If your students have their own blog, digital portfolio, or website, you may have found that their enthusiasm for writing starts off strong. Students typically can’t wait to express themselves and publish on their own online space, often for an authentic audience.

Sometimes when the initial excitement fades, students start facing “bloggers’ block” or get in a rut of writing the same style of post repeatedly.

Our engaging collection of writing prompts is designed to help students keep the momentum going with their blogs, websites, or digital portfolios. These prompts encourage exploration across different genres, tools, and mediums. Whether you’re working with reluctant writers or simply looking for fresh, authentic ideas to inspire your students to publish, you’ve come to the right place.

Scroll down to dive straight into the prompts, or read on to find out more about the types of posts you could see on a blog, personal website, or digital portfolio.

We have created a PDF eBook of the prompts that you can save, print, or share. You don’t need to ask permission to use the eBook as it has a BY-NC-ND Creative Commons license. You just can’t make derivatives or use the eBook commercially. And you should give attribution. Note that this eBook was created in 2021 may contain outdated links.

10 Types Of Blog Posts

Blogging isn’t like traditional writing — it’s a unique genre and it’s worth exploring what’s possible.

Here are 10 types of blog posts you commonly see on the web. This might give you inspiration to mix up the posts on your students’ blogs, websites, or portfolios.

1. Reflection: Deep thoughts and self-reflection on what you’ve learned, experienced, or what you’re thinking about. Putting it all out there can really help organize thoughts and ideas.

2. How-to/Helpful: Everyone loves using the web to find out how to do something. This classic style of post can be enhanced with pictures, videos, and other media.

3. Journal/Diary/Recount: This is a versatile style of post that’s great for reading logs, field trips, science labs, special events, study abroad, and so on.

4. News/Announcement: These posts aim to keep readers up-to-date with important information. In this example, educator George Couros announces a book study.

5. Marketing/Sales: Typically these are commercial style posts. Students could use blogs to advertise things like school events and fundraisers. For example, the students at Auroa School made a video to promote their school.

6. Controversial/Debate/Editorial: This involves taking a stance on an issue while backing up thoughts with facts and proof. Sidd’s debate on cell phones in schools is a good example.

7. Reviews: Many people love to take to the web to share their reviews (sites like Amazon and TripAdvisor may offer inspiration!). Here’s an example of a book review from teacher Kevin Hodgson.

8. Listicle: This is another name for a list post. We know how popular articles are that start with something like “10 ways to…”. These sorts of posts often offer the reader quick wins. In this example, Mrs. Yollis and her students list their top 12 quarantine essentials.

9. Curation Posts: Sometimes a blog post or page is used to curate a list of resources on a particular topic. This page of live events and virtual field trips is an example of a curated list from Mrs. Hamman.

10. Ongoing Series: Choose any of the above, but split it up into several shorter posts that get published over a set period of time. The posts could connect sequentially, or just fall under the same umbrella topic. For example, Sheri Edwards did a series of posts using the Slice of Life writing prompts.

Ideas And Prompts For Student Writers

We’ve divided the prompts up into 8 broad topics to make navigation easier. Of course, some prompts could fit into more than one category.

Getting Started

Online Prompts

Interdisciplinary and Fun

Art, Images, and Music

Reading and Writing

History and Geography

Math and Science

Web Tools

Getting Started

These topics are ideal for getting students used to publishing online.

• Introductions: Who are you? Share your hobbies, interests, family background, and anything else you want others to know while remembering to protect your personal information if your site is public. This information might be best on a static About page so it’s easy for new visitors to refer to.
• Personal A to Z: Create an A-Z of yourself or one of your interests (e.g. an A-Z of basketball or gardening).
• Avatar: Create an avatar (online character) to use on your blog and write a post to explain how it represents you. This post on the Student Blogging Challenge demonstrates some different ways you can make an avatar using online tools.
• Commenting Guidelines: Write a post to explain what you expect when someone leaves a comment on your blog. There is some information and examples on the Student Blogging Challenge site on how to write commenting guidelines.
• Goals: Share some goals that you have set for yourself. For example, you could publish one goal for this week, one goal for this month, and one goal for this school year. Describe how you plan to accomplish your goals.
• Holiday: Share what you did on a recent holiday or vacation. Include photos or videos if you have permission. Alternatively, you could write about your dream vacation. Where would you go and what would you do?
• Hero/Mentor: Write about someone who inspires you. It could be someone you know in real life or someone famous from the past or present. What is it about this person that makes them so special?
• My Country or Culture: Publish facts about your country or a culture that you’re interested in. You could write a post focusing on food, festivals, songs, stories, clothing, geography, or anything else.
• School History: Write some information about your school’s history. You could focus on the buildings, write about someone who used to go to the school, or reflect on how the curriculum or rules have changed.
• Classrooms: Explain what the classrooms and buildings are like in your school or describe what your perfect classroom would look like. Use your imagination; your dream classroom could be indoors, outdoors, in a school, or somewhere else!
• Favorite…anything: Publish a post that discusses topics you’re passionate about. You could write about your favorite animal, TV show, movie, holiday, sports, or hobbies.
• Reader Quiz: Your quiz could be about anything — Disney movies, chemistry, capital cities, football… you choose! Readers could answer in a comment or in Google Forms. This could be a great way to get to know your audience. You might like to do a follow-up post that goes over the results, including graphs, charts, and analysis. BEAM is a simple tool for making basic charts.
• Guest Post: Ask a friend or family member if they’d like to write a guest post on your blog. Make sure you approve it before publishing.
• Top 10: Make a top 10 list of anything. For example, you could rank your favorite songs, actors, sports, or foods.
• Interview: Interview someone in your family or community. There might be interesting people at your school you could interview too like your principal, cleaner, librarian, or crossing supervisor.
• Three Wishes: If you had three wishes, what would they be? Invite your readers to share their own wishes in a comment.

Online Prompts

• Video Prompts: John Spencer has made some fabulous short video writing prompts that could really get your imagination going. Check out the YouTube playlists of prompts here.
• Pobble 365: Every day there is a new photo prompt and literacy starters posted on the Pobble 365 website. These are ideal to respond to when you’re stuck for ideas.
• New York Times Writing Prompts: Multiple times a week, The New York Times publishes writing prompts for students. There are Picture Prompts (images with questions), What’s Going on in this Picture? (images stripped of captions) and Student Opinions (daily questions inspired by Times’ content). There’s lots of inspiration for you to choose from!
• What’s Going on in this Graph? Another initiative from The New York Times, a graph, map, or chart is published regularly as an invitation for students to discuss. Find a graph that fascinates you and share your interpretation.
• 1,000 Writing Prompts: The New York Times has also compiled 1,000 Writing Prompts For Students. There’s sure to be something that interests you amongst that collection!
• Language is a Virus: This excellent site has a multitude of prompts, exercises, and gadgets to inspire your writing. One example is Visual Poetry where you can display your writing in artistic and whimsical ways. Screenshot your creation for a blog post.
• Practice Your English: MMG’s English blog has been created by a teacher with prompts for students to practice their English. You will find jokes, quotes, recipes, videos, and more. Find one that interests you and share a response on your blog.
• Visual Writing Prompts: Teach Starter has created a collection of visual writing prompts. The images are Creative Commons Zero which means you’re free to upload them to your blog.
• Creative Writing Prompts: Writer’s Digest offers regular written prompts that are ideal for older students. Have a browse and see if there is a prompt to inspire a new post.
• Scholastic Story Starters: If you’re in K-2, you might enjoy this a fun interactive site where you can create your own prompts for a variety of writing genres.
• Wonderopolis: This popular multi-disciplinary site posted a “wonder of the day” with lots of kid-friendly information, definitions, and a quiz. You could choose the daily wonder or a past wonder and reflect or summarize it in a blog post. You could even add a Wonderopolis widget to your blog. The site was unfortunately closed in July 2025.
• Writer Igniter: Get inspiration from Writer Igniter which provides you with a character, situation, prop, and setting. This is best for middle school or high school students.
• Printable Comic Prompts: MakeBeliefsComix has a huge collection of writing prompts divided into categories. There’s something for everyone!
• Random Emoji Generator: Create a story based on emoji prompts. Go to the byrdseed site to generate your prompts. You can then copy the emojis into a post and write a story based on them.
• The Student Blogging Challenge: Every March and October we run a free 8 week supported blogging challenge where students aged 8-16 are given weekly prompts. Student and class posts are visited by a global audience. Maybe you can join us for the next challenge?

Interdisciplinary and Fun

• Expert FAQs: Are you an expert on something? LEGO? Minecraft? Pokemon? Ballet? Write “Frequently Asked Questions” and answers about your topic.
• Test Review “Cheat Sheet”: Use images, videos, and text to create a post that your classmates can use as a study guide to prepare for an upcoming assessment.
• Exit Ticket: Write a short summary of what you learned in class before leaving. Include any questions you still have and a list of any assignments or tasks you still need to complete.
• Quotes: Choose a quote that inspires you or is relevant to what you’re learning. Explain why you chose the quote and what it means to you. We have a post all about using quotes that will give you some tips.
• Video Comparison: Embed two or more videos on a topic from YouTube, Vimeo, or TED and then compare and contrast the videos. If you’re unsure how to embed videos, we have a help guide to walk you through it.
• Would You Rather? Create some “would you rather..?” questions for your audience such as, “Would you rather live 100 years in the past or future?” or “Would you rather be able to fly or swim underwater without breathing?” Share your own thoughts too!
• Future Me: Write an email to yourself when you are one, five, or ten years older. This could be a blog post in itself, or for 13+ students, the FutureMe website could be used to actually send the email.
• Jokes: Who doesn’t like jokes? Find some online or share your own favorite jokes to give your readers a laugh. The TLC Tutoring Updates blog used images and scrolling space to format their joke post. Alternatively, you could reveal the answers in the comments section.
• Gratitude Journal: Use your blog or portfolio to reflect on what you’re grateful for. Perhaps this could become a weekly practice.
• Special Days of the Year: Use a website like Days of the Year to find out what fun or lighthearted days are being celebrated. For a more serious approach, select an International Day from the United Nations International Day list. Write a post to explain the special day and what it means to you. (Teacher tip: You may want to choose the days for younger students, rather than allowing them to browse these sites).
• Principal for the Day: What would you do if you were principal for the day? Don’t hold back in sharing your ideas!
• Video Game Review: Write a review for an online game. Share the pros, cons, and a star rating. Don’t forget to include the link to the game so others can try it.
• Kindness: List some random acts of kindness that you’d like to see other students try. You might get some ideas from the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation.
• Recipes: Pretend you’re a food blogger! Share a recipe that you enjoy eating or making. Spice up your post with a photo of the end result.
• World Records: Browse the kids’ Guinness World Records website and write about an impressive record. Or tell your readers what sort of world record you’d like to attempt.
• Secret Code: Come up with a secret code and share a message on your blog or portfolio. Perhaps a number could represent each letter of the alphabet or you could write each word backwards. Ask readers to guess what the post says in a comment.
• Curious Minds: Publish a list of questions you have about the world or about a certain topic. You don’t have to answer the questions. It can sometimes just be good to explore the things you’re curious about.
• Memes: These are fun messages that are spread widely online. Maybe you could make a meme that relates to a topic you’re studying at school. Meredith Akers has shared a Google Drawings meme generator that’s safe for students.
• Sports Report: Provide an overview of a sports competition your school, community, or professional team has been involved in. If you choose a local sport, perhaps you could interview some participants or coaches.
• Life in the Future: Make some predictions about what life will be like in 5, 10, 50, or even 100 years from now. You could even interview others to find out their thoughts on the future.
• Trends: Discuss the latest trends in the schoolyard. Games, fashion, toys … what’s hot and what’s not? Maybe you could ask someone older than you what the trends were when they were at school.
• Playground Fun: Offer activity suggestions that other students could try out at recess and lunchtime if they’re bored. You could even sort your suggestions into age groups.
• Productivity Tips: Help your fellow students learn to manage their time better with some useful tips and tricks. Maybe you have tips for managing homework or chores at home, using a diary or calendar, or making lists.
• Copyright, Creative Commons, and Fair Use: These are important topics for any publisher to know about. Check out our Guide to Copyright, Creative Commons, and Fair Use on The Edublogger. Write a post, create a video, or design a poster to teach others about these topics.
• Digital Citizenship: What tips do you have to stay safe online? Share these with others in a post, a video, comics, memes, or posters. Check out these internet safety tips for students for ideas.
• Blogging Tips: Be your school’s “problogger” and share some bite-sized tips for fellow bloggers. Maybe you could make tutorials on things like adding images to your post, making a custom header, or adding links to your site. You could even make a screencast using a tool like Loom or Screencastify.

Art, Images, and Music

• Photo Blog: Have you heard of 365 photography or “a photo a day” type blogs? This is something Linda Yollis has been doing since 2010 with her Yollis’ 365 Project. Students and the community are invited to send in photos and captions. You could create a similar style blog or post series.
• Picture Prompt: Add a copyright-free image from Photos For Class to a post and write about it. Create a poem, story, information report, or any other style of writing based on your image.
• Image or Artwork: There are many free web tools where you can create digital artwork. Some examples are Google Drawings, emoji.ink, Toy Theatre Art Tools, Bomomo abstract art, Tate Kids street art, Draw Island, and Auto Draw.  If you want to be blown away with what’s possible, check out the Fugle Blog where K-5 teacher, Tricia Fuglestad, combines art and technology in truly creative ways.
• Infographic: Use a tool like Canva, Piktochart, Venngage, or Infogram to create an infographic and then write a post describing your graphic. Alternatively, create infographics using several of these different tools then write a review of the tools you used. Which one was best and why?
• Get Crafty: Try a craft activity with paper or other materials you have on hand and write a tutorial. You could include written instructions, photos, or videos. Not sure what craft to try? There’s lots of inspiration online. Education.com has a comprehensive collection of ideas.
• Make a Song: Create your own original song in Chrome Music Lab. Click on “Save” to get the link or embed code to publish your song in a post.
• Favorite Instrument: Do you have a favorite instrument or is there an instrument that fascinates you? Do some research and write a post about it. Add an image or video to your post if you can too.
• Make a Playlist: Write a post that includes a playlist of your favorite songs. Don’t forget to explain why you like each song and why it’s part of your playlist. Your playlist might even be for a specific occasion like a birthday party, wedding, or school graduation. You could even make a soundtrack of your life!
• Guess the Artist, Song, or Instrument: Give your readers some clues as they scroll down the page and have them guess the artist, song, or instrument. Invite your readers to put their guesses in a comment.
• Share Your Talents: Can you sing or play an instrument? Film yourself and add your video to a post. If you don’t have musical talents yourself, find someone else you can record and interview them.
• Guess That Sound: Embed some sounds from the free collection on the BBC website. Have your readers guess the sounds in a comment. Don’t forget to reply to your comments to tell your readers if they were correct. (Tip: To use the BBC sound effects, you need to link back to their site and include the word “copyright” and the year).

Reading and Writing

• Book Review: You can include a summary of the plot without spoilers, your favorite quotes, a star rating, and a photo of the book. Or maybe you could create some BookSnaps (annotated photos of text from a book).
• Book Recommendations: Create a recommended reading list for others to enjoy. Check out this list from the OJCS Library blog for inspiration.
• Poetry: There are many styles of poetry you could experiment with. Ken Nesbitt’s Poetry 4 Kids is a great site to get help with writing poems. You might also like to try a ReadWriteThink poetry interactive that guides you through the writing process then publish your poem on your blog. Tip: you need Flash enabled to use the ReadWriteThink interactives so they won’t work on an iPad.
• Expand Your Vocabulary: Improve your writing by trying Describing Words. This free web tool helps you find new words to describe nouns. Try out the tool and reflect on your discoveries in a post. There’s also a version that helps you find related words as well as a reverse dictionary.
• Change a Story Ending: Choose a well-known story (perhaps a fairytale or another classic) and publish a different ending. You can ask for feedback from readers in the comments.
• Interactive Endings: Write the beginning of a short story and invite your readers to finish it in a comment. Alternatively, you could write two different endings and have readers vote for their favorite.
• Words From Your Birth Year: Write a post about some of the words that were introduced in the year you were born according to Merriam-Webster dictionary. Include your thoughts or research on why these words were introduced in that year.
• News Report: Read information on children’s news sites like Time for Kids or DOGO News. Then summarize a news story for your readers with your own reflections or opinions included. Tip: There is even a DOGO News plugin.
• Wordless videos: Speech pathologist Sarah has compiled a list of wordless videos. You could embed one in a blog post and write a script, recount, or reflection on the meaning behind the video.
• Interactive Stories: Google Slides can be used to create interactive or “choose your own adventure” type stories. Jake Miller has made a useful GIF to explain how to do this. If you want to know how to embed your Google Slides presentation into a post, these instructions walk you through it.
• Spelling/Vocabulary: Share your spelling words or a set of interesting words you have recently come across. Define the words or create interesting sentences to share with readers. You could even use a site like Spelling City and screenshot some of your activities.
• Grammar and Punctuation: Share your understanding of a concept you’re learning to help others understand an aspect of grammar or punctuation. You could make a comic, a poster, a video, a quiz, a song, or anything else!
• Newspaper: Create your own online newspaper to share on your blog. For example, MHMS Daring School students worked collaboratively on their newspaper.
• Storyline Online Review: Watch a book being read by a professional actor on Storyline Online and prepare a book review or summary (you can embed the story in a post).
• Persuasive Writing: Make your case for an argument, for example, why dogs are better than cats, why the school cafeteria should offer a different menu, or why school uniforms are a good idea. You could write a persuasive piece about any light-hearted or serious topic you’re interested in.
• Emoji Rebus Story: Have you heard of a rebus story? It’s where some words are replaced with an image. There’s a tool called Emoji Translate that will automatically replace some of your words with emojis (you can copy your translated text/emojis back into your post).
• Language Learning: Do you speak or learn another language? Share some basic words and phrases with your audience. You could even add a voice recording or video. If you don’t have a second language, do some research and pass on what you learned. Or, write about the language you’d like to learn if you had the chance and why.

History and Geography

• Virtual Field Trips: It’s now possible to visit faraway places without even leaving the classroom. The We Are Teachers website lists 25 of the best virtual field trips to explore. Once you’ve been on your “field trip”, it’s time to review the experience.
• Global Issue: Select a global issue that you’re passionate about or interested in and write a post to share your concerns. You might want to base your issue on The Sustainable Development Goals. The 17 goals focus on things like poverty, hunger, health, education, and climate action.
• Did You Know? Use information from a website like National Geographic Kids, Simple English Wikipedia, or Fact Monster to publish your own “Did you know?” snippets around a particular topic.
• List of Items: Create a list of items that would be used in a certain time in history, by a historical figure, or in a particular location around the world.
• A to Z: Create an A to Z list of something you’re studying, for example, a certain historical event or geographical location.
• Travel Brochure: Design and publish a travel brochure for a particular geographical location. You could use a tool like Canva or Google Drawings to create the brochure and then add it to your blog as a PDF or image file.
• Venn Diagram: Choose two different people, places, or events to compare such as two historical figures, two different countries, or two historical events. Make a Venn diagram to compare and contrast. You could use an online tool like Visual Paradigm or something like Canva or Google Drawings to make the Venn diagram. Or you could draw the diagram on paper and take a photo to add to your post.
• Who Am I? Share some clues about a historical figure, for example — where and when they were born, their education, their personal life, and what they’re famous for. See if your readers can make an accurate guess in a comment.
• Guess This Place: Share some clues about a geographical location for example — the continent it’s on, the climate, famous citizens, landmarks, well-known events, the latitude and longitude. Ask your readers to share their guess in a comment.
• Historical Artifacts: Share an image of a historical object or artifact. For example, you might want to look at the public domain collection from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It includes more than 400,000 images from The Met collection that are free to use. Share some images in a post and write your own description. Or ask your readers to guess what they think the images are.
• Color History: #ColorOurCollections is a website where various institutions add historical images that can be printed and colored in. Find a page that interests you to print and color. Then add a photo of your completed work to your blog and write a description.
• Make A Timeline: Timelines can be about people’s lives, places, or historical events. Traditionally, you could make a timeline on paper but there are now lots of online tools that help you make your timeline with multimedia. Richard Byrne compares the best tools to use in this playlist. Try out one of the tools and add your timeline to a post.
• SMS Generator: Using a free tool called SMS Generator you can make fake text message conversations between two historical figures. When you’re done you can screenshot or embed your conversation.
• Old Newspaper Articles: Did you know Google has a collection of archived newspaper articles? Find an interesting article from a time or place you’re studying. Link to the article in your post and write an analysis.
• Flags: Do some research into a flag of the world or another important flags and summarise the key information. Alternatively, you might like to design your own flag. Include the image in a post with a description of your flag.
• Historical Report or Guest Author: Write a traditional report profiling a historical figure, or pretend you are a famous historical figure that is blogging about a significant event.
• Historical Stories: Authors often use a historical event as the basis of a fictional story. Create a story based on a certain time and location in history. You would keep the main historical information accurate while coming up with fictional characters and perhaps storylines.
• Personal History: Interview someone to share a little about their own personal history. Or you could even share some of your own history. Everyone has a story!
• Maps Comparison: Find two maps from different time periods that show the same location. What are the similarities and differences in the maps? Maybe some things have been added, removed, replaced, or extended. A useful website to find old maps might be Old Maps Online or The US Library of Congress.
• Time Travel: If you could live in any other place and/or time, what would you choose and why?

Math and Science

• Vocabulary: Choose a vocabulary word that you’re learning about and write a post that describes this word in different ways such as: a definition, in a sentence, in an example/image, in a table/graph, in symbols/equations. Check out this vocabulary slide deck template by Meagan Kelly which you could fill out and embed in your blog.
• Image Hunt: Look around you for examples of concepts you’re studying in class. Take photos and add them to a post. Maybe you could look for mathematical arrays, 3 digit numbers, fractions, or patterns.
• Riddles: Research some math riddles. There are some on Riddles.com and Mashup Math. After trying some out yourself, share your favorites on your blog or make up your own. Invite your readers to solve your riddles in a comment.
• Math Movies: Explaining math concepts through videos can be very effective. The students in Mr. Avery’s class share some great examples on the Math Movie Network (many years on these examples are still inspiring). Check out The Educator’s Guide to Using Video in Teaching and Learning to find out more about tools students can use for video creation.
• NRICH: The NRICH project by the University of Cambridge publishes weekly maths problem-solving tasks for students. Students can submit answers on the website, but you can also publish your response on your blog or portfolio. Problems are broken up into age groups.
• Estimations: Make some mathematical estimations such as the length of your hallway, the weight of your lunchbox, or the number of shirts hanging in your closet. Share your estimations on your blog and then measure or count to find out the actual answer. How far off were you? How did you make your estimates and how did you find out the actual answers?
• Math Journals: Use your blog or portfolio as a journal to reflect on your math learning. Here is some math journal prompts from ReadWriteThink that you could base your reflections on.
• Problem Solve: Publish a problem-solving task in a post and invite readers to provide the solution in the comments. You might get ideas for problems from a site like NRICH. Tip: choose a problem where there are multiple solutions, or hold off on moderating comments until a few readers have had the chance to respond. Maybe you could explain the answer in a follow-up post.
• Same but Different: Browse the sites Same But Different Math or Same Or Different to see lots of photos of how mathematical concepts are the same but different. Set up some photos of your own to add to a blog post and share your thoughts on how the images are similar and different.
• Solvemoji: There’s a popular site called Solvemoji.com where emojis are used in maths puzzles. Have a browse, then make your own puzzles for your readers using a tool like Google Drawings, Google Slides, PowerPoint, or Canva. Just save your creation as a PNG or JPEG and upload it to your blog like any other image. Here’s a Google Doc tutorial for this activity from Mrs. Yollis.
• Money: Learn about the currency in another part of the world and share what you learned with your readers. Don’t forget to include some images. You might be able to find some images using the Creative Commons search engine.
• Math Game Review: There are lots of interactive math games available on the web or on mobile devices. Try out a game and then share a review. Include details like how to access the game, what it helps you learn, pros and cons, and an age recommendation.
• Science Experiment: Find a science experiment in a book, online, or in a video. For example, Try This! is a series of science experiments from National Geographic Kids. With permission from an adult, replicate the experiment and then blog about it. Alternatively, you might want to make up your own experiment to learn more about something you’re curious about.
• Science Video: There are lots of great science videos online. Two examples are TED-Ed and SciShow Kids YouTube Channel. Find a video that interests you, then write a post about it. You might write a summary of the video and include your own thoughts or questions. Alternatively, you can make a quiz for your readers about the video. Invite them to answer the quiz in a comment.
• Two Truths and One Lie: Challenge your readers with a simple “two truths and one lie” quiz. Your task is to write a post that includes two correct statements and one incorrect statement. Ask your readers to guess the lie! Your statements could be about a certain math or science topic or a mix of topics.
• NASA Space Place: Check out NASA Space Place to learn more about Earth and Space. There are games, activities, articles, videos, and more. Write a post about something you learned from the website.
• Science News: There is interesting science news being reported all the time. Check out Science News Explores and find an article you’re interested in. Share a summary in your own words on your blog. You might include some follow up questions you’d like to research.
• Coding: Learning to code can be fun. There are lots of sites and apps you can use to learn to code. Code.org is a good starting place. Try out one of the activities and then write a post about it. Explain what you learned and what challenges you had to overcome to complete the activity.
• Gardening: Try growing something at home or school like a vegetable, plant, or flower. Blog about the changes in a series of posts and describe how you’re tending to your garden. The Kids Gardening website has some ideas to help you get started including the fun grass seed “chia” pet.
• Science Careers: Research a science related career and tell your readers about it. Perhaps you could even interview someone in the profession. Is this a career you’d be interested in? Alternatively, you could choose two careers and compare them in a post.
• Looking After the Environment: Share tips on how to reduce, reuse, recycle, or look after our planet. Maybe you can share some changes you’re making in your own life to be more environmentally conscious.
• Diagrams: A scientist often makes diagrams to record and communicate information. Make a diagram with labels to illustrate a scientific concept (e.g. parts of an insect, the layers of the Earth, or the water cycle). Check out Science A-Z for some examples of science diagrams. Make your diagram on paper (and upload a photo) or use an online tool like Canva or Google Drawings.

Other Web Tools

Teacher Tip: There are countless free online tools that can be used to create, publish, collaborate, and present. If you’re working with younger students, it’s important to check the terms and conditions on the site as some tools are only suitable for students over the age of 13.

• GIFs: These can be fun additions to your posts that bring your images and descriptions to life. Try an online tool like Brush Ninja or ABC Animate to make a GIF to demonstrate your learning or feelings.
• Prezi: Prezi is an online presentation and storytelling tool that uses a single canvas instead of traditional series of slides. The images, text, videos, and other objects are placed on the canvas and users can zoom in and out. Create a Prezi about something you’re interested in and add it to a post.
• Google Slides: Slides presentations are great to add to posts. The simplest way to use Google Slides is to create a slide deck. That is, a collection of slides put together to form a presentation. Learn more about how to use and embed Google Slides in this beginner’s guide.
• Animation: Produce a video with a tool like Biteable or Powtoon. Share your animation and write about the decisions you made when making the video.
• Talking Avatars: Create a speaking character using Voki to read your post or to interact with your blog’s visitors. Voki characters can be customized to look like historical figures, cartoons, animals, or yourself! Voki characters can be embedded on your site on a post, page, or sidebar.
• Word Cloud: Make a word cloud using one of these online tools or iPad apps. Add your word cloud to your blog. You could even invite readers to guess the topic.
• Jigsaw Puzzle: Instead of adding a normal photo to your post, make a jigsaw out of one of your photos on Jigsaw Planet or Jigsaw Explorer and embed it. Ask your readers to leave a comment to tell you how they went with the puzzle.
• Wakelet: Wakelet allows you to save, organize, and tell stories with content from around the web. You can sign up for free or create a quick collection without signing up. Make a Wakelet about a topic you’re studying or something you’re interested in. Embed your Wakelet in a post. Read more about getting started with Wakelet.
• AnswerGarden: This is a free online tool to get feedback on a question. You make an AnswerGarden with a question and then embed or link to it on your site. When people respond to your question, their answers form a word cloud. Learn more about AnswerGarden here.
• Comics: Create a comic using Make Beliefs Comix and share it on your blog. Your comic could be designed to educate, inform, or entertain.
• Podcasts: These are simply audio files that are published online. You might like to make a series of podcasts to coincide with a subject you’re studying or a project you’re working on. Spotify for Creators is a popular free service for recording, hosting, and distributing podcasts. Check out The Edublogger’s Guide To Podcasting to learn more.
• Digital Bulletin Board: Padlet is an online bulletin board that you can embed in a blog post to share notes, voice recordings, videos, documents, links, and more. You can only create three Padlet walls with the free account.
• Animoto: This free tool lets you make videos that combine photos and/or video footage with music and interesting transitions. You can make an Animoto about an event or something you’re learning and embed it on your site.
• Mindmap: Create a mindmap for brainstorming, collating notes, demonstrating your learning, or presenting your findings. You might like to try a free online tool like Bubbl.us which doesn’t require an account.

How To Apply These Writing Prompts To The Classroom

As you think about using these prompts in the classroom, try to vary it up. Helping students to get out of their comfort zones and try something new might spark a new talent or passion.

It’s always worth considering how you can give some students choice in the type of posts they create. Choice can lead to ownership and higher levels of motivation. You never know what your students might produce!

One tip to keep in mind is that when you’re creating work or images using online tools, you can sometimes save your work as an image (e.g. JPEG or PNG), or embed your work, but at other times you’ll need to take a screenshot. This article by PC Mag explains how to take a screenshot on almost any device.

From a safety perspective, if you have public blogs or websites, ensure students are aware of what information should be kept private before they begin blogging. Edublogs and CampusPress users can use My Class to easily moderate students’ posts and comments before they’re live on the web.

The acronym YAPPY might help your students develop their understandings about privacy. Learn more about digital footprints in this post.

When using writing prompts, it can also be helpful to keep the SAMR model in mind.

Sometimes, you might simply be substituting traditional pen and paper tasks for an online task. As you and your students become more comfortable with publishing online, consider ways you can redefine tasks to achieve something that would not be possible without a blog, website, or online tools.

Don’t Stop Here

Hopefully this list will ensure you or your students are never scrambling for blogging ideas again, however, it is far from exhaustive.

Another idea is to recycle posts. This is what we’re doing right here! This post of prompts was first published many years ago and we’ve updated it a couple of times. You might have an old post that you enjoyed or that struck a chord with readers. Why not do an update or follow up post in a similar style? Reflect on your best content and re-purpose or repeat it.

If you have a class blog, you could create a page with writing ideas for your student bloggers.

Happy blogging!

About Us

At CampusPress, we’re experts in bringing innovative web solutions to schools, school districts, colleges, and universities through WordPress and our wide range of out-of-the-box and custom plugins and products.

In fact, our services in accessibility, security, hosting, support, along with an extensive suite of other tools, power millions of education websites, blog networks and portfolios. Learn more about our school website services or request info today!

So, you’ve decided to start blogging with your students—congratulations! You’re about to begin an exciting and rewarding learning journey.

Before bringing blogging into your classroom, your first step should be securing permission from both your school and students’ families.

Getting the necessary approval isn’t just a legal requirement—it also helps keep all stakeholders informed and supportive of this new endeavor.

If you’re using the Edublogs platform, you can familiarize yourself with our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. It can be a good idea to make sure your district/school/families are aware of these policies too.

This post goes through some general advice to help you navigate the process of obtaining permission to blog with your students.

We’ll go through three steps:

1. Consulting with your school leaders or principal
2. Setting up your blogging guidelines
3. Obtaining informed permission from parents or carers

Let’s begin…

Step One: Consult With Your School Leaders Or Principal

Edublogs’ users come from many different school districts and countries all around the world. Legal advice and requirements vary greatly. It’s important to consult your own individual legislation prior to publishing online. Your school principal or district administrators will be able to let you know if there are any specific requirements you need to keep in mind.

Hopefully your school principal is already encouraging you and other staff to publish online. If not, it’s a good idea to seek permission and engage in a discussion about how you see blogging being used in your classroom.

If your principal is unfamiliar with blogging and you want to discuss the potential advantages of a blogging program, you might want to jot down the key benefits of blogging that excite you the most. This post explains 18 benefits and you can choose which ones you think apply to you and your students.

Many educators want to start a blogging program to strengthen home-school partnerships, provide a motivating authentic audience for their students’ work, or cover digital citizenship in an ongoing and supported way.

Our Complete Guide to Student Digital Portfolios goes over more benefits for students:

When consulting with your principal about your blogging program, you might like to discuss how you will use blogging to enchance your classroom program.

Here are three things to consider:

1) Will you have a class blog and/or student blogs?

Some educators like to start with a class blog before moving on to student blogs. This approach can allow you to develop blogging skills and confidence with your students, while maintaining control over what’s being published online.

When you are ready to implement student blogs or portfolios, our Guide to Student Digital Portfolios will definitely help.

2) What will blogging replace or improve?

The richest advantages of blogging often emerge when blogging is neither an add-on nor a substitution for pen and paper work. 

SAMR (substitution – augmentation – modification – redefinition/reflection) is a popular model to base this reflection on, but there are other models as Michael Gorman has described.

3) What are the key purposes of your blogging program?

Some of the most popular uses for classroom blogs include:

• Delivering news and updates to students and families
• Posting student assignments and coursework
• Facilitating online discussions
• Providing a platform where students can publish their work for an authentic audience
• Connecting with other classes locally or globally

The purpose of your blogging program will naturally evolve over time but deciding why you want to blog can help you successfully launch your program.

Step Two: Set Up Your Blogging Guidelines

To ensure everyone is safe and happy when publishing online, some guidelines for your blogging program are essential. You’ll also want to consider the level of privacy that will work for you and your school community.

What guidelines and privacy settings you will have in place?

There is a lot to think about here such as:

• Will your blog be public or private? We have a post to help you weigh up that decision.
• Will you publish students’ photos and names? We recommend you don’t match photos with names.
• Will you write posts and have students comment, or will students create posts too?
• Will you moderate all posts and comments on the blog? My Class by Edublogs is a tool that makes this easy.
• How will you teach students to think before posting and prevent them from revealing personal information?

Example Blog Guidelines

Here are some blogging guidelines I used with my own students. You’re welcome to use and adapt them as you see fit. I published these as a page on my class blog so they were readily accessible by all visitors (find out how to publish a new page in this help guide).

Click here to make your own copy of the Google Doc and edit accordingly.

When you click to make a copy, you’ll be presented with a pop-up like the one shown below. Just select “Make a copy”.

Please edit the guidelines to suit your own class and school.

Step Three: Obtain Permission From Parents

You may be following a long line of bloggers at your school, or you may be the pioneer. Some schools have a general “internet use” permission form, but you might not think this is enough to obtain fully informed consent.

It’s a smart idea to assume that not every parent or guardian will be well-versed in blogging or understand how and why it might be used in the classroom. Therefore, it doesn’t hurt to add an information sheet or brief summary to explain the basics.

Ultimately, parents often just want to know their child will be safe online.

Example Blogging Permission Form

We have a generic permission form that you’re welcome to use and adapt.

Click here to make your own copy of the Google Doc and edit accordingly.

When you click to make a copy, you’ll be presented with a pop-up like the one shown below. This will allow you to save a version in your own Google Drive that you can edit.

If you’re only having a class blog, rather than student blogs, you can remove references to student blogs. Go ahead and make this form your own.

What Can You Add?

While it’s important to ensure you collect fully informed consent before you begin blogging, George Couros points out another important reminder: Ask the students. Do they want all their work and photos online, even if you have parent/school permission?

I appreciate the educators that make this a common practice, no matter what forms are signed. If we do not ask the student for their permission, do all of the other forms and permissions matter as much?

George Couros

How do you obtain permission to blog? Do you have any blogging guidelines, notes or resources you could share?

Leave a comment below with any questions or advice. We’d love to hear from you.

About Us

At CampusPress, we’re experts in bringing innovative web solutions to schools, school districts, colleges, and universities through WordPress and our wide range of out-of-the-box and custom plugins and products.

In fact, our services in accessibility, security, hosting, support, along with an extensive suite of other tools, power millions of education websites, blog networks and portfolios. Learn more about our school website services or request info today!

As an educator, one of your primary goals is to create the best possible learning experiences for your students. With that in mind, you might decide to start a classroom blog.

This is a great idea! A blog is one of the most flexible and powerful tools you can use in your classroom. However, there are some common pitfalls that new and experienced bloggers alike sometimes overlook.

We’re here to help.

In this post, we’ll discuss the benefits of starting a classroom blog and explain how blogs are often used. Then we’ll go over ten common mistakes teachers make with their classroom blogging program and how you can avoid them.

The Benefits And Uses Of Class Blogs

Starting a classroom blog is more than just an effective way to incorporate technology into your course. A blog is a flexible tool that can be used for communication, learning, interaction, connection, and more.

Class blogs are used in a variety of ways, which is why many educators at all levels find them so useful. Check out these 13 examples of class blogs for some ideas and case studies.

Many educators enjoy using a blog to have an online space that complements their physical space. And we all know how crucial a virtual learning space has become in 2020. A blog can help build that cohesive classroom community that we’re all striving for.

Some of the most popular uses for classroom blogs include:

• Delivering news and updates to students and families
• Posting student assignments and coursework
• Facilitating online discussions
• Providing a platform where students can publish their work for an authentic audience
• Connecting with other classes locally or globally

Tip: Consider the purpose of your blog before you begin. This might evolve over time but deciding why you want to blog will help you successfully launch your blogging program.

Class blogs can yield many benefits for students, teachers, and the school community.

As a teacher, a classroom blog offers you an online hub to store and distribute important course content. It’s like a digital filing cabinet. Your blog can also make it easier to connect and communicate with both parents and students, as well as other educators.

For your students, a classroom blog offers a place to exercise their creativity. Students can publish their work for an authentic audience on a blog which can fuel their growth as a learner tremendously. A classroom blogging program can serve as a helpful introduction to digital citizenship best practices. Read more about digital citizenship and blogging in this guide.

What about blogs for individual students?

Some educators find it useful to start with a class blog before launching into student blogs or digital portfolios. If you’re interested in using digital portfolios in your classroom, be sure to check out our complete guide. It has everything you need to know about getting started with student blogs or ePortfolios.

10 Classroom Blogging Mistakes

Regardless of how you intend to use your classroom or course blog, it’s crucial to make sure it’s properly set up. Everything from the platform you choose to the guidelines you prepare for students will influence its success.

Let’s take a look at some of the common classroom blogging mistakes educators make and how you can avoid them. 

1. Forgetting To Obtain Permission

There are certain situations when it’s necessary to gain permission for blogging. Some schools may have specific criteria, policies, or preferences for sharing student work online. Others may require parental consent. You might need both.

Of course, you don’t want to find yourself in hot water with your school administration, nor with the parents of your students. Therefore, it’s best to err on the safe side and check with your superiors before you begin your blogging program.

Getting permission to blog isn’t just important for legal purposes, either. Looping staff and parents in on the classroom blog can also help encourage participation and make for an overall better student experience. 

It’s a smart idea to assume that not every parent or guardian will be well-versed in blogging or understand how and why it might be used in the classroom. Therefore, it doesn’t hurt to add an information sheet or brief summary to explain the basics of it and your intent and purpose.

At the end of the day, most parents will likely just want to know that their children will be safe online. Providing them with simple information could help ease such concerns. 

Example Blogging Permission Form

We have a generic permission form that you’re welcome to use and adapt.

Click here to make your own copy of the Google Doc and edit accordingly.

You’ll be presented with a page like the one shown below.

If you’re only having a class blog, rather than student blogs, you can remove references to student blogs.

2. Making Participation Optional

Simply starting a class blog isn’t a guarantee that students will participate. While there are always some students who will naturally gravitate towards a blogging program, others may require extra encouragement or may just need to know that participation is not optional.

Some educators discover that leaving blogging as an optional assignment doesn’t always yield the best results.

It’s important to keep in mind that your classroom blog might be the first introduction students have with creating web content. They may need guidance on how to use your platform. Providing clear instructions can boost students’ confidence and encourage participation. 

In addition to explaining how to access and use the blog, you may also want to establish expectations from the start about how you intend for students to use it. This can include guidelines or policies for posting. Here’s an example:

Determining the purpose of your classroom blog will help inform the parameters you set for using it.

There are some other simple strategies you can use to encourage participation and make students more motivated to contribute in meaningful ways. For example, you may want to end your posts with discussion questions and ask for comments. 

Similarly, if you plan to use your blog for student posting, you might consider allowing them to choose their own topics. Being flexible can make it easier for students to find inspiration. You might also provide students with challenges or prompts to help build and maintain momentum.

3. Failing To Share With An Audience

Just because your blog is online, doesn’t mean people will see it.

First, you’ll need to make sure your blog is public on the web. If you’d rather your blog lives behind a password or login, you’ll need to make sure your intended audience (students, families, colleagues) know how to access the blog.

If you’re unsure whether your class blog should be public or private, we have a guide that weighs up the pros and cons to help you make that decision.

But why would you want to share your class blog and student work with a wide audience?

An authentic audience is powerful. When students know someone beyond the teacher will see their work, they can be motivated to push themselves and work harder.

This is something Clive Thompson wrote about in Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better.

Making schoolwork purposeful can really impact student motivation and engagement.

Furthermore, when students have an audience for their blog posts, readers can provide further information, opinions, suggest resources, seek answers to questions and so on. This can drive a cycle of further learning and development.

Is it safe to have your blog open to a wide answer?

In short, yes. As long as you have your guidelines in place. For example, ensuring students only use their first names or pen names, moderating comments and posts before they’re published, and using some basic precautions with student photos.

Learn more about establishing your guidelines in our Teacher Challenge guide.

Who can be an audience for your class blog?

Teachers and families may be the most obvious audiences for your student work, but there are possibilities beyond that. In our guide to finding an authentic audience for your students, we go through six options: classmates, family, team blogging, projects, your PLN, and the web.

When students have a broad audience, they can learn to think beyond grades and pleasing the teacher, and start contributing their voice, knowledge, and resources to a global community. What an exciting opportunity!

4. Publishing Inconsistently

When you set up a new blog, enthusiasm can be high and you might find yourself posting frequently. Over time, bloggers sometimes become less consistent in their approach and this is a problem.

If you’re wanting to “train” students and parents to understand that your blog is a central part of your classroom, keeping it updated is crucial. If students and families check a few times and notice the blog hasn’t been updated, they will no doubt be reluctant to keep visiting the blog.

This doesn’t mean you have to publish daily but if you’re trying to build a dedicated audience (like families on a class blog), making your schedule more predictable can be advantageous. So you might tell your students and families that they can expect updated content on the blog every Monday, for example.

If you’re struggling to find the time to publish consistently, check out our plan for writing a weekly blog post in just ten minutes a day.

A related pitfall is using too many digital channels — for example, publishing some information on a school calendar, some on social media, some in the school newsletter and so on. Having a one stop shop for everything, like a blog, saves headaches for everyone.

Ultimately, you’re building your audience’s expectation that your blogging program is valuable, a key component of your course, and not optional.

5. Not Respecting Copyright

You want your class blog to have useful content for your students, right? This might include text, videos, educational material, and images.

Unfortunately, many bloggers don’t realize that you can’t use just anything you find online and may unintentionally publish copyright material in their posts. This is not only ethically incorrect but you could be violating copyright laws. You also want to be a good role model for your students regarding copyright as the expectations you set can influence them profoundly.

If you find the whole topic of copyright, Creative Commons, and fair use confusing, don’t worry (you’re not alone!). Our popular educator’s guide breaks down these important topics for you in simple terms.

To summarize, below are 5 main rules you need to remember about copyright. (Remember, you can take a deep dive into this topic by visiting our guide.)

1) Just because you found it online, doesn’t mean it’s free to use (even if you’re a teacher or student).

2) There are a lot of resources you can use freely including work that has a Creative Commons license or is in the public domain.

3) You have a right as a creator to have your work protected from copying and you can also give your own content a Creative Commons license.

4) If in doubt about using content, ask the creator for permission, find a free alternative, make your own material, or purchase an alternative that has the usage rights you’re after.

5) Instead of looking for loopholes, consider whether you’re being the most responsible and ethical digital citizen you can be.

6. Forgetting To Use Or Update Pages

Blogs are composed of two main structures: posts and pages. Posts are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order with the most recent post at the top of your blog’s home page.

Your posts are where you’ll publish your main content, such as:

• Showcases of student work
• Information about what’s been happening in class
• Assignment information or learning resources

On the Learning Stories blog, there are regularly updated posts that contain rich content like photos, quotes, videos, curriculum outcomes, and more:

While you’ll be using posts a lot, some bloggers commonly overlook the power of pages. Pages on blogs are normally used for information that you want to share with your readers but don’t expect to update frequently.

You don’t want to have too many pages but a few key ones can really help to improve your class blog. One of the most important pages you could have is your About page. This is the place new readers can visit to find out who writes the blog and what it’s all about. You don’t have to reveal too many personal details. However, some general information like your grade level, subject area, and country can be really helpful for your audience.

If you use your blog over multiple years, remember to give your pages a once over every now and then to ensure the information is still current.

If you want to keep the design of your blog uncluttered, some bloggers choose to have nested sub-pages that sit underneath your main page menus.

Learn more about creating pages in this Teacher Challenge help guide.

7. Not Having Clear Grading Guidelines

As we mentioned earlier, class blogs are used for different purposes. Perhaps your blog is used to simply share classroom information or recaps. However, as your blogging program becomes an integral part of your course, you might decide to use the blog for graded student assignments.

Blogging assignments, while useful, can be very different from the traditional type of coursework you may be used to grading. To avoid making it overly complex or difficult, it’s helpful to have a clear strategy ahead of time.

In order to do this, it’s important to first consider how students will use the blog for their assignments. For example, will their posts be treated as writing assignments similar to essays? Alternatively, perhaps your main objective is to assess their discussion and participation skills.

There’s no right or wrong way to formulate a grading strategy for your classroom blog. However, what is essential is that the guidelines you set are transparent and clear to all your students. 

As with your expectations for student participation, it’s also useful to include your grading criteria on the blog itself. Below is an example from SCHS Open Studio (a high school ceramics course). These extensive guidelines include information about citations, privacy, commenting, grammar, and more.

When creating your grading guidelines, don’t forget to consider the time that will go into reading and assessing your students’ work. The last thing you want is to realize too late that scoring dozens of lengthy blog posts isn’t practical for your course curriculum.

Using rubrics is another popular approach for grading student work on blogs. For more on this and other approaches to assessing student work on blogs, check out the Complete Guide to Digital Portfolios.

8. Ignoring Categories And Tags

A successful classroom blog is one that is organized and easy to navigate. Depending on how you intend to use it, there’s a good chance it can quickly become crowded with an array of content.

You want to make it as easy as possible for students, families, and other visitors to find the information they’re after on your blog. That’s where categories and tags can help.

What are categories and tags?

Categories and tags offer an effective way for WordPress users to classify and organize their blog post content.

Categories are meant to provide a broad grouping of your posts. Tags are used more for describing specific details.

On a class blog post, one category might be Math and tags might include things like addition, subtraction, number facts, or homework.

There are different schools of thought but in general, you don’t want to assign a post to too many categories or have too many categories on your blog overall. Only create a new category if you will be writing other blog posts that fit into that category. As a ballpark guide, you might want to create 5-10 categories under which your content can neatly fit (perhaps one for each subject area or type of post).

On the other hand it’s a good idea for a post to have multiple tags, perhaps between 2-5 per post. Some educators like to use tags for student names if they’re writing posts or are featured in posts. Naturally, parents are most interested in their own child’s content, so tags can make it easier for them to find this.

How to use categories and tags

You can add a new category or tag (respectively) by going to Posts > Categories/Tags in your WordPress dashboard:

You can also assign and create new categories and tags from the sidebar of any post:

If you don’t assign your posts to a category, they will go to the default category which is called “Uncategorized”. Not very helpful, right? Tags are optional so if you’re just getting started, we recommend you try using categories first.

For information on how to add categories and tags, please check out the following support documentation:

1. Adding categories to posts
2. Adding tags to posts

9. Overlooking Accessibility

In your physical classroom, you no doubt work hard to ensure every student is catered for. The same applies to your class blog.

In order for your class blog to be valuable, it must be accessible to all students. This includes individuals with visual impairments or disabilities that require them to use a screen reader or other assistive technologies.

Creating accessible web content might not be something you’ve considered before. We can help. Our Edublogger post on accessibility includes 7 key ways to make your blog more accessible to all. This includes things like proper heading structures, alt text for images, explained abbreviations, contrasting colors, transcripts, and descriptive links.

These simple strategies make it easier for all blog readers to interpret content.

For a deeper dive into the important topic of accessibility, check out the complete guide on the CampusPress blog.

10. Choosing The Wrong Platform

The first step in setting up a classroom blog is choosing a platform to create and host it on. This is an important decision because it affects the overall usability and accessibility of your website. 

There are a handful of popular blogging platforms to choose from. WordPress is an excellent choice considering it powers over 43% of all the websites on the internet. However, it’s a smart idea to select a platform that is designed specifically for educational purposes. 

One of the most popular educational blogging services is Edublogs, which is powered by WordPress:

Our platform has an easy-to-use interface, making it ideal even for beginners or those who aren’t technically savvy. You can also use it to create student blogs, as well as individual sites for different classes.

Once you set up your class blog, you can easily moderate comments and content, create custom privacy controls, and choose a design to suit your needs.

Getting started with Edublogs is completely free, student safe, and there are no ads. You can learn more about the features of Edublogs on the home page, or check out this article to find out why WordPress is the best choice for classroom blogging.

Our sister service, CampusPress is also a popular choice for schools and universities planning on a whole school approach to blogging or portfolios. A CampusPress subscription can work alongside a school’s Content Management System (CMS) or even replace the need for one.

Conclusion

Classroom blogging can be a powerful and effective way to enhance the learning experience for your students. However, if you’re new to starting a blog, there are some important things to consider before jumping in.

Let’s recap the ten mistakes to avoid with your classroom blog:

1. Forgetting to obtain permission
2. Making participation optional
3. Failing to share with an audience
4. Publishing inconsistently
5. Not respecting copyright
6. Forgetting to use or update pages
7. Not having clear grading guidelines
8. Ignoring categories and tags
9. Overlooking accessibility
10. Choosing the wrong platform

Which one could you work on today?

Slideshow style videos can be a powerful way to bring together the best of your school experiences and share with others.

In the coming months, millions of school and college students will be graduating, and many graduation ceremonies might take place virtually. A slideshow video can play a central role in these online events, providing a meaningful keepsake for graduates.

There are many other occasions where special days, events, and milestones can be marked with a photo montage video.

There are many tools out there to put together slideshow videos with music. This post summarizes 7 free online tools and apps. We also look at the legalities of music and copyright. Finally, you’ll find out how to share your completed video with others or embed it on your blog.

The tools and apps we reviewed are:

• Animoto
• Google Photos
• Quik
• Clips
• iMovie
• Lumen5
• Adobe Spark

Another option that’s currently popular with teachers is WeVideo. This is a fantastic tool but was only free to schools until June 30, 2020. So, it’s a tool you might want to explore depending on your timeline and budget.

Comparison Chart

Here’s a quick comparison of the 7 tools we review in this post. Read on to find more details and examples.

Animoto

URL: https://animoto.com/education/classroom
Use on: The web or iOS app (The Android app has been discontinued)

Animoto allows you to create videos from photos, video clips, and music. There are a number of pre-made video templates available that are designed to make the creation process quick and easy.

Animoto is an intuitive tool that allows you to create a professional-looking video in minutes.

Educators can sign up for a free account which allows you to create student accounts as well.

You can embed Animoto videos on your blog. This help guide shows you where to find the embed code.

Here’s some graduation inspiration from Animoto. Do you have a current example we can use? Let us know in a comment!

Google Photos Movies

URL: https://photos.google.com
Use on: Best on the Google Photos app (iOS | Android)

Do you use Google Photos? It’s a free service to store, organize, and share all your photos and videos. If you’d like to learn more about this service that many of our team enjoy using, check out our beginner’s guide.

You might not know that you can easily make a slideshow of your photos with music using Google Photos.

This is best done on a phone or tablet. You can do it on a computer but the computer version only allows you to create a movie from one of the pre-set themes shown below. This is unlikely to be what you’re after.

To make a movie on your Google Photos app on your phone or tablet, tap Library and then Utilities.

From here, you’ll select “Movie” and then “Create movie”.

You’ll be prompted to choose your photos or video clips (up to 50). You can then customize your creation by choosing your music and a variety of filters.

When you’re done, there are lots of sharing options. You can share your completed video with friends, save it to your device, publish it on social media, add it to your Google Drive, or share it to a service like YouTube.

Check out these instructions from Google for step-by-step directions.

Quik

URL: iOS app | Android app
Use on: Phone or tablet
Note: There is also a desktop app but it requires downloading software.

If you like creating on your phone or tablet, check out Quik by GoPro. It’s a free app with no in-app purchases.

The Quik app allows you to make video slideshows with professional transitions and music with minimal effort.

You simply select your photos or videos from your camera roll (up to 200). The app then analyses your footage to make smooth and effective transitions. You can choose from 26 themes and customize the video with 100+ music options. You can add your own music but beware of copyright. You can also add text and titles as needed.

Completed videos can be saved to your device or there are other sharing options like social media or text message.

Here’s a short tutorial video by Richard Byrne of Free Technology For Teachers.

Clips

URL: iOS app only
Use on: iPhone or iPad

If you’re looking for a simple video creation tool to use on your iPhone or iPad, Clips might be the answer.

It’s a very intuitive app that lets you create videos out of photos and video footage. There are lots of additional features like text, stickers, emojis, and filters. Because this app is easy to use and has lots of fun features, it’s always a popular choice for students as well as teachers.

Clips now offers a few options for background music; you can create your own music in GarageBand as well as using their built-in soundtracks. Additionally, you can pull in music from your iTunes account but please be cautious of copyright.

One unique feature of Clips is Live Titles which is a built-in caption feature. Users can choose to have their words appear as they speak. The words can come up all at once as static text, or as animated text with each word highlighted as they’re spoken.

Here’s an example of a short video created in Clips by teacher-librarian Jo Martin from Brandon Elementary. It’s called LEGOmania in the Library.

iMovie

URL: iOS app | macOS
Use on: iPhone, iPad, or Mac computer

iMovie is a step-up from Clips with a lot more features that allow you to create anything from a short video slideshow to an impressive full-length movie.

Unlike a lot of the tools reviewed in this post, iMovie doesn’t do the work for you. There are handy templates to enjoy but you need to add your own photos, videos, titles, and music to put your video slideshow together.

Some of the special effects available include the ability to slow down or speed up footage, as well as picture-in-picture and greenscreen effects. While these are awesome, they may be more than you need to create a simple photo montage.

If you don’t have your own music to add to the video, iMovie offers 80+ soundtracks and there is also the option to add your own voice-over narration.

Here’s an example from teacher-librarian Amy Kincaid. She used iMovie to create a video that condensed her year with Jackson Elementary students into 7 minutes.

Lumen5

URL: https://lumen5.com
Use on: Computer (or on a phone/tablet via the web browser)

Lumen5 is a free drag and drop video creator. It’s most known for its ability to turn blog posts into videos, however, it can also be a handy tool for creating video slideshows using images, short clips, GIFs, and music.

When you log in to Lumen5 and opt to “Create a Video”, you’ll be given three choices as outlined below. You can “automagically” make a video from your blog post, script, or media. 

To make a slideshow style video with music, select “Use your media”.

Lumen5 contains a library of Creative Commons Zero images and music if you need some content to complement your own collection.

This is a fabulous tool with some minor downsides being:

• The free plan allows you to make 5 videos a month in 720p resolution
• The free plan has a Lumen5 watermark
• It’s 13+ (so if you have younger students, they can’t create their own videos)
• You can’t embed your video directly onto your blog. So you have to put it on social media or YouTube first and then get the embed code from there. Or you could download the video and upload it directly into your post/page if it’s a small file. Scroll down for more details on embedding.

In this video, Richard Byrne from Free Technology For Teachers shows how to create a Lumen5 video from a blog post. You can modify the instructions and select “Use your media” if you don’t want to base your video on a blog post.

Adobe Express (Formerly Spark Video)

URL: https://www.adobe.com/express/create/video
Use on: The web or iOS app

If you’re an educator who is going to be using Adobe Spark, you might want to first make sure you’ve signed up for an education account. This will give you free premium features. 

Adobe Spark Video allows you to combine pictures, videos clips, icons, text, voice, and music to create compelling videos.

If you need extra footage or a soundtrack, there is a free database of images and music.

If you’d like to read a “how-to” on creating an end of year celebration video, check out this detailed explanation from Monica Burns.

Here’s an example of a video made in Adobe Spark by teacher Laura Hanser Burkhalter. She used photos that were emailed to her from members of her school community. 

Music and Copyright

When you’re creating a slideshow style video it can be extremely tempting to use popular music that reflects the mood and emotion of the footage.

As you probably know, most music is protected by copyright. It doesn’t matter if you paid for a song or not, it’s still protected by copyright. It doesn’t matter if you’re only using 30 seconds or less of a song, it’s still protected by copyright.

Normally, you can’t just use any music you like in your video creations.

However, in many countries, you are allowed to copy music to add to a video if:

a) it’s for educational purposes and
b) you’re not sharing your video publicly (or selling it!)*

So, if you make a video with music that’s protected by copyright, it’s not okay to publish this on a public blog, social media, YouTube, and so on. And you couldn’t show your video at a public event. However, it’s okay if the video is just being shown privately to teachers, students, and families at home/school.

It’s also important to note that background music is not considered “educational use”.

Despite the flexibility in these rules for educators, it’s always a good idea to not only think about loopholes but consider ethics and how to be the best digital citizen you can be. As everyone can now be a publisher, copyright is an important topic for educators and students to have a grasp on.

*Note: This is the case in Australia and the US but if you live in another country you may need to check your own guidelines. 

Here’s a brief summary of the above. You’re welcome to share this graphic on your own site, LMS, or social media with attribution.

Copyright Free Music

Luckily, many of the free online tools and apps available now have inbuilt music options that are free to use. All the tools and apps we’ve reviewed in this post have some free music options.

However, if you’re looking for some other copyright free music options, you might first like to check if you district has any subscriptions you can make the most of. For example, Soundzabound.

If this isn’t an option, there are lots of other sources of free music online like YouTube Audio Library.

Let’s take a look.

YouTube Audio Library

YouTube has a great library of music you can use. In case you’re wondering, using an online tool to download music from a YouTube video is not okay.

Visit the Audio Library section in your YouTube Studio to browse the selections.

You can filter your results to find music that doesn’t need to be attributed.

You can preview the music to hear what it sounds like and download the music you want to use.

Here’s an example called Sunshine in my Heart by Jingle Punks.

There are many other ways you can find copyright free music online so please let us know if you have a favorite.

How To Add A Video To Your Blog

Videos can be quick and easy to make but sharing them can be more difficult due to large file sizes.

If you want to share your video on your blog or website, first check whether the tool you’re using offers an embed code. If you’re using an online tool like Animoto or Adobe Spark Video you’ll be able to use an embed code to add the video to your blog quickly and easily. You can find the full instructions on how to embed videos in this Help Guide.

If you’re not using an online video tool that offers an embed code, you’ll want to download the video to your device. From there you’ll upload your video to a third party service and then embed it. Most videos are too large to upload directly to your blog or site.

These are third party services you might consider to house your videos:

• An online hosting site (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, TeacherTube)
• Google Drive
• A Cloud service like DropBox or OneDrive
• Social media (many services have limits on video length e.g. Instagram 60 seconds, Twitter 2 minutes 20 seconds, LinkedIn 10 minutes, Facebook 120 minutes)

If you’re uploading your educational videos to a platform like YouTube or social media, check your school/district guidelines for advice and choose your privacy settings carefully.

Once you’ve uploaded to one of these services, you can embed the video on your blog, website, or LMS, or share a link. If you’re embedding a video, you can use the instructions below.

Methods For Embedding Videos

Videos from video sharing websites can be embedded into posts or pages by either using:

1. The video URL: Paste the URL on a line by itself in your post/page editor where you want the video to appear. This method only works with certain services, like YouTube.
2. The embed code: Find the embed code on the site you’re using (e.g. YouTube) and copy it. Then in your post put your cursor where you want the video. Click on Add Media and then Insert Embed Code. Paste the code and press Insert into post. Note: embedding isn’t available on free blogs to prevent misuse from spammers.

You can find the full instructions on how to embed videos in this Help Guide or check out the PDF below for detailed instructions for YouTube.

Download the PDF of the embedding instructions.

Related Posts

You might also enjoy reading:

The Educator’s Guide To Using Video In Teaching And Learning

How To Deal With Student And Class Blogs At The End Of The Year

10 End Of Year Blogging Activities

If you’re active on social media or enjoy reading blogs, you’ve likely noticed how popular quotes have become.

There’s something about them that resonates with people—offering inspiration, motivation, and plenty of shareable moments.

Whether they provide a boost during challenging times or remind us of the deeper significance in our daily lives, quotes often offer a quick dose of insight for those pressed for time.

Whatever the case, quotes can be a powerful thing.

In this post we go through the advantages of adding quotes to your blog posts, where to find quotes, and the etiquette of borrowing words from others. We’ll also show you simple ways to create images to display your quotes.

Why Weave Quotes Into Blog Posts?

Here are six reasons why quotes might become a regular feature in your blog posts:

1. You can back up your thoughts and make your writing more credible.
2. Student voice can be incorporated into a blog post written by a teacher.
3. You can provide alternative viewpoints or encourage readers to reflect.
4. Quotes can help you begin or end your blog post with impact.
5. The research involved in finding quality quotes is a solid learning experience.
6. Quotes can make your posts easier to read as they break up the text.

How To Put A Quote In Your Post

You can just type your quote into a post and put it in quotation marks, but to really make it stand out and break up your text, try a quote block. Your words will display like this:

Learning is not done to you. Learning is something you choose to do.

― Seth Godin, Stop Stealing Dreams

Adding a quote is easy. If you’re using the block editor (Gutenberg) in WordPress, Edublogs, or CampusPress, you use the Add Block button to add a Quote block to your page. If you can’t see the Quote block, just type in quote in the search field.

The quote block comes with the standard editing options: alignment, bold, italicize, hyperlinks, and strikethrough.

If you press the button on the far left of the toolbar, you’ll be able to choose between two block styles. Depending on your theme, you may have additional styles to choose from. Your theme determines how quotes are displayed.

Where Can You Find Quotes?

You might already have some favorite quotes stored away that have never left you. You might do a Google search for articles on your topic and find quotes from others.

Otherwise, you may enjoy browsing an online collection of quotes, such as the following:

• GoodReads Quotes
• LitQuotes
• BrainyQuote

Quote Legalities And Etiquette

We know we can’t just take images that we find online, and we certainly can’t copy others’ writing and publish it as our own. So, many people might wonder about using quotes.

It’s fine to use quotes from others but there are a few things to be aware of:

• Use quotation marks or block quotes to clearly distinguish your own words from those of others.
• Make your quotes brief. There are no universal rules here. Some larger organizations have guidelines around how much of their work you can quote (e.g. Hubspot’s rules are 75 words). If you’re unsure or think you might be using too much of someone’s article, contact them to ask permission. Never copy the whole post.
• Always include the person’s name, and link to their site, article, or book if you can. Obviously, if you’re quoting someone like Aristotle or Mother Teresa, hyperlinking may not be an option!
• When using blockquotes, the attribution can appear before, within, or after the quote.
• If you shorten a quote, use an ellipsis (…) in place of the missing words.
• If you’re adding any words or corrections to the quote, use brackets.

Make Your Quotes More Visual

There are many online tools where you can turn your quote into writing on an image. These can make your blog posts look more visually appealing, and are great to share on social media too.

Here are just a few free online tools that might be useful for students or teachers:

Canva

Canva is a really popular tool to make all sorts of graphic designs and documents. The paid premium version of Canva is free for teachers and students.

Learn more about Canva in our guide for educators on The Edublogger.

Here is an example of a quote I made with Canva.

Adobe Express

Similar to Canva, Adobe Express is an online drag and drop tool that allows you to make social posts and graphics. Adobe Express for Education gives students and teachers premium features for free.

Here is an example of a quote made with Adobe Express:

Quozio

Quozio is a really simple tool that doesn’t require any sign up, so it’s ideal for young students to use. You simply add your text and choose your background before saving your image. Here’s an example:

Note On Accessibility

Vision-impaired visitors to your blog may be using assistive technology like screen readers to read the page out loud.

If you put words on an image, it’s essential that you write the actual words from the quote in the alt text section. You’ll find this in the Block Image settings on the right hand side of your screen.

If you’re interested in learning more about accessibility, check out the complete guide on the CampusPress blog.

Five Ideas For Using Quotes In The Classroom

If you’re an educator, there are many ways you can weave quotes into your blog or website.

1. Quote young students: If you teach very young students, you could put the students’ quotes about their learning in a different color on your blog. This makes it easier for them to go home and proudly share their blue/red/green writing with their parents.
2. Explore a quote in a post: If you have student bloggers, why not have them choose a quote from a fellow student’s blog post as a topic for a post of their own? They can explore the quote in detail and add their own thoughts and opinions.
3. Posts full of quotes: You or your students could create blog posts that are a compilation of quotes. For example:
   • If you were studying World War Two, you could put together a collection of important quotes from this time in history.
   • If your class visited the museum, you could add quotes from all the students about their field trip.
   • If you were studying a divisive topic, like animal testing or closing a local library, you could interview members of the community and include their quotes in the post.
4. Quote library: You or your students could start your own library of interesting quotes as you come across them. You could add them to a Google Doc and then refer to them when writing blog posts in the future, or house them on a page on your blog.
5. Quote of the day blog: Some people have a photo of the day blog. What about a blog where a quote is published each day? This could be a mix of quotes from members of the school community, or well known identities or historical figures.

Bringing in the voices of experts or giving your students a voice through the use of quotations could have a big impact. Why not consider ways that you and your students could integrate quotes into your blog posts?

We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

― Walt Disney Company

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In fact, our services in accessibility, security, hosting, support, along with an extensive suite of other tools, power millions of education websites, blog networks and portfolios. Learn more about our school website services or request info today!

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, we will be starting our next school year in the coming weeks and months. Depending on where you live, there will be really difficult decisions made about how school will proceed during the current pandemic the world is facing. 

Will school be all online? If so, will it be better than the online experience most of us had back in March and April?

Will we try some sort of hybrid approach with smaller class sizes where remote and on-campus learning is alternated? How will that be organized?

If we are at school, can students really wear masks all day? Can teachers teach in them? Will school be a scary place producing too much anxiety for our kids?

How will parents and caregivers balance school requirements with their own work and other obligations?

How will teachers be able to manage and teach students in both traditional and online locations at once?

So. Many. Questions.

My wife and I are both former teachers with graduate degrees in education, so you would think that we’d be ahead of the curve for homeschooling, distance learning, or being able to handle anything education-related thrown our family’s way. However, we don’t feel that way. We’re nervous that our kids will fall behind, we’re sad about the missed experiences we had hoped for our kids, and we’re longing for normalcy. 

But we also want to ensure, like every parent and every educator out there, that we do what’s best for our children. 

If you are looking for concrete answers and guidance, I don’t think anyone yet knows the answers. But, as we have been discussing and preparing for the upcoming school year for our own kids, it has been cathartic to put together some thoughts, tips, and ideas here in this post that hopefully may help others in similar situations.

What Will Learning At School Look Like?

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with the goal of having students physically present in school. I agree, for the reasons outlined below, but how will that go? We can start by looking through the advice and guidelines published recently by the different authorities out there.

Summarizing and highlighting common recommendations for schools made by the World Health Organization, the US CDC, and the Australian Department of Health, this is what school could be like:

• Social distancing will be practiced. As a result, class sizes may be limited, school schedules may be changed, and activities may be canceled.
• Hygiene will be a focus with more frequent requirements for kids and teachers to wash hands and use hand sanitizer.
• Lunch and meals may all be served in classrooms.
• Masks may be required or encouraged for teachers and students.
• Extra-curricular activities, physical education, and other opportunities for play may be changed or limited. 
• Schools will be cleaned more frequently to disinfect common areas, desks, playgrounds, etc. 
• Group work and collaborative learning will be harder to implement.
• Parents, volunteers, and non-necessary visitors may not be allowed in the building.
• Any student or faculty member who tests positive for COVID-19, experiences any possible symptoms, or comes in close contact with someone confirmed positive will be required to stay away from school for up to two weeks.

For the best set of guidelines and guidance I’ve seen so far, everyone really should read this entire 62-page Risk Reduction In Schools Report by the Harvard School of Public Health.

There was a memo going around the web recently from a large company that was preparing employees who have been working from home since March to come back to work. That memo laid out new rules for workers that included no eating in the break room, no using conference rooms (so continuing Zoom meetings), and staying several meters apart from each other. 

In short, all of the benefits of having workers in a physical office were removed. Yet, the management wanted workers to return. For these employees, it was likely they’d be more productive at home given all the restrictions.

I gotta say, as I read through the different reopening plans, it feels like if all of the suggested measures take place, we are doing the same with schools – we risk removing many (if not all) of the benefits of attending school in person in the name of reopening. There will also be so much time spent on extra precautions that the day just won’t be as productive. Not to mention real concerns about mental health, anxiety, and stress from all of the protocols and procedures. 

There’s a hugely important reason for schools to open as much as possible, though. Many students rely on school for meals, health, and other services – pandemic or no pandemic. It is also true that schools being open is essential for many parents and caregivers to be able to work and earn a living. We can’t get to a place where the fight against the virus causes more harm than good from increased poverty, malnutrition, or social isolation.

I don’t envy the tough decisions by government and school officials who are deciding when and how to re-open. It is an impossible situation.

Home Learning Is Likely

Even with all of the risk reduction and social distancing strategies in place, realistically, many students will most likely experience online, distance, or home education options this school year. 

It is also probable that even those who start back in the classroom will need to change back to temporary remote learning on short notice at some point during the year if there is a spike in active cases at the school. 

This means two big things are true:

1. We all must be prepared for learning at home.
2. Disruptions and unexpected changes are almost a sure thing.

Given that at least some level of learning at home will be likely, we can turn our attention to planning and making the best of it.

Forget About The Past

Let’s reframe a conversation that I’m hearing over and over again. Many parents and students are afraid that this new school year will be much like the experience they had in March through May when schools closed.

I will bet anything that this isn’t true. 

Schools closed quickly, often without any preparation or planning. Student belongings, technology, and school resources were left in the classroom. Teachers didn’t have access to their books and materials.

It happened fast. There was basically no plan.

This will be different.

Perhaps, I should say, I sure hope this will be different. But I’m confident that it will be. Teachers and educators are creative, they love their craft, take their responsibilities seriously, and have now been spending summer vacation (and mostly unpaid time) preparing.

So, all I’m saying, please don’t make decisions for the next school year based on your experiences of recent remote learning. 

Don’t Fall For The Trap

Regardless of at home or in classrooms, given everything going on, it is going to be tempting for schools, teachers, and parents to want to simplify as much as possible. One giant pitfall to look out for is to ensure that the expectations and types of learning opportunities offered don’t suffer.

Now, more than ever, we have to decide what we want out of school. Are the individual concepts and skills the most important part?

Or do we want to focus on learning opportunities that emphasize creativity, critical thinking, choice, and personal growth?

The ideal scenario is somewhere in the middle and depends on the subject matter and age of the student.

But as you research learning options for the upcoming school year, consider this chart in how you evaluate and choose the path forward:

There have been many great strides towards a richer education experience in the past few decades. In fact, school probably looks very different today than many of us will remember from our own childhood. We risk using the increased complexity and new obstacles during this pandemic as an excuse to move backward.

Perhaps An Opportunity?

Trying to make the best of a difficult circumstance, maybe this is as good a time as ever to really think outside the box. We should fight the tendencies and natural reaction to try and replicate traditional schooling but doing it remotely, and instead, reinvent what school could look like both at home and at school.

Nobody has asked, but if I had the opportunity to design what learning looks like until COVID-19 is no longer a threat to human lives, here’s what I’d consider…

The school day would look nothing like we’re used to. Instead of traditional classes assigned to one teacher, I’d survey and organize all faculty and staff at the school into 3 groups:

Group 1: Small Group Teachers – experienced with or strong at teaching math, reading, and writing.

Group 2: Project Coaches – experienced, interested in, or showing potential for organizing and leading independent learning projects.

Group 3: Learning Mentors – a group for providing parent support, one-on-one student mentoring, solving technology problems, etc.

For the Small Group Teachers, I’d use all available data and knowledge about each student to create small groups (or even one-on-one instruction) for math, reading, and writing. These individualized lessons and coaching would take place either in person when possible or remotely by video. The goal here would be to make sure, if nothing else happens, all students move forward in their math, reading, and writing skills.

For the Project Coaches, all other academic areas and school subjects would take place via individualized and self-paced learning projects. The school would come up with requirements, timelines, rubrics, and expectations. Students would be given as much choice as possible and would have a Group 2 faculty/staff member assigned to oversee each project. Perhaps no more than one or two projects would be allowed at a time. While there wouldn’t be formal classes in the sciences, social studies, history, art, music, etc. – all would be encouraged to be incorporated into projects.

The third group of Learning Mentors could be thought of like case managers – they would be helping to take care of the entire child, not just academics. Schools will need extra staff to help keep up with increased reporting requirements on health guidelines or even tracking attendance. Parents will have questions about technology and how to facilitate home learning. Students with special needs will have individualized plans and accommodations to implement. This would be a flexible and responsive team to help with social and emotional needs. It might be the most challenging and important group of all.

So, at minimum, students would be assigned a small group teacher for math, another for reading/writing (or maybe one for each), a project coach, and a learning mentor.

Any kids that needed a place to be and learn, I would do my best to ensure the school was open and available – ideally for extended hours too. This would be more like a library or cafe – come and go as needed with supervision and a safe place to do work. Watching TV, playing games, and virtually collaborating with others would be ok too, as long as school progress is made.

Sure, there are probably a million regulatory and logistical reasons why the above isn’t possible, but this is just one quick and simplified example of how schools might choose to respond in more meaningful ways. If given a choice for my own kids, I’d be interested in something that might be experimental if it seems well-planned and thought out. We might really have an opportunity for systemic change here.

My Biggest Fear

Thinking beyond my own children, I worry deeply about the long-term effects that a sustained disruption to the education system will have on students, teachers, and communities for years to come.

All schools – public, charter, and private – have funding that is in one way or another directly tied to attendance. As I see more and more families seriously (and reasonably) explore the possibility of unenrolling their kids from whatever school they were previously in, I know the result will lead to teacher layoffs and a catastrophic financial situation.

It can’t be sugarcoated – if students leave their current school in droves, many schools won’t still be there when the pandemic is over. Then what do we do?

Teachers are also contemplating retiring or resigning at high numbers. Will we have enough teachers, especially in disciplines and locations already experiencing a teacher shortage, in a post-pandemic world?

It makes sense that the current focus is on what is best for this school year, but I hope we discuss and think more about how we recover from this when it is all over, too.

When we plan for what is best for our own kids, we should give significant weight to what will be least disruptive and provide the most continuity in the long run too.

Our Plan (Is Not For Everyone)

Where we live, it has been announced that full-time regular schedules in the school building will not be an option when school resumes. At best, we’ve been told that we can expect our kids to be able to attend school in person for 25% of the time. We’re not even sure what that really means. The school district is also offering a completely remote learning option.

As such, we have tentatively decided that we can rearrange our work schedules (a major privilege and luxury, I know) to support the fully at-home learning option for our two school-aged kids this coming year. However, for the reasons above, we feel strongly we want to keep our kids enrolled and educated at our local public school – just as would be the plan if COVID-19 wasn’t a reality.

Unless community spread is significantly less than it is now in our area, and if kids can regularly attend school (not just once per week), we’ll opt to do it fully at home.

Of course, parents are the experts on what is best for their children and their families. Not all will have the same opportunities or choices available. Different countries, states, and cities will see different rates of infection and hospitalizations too. Unique needs are important to take into consideration.

How is your school currently planning on starting the next school year? What are your thoughts on your own kids returning to school?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below as we all work to ensure our kids and students continue to be educated and taken care of.

In an era of remote teaching and learning due to the global pandemic, teachers and students are relying on video more than ever before.

Video in education can mean a lot of things:

• Teachers finding and sharing videos someone else has made
• Educators create their own videos, often as a screencast or piece to camera
• Teachers hosting video conferences
• Students create their own videos — tutorials, reflections, stop motion, animation or more

Video is an everyday part of most students’ lives and can be a crucial tool in a remote learning curriculum.

But what tools and equipment should you use to create videos, screencasts, or live conferences? Where can you find high-quality videos that others have made? And what’s the best way to share videos you’ve made with others?

This guide will help.

Contents

This post walks you through all aspects of using videos in education. 

Click on the links below to navigate this resource.

Note: This post includes honest reviews of a variety of tools. We have no affiliations with any of the brands mentioned in this post. 

Creating Videos For Students

When you can’t teach your students face to face, personalized video can be the next best option.

Even during regular school times, many teachers see the advantages of flipping their classrooms. That means students can learn some content outside of class time (often via video, podcasts, or reading). That frees up time on campus for deeper work, discussions, and projects.

So how exactly do you create videos for your students? And should you be pre-recording videos or just running live video conferences?

This is a question we weighed up a little in our guide to teaching online due to school closures. Let’s recap.

Synchronous or Asynchronous Videos

There are two main options for sharing videos with your learners: synchronous or asynchronous.

Let’s weigh up both options.

Synchronous Videos (Live streaming/Conferences)

This means real-time streaming. It could be a live stream (like on YouTube) or an interactive video conference (like on Zoom).

Pros:

• Some synchronous videos can be recorded so they can be viewed again at a later date. This is useful if students can’t attend the live stream, they have technology issues or need to revise the content.
• Some schools find synchronous videos to be a powerful way to keep the class connected.
• Students can gain feedback, seek clarification, and get answers to their questions quickly.
• Synchronous video conferences can be used in a range of ways: class meetings, office hours (drop in to ask a question), live recess (just for fun), or focussed study groups.

Cons:

• There can be privacy issues if students are shown in synchronous videos and they’re recorded.
• There is also the issue of internet access if students are required to attend regular long live conferences. This can really chew up families’ home internet and can be a major barrier in rural/disadvantaged areas.
• Passively sitting in on lecture-style video conferences can eat into time that could be used on more productive learning and projects.

Asynchronous Videos (Recorded Videos/Screencasts)

This means you record videos that can be viewed (and reviewed) when it suits the student. Your videos could be a simple “piece to camera” or a screencast.

Screencasting is where you narrate a video recording of your computer screen. Sometimes it’s just audio and sometimes you can see your face in the video as well.

Pros:

• For some students, asynchronous learning can be more convenient and allow them to learn at a time and place that works.
• Students can work at their own pace and revise information as needed.

Cons:

• It can be hard for teachers to know whether students watched the videos or were engaging with the work.
• It can be time-consuming to request clarification if some concepts are not fully understood.

You might find it useful to use both synchronous and asynchronous videos at different times.

Here’s a brief summary of what synchronous and asynchronous remote learning looks like:

Now you know more about the options, we’ll take a look at some popular tools for recording both synchronous and asynchronous videos.

Popular Tools for Synchronous (Live) Video Conferences

There are many tools out there that allow you to connect with students via video. This can really help to unite the class.

Four of the most popular video-conferencing options for teachers and schools include:

• Zoom — Robust software designed exclusively for video conferencing.
• Google Hangouts Meet — The evolved version of classic Hangouts that’s part of G Suite.
• Microsoft Teams– a communication and collaboration platform that is part of Office 365.
• Webex — Cisco tool for video conferencing, online meetings, screen sharing, and webinars.

These tools all allow video conferences with screen-sharing capabilities.

• The teacher can start the conference and share the access link with the students.
• Students can access the conference at the specified time using any device (e.g. laptop or tablet).
• Some people like to use external microphones, headphones, or webcams, however, the camera and microphone attached to your device are probably fine for getting started.

Here is a quick comparison of the free plans for Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts Meet, and Webex Meetings:

Notes on Live Video Tools:

• Safety comes first! Your school or district probably has advice about which video conferencing tool you should use and which settings should be employed. As an example, Zoom has released some best practices in this PDF. 
• Zoom, Meet, and Webex temporarily upgraded their free plans for educators but these offers have now ended for Meet and Webex. If your school Zoom account hasn’t already been upgraded, you can apply here to remove the 40-minute time limit.
• Some teachers are also experimenting with live streaming on YouTube. For teenagers, it’s a platform they’re often already familiar with and they can comment in real time.

Popular Tools for Recording Screencasts

There are a number of tools available to record screencasts (asynchronous videos). Like many online tools, there are free plans and paid plans.

Let’s compare four of the most popular screencasting tools teachers are using for recording lessons.

• Loom
• Screencastify
• Screencast-o-matic
• Zoom

This chart compares the features of the free or free education plans (paid plans have more features).

Notes On Screencasting Tools

• I’ve written a blog post specifically about Loom if you want to learn more. There are no age restrictions so students can use Loom if you want them to make screencasts. The pro Education version is free to teachers and students forever.
• You’ll remember that Zoom is a popular tool for video conferencing. The 40 minute time limit on free accounts has been temporarily removed for educators. To record a screencast using Zoom, you start a meeting with yourself as the only participant and record the conference. You can’t record if you’re using the Zoom iOS app.

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Free Online Tools For Making Educational Videos

Making your own videos is easier than ever! Apart from the screencasting tools mentioned above, there are online video creation tools that are:

• free/paid
• simple/complex
• for editing/creating
• for all ages/restricted to over 13 or 18

Here are six free options for creating different sorts of videos using online tools. Feel free to share your own ideas too!

• Lumen5
• Animation (Powtoon and Biteable)
• EdPuzzle
• Animoto
• Flipgrid

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Lumen5

Lumen5 is a free drag-and-drop video creator. You can turn images, short clips, GIFs, and music into engaging and educational videos.

It can even “automagically” make your blog post into a video (for best results you’ll need to edit it slightly).

Here’s a one-minute explanation:

Lumen5 contains a library of Creative Commons Zero images and music so you don’t need to search for content either (although you can use your own pictures and video).

The free plan is becoming increasingly restrictive. As of November 2020, it allows you to make 3 videos a month with the Lumen5 watermark.

The only downside (apart from it being a 13+ tool) is you can’t embed your video directly onto your blog. So you have to put it on social media or YouTube first and then get the embed code from there. Or you could download the video and upload it directly into your post/page if it’s a small file.

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Animation (PowToon or Biteable)

There are a number of ways you can create simple animations online. Two free tools you might be interested in exploring or using with your students include PowToon and Biteable.

Both of these tools have free plans and can be used by students under 13, however, they do require students to sign up via email.

Powtoon’s free plan allows you to make 3-minute videos with the Powtoon branding visible. Biteable’s free plan allows you to create as many videos as you like (with a watermark) and share 10 of them.

One benefit of PowToon over Biteable is that you can download your finished product as a PowerPoint or PDF file. You can only download your Biteable creation with a paid plan; you have to share your Biteable video by embedding it or sharing a link with the free plan.

You can embed both PowToon and Biteable videos into your blog posts or pages.

PowToon

PowToon is a quick video that gives you a glimpse of the drop and drag editor.

Biteable

Here’s a quick video tutorial that shows you how to use Biteable from Kyle Niemis.

EdPuzzle

EdPuzzle is a popular tool to turn any educational video into a lesson. The videos can come from YouTube, National Geographic, Khan Academy, or other sources, including your own videos.

EdPuzzle’s tools allow you to check if students are watching your videos and understanding the content through inbuilt questions and narrations.

EdPuzzle has free plans where you can store 20 videos.

This one minute video explains what EdPuzzle is all about.

You can embed EdPuzzles into your blog. These instructions show how to find the embed code.

Animoto

Animoto allows you to create videos from photos, video clips, and music either on the web or on an app on your mobile device.

It’s an intuitive tool that allows you to create a professional-looking video in minutes.

Educators can sign up for a free account which allows you to create student accounts as well.

Animoto has been around since the early days of “Web 2.0” and continues to improve.

You can embed Animoto videos on your blog. This help guide shows you where to find the embed code.

Here’s an example template for a vocabulary lesson.

Flipgrid

Flipgrid is a video discussion platform from Microsoft. It’s 100% free (even pre-pandemic).

Using Flipgrid, you add topics to a grid. A topic can include text, links, videos, images, or more. Students respond to your topics with their own videos — you can set the video maximum video length from 15 seconds up to 10 minutes. Students can record themselves or their screens.

Flipgrid allows you to facilitate engaging asynchronous video discussions. You can include your whole class in the grid and even families and students from other schools.

This Getting Started video for educators explains how to get going with Flipgrid.

You can embed Flipgrid videos on your blog (or LMS). This will allow students to watch and/or record videos without having to leave your class blog. Here are the instructions to find the embed code.

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Video Creation Techniques

Online tools are great but you can make videos in the traditional way too, as can your students. You don’t need any fancy equipment either — a phone, tablet, or webcam can work just fine!

Let’s go through three popular techniques for creating videos:

• Piece to camera
• Teach in front of a whiteboard
• Green screen videos

Piece To Camera

I know, I know… who likes getting in front of a camera? Most teachers would avoid it at all costs! But it is really a great way to connect with students and families.

There are lots of reasons you could create a piece to camera:

• Welcoming students and families at the start of the school week if you’re learning remotely, or at the start of the school year during normal times.
• Thanking your class and families at the end of the school week/year/term and reflecting on what went well.
• Explaining learning tasks or giving feedback.

You might encourage students to create these sorts of videos too. As always, check your school guidelines if student videos are going to be shared digitally.

Here is an example Linda Yollis made to welcome her new students to the classroom last year. She cleverly used a “B roll” to show some footage while talking but you can keep it simple.

10 Tips For Filming A Piece To Camera

Filming a piece to the camera on your phone or tablet? While it doesn’t have to be perfect, there are a few easy things you can do to enhance the quality of your video.

• Lighting: This is really important! Sit near a window if you can or add lamps. Aim for even natural light. Don’t have a window or other light source behind you? Walk around your house with your device while looking at your screen to find the best lighting.
• Audio: Your mobile device will record video just fine (in good lighting) but the audio quality won’t be great. Add an external microphone if possible. Personally, I use the Boya Lavalier lapel microphone. It’s under $30 and works great (no affiliations here!). If you use an iPhone/iPad, you’ll need the headphone jack adapter to plug in your mic.
• Tripod: If you’re using a phone, it needs to be steady. Many discount stores now sell basic phone tripods (for example, I got this $8 one from Kmart Australia). You can elevate these on furniture or books as needed.
• Location: Keep your background simple but it doesn’t have to be totally bare. Remember, if you’re using a phone, the background won’t blur like it does with a professional camera — just be aware if you have personal belongings in the shot. Aim to film in a quiet location.
• Clean your lens: Especially if you’re filming on your phone, wipe that dirty lens before you start. It’s a simple tip that’s often overlooked (you should also do that before you take photos).
• Horizontal: If you’re using a phone, turn it on its side. That way, it will fill the whole frame when people are watching the video on their computer/device/tv. If you want to know more about why your video should be horizontal, you might enjoy this funny video.
• Raise your device: You want your device to be around eye level. If it’s too high or low, your face proportions won’t look right. You might need to prop up your device on books.
• Front facing camera: If you’re alone, switch the camera so you can see where you are in the frame (consider positioning yourself slightly off center in the frame). If you have someone else to film you, the quality will be better filming the regular way.
• Look at the lens: Find the tiny hole and try to make eye contact with it. You don’t have to stare at it. You can look away occasionally but don’t look at yourself on screen if you’re using the front-facing camera. Smile!
• Record: Whether or not you want to actually script what you want to say is up to you. A more natural approach may be to create a few notes or an outline, rather than scripting or reading. Pace yourself and enjoy!

Remember, your video doesn’t have to be long. A short video is often a good video!

Want to share these tips with colleagues or students? Download the PDF.

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Teach In Front Of A Whiteboard

One of the simplest ways to create a video is to do what you know best — film yourself teaching.

Eddie Woo is a Sydney maths teacher who has been filming himself teaching maths for years. He has a huge following not just from his own students but from students across the world.

Eddie has a YouTube channel and houses his videos on his blog too.

Here is an example…

These sorts of teaching videos come into their own during periods of remote learning but are useful at any time of the year.

Another teacher who is producing maths videos is Joel Speranza.

Joel is publishing his videos to YouTube and housing them on his website.

What is different about Joel’s videos, is he is using a variety of techniques, including a homemade “Lightboard”.

This short video demonstrates Joel’s video techniques.

Of course, students can “be the teacher” too and record tutorials for other students.

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Green Screen Videos

You’ve probably heard of green-screen videos? This is where you replace the real background of a video with a digital background. To do this, you need to film against a green screen. This could be either a screen bought specifically for video creation or something more ad-hoc — a piece of green cloth, green paper, a green shower curtain, or a wall painted green.

A green screen can even be a shirt!

Love experimenting with the green screen app by @doinks and thinking of different ways of using it in #physed…will be showcasing this tomorrow with my Ss #physed #pegeeks #pechat #ukpechat pic.twitter.com/6Zfovmb8JP

— Adam Llevo (@MrAdamPE) October 4, 2018

Here’s an example of a remote learning video that uses a green screen video from a kindergarten teacher from Texas.

I may have a slight addiction to @DoInkTweets and @PicPlayPost! #eLearning #ObsessedWithGreenScreens pic.twitter.com/3pQ1tpV4VS

— Rachel Doran (@rachel_doran_) April 15, 2020

Want to learn more about green screens?

• Green Screen by DoInk is a popular app you can use on an iPhone or iPad.
• Tony Vincent has compiled some different green screen setups.
• LitFilmFest has shared 7 tips for using a green screen in the classroom.
• Green Screens projects can be “mini” sized too as explained by Anita Goodwin.

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Video Editing Software And Apps

Most people know how to record a video. It can be as simple as opening the camera function on your phone and hitting the record.

But then what do you do with your raw video?

It’s not always essential, but you’ll generally want to do some basic editing. This can include things like:

• Adding text titles or captions
• Adding music
• Chopping out certain parts of the video
• Mixing together video and images

Let’s go through some options for editing videos on the cloud, on a computer, or on a mobile device.

Editing Software (Computer)

WeVideo (Cloud editing software)

WeVideo is a cloud-based video editing tool that allows students and teachers to get creative.

Educators can make videos for their classes, while students could have fun responding to some of their learning tasks as a video. They can also collaborate with peers on projects.

WeVideo also recently introduced screencasting.

While WeVideo For Schools was free for schools affected by COVID-19 in early/mid 2020, this offer has now expired. Therefore the main barrier to using WeVideo is cost. There is a free WeVideo plan but you can only create 5 minutes of footage per month, it includes WeVideo branding, and most features are missing. You can read more about WeVideo pricing here.

iMovie  iOS app | macOS

If you use a Mac computer, the go-to program is generally iMovie. You can also use the iMovie app on your iPhone or iPad if you have one.

iMovie is a free and robust tool that allows you to create anything from a short video clip to a full-length movie. There’s only a small learning curve involved in getting the hang of iMovie, and it comes with templates for layout and music.

If you have a recommendation for a free Windows editing software, please let us know in the comment section below. Windows Movie Maker used to be a popular choice for simple editing but it has been discontinued now.

Editing Apps (Phones/Tablets)

There are a lot of video editing apps out there. They’re not all created equal and most have “in-app purchases”.

For quick video editing on my phone, I love a free app from GoPro called Quik and another one called Splice. They don’t have in-app purchases.

• Quik puts everything together for you with music, transitions, and other cool effects.
• Splice is handy if you want to make more manual edits and don’t necessarily want too many effects.

Let us know your choice of video editor in a comment.

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How To Share Your Videos With Others

Videos can be quick and easy to make but sharing them can be more difficult due to large file sizes.

You’ve probably already figured out that most video files are too big to email.

So what do you do if you need to share a video with students, teachers, or families?

Firstly, consider whether the videos you’re making are too long. Educational videos should be as long as they need to be in order to meet the learning objective but no longer. Studies show that after 6 minutes, engagement drops off.

If you’re an educator asking your students to create videos for assignments, you might want to be specific about length so you don’t run into problems receiving and viewing their work.

When it comes to sharing your videos, there are a few options:

• Add your video to an online hosting site (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, TeacherTube)
• Add your video to Google Drive
• Upload to another Cloud service like DropBox or OneDrive
• Add your video to social media (many services have limits on video length e.g. Instagram 60 seconds, Twitter 2 minutes 20 seconds, LinkedIn 10 minutes, Facebook 120 minutes)

Once you’ve uploaded to one of these services, you can embed the video on your blog, website, or LMS, or share a link. Many videos are too large to upload directly to your blog or site. If you’re embedding a video, you can use the instructions we covered earlier in the post.

If you’re uploading your educational videos to a platform like YouTube or social media, check your school/district guidelines for advice and choose your privacy settings carefully.

If your students are making videos and have a Google account, there is an option for students to upload their video file in a Google Form. You can find out more about that here.
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Using Videos That Others Have Made

We’re fortunate to live in a time when there is a massive library of video content available to us.

The problem is, that it’s often a case of searching for a needle in a haystack to find the right video. Because it’s so easy to make videos, there is a lot of low-quality or inappropriate content out there.

Choosing Videos For Your Students

When considering sharing a video with students, you need to ask yourself:

• Is the video age-appropriate?
• Is the video accurate? Remember, you can’t believe everything you see online.
• Does it meet the learning needs of your students?
• Is it designed to educate about a topic or is there another purpose? (e.g. to entertain or to teach English)
• Is the video made by an educator or someone with appropriate credentials?
• Is the video the right length for your students? i.e. just long enough to cover all the content but not so long that students will tune out.

Remember: Watch the whole video before sharing it with students. It’s tempting to just watch a short snippet but it’s best to screen the whole thing. Of course, if you work with a team of educators, you could share this responsibility.

Tip: Increasing the playback speed a little may help if you need to get through reviewing a YouTube video in a shorter amount of time! Click on the gear icon and then “Playback Speed”. You can then increase the speed to 1.25 or 1.5, for example.

Free Online Video Libraries

So where can you start looking for video content that will meet the needs of your students?

YouTube is the obvious choice but there are some issues to think about with YouTube, and more importantly, there are other useful video libraries:

• TED-ed (free videos and lessons)
• BrainPOP and BrainPOP Junior (teachers and families can request free access due to school closures)
• CommonCraft (classic explanation videos mainly about tech and society with lots of free options)
• GoNoodle (engaging movement and mindfulness-based videos for students. Great for brain breaks)
• Storyline Online (actors reading storybooks)

There are also sites that curate and organize useful educational videos from a variety of websites. One example is WhatKnowLearn which brings together 50,000 videos that are screened and categorized by educators.

Many Australian teachers are enjoying ClickView and ABC Education. Some American teachers have recommended PBS LearningMedia and PBS Kids. Perhaps there are local video libraries in your area too?

Some teachers have also pointed out they like using the short videos shared on Instagram. For example, to introduce students to authors or share art or coding skills. While there may be a plethora of options, Instagram would obviously need to be screened carefully.

Do you have a favorite site to find educational videos? Let us know in a comment.

How to Embed A Video On Your Blog

Many teachers and students like to embed videos they find online on their own blogs. That means you can play it within the post without having to open new tabs or leave the blog.

If you use a learning management system, you should be able to embed videos too.

Let’s take a look at how to embed a video in a blog that’s hosted by Edublogs/CampusPress/WordPress.

An embedded video looks like this.

Tip: When embedding a video, it’s a good idea to also put a link to the video near the embed, like this:

Check out the video, What Is A Blog?

Educators or students might embed videos from sites like:

• YouTube
• Vimeo
• TeacherTube
• Google Drive
• TEDEd

Methods For Embedding Videos

Videos from video-sharing websites can be embedded into posts or pages by using:

1. The video URL: Paste the URL on a line by itself in your post/page editor where you want the video to appear. This method only works with certain services, like YouTube.
2. The embed code: Find the embed code on the site you’re using (e.g. YouTube) and copy it. Then in your post put your cursor where you want the video. Click on Add Media and then Insert Embed Code. Paste the code and press Insert into the post. Note: embedding isn’t available on free blogs to prevent misuse from spammers.

You can find the full instructions on how to embed videos in this Help Guide or check out the PDF below for detailed instructions for YouTube.

Download a copy of the PDF

Copyright And Videos

You may be wondering about copyright because we know we can’t just take an image from another site and use it on our blog. So can you embed a video from YouTube (or similar sites) on your blog?

In short, yes.

If a video creator leaves the embed functionality enabled on YouTube or a similar site, that means they agree for it to be shared.

That being said, you can’t necessarily download or make changes to the video (for example, cutting it up, remixing, adding audio, and so on.). So steer clear of that!

YouTube And Safety Concerns

Access to sites like YouTube is a contentious topic in schools. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any experiences with that issue.

The YouTube Terms of Service are very clear in that YouTube should not be used by children under 13 – even with parental permission.

In some countries, this age can be even older, and you should check youtube.com/t/terms for the latest and the requirements where you live.

The biggest concern involves the ads that will play before most YouTube videos, as the ad that shows with a teacher previews a video may not be the ad that shows when a student goes to watch it.

Another concern is the comments that may be shown below a YouTube video.

If you still choose to use YouTube, here are a few tips we recommend to minimize potential problems:

• Set up a class or teacher account if you plan to upload videos or create playlists. This helps separate your work videos from your personal videos. The University of Massachusetts has a guide to creating YouTube playlists which you can access here.
• Look for videos that have comments disabled.
• Embed the video in your blog or LMS when possible which will usually have fewer ads and distractions.

An alternative to embedding videos, especially for younger students, is to give a “safe” link such as the ones described below.

Use Safe.link

If you really have to link to a YouTube video, then video.link may help.

You simply visit the video.link website, paste in your YouTube link, and generate a new ‘safe link’ that you share with your students.

One of the main benefits is no registration is required. The ‘safe link’ will do its best to block any ads and not show any comments.

In this video, Richard Byrne from Free Tech for Teachers explains how to use four distraction-free YouTube sites — SafeShare.tv, Quietube, Watchkin, and Google Slides.

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Conclusion

In this post, you learned:

• Pros and cons of synchronous and asynchronous videos
• Popular tools for live video conferences and screencasts
• Free online tools for making educational videos
• How to film a piece to camera and other educational video techniques
• Popular tools for editing videos
• How to share videos you’ve made with others
• How to find and use videos that others have made
• How to embed videos on your blog
• Copyright and safety concerns when using videos from sites like YouTube

We’ve covered a lot and hopefully, we’ve inspired you to have a go at using some of the tools or techniques mentioned in the post. If you do, we’d love to see what you create or hear about it in a comment!

Scroll down to find the comment box.

We’d also love to hear your own suggestions for finding or creating videos.

Lights, camera, action … and over to you!

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