Well, here goes.
In my first ever post – four years ago this month – I wondered how I could provide this wonderful technology to teachers and learners. There was the visionary Manila (too hard – for me) and the ever present Blogger (too out of your control) but it wasn’t until WPMU came along that things started to click.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
However, there’s always been something missing from Edublogs – yes you can have student blogs at learnerblogs.org, uniblogs.org or eslblogs.org – but the problem with multi-user blogging is that it’s never been, well, multi-multi-user.
So – what now seems a loooong time ago I began work on what I present to you today, the ability for anyone to set-up, almost instantly their own fully featured educational blog hosting service, Edublogs in a box, Edublogs Premium.
And I have to say, I’m pretty excited :)
Each site has all the functionality – and a bit more (like complete privacy options) – that I have at Edublogs. You can manage, create, design and run your own educational blogging site, fully hosted by us, for what I hope is a very very reasonable price (including free set-up to our first batch of clients too).
What’s even better in my book is that this will allow free education blogs at Edublogs to continue to grow and develop without advertising and with security. Schools and educators who want the extra functionality can grab themselves an Edublogs Premium account and this will support educators and schools who don’t need the full whack or can’t afford it. Sounds pretty damn good to me.
I can’t begin to thank all of you who have used, promoted or supported first Incsub and then Edublogs down the track. Absolutely none of this would be possible without the plain bloody genius of Donncha O Caoimh, the selfless and brilliant members of the WPMU forums and the good folk at Automattic who have done so much to bring WPMU forward. To say I simply owe these people would be an enormous understatement!
So, here we go, wish me luck!
Hi James
Thanks for the news on Edublogs Premium — I am going to look into it for the Western Massachusetts Writing Project, which I am part of — and I want to thank you for the Edublogs network as a whole. It has been a wonderful experience and community to be part of.
Peace,
Kevin H.
That’s great news Kevin – thanks for the interest. Please feel free to contact me directly if you’ve got any questions – and that goes for anyone else too: https://newincorg3.wpmudev.host/contact-me/
James, This sounds like an exciting step for the Edublogs world! Given the amount of universities finally coming to understand that blogs (and web2.0) embody the key principles of student-centred active learning, I suspect you might see a fair amount of business coming your way! Are you sticking with your media day-job or are you becoming a full-time blog guru? :)
Edublogs will no doubt be my most recommended site for edubloggers in 2007. If you had this service a year ago, I’d be all over it. Worpdpress multi-mutli user. Sounds cool. Well done, hope it pays for your efforts.
James – So happy to see your project moving forward. You deserve all the support we muster.
Good luck dude – great to see a post from you on the old feed.
Fang