Community reviews for Blogger

I really like using this product. Students should have a gmail/google account to use this product effectively. While there are some easy aspects to using Blogger, it can take some time to figure out all of the nuances. Also, every time you edit it will open up in a new window, that can get a little hard to keep track of. It takes a little time exploring to make sure that you have the blog setup in the way you would like. I find that after the initial time, it goes pretty quickly.

It could be a better interface, but I'm working with it. I used to build a website with similar capabilities, but I find the blog format (i.e., new post every day at the top of a list, organized by date) is very helpful for kids to keep organized. I truthfully started using Blogger because it's a Google product and compatible seamlessly with my school Google/GAFE account, but I really do like it. For student blogging, I prefer Kidblog, FYI.

Blogger is a great tool for students to start writing on the web and keeping a blog. While it doesn't offer tons of customization for the user, it does offer the basic features necessary for any teacher to get their students blogging. The learning curve for kids to get started with Blogger is minimal, and they will quickly pick up the way that the formatting works for crafting a blog post with multimedia embedded. It should give the user the ability to turn off a feature like "Next Blog" so that students don't stumble into the wrong blog reading environment by accident. The commenting features, however, are very nice and make it accessible for students to comment on one another's blog posts. I like that the interface of Blogger is minimalist and that a user doesn't need to know a lot of programming or HTML coding in order to get the most out of Blogger, unlike some other blogging platforms. If it had a text-to-speech feature, I think that would be a highly desirable functionality for student bloggers, especially those who are emerging writers or special needs students.

Blogger has revolutionized the way I run my digital literacy (formerly "writing") workshop. The ease of use and accessibility from all devices has turned my students from mere writers into multimedia creators. I highly recommend it as an alternative or a complement to a traditional composition notebook in a writers' workshop setting.

I like this site as a teaching tool because it allows students to share information with each other and people outside the classroom. Students can create reports that include pictures, embedded videos, and links to other internet sites. It could serve students and teachers better by making the placement of pictures easier and making the creation of new posts less confusing.

As of now I find this to be the best way to keep my students and parents in the loop, but I foresee new programs that most likely will overrun this in the near future.

Blooger is very easy to learn. It allows you to quickly get a site on the web and ready to go. The features are great, but the interface is not as simple or attractive as what can be found in WordPress.

With our Google 4 Education accounts, setting up and creating a blog is relatively simple. The price of "free" is inviting as well. Students enjoy applying new designs and take the writing seriously. It helps for them to know the teacher will not be the only one reading their blog. It does take a bit of playing around with the interface to find all of the options.

Bogging is a great activity with students and Blogger is a great platform to get students started. We are a Google Apps for Education (GAFE) school so using Blogger is easy as it is integrated with our overall platform, but it is also very easy to set up even if you are not a GAFE school. I have set up 3rd and 5th graders with independent Blogger blogs. They created blogs with direction from me on name and overall vision (digital portfolios). I give them opportunities to do free-writes as posts, as well as specific "guided" posts where I give specific parameters on title, content, etc. Blogger is a great platform because the students love the independence, the ability to customize the look and feel of the blog, add widgets, and create an overall individual personalization to their blog. Students are excited about writing, designing, checking their audience statistics (which is a great way to talk about audience means, reach or their writing, digital citizenship beyond the classroom, etc). They have taken to writing and designing behind the classroom, working on their blogs outside of school. The one downside I do is is the inability to moderate posts. If you have a single class blog you can have multiple authors, but you need to invite authors via email so if your students don't have email that is a problem. But even if your students do have emails and you make them authors on a single blog there is no post-moderating, meaning any "author" can publish a post without any greater approval. This might be a shortcoming for teachers concerned with students publishing without teacher approval.

Blogger has many applications in class. I like it because it is easy to use and works well for anyone who has a gmail account (basically all my students at this point). It also syncs with Google drive documents, Google calendar, and generally allows for smooth compatibility between different Google services. Admittedly, there are plenty of other blog options that look way slicker and may be easier to use. But, I'm limited to reviewing what I know...