Bringing student bogs and wikis together - any advice?

Hi
I'm in the midst of setting up a blogging/wiki project for English students. What I am looking to do is have students blog and wiki and then draw these writings together on a main display blog, sort of like an online magazine so we can update and change and have discussions on content etc.

The students are reluctant writers and some of the material will be visual (images and drawings).

Any ideas on the main blog to present the work? I guess the model is the Huffington Post style where they write stories to the blog but also link to other blogs etc. Is that what I should do just link to the students blogs? Is there a way of displaying say the first 3 sentences?

I'd like the students to choose the lead posts and items etc. Any recommened blog software for the display page...Word press, blogger etc?

Thanks
Martin

Sorry about non-technical language but I'm working in the dark here...