Pages in Blogger

Where have I been? In February, Google added Pages to the tools available in Blogger. I realize that I was traveling non-stop in February and March, but I should have noticed the ability to Edit Pages in the Blogger Dashboard! It was when I finally moved this blog from my own FTP server back to Google that I paid attention to this new feature. The addition of (a maximum of 10) pages to a Blogger blog changes my opinion of using this tool for an ePortfolio. Although limiting a portfolio to 10 pages might be limiting for some people with a lot of categories or content, but for many people, this might be a good option for beginners. Just as I recommend using Blogger as a good starter blog, perhaps it will be a good tool for novice portfolio developers.

I have created a few pages so far (Resources on ePortfolio Development, and Versions of my Presentation Portfolio). Now I can develop a new presentation portfolio using Blogger (My Life Portfolio) and a set of instructions on how to develop ePortfolios using this tool (Using Blogger Pages to Maintain an ePortfolio).

My next request of Google: PLEASE include Blogger inside GoogleApps Education Edition. Most K-12 education networks tend to block blogspot.com addresses, and educators need a safe blog that can be created inside their GoogleApps "walled garden" that is protected and legal for students under the age of 13. Many educators use EduBlogs (a version of WordPressMU) but the Campus version for classes of students requires a fee, and the user interface is not as friendly as Blogger. The combination of GoogleDocs, Google Sites and Blogger would be a terrific environment to document learning for all ages!