DPM43 Posted May 30, 2013 Share Posted May 30, 2013 My ten year old wants to start her own blog -- I think it would be primarily nature-oriented. Does anybody here have experience with a site which would be safe and uncomplicated enough for a child to use? Or tips for using one of the more standard sites? It would be great writing experience for her and she's pretty excited about the possibility. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeindeed Posted May 30, 2013 Share Posted May 30, 2013 Blogger.com is the one I use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daisymom Posted May 30, 2013 Share Posted May 30, 2013 We use Wordpress because it is free, you can make it private, and it has an easy iPad app. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandra Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 :lurk5: I'd like to know more about this too. Ds will be doing Scout Computers badge, and making a blog is one of the options. We use Wordpress because it is free, you can make it private, and it has an easy iPad app. Private sounds good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Five More Minutes Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Do you want to have some control over the blog as well? If that's the case, I'd look into some of the educational blog platforms (Edublogs is built on the WordPress platform, but has features suited to a more academic setting; Edmodo is more Facebook-meets-blog, but could be interesting; Kidblog looks similar to Edublogs, but I have no experience with it.) Wordpress.com is a reliable free blog site, and making it private might be a good option for starting. I found it easy and intuitive when I first started working with blogs. If you haven't already done so, you may want to look into some media literacy resources and have some discussions about handling online conversations. How will she respond, for example, to trolls? Will she publish a comment policy? Will she only use her own photos? (If so, what's acceptable? Can she include family members? Neighbours?) Will she rely on others for photos, in which case how will she credit them? MediaSmarts has some interesting resources if you're looking for more on this. HTH (ETA: My DH is a PS teacher, and regularly has students use blogs as part of his classroom. I know that a huge concern there is safety. One common rule that they use is that students may not publish photos taken with a phone because they contain identifiable location data.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Um_2_4 Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 I'm using a private blog on blogger. You can set it to be seen by only those whom you invite via email. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PinkyandtheBrains. Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Wordpress is good. I'd clarify what she hopes to do with the blog, it might help determine the best platform to use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 My ds12 uses blogger. It's pretty straightforward, has nice privacy options (we made it only open by invite/password), and he has a lot of fun with it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanetC Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 One anti-recommendation: Stay away from tumblr! DD and I just did a coursera class that required students to post their lab write ups to tumblr. I had to watch like a hawk for all the inappropriate "suggested sites" and used an ad-blocker because of the sexy ads. Ugh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wee Pip Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Blogger is a good, middle of the road, easy enough to use blog. My oldest started a blog there at the age of 10 and had fun playing with the different options. Another one is weebly.com - weebly is much more drag-and-drop, vs. click-and-configure like blogger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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