I don’t know if this is the right place to post a suggestion, but I did want to throw an idea your way:

Edublogs is the best program there is for bringing teachers on board with Web 2.0 tools and possibilities. As a teacher trainer, I’ve done quite a few Edublogs workshops. Teachers leave the workshops excited and ready to go “live” with a blog. Of course, not all of them follow through with their intentions to become bloggers and to bring blogging into their classrooms. But at least they have a window into what the buzz is all about.

For the teachers that do go on to become active Edubloggers, I don’t think it will be a problem to convince them to become Supporters. They soon realize the many benefits of being part of a dynamic community of edubloggers.

But for the teachers just coming on board, here’s my suggestion:
How about offering a 30-day ad-free trial period?! I think many newbies would be ready to upgrade their blogs if they had some time to explore an ad-free Edublogs. Better yet, of course, would be a 60-day or 90-day trial since teachers often come to workshops during their vacation time, which is great for learning a new tool, but usually they can’t introduce the tool to students until they’re back in session

OK, I feel comfortable throwing out this suggestion because I completely understand that a trial period might not be even a remote possibility. But I so want to keep offering Edublogs to teachers.

A colleague suggested I use Blogger. My dog, who is a Katrina survivor, has a Blogger blog – but that’s just because she is not an educator. I took another look at her blog and realized, for a starter, that I can’t upload podcasts. That’s usually my second workshop. Once teachers have set up a blog and then learn how to upload a podcast from Audacity, they begin to see so many possibilities for increasing learning opportunities in their particular teaching assignments.

And then there’s the Forum, and The Edublogger, and on and on…

Gail

Thanks Stephen. Traveling costs were never as much issue as how draining it has been physically. At one stage, a few years ago, I would start work at 9 AM in the morning and finish at 9 PM at night then have to be there the next day for 9 AM.

While moving closer would have been a sensible option for me it’s not been a sensible option for my children or financially.

It would be more useful if you were more specific. For example, after my newsletter today, I could conclude you are talking about me… but really, it’s a big world, and I have no idea of who you’re talking about, and probably, neither has your target. And now, we’re all curious…