Blogging made easy for young writers
Learning Scores
Classroom feedback
Individual
Knowledge gain
Practice
General
How I Use It
I piloted KidBlog in a 4th grade classroom that has a daily journal writing time with a teacher prompt.
Instead of writing in their journal though, students could choose to respond to the journal topic on KidBlog. Signing in for teacher and students was easy, and the teacher could review and respond to their entries at her leisure.
Students can choose to publish their writing when it's ready, or save drafts still in progress. Just like a real blog, students can read each other's posts and leave comments. All comments have to be approved by the Blog Author (and/or teacher) before they are posted.
My Take
This is a fantastic tool for encouraging students to write for an authentic audience, and creating a community of writers. It is almost the same as wordpress, but the interface is simplified, making it easier for children to navigate. This means less time fussing, and more time writing!
And although this isn't a fast-paced
video game, there are a number of cool designs that students can choose from and easily change.