Blog question

September 2, 2006 3:10 PM

I'd like to set up a blog for my students to use to discuss issues regarding their study. Can anyone recommend a free to use blog which can have restricted membership? I don't want to moderate the postings. Doesn't matter if the world can read it - just don't want them to join in the chat.
posted by A189Nut to computers & internet (18 comments total)

Do you want a blog (post an article or story and have people be able to make comments) or a forum (topics in a hierarchy that anyone registered can start or comment on)?

If you want a blog, WordPress allows you to create members who can have the ability to write the main article (or not) and comment (or not). You can easily keep out those you don't want to comment. Pretty much every blog software does this.

WordPress, like others, is free, by the by.
posted by qwip at 3:24 PM on September 2, 2006

WordPress is free and extremely capable. Take a look.
posted by LeisureGuy at 3:36 PM on September 2, 2006

It's not exactly clear whether a forum, a blog, multiple blogs, or some combination of these, is really what you want.

Wordpress is a fine system for blogging, but you need to install a separate instance of it for each blog you maintain, which might be an administrative headache for you. It has a login system for commenters that's pretty good.

Movable Type is another blogging system that lets you administer many blogs from a single installation, but has a poorer system for administering commenters (IMO). It costs money.

Drupal is a general-purpose open-source content-management system (CMS)—blogs and forums are simply two modules (among many) that you can turn on/off as needed. It has an extensive, multilayered system for managing who can do what (post new blog entries, comment on blog entries, etc) It's a bit intimidating to wrap your head around all its features, but very capable.

There are a lot of other free CMSs out there, but I think Drupal is the best.
posted by adamrice at 3:39 PM on September 2, 2006

Yes, wordpress is free and easy. Just do the basic one where you let them host it for you. You don't need to install anything.

Google's Blooger also just upgraded its service. It too is free and easy and they host it.

Keep it simple. It's a piece of cake to get start a basic blog.
posted by bim at 4:05 PM on September 2, 2006

I'd go with Wordpress. The free hosted version (wordpress.com) should have the features you need to let students comment but keep others from commenting.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 4:06 PM on September 2, 2006

What I want is to allow students to post links and comment in an organic free-flowing fashion on topics which emerge as they study a topic - for instance a module they take on War in American History. I'll take a look at Wordpress.
posted by A189Nut at 4:23 PM on September 2, 2006

I'd use forum software, if I were you. They can start topics and respond to them in a threaded fashion, and you can control who's signed up and able to post. Check SMF and phpBB. Some web hosts have one-click installation of software, so also check to see if yours might have anything like that.
posted by Addlepated at 4:33 PM on September 2, 2006

As a TA, I have used blogs in classrooms for three years, although never in the exact way you will be using them. (My method has been to invite students to run their own blogs and to link them all together at a central blog, e.g. WARNING: SELF-LINK sequentialsmarts.blogspot.com.)

In terms of technical competence I am a few steps ahead of the average first-year, but for my age I am a tech dunce. My personal blog is WordPressed and I absolutely love it but I couldn't change its defaults if you put a gun to my head. If you have the tech chops to add and moderate new users, I'd absolutely go with WP.

If you're not as comfortable fiddling with defaults and the suchlike I would have to second bim: Blogger is easy and it is almost idiotproof. My students have had little trouble working with it, and in your case it sounds like it would be even easier for them, since you would be setting up the blog and all they would need to do is set up a Google login. It's versatile, it's free and doesn't force advertising on you. It's not perfect, but it works.

By the way, if you want more information about edublogging I know there are a ton of resources out there. One of my colleagues has begun building a career around studying blogging and unfortunately I am missing the URL of her most recent site. A year ago she built this -- Blogs in e100 -- to help beginning instructors work through the technical, pedagogical and moral issues surrounding blogs in education. I can't make any promises about its usefulness for you, but it might have a handout or two that you could use.

Using blogs in the classroom is enormously fun and, I think, enormously rewarding for the students. Good luck!
posted by Mmmmmm at 5:43 PM on September 2, 2006

I think go with a forum software, as they may want to go back to a topic and add more links/discussion. Whilst they could edit/add comments to a post in Wordpress, this won't bring it to the forefront of everyone's attention, as it won't be moved back to the top of the page. Forum software will.

phpBB is good, and very full featured, but if you just want something simple, why not try bbPress - made by the people who made Wordpress.
posted by djgh at 5:43 PM on September 2, 2006

Hmm, yes - it certainly sounds like a forum is more suited the task than a blog per se. If you want a main "news" type page, I believe that PHPBB at least has a "portal page" option which will allow this on top on the main forum.
posted by ed\26h at 5:44 PM on September 2, 2006

Does your institution have Blackboard or similar system? It's set up to allow students to have threaded discussions.
posted by Biblio at 5:52 PM on September 2, 2006

Keep it simple. Just use a blog. You don't need to bring in a cannon to kill a mouse.

Wordpress if fine. It took me less than 5 minutes to get a blog rolling. Of course, I lost interest after a couple of posts...but that's another issue entirely.
posted by bim at 5:59 PM on September 2, 2006

It's considered unsophisticated, but you could do this with a LiveJournal community with moderated membership.

One aspect of it that I like is that it lends itself to discussion because comments are threaded, and you can have any replies to your comments (not just posts) emailed to you.
posted by needs more cowbell at 6:25 PM on September 2, 2006

Livejournal community. Very easy and free.
posted by Melinika at 6:33 PM on September 2, 2006

Yup. Live Journal is another easy to use blog system.
posted by bim at 7:48 PM on September 2, 2006

If it's just links and comments, why not del.icio.us?
posted by divabat at 8:36 PM on September 2, 2006

If it's just links and comments, why not del.icio.us?

Because del.icio.us is restrictive in the number of characters you're allowed to use to comment on each link. It's like trying to blog by SMS or something. It's the sole reason why I don't use it.

Go with Blogger or Wordpress.com. You really don't need to overcomplicate matters with fancy-pants CMS systems when all you really want is a space for your students to sign up and pubish their thoughts.
posted by macdara at 1:39 AM on September 3, 2006

I cant say enought about gaggle.net
It is free email for students. They also have message boards,
chat and blogs. You control the access.
Most the other things that folks have mentioned are blocked out our school. You didnt mention if you are teaching High School or College.
posted by nimsey lou at 6:54 AM on September 3, 2006