At the bottom right of the sidebar you can see a ClustrMap - kids love to know who is viewing their hard work and endless discussions could arise from math, patterns, geography to time and space. Edublogs integrates the free website analysis tool called Google Analytics.
Below is a screenshot made with the fantabulos Skitch of just some of the graphical feedback the service provides:
Tags: Community · Maps · New paradigm · Social Software
If you are interested in my usual opinionated diatribe on social constructivist use of the internet - my main blog is here.
This Edublog is intended to be a sandpit in which I throw together a mash-up of the embeddable web into a free Edublog without breaking it. It is a proof of concept - a free personal learning environment (PLE) can be built that includes video chat, blogging, folksonomy, instant messaging, tagging, social bookmarking, text-to-speech, RSS, XML, embeddable flash learning objects, podcasts, wiki, video chat, conversation, privacy and many other nifty flexible learning tools.
As we try to develop personal learning environments (PLEs) to help bring curriculum to 21C learners the open-source web is moving fast through the scalaeability of flexible mash-up structures - this blog demonstrates that any teacher can build a powerful PLE for free from the open-source web.
Any kid worth their Wii will tell you the same - "teh internet is my PLE dummy!" It's not about control it's about being flexible enough to be part of the conversation.
