What makes a good quality student blog?

The first part of this post is my answer to what are the......

Features of a good quality student blog

..Good structure and layout, with appealing design and theme
..Regularly uploaded and updated posts (should be at least once a week), showing intellectual quality.
..Evidence of proof reading for accuracy, reliability and completeness.
..Appropriate language, bearing in mind digital citizenship status
..Posts of varying lengths with interestingly written content and work that reflects the best of student's ability.
..A range of topics for the posts - could include curricular and non curricular activities.Use of essential and interesting sidebar widgets eg categories, search option, blogroll, links.
..A clustrmap and/or feedjit map and feeds Others may include weather pixie, a clock, feature slideshare presentations and flickr etc animated widgets, where appropriate.
..Presence of hyperlinks to give a richer depth allowing for further research, showing a degree of expertise on the topic
..A header with appropriate titles and images that relect something about the author eg a panoramic image showcasing where you live, interests, school pursuits etc.
..Addition of voluntary and student self-directed posts, showing personality of and ownership by student.
..Links to frequently used resources, class blog and teacher blogs
..Evidence of reflections
..Evidence of comments and conversations
..Blogroll of fellow bloggers - either in-house or global
..Frequent use of images and photos (preferably self taken), including graphs, wordle, clipart, cartoons, tag galaxy etc These should be ofappropriate format and size
..Addition of a number of pages, including ‘about me', extra curricula activity involvement, my digital stories, photography, global projects etc
..Variety of multi media including voicethreads, slideshare, podcasts, digital movies etc
..Appropriate acknowledgement of any copyright or creative commons materials used.
..User documentation instructing the readers of the blog, to complete the same task. Eg how to add a tag galaxy.
..Full development of the blog as a digital portfolio.

fRoM tHe StUdEnTs......
I asked my students to answer the same question and the points below summarize their answers........

From year 9/10

..good theme - eyecatching and colour
..managed regularly and be kept up to date. People should make a post at least once a week
..have good and/or interesting information in it and have comments on it..
..a bit of creative thought and care put into the making of it..
..pictures
..People expressing their thoughts
See flurogreen (year 9) for a great post on this topic

Grade 6 students were a lot more explicit with their answer to this question:-

Good work with lots of posts – at least one a week. You should explain your posts. Appropriate posts of what is happening at the time.
A few widgets eg clustrmap, feedjit - it makes you feel really good because people around the world are looking at you!
Some good games
Something that involves people (interactivity) eg polls, quizes
Getting comments from people all over the globe
Catergories so you can write about different topics.
Colourful, exiting things on your sidebar.
Lots of pictures. Eg pets, you, house. Have pictures of what is around you or what is happening at that time.
A catchy name, if somone typed Princess peaches blog there’s a pretty good chance that blog will come up.
Experiment with new things (Flag counter, voki’s stuff like that) Make your blog look fantastic!!!!!

AND YOU SHOULD ENJOY HAVING A BLOG! (Great statement from one of the grade 6 students)

See a great posts by jess, skippy