So what are the Alternatives? Recent Twitter posts have pointed out a strong liking for Class Blogmeister, boasting better class management, and no visable storage limits. (Correct me if that’s wrong). – thanks @debwhite and  @klistar

Matt Dunlap has posted an nice self-hosted option in the comments.

21classes was also mentioned.

The bottom line though, is that the software that Edublogs is based on is Free (wordpress). So if you are a huge fan of their blogging platform but are looking for another option, you can always host it yourself. There are plenty of cheap web hosting sites for under $5 a month. Going this route would be about the same price as Edublogs, but you would have complete control of everything including themes, plugins, etc. I’ll see about posting a guide on going this direction.

Needless to say, I will be refining my tips and blogging about the process in the near future. I think I have slimmed down the process and hopefully made it less intimidating for teachers as well as students.

Let me give you a brief walk through.

I signed up for twitter, and now I have an empty page with a little box at the top that says “what are you doing?”. So I tell it something like “writing a blog post about twitter in education”. When people visit twitter.com/teachertechblog they will see that update. It is almost like a blog, except it goes way beyond that. With blogs, people have go to your website to find out the latest news.  With twitter, anyone that signs up and chooses to follow your posts will automatically get your update. Granted, any blog with RSS will update people in a similar fashion. But Twitter sends out these updates not only to web pages, but also to mobile phones via sms, Instant Messenger clients, and a whole bit list of web applications.

So lets say several people add my feed and see my post that says I am writing about twitter and wanting feedback. They get it on their phones, emails, etc… They have a choice of just smiling at the fact that they are staying or informed, or reply back with real-time feedback.

Someone else might want to use it for more of a social purpose to keep people updated with their lives. They might post something like “going to see Iron Man tonight at eight”. Their friends might ask to join, or ask how it was. The possibilities are endless.

If you would like to get started with twitter, you can sign up and add teachertechblog by going to twitter.com/teachertechblog and hitting the follow button. You’ll be in on the latest works in progress, and your feedback might get featured on the next article.

Nearly a decade ago E-Pals had a vision for connecting educators and classrooms that were literally a world apart. They provided a way for teachers to sign their classroom up and connect, allowing students to discuss real life cultural values and happenings with students that lived in areas that most would never even have the chance to visit. Valuable. Case studies began to confirm their beliefs that giving students this real world opportunity was priceless to their development, both as global citizens and writers. And if this were the only feature that the modern day version of E-Pals had to offer, it would be worth mentioning. But they have grown to offer quite a bit more.

The company no longer only supports just a means of connection. They now provide the tools to do it at no cost to the school. Recently they have incorporated a blogging and email platform that boasts some incredible security features. With these tools, classroom can connect in a safe way that provides a teacher a way to monitor every activity that happens. Emails and blogs can be filtered through the teacher before being sent or published, and blogs can be set to a number of security settings. These settings insure that only the appropriate people see the information and keep students protected like few programs that we have covered. And they do it for free.

These days security is high on any school’s agenda. Since most are wanting to equip their students with the appropriate 21st century skills in a safe environment, this would definitely be something worth checking out.