Blog as alternative to school newspaper

Blogs have been great tools for various types of classwork but with today's bevy of smartphone apps that allow for direct editing, the blog is now a very viable alternative to the school newspaper. In fact, it would allow for a near real time newspaper that could be very handy for sporting events, field trips, and other events where people want to know what is going on as it is going on.

Blogger app announcement

Yes, Twitter can provide real time access, but it's limit in the number of characters it can handle and multimedia is constrained to pointing at external links. Google, the owner of Blogger, has just released an app for the iPhone that will allow blog post creation and editing. The user can upload and edit posts just as they would with a computer. The posts can include photos taken by the phone. It's not clear if the app can also handle videos taken by the camera. Given that Blogger handles video, it seems like the type of feature that if not there now can be expected in future releases.

The idea of making a post from a phone is not new. It's been possible to upload posts from smartphones using email for a long time. And, in a pinch one would have to use a smartphone's web browser to edit. Having a specific application makes the entire process easier.

The only issue that you need to consider if the process by which posts are published. If you trust your field reports, you can upload the posts and publish immediately. If there are good reasons for concern, you can have your reporters submit posts as drafts and then have the editor/moderator publish them.

T

Use the new Blogger for internal School Blogs

Blogger, the firm that provides the service for this blog, has just announced a new version of their system which makes it usable for an internal school blog.

In addition to a number of nice usability upgrades, Blogger is making it possible to limit access to the blog. So, for example, you could make it so that only teachers or students can access your site. Adding allowed viewers is as easy as uploading the email addresses for everyone you want to be allowed in. Certainly worth a look.

The new features are for new accounts, for now. People with current accounts have to wait for the features to be rolled out.

T
Making a private blog