There are benefits in publishing openly to the internet, but if you don't want the whole world to be able to view what you write or if you need a closed environment for students blogging, then the Blogger 'Dashboard' is where you can configure your blogs to work how you want, Open or Closed. To do this go back to your Blogger 'Dashboard' and click 'Settings'.
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NB. Your browser may not support display of this image. Try to use a standards based browser such as Firefox
- Choose 'Permissions', if you want your students to be able to contribute, simply click 'Invite', enter their emails to Invite more people to write to the blog - this then becomes a 'class' blog rather than an individual one.
- Choose 'Who can view this blog? / Only people I choose / Only blog authors' There are benefits to having an open blog, but duty of care and tracking may need to be considered with student's contributions.
- OK, now choose 'Comments' , have a look at the various choices available for using comments on your blog. Think carefully on your reasons for restricting comments. Should you wish to restrict comments to your classroom only choose 'Only members of this blog' from 'Who can comment'.
- Important choose yes for 'Show word verification for comments?', Why? If you don't your blog will be open to the scourge of the internet, Spam! Spam is automated junk mail, word verfication means should a viewer wish to comment they must enter a list of letters and numbers before the comment is posted.
- Also, in the 'Comment Notification Address' field insert your email, this way you'll be informed when a comment is posted.