How-to Video: creating a classroom blog with 21 Classes
Brief synopsis: No digital classroom is complete without a classroom blog. If you want to know how to start blogging in your 21st century technology classroom, 21 classes, located at 21classes.com, is one powerful classroom blogging tool. With 21 classes, teachers can start blogging and have students blogging in minutes. Registering and setting up the classroom blog takes only a few steps, and 21 classes gives teachers an online Content Management System to easily locate student blogs.
Benefits: If you're concerned that you don't know how to make a blog site and you want to create a digital classroom environment for students, the education blog site, 21 classes, makes it abundantly simple. The registration and set-up process is done with simple point-and-click instructions. The administration dashboard at 21 classes is very user-friendly. Unlike some blog hosts, like Edublogs, 21classes does not force teachers to give students e-mail addresses when registering them for the classroom blog. This is an excellent feature, as many students do not have e-mail addresses. 21 Classes also has cool security features, such as message templates that teachers can send to users warning them if they are breaking any of the classroom blog rules.
Drawbacks: Although there is a limited free version, 21 classes does have a fee, if teachers want to add many student blog accounts. So, if you have 100 students, you'll have to pay a monthly or one-time yearly fee, if you want all of your students blogging.
Conclusion: The how-to video above demonstrates how to start blogging in the classroom with 21 classes, in 5 minutes or less.
