record video just fine (in good lighting) but the audio quality won’t be great. Add an external microphone if possible.
• Tripod: If you’re using a phone, it needs to be steady. Many discount stores now sell basic phone tripods. You can elevate these on furniture as needed.
• Location: Keep your background simple and film in a quiet location (easier said than done at school?).
• Clean your lens: Especially if you’re filming on your phone, wipe that dirty lens.
• Horizontal: If you’re using a phone, turn it on its side. If you want to know why your video should be horizontal, you might enjoy this very funny video.
• Raise your device: If you’re using a laptop to film, you might want to raise it so you’re at eye level. Same with a phone or tablet.
• Front facing camera: If you’re alone, switch the camera so you can see where you are in the frame (consider positioning yourself slightly off centre in the frame).
• Look at the lens: Find the tiny hole and try to make eye contact with it. Smile!
• Record: Whether or not you want to actually script what you want to say is up to you. A more natural approach may be to create a few notes or an outline, rather than scripting or reading. Pace yourself and enjoy!

Want to share these tips with your students or colleagues? Download the PDF.

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Film Your Lesson

Have you ever thought about recording your lessons and publishing them, not just for your own class, but for anyone who wants to watch and learn?

Eddie Woo is a Sydney maths teacher who has done just that.

Eddie’s award winning work has earned him a huge following with students from across the world.

Eddie has a YouTube channel and houses his videos on his blog too.

Here is an example…

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As you can see, it’s nothing fancy but it works!

Of course, students can “be the teacher” too and record tutorials for other students.

Interviews

Depending on the permissions and privacy settings you have in place, it might be an option to have your students act out interviews.

Shawn Avery has done some great interviews with his class. Here is one example when students interviewed a famous person from history. A green screen was used to create the background.

The possibilities are endless! Students could make real interviews or mock ones. And it could work well for so many different subject areas and any age group.

Note on green screens

Want to learn more about green screens?

• Tony Vincent has compiled some different green screen set ups.
• LitFilmFest has shared 7 tips for using a green screen in the classroom.
• Jonathan Wylie has compiled green screen tips from teachers on Twitter.

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A Note On Editing Software

Most people know how to record a video. It can be as simple as opening the camera function on your phone and hitting record.

But then what do you do with your raw video?

It’s not always essential, but you’ll generally want to do some basic editing. This can include things like:

• Adding text titles or captions
• Adding music
• Chopping out certain parts of the video
• Mixing together video and images

If you use a Mac computer, the go-to program is generally iMovie. You can also use the iMovie app on your iPhone or iPad if you have one.

It’s a little more complicated on a Windows computer. Windows Movie Maker used to be a popular choice for simple editing but it has been discontinued now.

Personally, I currently use a paid program called Adobe Premiere Elements and occasionally use a free program called Shotcut. There’s a learning curve for both of these editors.

For quick video editing on my phone, I love two free apps from GoPro called QuikStories and Splice. QuikStories puts everything together for you with music, transitions, and other cool effects. Splice is handy if you want to make more manual edits and don’t necessarily want too many effects.

(Note: We have no affiliations with any of the above brands).

Let us know your choice of video editor in a comment!

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Conclusion

Want more video tips? Be sure to take a look at our interview with Rob Kelly for more video tips and examples.

We encourage you to have a go at creating or embedding a video. Leave the link to your blog post in a comment so we can check it out.

We’d also love to hear your own suggestions for finding or creating videos.

Lights, camera, action … and over to you!

Since Edublogs began back in 2005, the definition of blogging has expanded greatly. Nowadays, a blog is simply a blank canvas that can be brought to life in a way that suits you, your students, and your school community.

Edublogs and CampusPress are built from WordPress. This popular content management system was once just for blogs, but is now behind all sorts of websites. In fact, WordPress now powers 30% of sites on the whole web!

Wondering how blogs and other WordPress sites are used in schools?

Here’s a rundown of ten of the most common ways blogs are used by teachers and students, along with some examples.

We’d also love you to share your own examples in a comment.

1.  School or District Website

Many schools and districts host their entire website on WordPress. Often, these are WordPress Multisite networks, where members of the school community can set up blogs for their own department, project, or personal portfolio.

Round Rock School District

The Round Rock Independent School District in Texas, USA, has an impressive collection of school websites, hosted by CampusPress (our WordPress Multisite network).

For ease of use and consistency, Round Rock have a set-up where all their school websites are a similar design, yet are customized to reflect the individuality of each school.

One example of this format from the Round Rock District is Chisholm Trail Middle School. This school website has lots of information to keep students and families up to date.

St. Stephen’s School

St Stephen’s School in Western Australia also hosts their blog network on CampusPress.

This Uniting Church of Australia school has a wide range of blogs from all parts of their school communities.

Just some of the many excellent examples include:

• A performing arts blog to accompany the rehearsals of Grease the musical.
• A resource blog for Hywel Jakeway‘s year 12 English class.
• A blog to document a service tour of South Africa.
• A blog for families about the BYOD program at the school.
• A blog to support a Christmas fundraiser for African children.
• A secondary school blog with regular newsletter style updates.

It’s well worth taking the time to check out some of these fabulous St Stephen’s School blogs!

School Blogs

Sometimes a school website can be set up with more of a community blog feel. There are regular updates showing what the students are up to, as well as important announcements for families.

Craigburn Connections from South Australia is an example of this style. They have their own CampusPress network set up, so their school website also links to class blogs.

Another example is Togher National School in County Cork, Ireland. Their Edublogs site puts students in the spotlight, while also offering essential information for families.

2. Class Website

German Island

German Island is a good example of how a blog is used as a class website.  Roslyn Green and her colleagues have set this site up with a page devoted to each topic or unit. The website houses PDF booklets, essential links, online activities, audio clips etc.

You can read more about the way Roslyn uses blogs in different ways with her high school students in this post. 

Mr. Cartlidge’s Science Blog

Mr. Cartlidge runs this blog for his high school science classes to house resources related to their units of work. There are separate pages and sub pages for different topics and year levels.

The home page says,

“Welcome to all students. I have created this site for you. It is primarily a revision resource for the courses that I teach so virtually everything on here you need to know.”

3.  Class Blog

Class blogs are used in a wide range of different ways. Two of the more popular approaches are administrative and showcase styles.

Administrative: Some teachers use their class blogs to post daily tasks, learning resources, due dates etc. Teachers do this to keep students and parents up-to-date,  provide information for students who are absent, and to provide revision resources.

Showcase: At other times, a class blog is set up more to represent the class community to a local and/or global audience. There might be a whole range of media included to demonstrate what students are up to and a lot of “student voice” in the posts. The commenting sections are generally used more frequently to extend learning and connections through conversation.

Often, class blogs are a hybrid of the two approaches.

Guiles Daily Agenda

This technology class blog by Steven Wesley Guiles is designed as a resource for students. The About Page explains,

“This blog is mainly to set my daily goals for students, so in general this blog will be much more useful to students in my school, and not so much for the world wide web.”

The posts contain a running order of tasks for students, complete with links and resources. This blog is updated for each class which offers the added benefit of support to students who were absent or require revision.

Mrs. Amri’s Second Grade Crew

This is a good example of a class blog that includes student voice and interactions (through comments and tools like Padlet). It also showcases the wonderful work happening in the classroom and has a strong focus on global collaboration.

Mrs. Amri’s Second Grade Crew is based in Oregon, USA and uses a WordPress blog.

4.  Class Blog with Student Blogs

Lots of teachers use class blogs for global collaboration, authentic learning, reflective blogging, collaboration, and discussion.  When used for these purposes, it’s common for the students’ to have their own individual student blogs.

Teachers often find that when students are asked to write for an audience outside of their class, they are more motivated, learn more, and they write better than if they only wrote for their teacher.

Team 2 Eagles

Becky Versteeg in Ontario, Canada has a class blog called Team 2 Eagles. Her 6 and 7 year old students also have their own blogs. They blog on their iPads using the Edublogs website.

The class blog is updated most days with an overview of what has happened in class. There is a lot of “student voice” on the class blog and also on their individual student blogs.

This class blog is part of their district’s CampusPress platform. The student blogs are set up using our My Class feature.

You can read more about the way Becky blogs with her young students in our interview with her. 

Ms. Lawson’s Foundation 1 Class Blog

This blog is for art and media students at a high school in Rochester, New York. The class blog contains tutorials and instructions, and there is a page that links to all the student blogs.

The students use their blogs to document their learning process and showcase their creations.

Jurupa Hills High School Photography blog

Rebecca Cauchon teaches high school photography at a school in California, USA. The main blog is often used to showcase students’ work, while student blogs (which are linked using My Class) are more detailed portfolios.

Student Blogging Resources:

• Find out more about the different ways student blogs and digital portfolios are used in our post from October 2017. 
• Want to learn more about setting up student blogs? Check out 5 steps for creating and managing student blogs.
• For more handy tips and tutorials, also check out our blogging with class and student series.

5.  Specialist Subject Area Blogs

It’s also common for educators who teach specialist subject areas for a range of grades to use one blog for all classes.

Technology @ Cottage uses a blog to post instructions for what the K-5 students have to do during their weekly session at the technology center. Students just need to click on their teacher’s name in the right sidebar to find the instructions for their class.

Many teachers of the arts also set up blogs to showcase student work. All those wonderful creations need an authentic audience!

Just a few examples of visual arts and music blogs include:

• Miss Burridge’s Visual Arts Blog
• Visual Arts @ Taylors Lakes Primary School
• Georgetown Elementary Art Blog
• Arts @ Bell (Visual Arts and Music)
• Rocky Mount Music

6. Personal/Professional Educator Blog

The main reasons why educators have personal/professional blogs include to:

• Share information and tips with other educators.
• Collaborate with a global audience. Increased collaboration with others leads to greater innovation and new perspectives.
• Reflect on their learning or their teaching/work practices.
• Learn how to blog themselves so they can use blogs effectively with their students.

I began my own personal blog Primary Tech in 2008 as a way to share what I was learning about technology integration with others. It has evolved since then, as many blogs do, but the same premise remains.

Larry Ferlazzo 

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the day is a well known example of a personal educator blog.

Larry writes multiple posts a day to keep thousands of educators worldwide up to date with what’s new in edtech, ELL/ESL/EFL, technology, and education in general. His “list” series are a go-to for many educators looking for resources on all sorts of topics.

Cathy Hunt

Cathy Hunt is a practicing art teacher in Queensland, Australia. Her WordPress site is called iPad Art Room.

Cathy presents professional development on iPads in the art classroom and her website complements this role. She writes blog posts to provide detailed how-tos and inspiration for other teachers, as well as using her site to house ebooks and resource collections.

George Couros

George Couros’ popular blog is based on reflection and sharing.

George has stated that three of his main reasons for blogging are:

• to share his thinking
• to reflect on his thinking
• to archive his thinking

George’s blog posts are always shared very widely, demonstrating that documenting your thoughts can not only provide personal benefits but influence others as well.

Check out our personal blogging series to get started with your own blog!

7. Library Blogs

School libraries and resource centers use blogs in a range of ways. Here are two excellent examples from Edublogs users.

The MHMS Daring School Library Blog

Gwyneth Jones, aka The Daring Librarian, has been blogging since 2006. She is well known in the global education community.

Gwyneth describes her mission as,

“to prepare future-ready lifelong readers, learners, makers, and creative thinkers.”

She uses her middle school blog to provide library news for teachers, students, and parents both locally and globally. Gwyneth also shares her lessons and resources on her professional blog which complements the library blog.

Ogle Elementary Library

Amy Kincaid is a Teacher Librarian from Texas who runs the very comprehensive Ogle Elementary Library blog.

Amy is a very innovative and future orientated librarian who also enjoys sharing her knowledge with others.

She regularly posts about the wonderful learning activities her K-5 students are working on. Technology is integrated into her lessons in a very creative way. Take a look!

8. Group Collaboration and Projects

This style of blog can be as simple as students, classes, or teachers collaborating on a group blog. Or, they might involve collaborators from different schools, perhaps working on global projects.

The Student Blogging Challenge

This project runs twice yearly in March and October. It is made up of a series of ten weekly tasks all designed to improve blogging and commenting skills while connecting students with a global audience.

Check out this interview with Student Blogging Challenge founder, Sue Wyatt, for more information about the challenge.

Chickering Reporters

Sometimes schools run a blogging club or group. One example is Chickering Reporters. This is a group of 4th and 5th grade students from Dover, Massachusetts. They work as a group on blogging rather than taking part in instrumental music practice.

The students write blog posts and create podcasts, videos, and multimedia presentations about school activities and events.

ACPS Year 2

Sometimes a whole year level collaborates on one blog. An example of this is Aitken Creek Primary School where there are nine year 2 classes.

They have a joint blog where the various classes post their reflections, reminders, and student work. This blog uses categories to organize the posts. Parents can click on the category on the right hand side to find the posts that are relevant to their child’s class.

9. ePortfolios

We’re seeing increasing numbers of educators use blogs for their own digital portfolio, or for their students’ digital portfolios.

This style of student blog is used to showcase work and share learning throughout a student’s school life. The educator’s personal ePortfolios may be used to document their skills against professional standards.

Connected Learning

Jarrod Lamshed set up his blog as an ePortfolio that documents skills based on the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL).

He is currently using this blog to cross post some of his writing on his school and staff blogs.

New School

The New School is a New York university that has a strong history of using ePortfolios.

Yu-Liang Shih is an arts student who has been using his ePortfolio for a number of years. He uses it for self reflection as well as showcasing the process and product of his work.

YIS

Yokohama International School also weaves ePortfolios into the curriculum at the middle school and high school levels.

The Learning Hub is set up on a CampusPress network to house the ePortfolios for the whole school community. They state that,

“Student blogs are at the heart of the Learning Hub. The blogsites are spaces for reflection, sharing and celebration of students learning and serve as ongoing digital portfolios.”

Take a look at The Learning Hub to see some current examples of students’ posts.

10. Professional Learning

And finally, there are the professional learning blogs. These are the blogs set up to support educators use technology in their school, district, or community, while also modeling how blogs can be used.

Edublogs Teacher Challenges

This blog is an example of a professional learning blog. It’s a place where you can take part in self-paced courses.

Global2 blog

Global2 is the CampusPress network that’s available to all government and Catholic schools in Victoria, Australia.

The Global2 blog is a starting point for creating a blog and also a place to learn about digital technologies.

You can read more about Global2 and find some more great examples in this post. 

Conclusion

Hopefully, these examples have given you some ideas of what blogging could look like in your school community.

This list is far from exhaustive. The purpose and format of your blog is only limited by your imagination.

If you’re inspired to start a blog or website but don’t know where to begin, we have lots of resources to help. Check out Blogging For Complete Beginners: Getting Started With Edublogs. This guide includes a 15 minutes quick start video.

Let us know in the comments below if you have any questions.

We’d also love you to share any other good examples that demonstrate how blogs and WordPress are used in schools.

First published in October 2017. Updated June 2020.

More and more educators are discovering the importance of having their students build some form of digital presence. A place to capture, share, reflect on, and showcase learning and achievements.

Blogging is an excellent way for students to create their own online space, but what do you call this?

• Simply a student blog?
• Digital portfolio?
• ePortfolio?
• Learning showcase?
• Blogfolio?
• Portfolio

This post explores a range of approaches to student blogs and digital portfolios to help you get started on your own journey.

If you’d like to take a deep dive into student digital portfolios or blogfolios, check out our ultimate guide on the CampusPress blog. You’ll learn about the benefits, different types of portfolios, how to choose a platform and manage it, student privacy, student artifacts, assessment, and more.

Blogs or digital portfolios can revolutionize the teaching and learning process. They offer so many advantages to students, staff, and families. Here’s a summary of the benefits for students alone.

Apart from students, a well-established ePortfolio program can help educators and administrators with the never-ending assessment and reporting cycle. Portfolios can be transformative for families too and help to strengthen home-school relationships.

How To Set Up Student Blogs or Digital Portfolios

The first step is to decide what platform you’ll use for your blogs or portfolios. There are many choices these days and naturally, they come with pros and cons.

We believe WordPress should be at the top of your list when considering a portfolio platform. Okay, we admit we are biased as Edublogs and CampusPress are powered by WordPress.

Why WordPress? It comes down to 4 key areas:

• Popularity: 37% of the web is powered by WordPress
• Exportability: Students can take their data with them
• Flexibility: WordPress is about more than just blogging; it’s highly customizable
• Authenticity: Tools built for education may be less relevant when students step outside into the real world

We break down these 4 reasons for choosing WordPress in more detail in our complete guide to portfolios.

Want to try out digital portfolios yourself or with students before implementing a school-wide program? Edublogs, is perfect for that. You can get started today for free. Check out our Blogging 101 page to learn more or sign up on the Edublogs home page.

If you want a dedicated WordPress network for schools, universities, or districts, check out CampusPress. Please reach out if you want to talk more about this school-wide option. Our team can help you go through your options in more detail.

One really useful management feature exclusive to Edublogs and CampusPress is My Class. It takes the hassle out setting up, monitoring, and managing student blogs or digital portfolios.

Learn more about My Class in this post. 

Digital Portfolio Terminology

Many educators refer to their student blogs as digital portfolios, ePortfolios, or simply portfolios (after all, here in the 2020s is the modifier “digital” truly necessary?).

Academics and thought leaders often debate the meaning of the term digital portfolio. What does this mean? What does it look like?

We quite like this definition from Irish National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (via EUfolio, 2015),

ePortfolios are student-owned dynamic digital workspaces wherein students can capture their learning and their ideas, access their collections of work, reflect on their learning, share it, set goals, seek feedback and showcase their learning and achievements.

Perhaps a useful alternative term is “blogfolio” which Silvia Tolisano describes as the glue that can hold it all together in learning.

Blogfolios are the glue that can hold all curricular content, goals and objectives as well as support school initiatives, observations, assessment and accountability requirements or personal passions, interest and projects together.

Digital portfolios? Blogs? ePortfolios? Blogfolios? Ultimately, the terminology you choose to adopt in your school or university is up to you, however, consistency across your campus is definitely a good idea!

For the purpose of this post, we are less concerned with semantics and more concerned with exploring the different frameworks that teachers adopt. Hopefully considering how other teachers approach student blogs and portfolios will give you some ideas on what would work for you and your students.

Expectations and Frameworks: Six Styles of Portfolio

We have observed differences in how student blogs and portfolios work in a variety of areas. There appears to be a spectrum in at least six key areas:

Let’s break down these six areas and consider where you might sit on each side of the spectrum.

1. Duration

Some student blogs or portfolios are only active for a year. The student might move up to a non-blogging class and their individual portfolio remains stagnant. This can be frustrating for teachers who invest time in establishing an effective system for their student blogs or portfolios. It can also be disappointing for students.

Other institutions think ahead with a whole-school approach. At The Geelong College, which operates their own CampusPress platform, there are long term plans.

Former Director of Teaching and Learning, Adrian Camm, explains the philosophy:

…each student from Year 4 to Year 10 at our College will have a digital portfolio that follows them throughout their time at the College and has a unique identifier accessible on the web.
The ability to export their content easily when finishing Year 12 to be used in the tertiary admission process or in future work endeavors has also been a key point…

When thinking about implementing an ePortfolio program, some schools or institutions feel most comfortable starting small — perhaps having ePortfolios in pilot courses or classes. This can be a good way to begin but we see the greatest benefits when portfolios are implemented school-wide, department-wide, or in more than one course at a time.

There are three main benefits of having the same portfolio or website across classes and from year-to-year. Why? There are a number of reasons:

1. The focus can move from the technology to the content and learning
2. Progress can be documented from year to year and class to class
3. It’s more meaningful and more impactful

Read more about these three reasons in our complete guide to digital portfolios.

Consider: If you’re investing time in establishing student blogs or digital portfolios, how can you showcase this to the wider school community and motivate administrators to establish a school-wide plan?

2. Privacy

Should blogs be public or private? This is always a contentious issue.

Our complete guide to digital portfolios, explores this issue in detail. When you use a WordPress based platform like Edublogs or CampusPress, you have a lot of choices. You can have your whole network of portfolios protected by passwords, or alternatively, individual portfolios or even particular posts can be password protected.

This graphic from our complete guide summarizes the pros and cons of public digital portfolios or blogs.

It’s important for students to realize that there are times when our work should be private. Students should be guided to make decisions about what work they want to share publicly and what they want to keep private.

Consider: What are the pros and cons of having student blogs as public? If you make student sites totally private, will you be giving up all the powerful advantages of posting publicly? Can you have a compromise where some posts on a portfolio are public and some are password protected? Alternatively, students can use pen names and avoid sharing photos of themselves. Blocking search engines is another strategy to consider.

3. Content

What will form the content or artifacts in your student blogs or portfolios? What will they actually publish?

At one end of the spectrum is total freedom where teachers are less concerned about what the students are writing about, and more concerned about the students simply publishing and finding a voice.

At the other end of the spectrum, some teachers see the blogs as a space that must be in line with the curriculum and demonstrate what is happening in the classroom.

Certainly not always, but sometimes the age of the students influences this issue.

Julie Moore in Tasmania, Australia, taught grade 2/3. The students began by contributing to the class blog before some students establish their own blogs. Julie says,

The children mostly have a free spin on what they would like to write a post about. It gives them an outlet for writing about their passions/interests, and it then gives me an “in” for feedback and improvements to their writing.

Julie understands that the students do require some explicit teaching around blogging. She finds The Student Blogging Challenge a great way to achieve this. In addition, she runs a lunchtime club and a weekly timetabled blogging session.

Heather Alexander in Florida teaches year 9-12 ceramics. Her students use their blogs purely to document and reflect on their own artwork, and respond to the curriculum. Teaching the same class multiple times, Heather has come up with a logistical framework to organize the student blogs,

What I have done is name all the students’ blogs with their class period prefacing the name so they appear in order on the page.

Heather encourages students to comment on classmates’ blogs and set up an effective system after finding students were taking too long to find a post to comment on.

I have students work in “peer blog mentor” groups. They self-select a group of 3 -5 peers and then I match their group with a group in another class. I moderate the comments so I can check for accuracy and completion before they are published.

This idea touches on the additional issue of feedback. Who will provide feedback to your student bloggers? Will you set up a peer system like Heather? Or will you personally visit blogs? What are your goals for feedback? Simple encouragement and conversation? Or scaffolding to reach learning goals? All questions to consider.

Can your blogging framework involve set tasks and freedom?

Somewhere in the middle of the freedom/structure debate, is the approach adopted by Adam Geiman, an educator from Pennsylvania. He used the first 30% of the school year to provide structure around tasks for his fourth grade students.

The students were given guidance, yet also had some freedom of choice in how they’d present set tasks. Some would do a Google Doc, while others would present their task as a comic, infographic etc.

For the remaining 70% of the school year, students were given more freedom and many came up with their own ideas on what they wanted to publish. For example, Jackson announced the new school trout, while Brooklyn talked about her new glasses.

In our complete guide to digital portfolios we have a whole chapter on student artifacts. You’ll be able to get lots of ideas on the sorts of things students could publish in their portfolios or on their blogs. These include:

• Text including hyperlinked writing
• Images, photography, and artwork
• Video
• Audio
• Social media
• Other embeddable content

Consider: What are the needs of your students? Are you trying to engage them in the blogging process and help them find a voice? Or are you wanting the blogs to be a vehicle to demonstrate curriculum outcomes? Are these two things mutually exclusive?

4. Reflection

Some form of reflection is often a key feature of digital portfolios or blogfolios.

Students can reflect on what they’ve learned, their successes and “failures”, their problem-solving processes, and their future plans or goals. Reflective entries can give educators an insight into how students are learning, rather than just what they have learned.

Educator Jabiz Raisdana, has documented some compelling thoughts on student blogging. He advocates for freedom, stating that:

If you want your students to blog effectively, give them the freedom to experiment and write about what interests them.

Stay away from portfolios and forced reflections on their learning, at least until they get the hang of it.

Wait until they find a voice, find an audience… before you push your agenda of meta-cognition and reflective learning.

Perhaps on the other end of the spectrum is the argument from Matt Renwick in his blog post ‘Think You’re Doing Digital Portfolios? Think again’.

Of course, all of the posted artifacts of student learning are accompanied with reflection, self-assessment, and goal setting for the future.
Otherwise, it’s only sharing content. Nice, but not necessary for students’ education.

Many teachers use a mixed approach; sometimes they explicitly encourage reflection and at other times they let the students decide how to structure their posts.

What about our youngest students? How can they reflect?

Using tools like voice recordings can offer students with emerging literacy skills the chance to reflect. Kindergarten teachers Aviva Dunsiger and Paula Crockett include student interviews and reflections that offer a rich insight into learning.

These innovative teachers have created a special section of their blog called The Daily Shoot where student learning is captured and shared.

Following in her students’ footsteps, Aviva even uses a blog of her own to reflect. What a mighty combination!

Consider: Most teachers agree that some sort of student reflection on learning is powerful. How can you incorporate this into your student blogs or portfolios without making the process a chore or turn students off the enjoyment of blogging?

5. Style

Would you like your students to document their best work, their learning journeys, their assessment outcomes, or a mix?

In general, there are four types of student blogs or portfolios:

• Showcase or presentation: a collection of best work
• Process or learning: a work in progress
• Assessment: used for accountability
• Hybrid: a mix of two or three of the above

This is a tough decision, but also one that can evolve as you go along. It also links back to the public/private debate. Do your students want every evidence of learning as part of their digital footprint?

Again, there is certainly middle ground. George Couros has reflected on his dilemma about what end of this spectrum he would sit on: “growth” or “best work”.

Since there are benefits in both options, it was tough to decide on one, so we ultimately went with the decision to go with both. The “blog” portion of my digital space allows me to share things that I am learning (like this article I am writing) while also aggregating my best stuff into solitary “pages”.

We take a deep dive into the types of portfolios you could use in our complete guide to digital portfolios. 

Consider: Is there are type of blog or portfolio you think would best meet the needs of your students? Unsure? Some educators find it’s easiest to start out with a showcase portfolio, or a collection of best work. From there, they can evolve into the process or hybrid approach. Consider the starting point that feels right for you.

6. Control

Many of these five areas are underpinned by the question of control. Who is in control? The teacher or the students?

Can there be a gradual release of control as the students become older and more experienced?

Perhaps there are some small aspects of their blog or portfolio that even the youngest students can have some control over?

For example:

• Their title
• Theme
• Choice of tool or post format
• Where they leave comments

Will you always tell students what they need to publish on their portfolios or will they have choice? Can students have some say into whether they want their work to be public or private?

Most teachers would agree that it’s important to consider how students can be in charge of their own learning. Digital portfolios and blogging offer a lot of potential for student-centered learning.

The My Class tool also allows you to hand over responsibility as you choose. You can begin by moderating all student posts and comments, and then turn off these settings as appropriate.

There’s a lot to be said for the power of choice and ownership to motivate students to improve.

The overarching purpose of portfolios is to create a sense of personal ownership over one’s accomplishments, because ownership engenders feelings of pride, responsibility, and dedication.

Paris and Ayres (1994)

Paris and Ayres (1994)

Consider: If you feel uncomfortable giving students too much choice initially, how can you plan to gradually hand over responsibility or offer them small but meaningful choices? How do you think autonomy, freedom, and choice will help improve your students’ motivation for learning?

Conclusion

Are your student blogs or portfolios igniting a passion for learning or are they just another chore to be completed?

How can you set up digital portfolios or blogfolios that allow for rich learning, creativity, excitement, deep reflection, collaboration, and authenticity?

These are some key questions to ask yourself but in the end, sometimes you just need to throw in the canoe and start paddling.

Figure it out as you go. There is a big education community and support behind you.

Don’t let fear or indecision around student blogs freeze you into inaction. Worrying too much about whether you’re “doing it right” can lead to not doing it at all. At any level, student blogs and portfolios provide benefits. Embrace them.

We would love to hear your ideas. Please comment and share your thoughts on student blogs or portfolios.  

So we’ve tried our best to explain what is RSS and why it’s important to learn how to use. And as we said it’s hard to explain probably because the power of RSS is really something you need to experience first hand.

We’re really into RSS — RSS power users may be an appropriate title since we grab every RSS opportunity to make our lives easier and maximise our ability to interact effectively with others.

Remember that using RSS is a simple and effective way of keeping in touch when new information is added to a website without having to visit the site; instead information is brought to one location, a feed reader, to read whenever convenient.

Let us show you some of ways to use RSS with an RSS Reader.

Subscribing To Blogs

Read a lot of blogs by subscribing to their RSS feeds because blogging isn’t about working in a vacuum; it’s about the conversations.

Conversations aren’t about you just writing a reflective post that invites / encourages / evokes readers to express their opinion by writing comments on your post. It’s also about you engaging in conversations on others’ blogs by linking to their posts and writing comments on their posts.

To engage effectively in blogging conversations, you need to subscribe to blogs that interest you.

Effectively Managing Comments

One of the most important tips for keeping up the conversations on blogs is being very effective at managing your comments on other people’s blogs. Getting good at this is when you use tools that track comments posted on other people’s blogs plus subscribe to the RSS feed from these tools.

Whenever a person comments on a post that you have commented on, their comment is transferred from the post into your RSS Reader, so you can choose to immediately respond back if you want.

Managing Interactions on Flickr

Flickr is really cool Web 2.0 tool that didn’t initially grab us back when it started because we didn’t get the whole idea of sharing photos online and it’s whole social networking aspect.

Make Flickr friends and comment on their photos; your friends’ newest photos and any comments you make are automatically fed from Flickr to your RSS Reader (here are instructions of how to do it).

This interaction has shown a different glimpse of their life compared to what can be seen from reading their blogs or following them on twitter.

RSS is More Than Blog Posts

As Rafa Ribas said about a previous post on RSS:

There is more to RSS than just blog posts. You can RSS news, comments to your posts or others, audio and video, comic strips (I am an absolute fan of xkcd.com), other people’s bookmarks (del.icio.us), and so on and so forth. In summary, RSS is a bit daunting at first, but absolutely amazing in its potential.

We’ve only given a small glimpse into the ways to harness the power of RSS. Remember to look out for the RSS icon whenever you visit a web site and consider if subscribing to it’s feed will make your life easier and/or more fun.

FINAL THOUGHT

So have you set up a feed reader yet? If you’re just getting going – please let us know what’s working for you and what’s not.

If you are experienced with using RSS how about telling us about the different RSS feeds besides blog posts that you subscribe to, and why you like subscribing to them.

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

We’ve set up a Getting Started With Edublogs page on this blog to provide a central location for “how to” resources. Please let us know if you have any resources to add to this page.

Meantime we receive many requests for tips on blogging with students so here is some advice from educators who are experienced with using blogs in their classrooms.

Using Blogs With Students

Al Upton’s advice to educators new to using blogs is to start first with a class blog and move toward students posting about their own learning on their own blogs when they feel comfortable.

Kim Cofino says “One of my biggest stumbling blocks, as I’ve switched gears from middle to elementary school, is individual e-mail accounts for the students“. Her solution is Gmail allows you to create subsidiary accounts that link to an individual account which means that one teacher can have permanent e-mail accounts for all students delivered into one teacher e-mail account.

Here are Kim Confino’s tips for setting up students as Contributors on Edublogs – the quick and easy way so that:

• Individual students have log-ins WITHOUT individual e-mail accounts
• Individual student contributors to the blog WITHOUT their blog
• All posts are approved by the blog administrator before posting.

Parental consent is an aspect that needs to be considered. Clay Burell uses a Parents Consent For Student Weblog Letter to inform parents of the aims of using blogs and let parents choose the level of privacy – name, image in photos or videos, comment moderation – for their “child.”

Matt Susan Morgan shares her conversation with Matt, one of her students, on how his classes were going, specifically regarding the use of technology. Here’s an extract from Susan’s post:

Well, I wish teachers wouldn’t assign stuff for no reason. It seems that they are just adding on technology projects on top of the other things we already do.

“He senses from some teachers that they feel they have to “do” technology, not that they want to. His biggest criticism is the way we blog. A teacher posts a question, and the student writes a nightly response to it, much like he would do in a reading log or journal. He said there’s not much follow-up to the posting, either by students or teachers.

What Matt wishes is that his teachers would consider using blogs or forums to extend his learning.

Konrad Glogowski’s Blog of Proximal Development shares a variety of tips for blogging with students such as Replacing Grading With Conversations, Making Assessments More Personally Relevant, How to Grow a Blog and Towards Reflective BlogTalk (Image by Teach and Learn).

Konrad wants his students:

to see their blogs and their entries as organic entities, as attempts to engage with ideas, as evidence of growth and development. It’s about maintaining conversations, not ending them by saying “Well done!” or “Good job!”

When it comes to incorporating blogging into the classroom, there are a few key tips to keep in mind.  Blogging can be a powerful tool for students to develop their writing skills, share their thoughts and ideas, and engage in meaningful discussions with their peers. 

Here are some tips for effectively integrating blogging into your classroom:

i) Establish clear guidelines

Before introducing blogging to your students, it’s important to establish clear guidelines and expectations. This can include guidelines for appropriate language, respectful dialogue, and citation of sources. By setting clear expectations from the start, you can create a positive and respectful online environment for your students.

ii) Provide feedback

Just as you would with traditional writing assignments, it’s important to provide constructive feedback on students’ blog posts. Encourage students to revise and edit their work based on your feedback, and guide how they can improve their writing skills.

iii) Encourage interaction

One of the key benefits of blogging is the opportunity for students to engage in meaningful discussions with their peers. Encourage students to comment on each other’s blog posts, ask questions, and provide feedback. This can help foster a sense of community within the classroom and encourage peer-to-peer learning.

iv) Use prompts

Some students may find it challenging to come up with ideas for their blog posts. Writing prompts can help them get started and inspire them to explore new topics. Prompts can be related to the curriculum or open-ended to allow students to express their creativity.

v) Incorporate multimedia

Encourage students to incorporate multimedia elements such as images, videos, and infographics into their blog posts to make them more engaging and visually appealing.

vi) Foster a supportive environment

Create an inclusive environment where students feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas. Encourage respectful dialogue and open-mindedness.

By following these tips, educators can effectively leverage blogging as a tool to enhance students’ writing and critical thinking skills, while also fostering a sense of community within the classroom.

FINAL THOUGHT

What is your advice to educators starting out blogging with students? What has worked? What has caused problems? Can you recommend other posts that educators should read on this topic?

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

So you’ve decided to start blogging with your students. Congratulations! You’re about to embark on an amazing learning journey.

Your first step before introducing blogging into your classroom will be obtaining permission from your school and families.

Ensuring you have the required permission is not only important from a legal perspective, but ensures all stakeholders are well informed and on board with your adventure.

If you’re using the Edublogs platform, you can familiarize yourself with our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. It can be a good idea to make sure your district/school/families are aware of these policies too.

This post goes through some general advice to help you navigate the process of obtaining permission to blog with your students.

We’ll go through three steps:

1. Consulting with your school leaders or principal
2. Setting up your blogging guidelines
3. Obtaining informed permission from parents or carers

Let’s begin…

Step One: Consult With Your School Leaders Or Principal

Edublogs’ users come from many different school districts and countries all around the world. Legal advice and requirements vary greatly. It’s important to consult your own individual legislation prior to publishing online. Your school principal or district administrators will be able to let you know if there are any specific requirements you need to keep in mind.

Hopefully your school principal is already encouraging you and other staff to publish online. If not, it’s a good idea to seek permission and engage in a discussion about how you see blogging being used in your classroom.

If your principal is unfamiliar with blogging and you want to discuss the potential advantages of a blogging program, you might want to jot down the key benefits of blogging that excite you the most. This post explains 18 benefits and you can choose which ones you think apply to you and your students.

Many educators want to start a blogging program to strengthen home-school partnerships, provide a motivating authentic audience for their students’ work, or cover digital citizenship in an ongoing and supported way.

Our Complete Guide to Student Digital Portfolios goes over more benefits for students:

When consulting with your principal about your blogging program, you might like to discuss how you will use blogging to enchance your classroom program.

Here are three things to consider:

1) Will you have a class blog and/or student blogs?

Some educators like to start with a class blog before moving on to student blogs. This approach can allow you to develop blogging skills and confidence with your students, while maintaining control over what’s being published online.

When you are ready to implement student blogs or portfolios, our Guide to Student Digital Portfolios will definitely help.

2) What will blogging replace or improve?

The richest advantages of blogging often emerge when blogging is neither an add-on nor a substitution for pen and paper work. 

SAMR (substitution – augmentation – modification – redefinition/reflection) is a popular model to base this reflection on, but there are other models as Michael Gorman has described.

3) What are the key purposes of your blogging program?

Some of the most popular uses for classroom blogs include:

• Delivering news and updates to students and families
• Posting student assignments and coursework
• Facilitating online discussions
• Providing a platform where students can publish their work for an authentic audience
• Connecting with other classes locally or globally

The purpose of your blogging program will naturally evolve over time but deciding why you want to blog can help you successfully launch your program.

Step Two: Set Up Your Blogging Guidelines

To ensure everyone is safe and happy when publishing online, some guidelines for your blogging program are essential. You’ll also want to consider the level of privacy that will work for you and your school community.

What guidelines and privacy settings you will have in place?

There is a lot to think about here such as:

• Will your blog be public or private? We have a post to help you weigh up that decision.
• Will you publish students’ photos and names? We recommend you don’t match photos with names.
• Will you write posts and have students comment, or will students create posts too?
• Will you moderate all posts and comments on the blog? My Class by Edublogs is a tool that makes this easy.
• How will you teach students to think before posting and prevent them from revealing personal information?

Example Blog Guidelines

Here are some blogging guidelines I used with my own students. You’re welcome to use and adapt them as you see fit. I published these as a page on my class blog so they were readily accessible by all visitors (find out how to publish a new page in this help guide).

Click here to make your own copy of the Google Doc and edit accordingly.

When you click to make a copy, you’ll be presented with a pop-up like the one shown below. Just select “Make a copy”.

Please edit the guidelines to suit your own class and school.

Step Three: Obtain Permission From Parents

You may be following a long line of bloggers at your school, or you may be the pioneer. Some schools have a general “internet use” permission form, but you might not think this is enough to obtain fully informed consent.

It’s a smart idea to assume that not every parent or guardian will be well-versed in blogging or understand how and why it might be used in the classroom. Therefore, it doesn’t hurt to add an information sheet or brief summary to explain the basics.

Ultimately, parents often just want to know their child will be safe online.

Example Blogging Permission Form

We have a generic permission form that you’re welcome to use and adapt.

Click here to make your own copy of the Google Doc and edit accordingly.

When you click to make a copy, you’ll be presented with a pop-up like the one shown below. This will allow you to save a version in your own Google Drive that you can edit.

If you’re only having a class blog, rather than student blogs, you can remove references to student blogs. Go ahead and make this form your own.

What Can You Add?

While it’s important to ensure you collect fully informed consent before you begin blogging, George Couros points out another important reminder: Ask the students. Do they want all their work and photos online, even if you have parent/school permission?

I appreciate the educators that make this a common practice, no matter what forms are signed. If we do not ask the student for their permission, do all of the other forms and permissions matter as much?

George Couros

How do you obtain permission to blog? Do you have any blogging guidelines, notes or resources you could share?

Leave a comment below with any questions or advice. We’d love to hear from you.

About Us

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In fact, our services in accessibility, security, hosting, support, along with an extensive suite of other tools, power millions of education websites, blog networks and portfolios. Learn more about our school website services or request info today!

When you’re an educator, one of your main priorities is finding ways to provide the best possible learning experiences for your students. As such, you may make the decision to start a classroom blog.

This is a great idea! A blog is one of the most flexible and powerful tools you can use in your classroom. However, there are some common pitfalls that new and experienced bloggers alike sometimes overlook.

We’re here to help.

In this post, we’ll discuss the benefits of starting a classroom blog and explain how blogs are often used. Then we’ll go over ten common mistakes teachers make with their classroom blogging program and how you can avoid them.

The Benefits And Uses Of Class Blogs

Starting a classroom blog is more than just an effective way to incorporate technology into your course. A blog is a flexible tool that can be used for communication, learning, interaction, connection, and more.

Class blogs are used in a variety of ways, which is why many educators at all levels find them so useful. Check out these 13 examples of class blogs for some ideas and case studies.

Many educators enjoy using a blog to have an online space that complements their physical space. And we all know how crucial a virtual learning space has become in 2020. A blog can help build that cohesive classroom community that we’re all striving for.

Some of the most popular uses for classroom blogs include:

• Delivering news and updates to students and families
• Posting student assignments and coursework
• Facilitating online discussions
• Providing a platform where students can publish their work for an authentic audience
• Connecting with other classes locally or globally

Tip: Consider the purpose of your blog before you begin. This might evolve over time but deciding why you want to blog will help you successfully launch your blogging program.

Class blogs can yield many benefits for students, teachers, and the school community.

As a teacher, a classroom blog offers you an online hub to store and distribute important course content. It’s like a digital filing cabinet. Your blog can also make it easier to connect and communicate with both parents and students, as well as other educators.

For your students, a classroom blog offers a place to exercise their creativity. Students can publish their work for an authentic audience on a blog which can fuel their growth as a learner tremendously. A classroom blogging program can serve as a helpful introduction to digital citizenship best practices. Read more about digital citizenship and blogging in this guide.

What about blogs for individual students?

Some educators find it useful to start with a class blog before launching into student blogs or digital portfolios. If you’re interested in using digital portfolios in your classroom, be sure to check out our complete guide. It has everything you need to know about getting started with student blogs or ePortfolios.

10 Classroom Blogging Mistakes

Regardless of how you intend to use your classroom or course blog, it’s crucial to make sure it’s properly set up. Everything from the platform you choose to the guidelines you prepare for students will influence its success.

Let’s take a look at some of the common classroom blogging mistakes educators make and how you can avoid them. 

1. Forgetting To Obtain Permission

There are certain situations when it’s necessary to gain permission for blogging. Some schools may have specific criteria, policies, or preferences for sharing student work online. Others may require parental consent. You might need both.

Of course, you don’t want to find yourself in hot water with your school administration, nor with the parents of your students. Therefore, it’s best to err on the safe side and check with your superiors before you begin your blogging program.

Getting permission to blog isn’t just important for legal purposes, either. Looping staff and parents in on the classroom blog can also help encourage participation and make for an overall better student experience. 

It’s a smart idea to assume that not every parent or guardian will be well-versed in blogging or understand how and why it might be used in the classroom. Therefore, it doesn’t hurt to add an information sheet or brief summary to explain the basics of it and your intent and purpose.

At the end of the day, most parents will likely just want to know that their children will be safe online. Providing them with simple information could help ease such concerns. 

Example Blogging Permission Form

We have a generic permission for that you’re welcome to use and adapt.

Click here to make your own copy of the Google Doc and edit accordingly.

When you click to make a copy, you’ll be presented with a pop-up like the one shown below.

If you’re only having a class blog, rather than student blogs, you can remove references to student blogs.

2. Making Participation Optional

Simply starting a class blog isn’t a guarantee that students will participate. While there are always some students who will naturally gravitate towards a blogging program, others may require extra encouragement or may just need to know that participation is not optional.

Some educators discover that leaving blogging as an optional assignment doesn’t always yield the best results.

It’s important to keep in mind that your classroom blog might be the first introduction students have with creating web content. They may need guidance on how to use your platform. Providing clear instructions can boost students’ confidence and encourage participation. 

In addition to explaining how to access and use the blog, you may also want to establish expectations from the start about how you intend for students to use it. This can include guidelines or policies for posting. Here’s an example from The Electronic Pencil:

Determining the purpose of your classroom blog will help inform the parameters you set for using it.

There are some other simple strategies you can use to encourage participation and make students more motivated to contribute in meaningful ways. For example, you may want to end your posts with discussion questions and ask for comments. 

Similarly, if you plan to use your blog for student posting, you might consider allowing them to choose their own topics. Being flexible can make it easier for students to find inspiration. You might also provide students with challenges or prompts to help build and maintain momentum.

3. Failing To Share With An Audience

Just because your blog is online, doesn’t mean people will see it.

First, you’ll need to make sure your blog is public on the web. If you’d rather your blog lives behind a password or login, you’ll need to make sure your intended audience (students, families, colleagues) know how to access the blog.

If you’re unsure whether your class blog should be public or private, we have a guide that weighs up the pros and cons to help you make that decision.

But why would you want to share your class blog and student work with a wide audience?

An authentic audience is powerful. When students know someone beyond the teacher will see their work, they can be motivated to push themselves and work harder.

This is something Clive Thompson wrote about in Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better.

Making schoolwork purposeful can really impact student motivation and engagement.

Furthermore, when students have an audience for their blog posts, readers can provide further information, opinions, suggest resources, seek answers to questions and so on. This can drive a cycle of further learning and development.

Is it safe to have your blog open to a wide answer?

In short, yes. As long as you have your guidelines in place. For example, ensuring students only use their first names or pen names, moderating comments and posts before they’re published, and using some basic precautions with student photos.

Learn more about establishing your guidelines in our Teacher Challenge guide.

Who can be an audience for your class blog?

Teachers and families may be the most obvious audiences for your student work, but there are possibilities beyond that. In our guide to finding an authentic audience for your students, we go through six options: classmates, family, team blogging, projects, your PLN, and the web.

When students have a broad audience, they can learn to think beyond grades and pleasing the teacher, and start contributing their voice, knowledge, and resources to a global community. What an exciting opportunity!

4. Publishing Inconsistently

When you set up a new blog, enthusiasm can be high and you might find yourself posting frequently. Over time, bloggers sometimes become less consistent in their approach and this is a problem.

If you’re wanting to “train” students and parents to understand that your blog is a central part of your classroom, keeping it updated is crucial. If students and families check a few times and notice the blog hasn’t been updated, they will no doubt be reluctant to keep visiting the blog.

This doesn’t mean you have to publish daily but if you’re trying to build a dedicated audience (like families on a class blog), making your schedule more predictable can be advantageous. So you might tell your students and families that they can expect updated content on the blog every Monday, for example.

If you’re struggling to find the time to publish consistently, check out our plan for writing a weekly blog post in just ten minutes a day.

A related pitfall is using too many digital channels — for example, publishing some information on a school calendar, some on social media, some in the school newsletter and so on. Having a one stop shop for everything, like a blog, saves headaches for everyone.

Ultimately, you’re building your audience’s expectation that your blogging program is valuable, a key component of your course, and not optional.

5. Not Respecting Copyright

You want your class blog to have useful content for your students, right? This might include text, videos, educational material, and images.

Unfortunately, many bloggers don’t realize that you can’t use just anything you find online and may unintentionally publish copyright material in their posts. This is not only ethically incorrect but you could be violating copyright laws. You also want to be a good role model for your students regarding copyright as the expectations you set can influence them profoundly.

If you find the whole topic of copyright, Creative Commons, and fair use confusing, don’t worry (you’re not alone!). Our popular educator’s guide breaks down these important topics for you in simple terms.

To summarize, below are 5 main rules you need to remember about copyright. (Remember, you can take a deep dive into this topic by visiting our guide.)

1) Just because you found it online, doesn’t mean it’s free to use (even if you’re a teacher or student).

2) There are a lot of resources you can use freely including work that has a Creative Commons license or is in the public domain.

3) You have a right as a creator to have your work protected from copying and you can also give your own content a Creative Commons license.

4) If in doubt about using content, ask the creator for permission, find a free alternative, make your own material, or purchase an alternative that has the usage rights you’re after.

5) Instead of looking for loopholes, consider whether you’re being the most responsible and ethical digital citizen you can be.

6. Forgetting To Use Or Update Pages

Blogs are composed of two main structures: posts and pages. Posts are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order with the most recent post at the top of your blog’s home page.

Your posts are where you’ll publish your main content, such as:

• Showcases of student work
• Information about what’s been happening in class
• Assignment information or learning resources

On the Learning Stories blog, there are regularly updated posts that contain rich content like photos, quotes, videos, curriculum outcomes, and more:

While you’ll be using posts a lot, some bloggers commonly overlook the power of pages. Pages on blogs are normally used for information that you want to share with your readers but don’t expect to update frequently.

You don’t want to have too many pages but a few key ones can really help to improve your class blog. One of the most important pages you could have is your About page. This is the place new readers can visit to find out who writes the blog and what it’s all about. You don’t have to reveal too many personal details. However, some general information like your grade level, subject area, and country can be really helpful for your audience.

If you use your blog over multiple years, remember to give your pages a once over every now and then to ensure the information is still current.

If you want to keep the design of your blog uncluttered, some bloggers choose to have nested sub-pages that sit underneath your main page menus as shown in the example below from St. Charles Borromeo blog.

Learn more about creating pages in this Teacher Challenge help guide.

7. Not Having Clear Grading Guidelines

As we mentioned earlier, class blogs are used for different purposes. Perhaps your blog is used to simply share classroom information or recaps. However, as your blogging program becomes an integral part of your course, you might decide to use the blog for graded student assignments.

Blogging assignments, while useful, can be very different from the traditional type of coursework you may be used to grading. To avoid making it overly complex or difficult, it’s helpful to have a clear strategy ahead of time.

In order to do this, it’s important to first consider how students will use the blog for their assignments. For example, will their posts be treated as writing assignments similar to essays? Alternatively, perhaps your main objective is to assess their discussion and participation skills.

There’s no right or wrong way to formulate a grading strategy for your classroom blog. However, what is essential is that the guidelines you set are transparent and clear to all your students. 

As with your expectations for student participation, it’s also useful to include your grading criteria on the blog itself. Below is an example from SCHS Open Studio (a high school ceramics course). These extensive guidelines include information about citations, privacy, commenting, grammar, and more.

When creating your grading guidelines, don’t forget to consider the time that will go into reading and assessing your students’ work. The last thing you want is to realize too late that scoring dozens of lengthy blog posts isn’t practical for your course curriculum.

Using rubrics is another popular approach for grading student work on blogs. For more on this and other approaches to assessing student work on blogs, check out the Complete Guide to Digital Portfolios.

8. Ignoring Categories And Tags

A successful classroom blog is one that is organized and easy to navigate. Depending on how you intend to use it, there’s a good chance it can quickly become crowded with an array of content.

You want to make it as easy as possible for students, families, and other visitors to find the information they’re after on your blog. That’s where categories and tags can help.

What are categories and tags?

Categories and tags offer an effective way for WordPress users to classify and organize their blog post content.

Categories are meant to provide a broad grouping of your posts. Tags are used more for describing specific details.

On a class blog post, one category might be Math and tags might include things like addition, subtraction, number facts, or homework.

There are different schools of thought but in general, you don’t want to assign a post to too many categories or have too many categories on your blog overall. Only create a new category if you will be writing other blog posts that fit into that category. As a ballpark guide, you might want to create 5-10 categories under which your content can neatly fit (perhaps one for each subject area or type of post).

On the other hand it’s a good idea for a post to have multiple tags, perhaps between 2-5 per post. Some educators like to use tags for student names if they’re writing posts or are featured in posts. Naturally, parents are most interested in their own child’s content, so tags can make it easier for them to find this.

How to use categories and tags

You can add a new category or tag (respectively) by going to Posts > Categories/Tags in your WordPress dashboard:

You can also assign and create new categories and tags from the sidebar of any post:

If you don’t assign your posts to a category, they will go to the default category which is called “Uncategorized”. Not very helpful, right? Tags are optional so if you’re just getting started, we recommend you try using categories first.

For information on how to add categories and tags, please check out the following support documentation:

1. Adding categories to posts
2. Adding tags to posts

9. Overlooking Accessibility

In your physical classroom, you no doubt work hard to ensure every student is catered for. The same applies to your class blog.

In order for your class blog to be valuable, it must be accessible to all students. This includes individuals with visual impairments or disabilities that require them to use a screen reader or other assistive technologies.

Creating accessible web content might not be something you’ve considered before. We can help. Our Edublogger post on accessibility includes 7 key ways to make your blog more accessible to all. This includes things like proper heading structures, alt text for images, explained abbreviations, contrasting colors, transcripts, and descriptive links.

These simple strategies make it easier for all blog readers to interpret content.

For a deeper dive into the important topic of accessibility, check out the complete guide on the CampusPress blog.

10. Choosing The Wrong Platform

The first step in setting up a classroom blog is choosing a platform to create and host it on. This is an important decision because it affects the overall usability and accessibility of your website. 

There are a handful of popular blogging platforms to choose from. WordPress is an excellent choice considering it powers 39% of all the websites on the internet. However, it’s a smart idea to select a platform that is designed specifically for educational purposes. 

One of the most popular educational blogging services is Edublogs, which is powered by WordPress:

Our platform has an easy-to-use interface, making it ideal even for beginners or those who aren’t technically savvy. You can also use it to create student blogs, as well as individual sites for different classes.

Once you set up your class blog, you can easily moderate comments and content, create custom privacy controls, and choose a design to suit your needs.

Getting started with Edublogs is completely free, student safe, and there are no ads. You can learn more about the features of Edublogs in this table or check out this article to find out why WordPress is the best choice for classroom blogging.

Our sister service, CampusPress is also a popular choice for schools and universities planning on a whole school approach to blogging or portfolios. A CampusPress subscription can work alongside a school’s Content Management System (CMS) or even replace the need for one.

Conclusion

Classroom blogging can be a powerful and effective way to enhance the learning experience for your students. However, if you’re new to starting a blog, there are some important things to consider before jumping in.

Let’s recap the ten mistakes to avoid with your classroom blog:

1. Forgetting to obtain permission
2. Making participation optional
3. Failing to share with an audience
4. Publishing inconsistently
5. Not respecting copyright
6. Forgetting to use or update pages
7. Not having clear grading guidelines
8. Ignoring categories and tags
9. Overlooking accessibility
10. Choosing the wrong platform

Which one could you work on today?

Do you have any questions about avoiding these classroom blogging mistakes? Or perhaps you have some ideas of your own to add? Let us know in the comments section below.

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