The State of Educational Blogging 2014

Each year we conduct a survey on how educators are using blogs.  Our goal is to document the trends in educational blogging.

We started the annual survey because we’re frequently asked for detailed information to help educators:

1. Convince school administrators to allow blogging.
2. Understand the benefits of blogging and how blogs are used with students.
3. Know more about which blogging platforms are commonly used by educators (and why).

Here’s what you told us in 2014!  You’ll find our survey questions for this year’s report here!

Click on a link below to go to the section you want to read:

1. Key Findings
2. About the survey
3. Who are the respondents
4. How blogs are used
5. Benefits of blogging
   • Class blog
   • Student blogging
   • Personal Educator blog
   • Blogging tips
6. Blog platforms used
   • Reasons for using Edublogs
   • Reasons for using Blogger
   • Reasons for using WordPress.com
   • Reasons for using KidBlog
   • Reasons for using CampusPress
   • Reasons for using Weebly
   • Reasons for using Blogmeister
   • Reasons for using Self hosted WordPress
   • Reasons for using Tumblr

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Key Findings

This is our third annual report of the state of educational blogging.

Device Usage

Surprisingly, there hasn’t been a significant increase in the use of one-to-one devices in the 3 years we’ve surveyed educators (44 % selected Yes in 2014 compared to 45 % in 2013 and 41 % in 2012).

15 % of respondents with one-to-one device programs are BYOD and 21 % of respondents with one to one device programs are provided by the school or school district.

Devices usage in one-to-one programs from 2012 to 2014 shows an increase in iPad use (from 27 % in 2o12 to 5o % in 2014), slight change in PC laptop usage (from 45 % in 2012 to 40 % in 2014), a decrease in Mac Laptops (from 32 % to 20 %) and increase in Chromebooks (0 % in 2012 to 16 % in 2014) and other types of tablets (from 6 % in 2012 to 18 % in 2014).

Blog Usage

Majority of respondents told us they mainly used their blogs for class websites (20 %), class blogs (38 %) and/or student blogging (17 %) and a high proportion also had their own personal/personal blog (30 %).

Based on student blog usage from Edublogs.org, 55 % of student blogs are public and can be viewed by anyone and 45 % of student blogs are private restricted to specific readers.

Majority of respondents said they used the student blogs for reflective blogging (40%), practice reading and writing skills (36 %), assignments /assessments (32 %), digital citizenship skills (31 %), encourage peer learning and support (31 %), collaboration / discussion (30 % ), ePortfolios (24 %) and global collaboration and authentic audience (24 %).

While most class blogs were used for: share information with families (53 %); assignments and class news (43 %); share links and resources (42 %) and global collaboration and authentic audience (34 %). Other uses of class blogs included: teach digital citizenship skills. to inspire students; sharing learning, share resources; provide students with opportunity to interact online; and to promote books and reading.

Blog Platform Used

Most respondents used Edublogs (50%) as the main blog platform they used followed by Blogger (21%) and then WordPress.com (10%).

It’s quite common for educators to host their different blogs on several different blog platforms.  Edublogs (21%) was the most common second main blog platform used followed by Blogger (18%) and WordPress.com (11%).

Trends for 2014

Key trends we’ve observed from supporting educators and their students in 2014 are:

• Increase usage by Universities to use blogs as websites.  You’ll find examples of all the different ways Universities and higher Ed use Blogs and WordPress here.
• Increase usage of schools to use blogs as ePortfolios.  This is more common on CampusPress where the student uses the same student blog to share their learning and showcase their work, for all subjects, throughout their entire school life.  You’ll find examples of the different ways schools use blogs here.

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About the Survey

This is our third annual report of the state of educational blogging.

This year’s survey was conducted from May 28 – August, 21 2014 and a total of 587 respondents took part in the survey.

The survey was promoted via Twitter, Facebook and through blog posts.  We encouraged replies from educators regardless of what blogging platform they used.

You can check out the questions we asked here.

Year	No. of Respondents	Read Report
2014	587	State of Educational blogging 2014
2013	378	State of Educational blogging 2013
2012	259	State of Educational blogging 2012

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Who are the respondents?

We started with basic inquiries about our respondents’ background to learn more about their role and their educational institution.  Respondents were able to select more than one checkbox for most questions which is why the results for some questions add up to more than 100%.

Majority of the response were by teachers (64%) followed by students (11%).

Most were based at public schools or institutions (71 %).

Roughly a third were based in Elementary/Primary schools (37%) followed by High School (24 %) and Middle/Junior (19 %).

44% of respondents were based at educational institutions that have or will soon have a one to one device program.  There hasn’t been a significant increase in  one to one devices in the 3 years we’ve surveyed educators (45 % selected Yes in 2013 compared to 41 % in 2012).

This year was the first time we asked respondents if their  one to one device program was a BYOD program.

15 % of respondents with one to one device programs are BYOD and 21 % of respondents with one to one device programs are provided by the school or school district.

iPads (50 %) were the most commonly used device in one to one device programs followed by PC laptops (46 %) and Mac Laptops (20%).

Devices usage in one to one programs from 2012 to 2014 shows an increase in iPad use (from  27 % in 2o12 to 5o % in 2014), slight change in PC laptop usage (from 45 % in 2012 to 40 % in 2014), a decrease in Mac Laptops (from 32 % to 20 %) and increase in Chromebooks (0 % in 2012 to 16 % in 2014) and other types of tablets (from 6 % in 2012 to 18 % in 2014).

Majority of respondents were introduced to using blogs through a professional development session / workshop(27 %)  or via a work colleague (30 %).   Other ways they were introduced to blogging included their teacher.

Although our survey didn’t include geographical location of respondents statistics for all blogs hosted on Edublogs.org from August 20, 2013 to August 20, 2014 highlights United States is the main user of blogs (accounts for 45.07 % of visits to Edublogs blogs) followed by Canada (10.56 %), Australia (8.08%) and United Kingdom (5.04 %).

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How blogs are being used

Next we looked at how respondents used their blogs.

Majority of respondents told us they mainly used their blogs for class websites (20 %), class blogs (38 %) and/or student blogging (17 %) and a high proportion also had their own personal/personal blog (30 %).

17 % of respondents told us their students had individual student blogs.  The number of individual student blogs supervised by educators varied considerably: the maximum number was 200 blogs.

Based on student blog usage from Edublogs.org, 55 % of student blogs are public and can be viewed by anyone and 45 % of student blogs are private restricted to specific readers.

Allow search engines	32 %
Block search engines	23 %
Only logged in users can view blog	12 %
Only logged in registered user can view blog	6 %
Only logged in admin user can view blog	0 %
Password protected blog	27 %

18.2 % of educators only supervised student blogs and didn’t have personal, professional or class blogs.  While most educators had an average of 3 blogs other than the student blogs they supervised.

Majority of respondents said they used the student blogs for reflective blogging (40%), practice reading and writing skills (36 %), assignments /assessments (32 %), digital citizenship skills (31 %), encourage peer learning and support (31 %),  collaboration / discussion (30 % ),  ePortfolios (24 %) and global collaboration and authentic audience (24 %).

While most class blogs were used for: share information with families (53 %); assignments and class news (43 %);  share links and resources (42 %) and global collaboration and authentic audience (34 %).  Other uses of class blogs included: teach digital citizenship skills. to inspire students; sharing learning, share resources; provide students with opportunity to interact online; and to promote books and reading.

As we already knew there are a lot of educators who have been blogging for years.

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Benefits of blogging

The following benefits of blogging were summarized from this year’s survey responses.

One of the biggest challenges educators new to blogging face is understanding what is a blog and the basics of how a blog works.  If you are new to blogging we recommend start by watching this quick intro video,

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Benefits of a class blog:

• Having a class blog is a great way to…
  1. Store teaching ideas and lessons online so they are always easily accessible;
  2. Have assignments online so students who are absent can complete work even if they aren’t in class (no need for siblings to pick up work and no need to prepare packages of work)
  3. List all assignments with their due dates (students and parents can never say they did not know something was due);
  4. Post student samples of work to use in future lessons;
  5. Post student work so they can show their parents and relatives who live far away;
  6. Encourage students to do work of excellent quality so that it is ‘publishable’
  7. Keep lists of great books which students can consult when planning their own reading;
  8. Supply links to other valuable websites such as World Book Online and library catalogues.”

• A class blog is a wonderful way to communicate information to parents and give them a glimpse into what is going on every day in their child’s classroom, without the worry of losing a paper newsletter.  If a parent says they didn’t know about a test, for example, I just say, it was on the blog.
• No photocopying, easy to post.  I also pose interesting questions on the blog and kids and their parents can research it and post so all can see, e.g., what is the smallest mammal on Earth.
• Our class blog provides an insight into our class.  It allows absent parents or those who work away from home to keep up to date with what their children are learning about and this enable us to build a learning community which parents feel part of. Blogging also allows us to educate the parents on the experiences and outcomes that are central to the Curriculum for Excellence which we follow and that active play is central in learning for children.
• Blogging is a fantastic way of sharing what is happening in the classroom with the wider world and for students to engage in authentic communication.  With good use of tags and categories, it is also a great way of organizing web-based resources.
• I find it so satisfying having students comment on the class blog and ask if they can create a new page. They take an incredible amount of interest and pride in what goes into our blog and they enjoy sharing with their families. My team teaching partner now timetable (blogging) into our weekly literacy classes.
• Technology makes even mundane tasks more engaging for my students. Putting some of my spelling tasks online means that my students are more likely to be engaged. Also, I am trying to encourage some ‘flipped classroom’ strategies and posting work, explanations, images and videos is allowing me to develop this teaching strategy.
• We also use the blog to publish parent feedback, community news, photographs, information, transition information. The list is endless.

Here are examples of class blogs so you can check out how they are used:

1. 1A/B @ Willunga Primary –  Kindergarten
2. Mrs Rabe’s Class blog – Kindergarten
3. The Birds Nest –  Kindergarten / Grade 1
4. Little Champs – Kindergarten /  Grade 1
5. The High Flyers – Grade 1
6. Mrs K’s Class – Grade 1
7. Look What’s Happening in Room 102! – Grade 1/2
8. Ms Cassidy’s Classroom blog – Grade 2 (links to student blogs in sidebar)
9. Digital Voices – Grade 3
10. Mrs Yollis’ Classroom blog – Grade 3
11. Mrs. Hamman’s Class Blog – Grade 3
12. Mrs Moore’s Class blog – Grade 3
13. Mr Baldock’s Class blog – Grade 3/4
14. Grade 3/4 at Napoleons Primary School – Grade 3/4
15. Jade J Year 3/4 Multiage – Grade 3/4
16. Miss Jordan’s Class @ Barwon Heads Primary School – Grade 4
17. Walk this way – Grade 4
18. Wonder, Inquire, Create, Inspire – Grade 4
19. Miss Smith’s Classroom – Grade 5
20. Grade 5 at Napoleons Primary School – Grade 5
21. Mrs Muller’s Class blog – Grade 5
22. Fabulous 5 B – Grade 5
23. Technie Kids – Grade 5
24. Making Waves in Sixth Grade – Grade 6
25. Mr. Miller’s Classroom Blog – Grade 6
26. Blogs-by-the-sea – Grade 6
27. Broadbent Blues – Grade 6/7
28. Huzzah – Grade 6/7
29. Krebs’ Class Blogs – Grade 7/8
30. Jurupa Hills High School Photography and Yearbook
31. English 10 – High school
32. Mr Ross’s Science Class – High School
33. The Edublogger class blog list – includes Maths, Science, English, History, LOTE, EFL /ESL, Library, School news blogs and more!

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Benefits of student blogging:

• My students blog everyday. It has given their learning purpose and empowered them to take charge of their learning. They are publishers now and often choose to write on their own. It allows all of my students to be successful and work up to their potential. It promotes collaboratipn and allows them to connect globally. They use it to connect globally as well. We have 6 iPads and daily use of a MacBooks cart. We also BYOD However. we usually work in pairs or teams to foster collaboration and would do so even if we had more equipment.
• Blogging helps with reading, writing, artistic, critical thinking, and social skills. It has revolutionized and energized the way I teach. It has made me a teacher and a learner, and made my students learners and teachers. Blogging is the one activity my students are consistently excited about, and something they will do on their own, on weekends, after school, on vacations. We just finished our school year with a Skype visit with a class we met through blogging.
• Blogging is a big part of my classroom program.   I have found blogging an excellent way for students to reflect on their learning and share their learning experiences with family members.
• I have my students blog to get them to practice a different way of writing while using technology.
• Blogging is a great way to have the students practice critical thinking skills because it allows think time for those who do not always have an immediate answer and needs some think time.
• Blogging makes what we do as schools, educators and students transparent. The home:school connection is essential for student success, and blogs are a great way of making that success realistic.
• Blogs provide an excellent medium for reflection, as well as the development of expressive writing skills. They can be quite informal, or used to develop advanced social writing skills complete with in text links and citations. This is a resource not to be ignored.
• I do a lot of the posting at the beginning of the year and turn it over to my students as the year progresses. It also gives us a place to display projects.
• Blogging provides a voice for even the shy student who might not speak up in class. Also, there is a natural sharing of ideas for students in the 21st century who have grown up in a digital world and are engaged by a digital framework.
•  Blogging is the perfect platform for putting digital citizenship and online safety skills into action and practicing in a safe environment.
• Students need to understand all that is happening in this new era of technology, and blogging is a great way to introduce them to more than just the video games that they play.
• Each student, K – 12 has an ePortfolio which is shared with parents. The school also allows parents to access report information all the time with student reporting of assessment for both formative and summative types being displayed for parents and students. Report adds are delivered digitally and manually. All students use the ePortfolios in their Student Led Conferences to discuss their learning goals, areas for improvement and growth.

Watch The Possibility of Student Blogging by Andrea Hernandez and Slivia Tolisano.

Benefits of student blogging as part of a global community:

• My students’ geography skills have improved and they show a genuine interest in the world, and I believe blogging has contributed to this
• Blogging has created a way the students can share their work with a global audience and peers all over the world. They enjoy reading the comments posted and it empowers them to create and strive for their best effort.
• My students now have a reason to write as they share with their peers all around the world. Through our blogs, they are gaining a better understanding of how other people live and learn. We have access to professionals in the field who extend their learning.
• Blogging is fun, teaches real world skills, and opens the door to the global community.
• The student blogging challenge was an eye-opener from which I have never looked back. The global audience made a huge difference to my views on blogging.

Here are examples of student blogs so you can check out how they are used:

1. Jarrod’s Aweome Blog – 10 years old
2. Heather’s Perfect Posts
3. Meaow @ Josie’s Blog
4. Mirian’s Magical Moments
5. Breana P ePortofio
6. Come Somersault with Sarah
7. Austicandproud – 13 years old
8. Avogadro Salad – High school chemistry blog
9. Youinnorway – 18 year old from Norway

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Benefits of Personal Educator’s blog:

• It’s a good way to reflect on your teaching practices.
• Changes your the way you teach, collaborate and reflect, it will become the way you teach
• “There are a myriad of reasons why I blog, depth of knowledge, learning & networking with authentic audiences, reflective practice, as an ePortfolio of my professional growth. Blogging has re-energized my educational drive and perspective. Every educational stakeholder should have a blog! 
• Writing a blog helps me to remember what I was discovering at a certain time of the school year. Each year is so different due to new technologies being introduced at different professional development days. With a blog, it helps you to keep track of all the great educational discoveries or failures that happen as you teach throughout the year and share with others.
• I see my professional blog as me thinking out loud and not minding if people hear. However, I am the main audience and I don’t actively seek a following. I am delighted if it is of use to others. “
• Share the story of public education in an authentic way. The press often chooses to report the negative side of education. I want to show what is really happening on a daily basis.
• I blog to share professional development and resources, to interact and network with colleges and to learn as I blog.
• Blogging has personally changed the way I teach – it gives me a personal platform to reflect and allows my students to reflect on their own learning.
• Blogging is a great way to reflect upon teaching and also to share your classroom with the world. I have been inspired by teachers who blog and hope to do the same for others.

Watch Seth Gordon and Tom Peters talk about blogging.

Check out Steve Wheeler’s 3 Things you need to know about blogging!

Here are examples of personal and professional educator blogs so you can check out how they are used:

1. Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day
2. The Edublogger
3. The Principal of Change
4. Free Technology for Teachers
5. Cool Cat Teacher Blog
6. Integrating Tech in the Primary Classroom
7. Teacher Reboot Camp
8. Dangerously Irrelevant
9. Edublog Awards Best Individual Blog 2012

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Blogging tips:

• The best way to learn how to blog is to… blog! Start by following other blogs to see what they do, then write your own posts about what you have done in class, and allow it to grow from there. Kids will figure lots of stuff out on their own, so you don’t need to know how to do everything before you start!
• I think it is important for new bloggers to remember that when they first start blogging, it might feel like no one is reading their blog. Connecting it to other social media tools like Twitter and Facebook can spread their work to more audiences. They can turn these connections on when they are ready to share with a larger audience.Important for educators to abide by the social media standards and style guide of your school.
• My advice? Have a go! You learn as you go when you start with basic post you and the children come up with ideas about what else you would like to do then ask Edublogs or research, there are hundreds of teachers out there blogging and sharing their expertise.”
• For educators new to blogging, read as many blogs as you can and comment on the blogs you like. End your comment with a question to invite conversation. Link your blog to social network sites so that people you know can spread the word about your blog.
• Advice to new bloggers – don’t get caught up in the thinking that you need to write an essay every time you blog.
• Privacy of students’ names and photos – must be careful and since the school is represented quality counts
• It’s all about commenting. The students who make an effort to find other student blogs that interest them and make thoughtful comments get the most traffic on their own blogs. Those who don’t, get few visits–no matter how catchy their title, flashy their theme or wonderful their writing.
• Teach your students the skills to use their blogs: embedding pictures and videos, creating links in text, commenting skills, connecting to others, using widgets.
• Start small. Keep it manageable, by keeping the purpose clearly defined.
• Commenting is a big part of our blog and each year I explicitly teach my students how to write quality blog comments.
• Be sure to set up a monitor system, so that spam responses must be approved before going to post. Also, discuss what you want your usernames for students to be (broad criteria) to protect identity and for ease of identification as the teacher.

Refer to the following for help getting started: 

1. Student blogging – Guides you through the process of class and student blogging.
2. Personal blogging – Helps you set up your own personal or professional educator blog.

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Blog platforms used

Most respondents used Edublogs (60 %), followed by Blogger (11 %) and then WordPress.com (10 %).

Please note:

• Responses by many of those that selected WordPress.com as there main platform highlighted they were using either Global 2 (CampusPress) or Glow Blogs (WordPress powered service provided for Scottish teachers and their students) and not WordPress.com.

It’s quite common for educators to host their blogs on several different blog platforms.  Edublogs (21 %) was the most common second main blog platform used, followed by Blogger (14 %) and WordPress.com (12 %).

For example, they may use different platforms for each different type of blog (professional/personal blog, class blog or students blogs) or may have a blog platform recommended / supported by their School District.

Below’s a summary of reasons shared for using each blog platform from this year’s survey (you can read last year’s responses here):

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Reason for using Edublogs:

• Edublogs was the only affordable website I found that had the following needed attributes:
  • password protected
  • picture thumbnails
  • comment board with required approval before posting”
• We have worked with Edublogs for several years and it fits our needs perfectly. We love the customized WordPress platform and the continual enhancements. Best of all, customer service and responsiveness is through the roof!
• WordPress is the platform that I am most familiar with, and I already had some (limited) experience managing a network of blogs. I like Edublogs options with regard to themes and widgets, and the fact that they offer more memory than other blog platforms that I looked at. I also need a platform that plays nice with iPads, and Edublogs does.
• Love how Edublogs support teachers and students.  How they help class connect with other classes around the World and the Student blogging challenge.
• I am impressed and grateful by how quickly my questions are answered by Edublogs.
• Allows students to create their own blogs within the security of a closed network. Also allows easier access to blogs for their peers and myself when assessing their work.
• At first it was due to the security that it could provide, as I was looking for a place where I could expand audience to everyone in my common class (Expository Writing) but not the general public. I will continue with it even though our security restrictions have loosened due to the functionality of it and the oversight that I still have as an instructor. I also like all of the features that it provides and the cost is manageable with my departmental budget. 
• I can have student blogs associated with and housed within the class blog, and these can be kept private / shared only within the group.
• Easy to use and intended for educational purposes.  No ads.
• Simple, easy to use, very user friendly and yet it allows you to do so many new things on your blog.
• Branding. My blogs are generally about education and I like the EDU in the name.
• Edublogs provides clear advice on setting up blog
• Confidence in their privacy settings to allow me and the children to blog anything without worrying about confidentiality. 
• Good value for money”
• Convenient and able to post many different types of material.
• Allows me to control student blogs and easily link student blogs all together
• Ease of use, good support. Student blogs link for free yet can also be customised.
• Ease of use, no need to find a hosting site, easy entry into using WordPress, reasonable cost to school, support team is brilliant, fantastic themes, robust features
• Easy to organize, upload and download info. I can keep assignments and links from class year to the next class year.
• Fast reply to support requests. 
• I can approve all of my student work, comments before it goes online through my dashboard. I don’t need to log in 26 times and can manage everything through my account.
• Easy to use, attractive templates, safe for kids and I can monitor multiple student blogs easily.
• Edublog was recommended by out ITC person, it’s free, it’s government recommended and there are no questionable advertisements.
• Edublogs is not blocked by my school! It allows us to be part of an educational blogging community. Edublogs has lots of great features that allows me to share creatively on our library blog
• Edublogs is so easy to use, and their tech support is amazing.
• EduBlogs seemed the safest for school environments. The other blog I used is a self-hosted wordpress.org and it seemed to get more spam and be a little more open to the public than we wanted for our high school students. The EduBlog Pro platform allowed enough space for us to store more than 2 years worth of student blogs, vlogs, and has become a main resource for our school communications. The platform was easy to teach and very similar to WordPress layout with enhanced safety features. It served our students very well and allowed them many advanced technology options for advanced blogging. We decided to share one blog and have over 100 student writers contribute in and out (as the classes change) because we mainly had a specific audience (our high school students, staff, parents, community) so we all worked together to share news and special interest pieces from students. I thought one class blog would receive more attention that 100 individual blogs and would also be more organized for both my grading and their writing. I bought an easier domain for very cheap to help students, staff, parents, and community members find the site easier. We also used the EduBlog for specific clubs, sports, and activities to share their news or special links/forms as needed on their assigned pages. We were not looking to make money with this blog so EduBlogs worked just fine. The students had valuable news writing and technology experience working with the EduBlog Pro platform.
• Education friendly, immediate & helpful support–problems are addressed & fixed
• I like the privacy settings that Edublogs has. Also, the customer service is amazing! Any time I have a question, it has been answered quickly and I was able to solve the problem.
• I like the set up, ease of use, and I want my students to be able to communicate with those in class, people out-side of class, and beyond. This, to me, is so much more pertinent than a reflective journal, which is usually shared only between a student and myself (& I LOVE that) but this is much more up to date, global, and the students think it’s fun. I think it raises the bar in terms of thought processes, grammar and conventions, and almost “self-assesses.”
• I liked its introduction of itself and all of its uses.
• I liked the appearance and ease of use.
• I love Edublogs. It is teacher and kid friendly. Many helpful posts done by Sue Waters. Most importantly, the reason I chose Edublogs was because I wanted to try out the Student Blog Challenge organized by Sue Wyatt, so I signed up right before the challenge began in March 2014. I was not disappointed. It was a wonderful experience! I was a little apprehensive at first, being a homeschool mom and everyone else being mostly from traditional type schools, but Miss W. was so warm and welcoming to my children and me. I am so grateful to her. She is soooooo wonderful! My children and I have learned much about blogging, being online, web tools, and so much more. I even have a twitter account, which I never considered having before, and now see how much I have missed out on. Thus, I guess my answer is: the reason I use Edublogs is mostly because of Miss W. and also because of Sue Waters. A blogging platform that has people who care about their bloggers as much as these two do: well, who else would you want to use?
• I love how easy and simple it is to use.
• I needed to bring all my research notes into one searchable place, with the opportunity to share it with my PhD supervisors.
• I placed my summer program in the All-Russian Children’s Centre “Ocean” onto my blog in order to conduct classes through it. It is a rather convenient way of teaching my students basic digital skills through the Internet. They are EFL learners, so it is a very new experience for them to learn the online resources in this field.
• I think it is better to use Edublog because it is easier to use and my teacher recommended using Edublog because I do not have to pay for my blog so if I don’t like it I can stop.
• I thought it would be easier to make student blogs.
• I use Edublogs because it was recommended by a colleague. It is a very user-friendly platform that allows me to customise my class blog to suit my needs.
• Introduced during ETMOOC sessions. I find it easy to use with visually appealing themes. I also appreciate the support Edublogs has given me (Sue solved a problem I tweeted about! and helped me change my theme to a device friendly platform). I also like the the simplicity of the instructions, and my students are able to follow them too.
• Is geared to educational use and doesn’t require an email
• It is a very easy platform for a novice in technology.
• It is easy to use. It allows me to moderate posts and comments and that made families and our administration more comfortable.
• It is the platform I was first introduced to. I’m familiar with it now and all our staff use this for their class blogs. It is therefore easier to support each other.
• It is user-friendly and a great way to utilize technology / 21st Century learning expectations without being overwhelmed with all of the “techie” stuff.
• Managed WordPress environment. Backups, security, fast optimized speed, no need for software of plugin updates. Stress free platform that I don’t have to worry about. Great customer support by email in the Dashboard of WordPress. It is like having managed WordPress hosting at an affordable price.
• No advertising, great interface
• Support. I am fairly new to blogging and I work in a system without any technical support, so Edublogs provides me with a safety net for when things go awry.
• Supported by our district and supported for education purposes
• Terrific support, ease of set-up, excellent class management system, safety of student work, and good price for all of these features.
• The secure aspect of it plus it is easy and affordable to use and maintain
• There are a lot of useful information for my teaching. Thanks to Edublogs, I can pick up valuable ideas easily.
• This blog platform seems much safer than some others I have looked into.
• This is the one I started with years ago and I’m reluctant to migrate my content.
• This is used to complete class assignments to share my opinions with fellow students and under the supervision of the teacher.
• This one seemed to fit my needs best since I am a new education blogger.
• This platform is user-friendly, allows me to easily monitor student blogs, and has the security measures I need (such as blocking search engines).

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Reasons for using Blogger:

Attached to my gmail account

• Ease of use, free to use, easy to customize and integrated with other Google products and Google apps for Education.  
• Easy to use when I first started blogging
• I do not have to pay for it and it allows me to set up student blogs without advertising. 
• I have access to it through my school email.
• It is what I learned on and I just haven’t bothered to change.
• It was easy to find and set-up
• It’s easy to get to from Google account.
• Students have Google Accounts assigned by school. It offers that use of the same password as their Google Drive, Gmail etc

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Reasons for using WordPress.com:

Responses by many of those that selected WordPress.com as there main platform highlighted they were using either Global 2 (CampusPress) or Glow Blogs (WordPress powered service provided for Scottish teachers and their students) and not WordPress.com.

• A strong community, with very good support. The platform is easy to use and manage.
• Ease of use and multiple blog support. Non intrusive staff, and good support.
• Ease of use coupled with professional look and feel.
• Free, easy to use, reliable, features,

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Reasons for using KidBlog:

• Ease of use, easy to manage. ability to make private and safe for students.
• I did a bit of reserarch prior to setting up. It seems like the most common blog used by my colleagues and peers. I wanted a platform I knew I could rely on and a strong cohort to go to for support.
• I’ve used Kidblog in the past. It was easy to set up and students didn’t need e-mail addresses.
• It allowed me to have the kids having their own individual page linked to a classroom blog.
• It is easy for the younger students. I use edublogs with my college students.
• It is easy to manage and easy for the kids to upload and share their thoughts. It is a very safe format. It is also free which is great.
• It’s free. It’s safe. It’s easy for teachers to use.
• Kidblog iPad app is very easy for young students to manage, and teacher has control. I use this for student blogging. 
• Kidblog is easy for parents, students and other people to understand if the student needs help. I have not had issues with it at all.
• Similar format to my WordPress blog. Easy for kids to use.
• Simplicity. I used to use Edublogs but I like this interface better.
• Simplified sign up procedure and no need for an email address in order to sign up the students.
• User friendly, most of my teaching friends chose this for their classes.

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Reasons for using Edublogs Campus (now known as CampusPress):

• Ease of use, it is very user friendly.
• Quick and helpful response, every time I’ve made a mistake or don’t know how to do something”
• Global 2, a CampusPress network, is supported and provided by DEECD (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development). This premium version of Edublogs is fantastic!
• Online support that is available
• Fairly easy to use, support is excellent, the only platform my school will approve.
• I was introduced to it by a colleague 5 years ago and have found no reason to change.
• School mandated or chosen platform at my school
• Whole School Approach

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Reasons for using Weebly:

• Weebly is easy and robust. It is a good balance of templates and easy drag and drop we parts it allows blog and webpages and us easy to manage as a teacher. Young students pick it up easily it allows ind creativity while still providing templates. A good balance.
• Easy, fun, and itss free if you only have 1/2 blogs per account
• I attended a course with a local school who was using weebly and seemed easy to use.
• It has good themes and is easy to manipulate!

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Reasons for using Blogmeister:

• Excellent moderation, blogs organized by assignment, easy to create student blogs.

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Reasons for using Self hosted WordPress:

• Full control over plugins.
• I have a fair amount of experience with the platform and can get it to do what I want it to do without being restricted in functionality and sharing.
• I know it well, and it provides options for customization.

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Reasons for using Tumblr:

• Easy to use and has more pictures/videos than writing.
• Easy to use and intuitive
• Started with Tumbbr and feel comfortable with it.

What Else?

Do you have other information you would have liked us to include?  What other questions would you like us to have asked?

Let us know in the comments below!