Wordpress is a free blogging platform. For teachers creating their own classroom blogs, they can use the WordPress apps on mobile devices to simplify the setup process. Most of the features are actually more accessible (and easier to find) in the app than they are online; typing on the touchscreen rather than a keyboard is the main difference that might slow posting down for students and teachers alike. Students 13 and up can use the app for the iOS or Android device to create and manage WordPress blogs. Once registered, students can post blog entries with text, photos, or video as well as manage their blog's templates and design, approve comments, and adjust its settings. In addition, students can use the Reader tab to read blogs they follow or search for blogs on subjects of interest. While most of the web-based features are available in the app, there are some notable mobile-only functions, like voice-recognition dictation to post blog entries and one-tap picture posting for images and videos from the device's camera roll.
Wikispaces.com is a simple platform where teachers and kids can take these baby steps to online creation and collaboration. The user-friendly wiki site is great for grade-school children and powerful enough to accommodate tech-powered educators. The websites you'll create in Wikispaces are organized with hyperlinks and searchable tags. For this reason, they're a terrific choice for teachers to use with students. As kids author Web content in a safe environment, they'll discover how the Web is organized, filtered, and sorted. About seven minutes of video tutorials on Wikispaces.com’s help page will enable beginners to create and share their Web creations with an audience. Wikispaces asks for an email address when you create your account, but if a teacher creates the student accounts, no email is required. Creating a wiki is as easy as naming it and clicking Done. Inside a new wiki, you can edit your home page, add pages, or invite members to join your wiki. The edit button on each page reveals a few options. A menu of buttons lets you to insert pictures, create links to other pages, and more. If you save your changes often, you'll switch back and forth between the published page view and the editing view. |
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