Google's blog sites with templates for relatively easy set up for students.

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.