15 Free Tools For Better Blogging
This is a guest post from Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes for OnlineClasses.org, an online college classresource.
Teachers and other education professionals who are interested in starting their own blog or integrating blogging into a classroom can find many online resources to improve their blogging experience. Many of these resources are free and easy to implement on a variety of platforms. Here are 15 no-cost tools to explore today:
Edmodo – This free microblogging platform was created for students and teachers who want to be able to blog and share files through a private connection. Edmodo works a lot like Twitter–it allows threaded replies and a place to share links and embeds–but it does not limit posts to 140 characters.
TeacherLingo – TeacherLingo is an online education community where teachers can connect, create blogs, and share blogs.
Edublogs – Edublogs are free blogs for students and teachers. Features include customizable themes, an automatic spellchecker, video insertion devices, importing capabilities, and exporting capabilities.
Thingamablog – Thingamablog is a desktop blogging platform that makes it easy to set up and maintain multiple blogs. Users can publish blogs remotely, import posts, make posts from various feeds, and dynamically update blog entries.
International Edublogger Directory – Education professionals who have their own blogs can join this international directory. The International Edublogger Directory is also a good place to find and connect with blogs that are similar to your own.
SupportBlogging – This site was created to promote the benefits of educational blogging. Site resources include information on educational blogging and a list of education-related blogs.
Twitterfeed – This free Twitter app can be used to automatically feed your blog to your Twitter account–perfect for blogging teachers who are trying to manage multiple online accounts.
TweetSuite – TweetSuite is a WordPress plugin that provides “Re-Tweet This” buttons, automatic tweeting of new blog posts, and other Tweet widgets.
Widgetbox – Widgetbox is a fantastic place to find free widgets for your blog. Many of the widgets on this site are education-related in some way.
BlogRolling – This free online service can be used to place and manage blogrolls on your website. BlogRolling is easy to set-up and customize.
Gickr – Gickr allows bloggers to get creative with their photos. The site can be used to easily create animated images and slide shows for blog posts.
Yahoo! Media Player – This free media player makes it easy to add audio files to your blog. No download or registration is required.
Google Translator – Google’s free translator gadget allows blog visitors to automatically translate your blog posts into another language. The Google Translator supports more than 40 different languages.
Deep Log Analyzer – The free edition of Deep Log Analyzer is great for bloggers who want to see what their visitors are up to. The analyzer tracks blog activity and reports statistics.
Edutagger – Teachers and other educators who want to promote their blog posts can open a free account on this social bookmarking site. Edutagger accepts links that would be of interest to K-12 teachers and learners.
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