Web 2.0 Wonders for Summer Journaling
Thursday, June 11th, 2009 | Author: Jen
In upstate New York most schools are still in session…this tip may come too late for some schools that release earlier in the year. Encourage student writing over the summer by showing students free Web 2.0 tools that make journaling fun and easy. Of course educators could use these tools to journal as well! 
If you introduce students to any of these online journaling products, please take a few moments to discuss safety issues and responsible use of online products. Also, please check on your school policy for online journaling and be aware many of these products do not monitor public journal and diary entries. Still…for some reason, many students prefer keying their thoughts, rather than writing them. Here are a few Web 2.0 journal options you could investigate as you and your students sojourn during your summer vacation…
eWoff - a diary that can be used to record notes, reflections, and whatever else. Use it for private thoughts, a public journal, or both. You can also create photo albums that can be kept private or shared. Registration was required to open an account, but email verification was not. I particularly liked the fact that this product had privacy settings for journals and photo albums.
Penzu – a simple service that makes it very easy to write and save private notes or posts with images. Users also have the option of printing or sharing an entry by email. Registration was required to open an account, but email verification was not. The charm of this product is the simple interface. The privacy option was also a real plus!
MyDearDiary – this application features a number of appealing options, but the email verification was a bit frustrating. Once I [finally] had an opportunity to confirm my account I found the interface of setting up a diary was pretty simple. The following privacy options are available: public, members only, semi-private, and private. Obviously, I recommend the private option though I did find some of the public entries interesting (though probably best suited to adults and older students). One feature I particularly liked about this application is the ability to download/print journal entries…a nice feature if you want to offer secondary or adult students an opportunity to journal online as opposed to journaling in that traditional composition book. Public diary entries posted on the site are not monitored…beware. 
Online Diary – this application requires email registration and verification. Once you have verified your account you can journal using the controls on the right side of the page. You also have the option of creating one blog with the free membership. It occurred to me that students could use the blog function to share their favorite journal entries of the summer…just a thought. The interface is bare-bones and didn’t seem to work well with my Chrome browser…it was very slow and acted like it was going to crash when I created a test entry. - Diary.com – use this app to create a private diary that can include text, photos, videos and web links. The user also has an option to share his/her diary. I did find the editing feature touchy and have a bit of concern from the standpoint that students can access other diaries written by strangers while visiting the site. I would not recommend this product for young students…in fact, the product was only intended for students 13 or older.
eDailyDiary – this application was impressive from the standpoint that it included some interesting features in addition to being a journal/diary application… reminders, a money manager (nice for vacations, I would think), and notes. The site also included a search feature, so you could quickly look for an older entry using key words or phrases. Registration was simple, but did require email verification. There were no image, music, or video options, but the money manager was great!
MyDiary.org – this simple online diary can be kept private or made public. It is limited in color choices, but makes up for that limitation with a simple interface and search feature. Email registration and verification is required.
LiveJournal – this online journal service emphasizes user interaction, though the free version can be used as a private journal. This Web 2.0 app can also be used as a blog, a discussion forum or a social network. Please review this product prior to recommending it to students…depending on the options selected by a user, strangers could contact a student and there are some users who post suggestive content. I have included this product not because I necessarily recommend it for student use, but because it has been on the scene for a while now and does offer several options for older students and adults.
OpenDiary.com – this diary product offers privacy and public options and had a nice clean interface (very similar to Microsoft Office Word), but even the private settings include links to content written by other diarists, exposing students to material that might not be appropriate. The free version of this diary also includes distracting interactive advertising. I include this product with the recommendation that it only be used by adults or college-level students.
Edublogs – Although a blog is not exactly a journal or diary I wanted to point out that a teacher monitored Edublogs could offer a viable option if your school does not sanction online journaling. Visit the Edublogs site to set up an account and learn more. I would also suggest that you read through Sue Water’s Edublogger postings to learn more about blogs in education.
As I complete this post I thought it would be interesting to include a link to a site called The Online Diary History Project. The site features the thoughts of many journalists who were willing to share stories of their first year of online journaling in their own words.
Please share your thoughts about online journaling using the comment link below…
Category: Web 2.0 Wonders
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