Blogging without student email?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Nedra on February 6, 2008 at 5:33am

I have not started blogging yet but a site I plan on checking out is 21classrooms. The main page says it's free and doesn't require student emails.

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Permalink Reply by James Dykstra on February 6, 2008 at 5:34am

21classes.com will let you decide whether or not your students need e-mail. If you decide they need e-mail, you can restrict it to one domain so, for example, the students only use e-mail accounts given out by the school. The system isn't as pretty as Blogger or Wordpress, but it lets you be in charge of everything.Nothing gets posted without you approving it.

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Permalink Reply by Amy Capelle on February 6, 2008 at 9:07am

Wow! Thanks for all the replies.

I wanted to clarify that I personally have already set up student email with gaggle.net (some of the teachers at my school have done or are doing this as well). I have already set up a class blog and student blogs and linked them all together all fancy -like.

I realize how time consuming all of that is because I've done it. But the teachers at my school are turned off by the time issue with setting it up. They want to blog, but I think some of them are turned off by the complicated setup. First you have to set up some sort of email, then you have to create the blog, then you need to have them invited to the blog... it's a lot of steps for those less techie than us.

I will check 21classes again. I used 21classes in the teacher technology training I just did. I find it a little confusing and cumbersome especially for a novice... that's why I prefer blogger. But if they don't actually have to create student emails, invite students, make sure students have accepted all the invitation links, etc. it may be an option. I set the training one up with a specific domain name needed so that it would be protected from just anybody.

And I've suggested the "nickname" option for blogger, but then you lose all control over who is posting what. I teach at the high school level and they LOVE to be mischievous (that's a nice way of putting it).

So there's nothing (other than 21classes) that would keep teacher control over the blog members, but not require a major setup hassle on the teacher's part?

PS: I will check out classblogmeister. I have looked into it and it seemed like it was a hassle to get a passcode to set one up.

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Permalink Reply by Ann on February 6, 2008 at 7:41pm

I'll admit, getting the passcode was not the easiest first step, but above Christine posted the link for getting the passcode. You get one code for the whole school. Once I had the passcode, the entire blog set up was minimal and the students have not trouble getting used to the interface.

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Permalink Reply by John Plummer on February 11, 2008 at 3:24pm

I think Flatpress can do this too, I'm not big on php though and you'll need a server to host it.

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Permalink Reply by Nicole Cox on June 11, 2008 at 4:19pm

Something that can be done is to use a throwaway email address. Sites like Mailinator.com will allow you to use it as a fake address. There is an email account for a couple of hours if you need to send a confirmation, but then that address just deletes itself. I have used this personally on many sign up sites that I don't want mail from. It helps keep spamming at bay on my personal email. A kid could just type joestudent@mailinator.com and into the blogger/wordpress/whatever other blog to sign up. You do not have to sign up at mailinator, and don't ever have to go there unless you have to do a confirmation. I know there are other similar sites, but this is what I use.

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Permalink Reply by Grace Kat on June 12, 2008 at 8:06am

I opened a gmail account for my class (e.g. ClassWhatever@gmail.com) Then, in edublogs, in the 'create blogs & users' tab I added a suffix to the class email name (e.g. ClassWhatever+1@gmail.com , ClassWhatever+2@gmail.com) where the numbers match a student. The emails from edublogs were sent to my class email and I joined each student that way. (Can take a bit of time but the students' names aren't on these emails and that's what I liked about it).

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Permalink Reply by Leanne Grandjean on June 30, 2008 at 12:26pm

http://mscofino.edublogs.org/2007/10/18/sign-me-up-the-elementary-e...

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Nielsen on June 30, 2008 at 10:15pm

I have a blog post thanks to a fabulous participant (also a blogger) named Ellen, who was in a recent class I offered. The post is called, "The Workaround for Setting Up Accounts for Students Even if You Do.... I hope this helps.

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Permalink Reply by Ryan Palmer on July 1, 2008 at 10:03am

Amy,
Have you tried "10 minute email"? This site will give you a temporary email address for 10 minutes. You can even extend the amount of time if you are waiting for an email confirmation message. I use this often when I want to sign up for something without getting a lot of extra emails. Here is the link below:

http://10minutemail.com/10MinuteMail/index.html

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Permalink Reply by Victoria West on September 25, 2008 at 9:57am

Hi Amy,
www.thinkquest. com is fabulous. After the initial set up (paper work and verification from principal etc.), you can do amazing things with your students- We started using it this year after having the same problem as you did.

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Permalink Reply by Laura Veglahn on September 25, 2008 at 6:22pm

You can blog without student email addresses using Edublogs. When you post a comment on edublogs, it does require an email address, however, you are able to use dummy-email addresses.
For example, if Tasha Johnson wants to respond to a post on my blog, she just needs to put in her name, Tasha Johnson in the space provided for name, for her email address she just types "tasha@tasha.com.

Once she replies to a post, I can, as the administrator, erase the dummy email address, give her credit in the gradebook and change her name to initials, if I so choose. When I taught middle school I did so, however in high school I figure I am only helping students make healthy digital footprints by using student names.

Give Edublogs a try, it's worth it and kids DO NOT need email addresses.

best of luck,

Laura V.

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