Blogger - Strengths and Weaknesses

   The website that I use to blog is Blogger, and although I am relatively new to blogging and using the site, I believe that I have enough experience to talk about the good and bad points of the website. Below, I have compiled a list of some strengths and weaknesses that I have found using the site.

Strengths

1. By embedding HTML codes into your blog, you can make a blog post look good and help readers be directed towards youtube videos to help with understsnding of the subject that they are blogging about for example.
2. You can link text to a website, for the convenience of the reader.
3. A search bar can be added to make searching the blog easy.
4. Easy to customise the layout and template.
5. Labels help readers to nagivate the blog.

Weaknesses

1. What you can do regarding the text is limited, for example the font size and font type.
2.  Although you can customise the template and add your own template, it is quite difficult to make it look unique.
3. Difficult to place images onto the blog post, and also to adjust the size to your preference.
4. It is difficult to know what your audience want, especially if you have no comments or not many readers.
5. It is quite difficult to find online, for example if you want to gain more readers.

Another Useful Online Tool...Animoto!

   Here is another post about an online tool that could assist with revison or would even help teachers present a lesson in class. The website is called Animoto.
   I tried out this website, and put together an example video below.

     

    As you can see, my creation isn't the most artistic/original piece of work. The video took under five minutes to create, using some of the many provided images, and one of the provided themes. You can also add your own videos or pictures to personalise videos, and choose the music that you can use. I think that this site would be more useful in terms of presenting rather than revision, as there is not much text that you can put onto the animation. There is an extensive gallery of videos, themes, music and images that you can use for free in your animoto creation, and choosing these was something that I really enjoyed doing.

   A negative point of this app is that you have to sign up to use the service. The website is free to use, but there is only a limited amount that you can do with it. For example, the length of the video can only be thirty seconds long. This is a downside as some people might want to make a longer video.

   Overall, the website is restricted as to what you can do, but it is useful and the finished creations are very appealing to look at.

ABCdoes.com

    

   This blog is a recommended educational blog that I follow, specifically aimed towards the early years part of education. The author of this particular blog has been a head teacher for ten years, therefore giving him expertise to talk about education in particular. Advice is provided to assist children with literature and reading. The blog is updated regularly, which is something that I particularly look for in a blog.
   The blog has resources for early years teachers to use, for example, play dough recipes to encourage learning/play. There is also information about any conferences that the author is taking part in, so teachers can gain useful ideas about teaching, an example being Excellence in Early Years.
   I think that the most valuable part about this blog is the experience that the author has in education. The ideas in the blog are really interesting, and provides very useful activities that teachers could try out. These activities are all tried out by the author, who would want to provide blog readers with a tried and tested way of teaching.
   Despite this, I think what would be useful with this blog is if there were to be more resources to help teachers, as there is a very limited amount on the website.
   Overall, I think that this is a great blog for anyone who would want ideas for teaching children in the early years. Many useful activities are suggested, by an author who has much experience in the field of early years education.