Classroom Collaboration Series: ClassChatter

Got that Portaportal page set up yet? Even if you don't, I'm moving on. I had a fabulous (or at least I thought so) series of posts a few months ago all about grant writing. My next "series" of posts which I will feature this summer will have to do with online collaboration for the classroom. I can't guarantee what day of the week I am going to post them like I did for my grant writing series because I'm on "island time" for the next 10 weeks and  four days (whatever - you counted, too) but they will appear weekly.
One of the wonderful things about using web tools for classroom collaboration is that it often makes your life a tiny bit less paperless AND it plays into your students' growing interest and understanding of how to use the Internet to communicate. We all know that  outside of school many of our kiddos chat online, e-mail, and social network, whether they are of age to do so or not. And although there are steps you can take to make sure parents and students know what's safe and appropriate, there's no stopping the access  your students have once they leave your classroom. That's why it's good - almost necessary - to give students web tools to display and communicate what they know and what they need to say so they learn the proper way to communicate online - for learning and social purposes.
The first item to add to your virtual toolbox (which is hopefully housed on your PORTAPORTAL page) is ClassChatter. I have used ClassChatter for several years and have found it to be teacher friendly and student adored. This is a way for you to create FREE, password protected blogs for your classroom. Your students can learn to blog in a safe environment that cannot be accessed by anyone else except the teacher and classmates. You create student accounts under your teacher account so that you see whatever the students write. There is also a "cMail" teacher account where the students can send messages to you without the entire class reading it.
As the teacher you can create topic blog posts for students to respond to - I usually make these anything from introducing yourself to the class to current events - and then (my favorite) you can create assignment blogs! This is where you create an assignment for students to respond to under your original post. Students can work on it and come back to it, checking the finished assignment button when they have completed their post. As the teacher you can see who is still working, who has finished, and who hasn't even started yet (Grrr!). I've made my assignment blogs anything from listing the factors of a selected number, to researching a volcano, to creative writing prompts. Each student automatically gets their own blog page when you create their accounts as well. You can set the purpose for this or encourage your students to create their own blogs about things that interest them - a great way to get your cherubs to WANT to write! You also get your own teacher blog page as well to keep the class informed about whatever you'd like.
What ClassChatter lacks in "pretty" - there's no changing the colors, theme, or overall look - it makes up 110% in functionality. In a way, it's good the students (and the teacher for that matter) can't really mess with the appearance because it makes you focus on the content over the bells and whistles. My class has always been so into "we have a blog" that they've never brought up what it looks like. Oh, you will see some advertisements to upgrade to ClassChatterLive, but the free version provides you with plenty to get your class blogging safely and purposefully. Check it out and consider setting up your account for next year!
http://www.classchatter.com/