Last week I began hearing some twittering about ads appearing on Edublogs blogs. A little investigation on the Edublogs forums showed a post which, to be fair, dates back some months detailing the fact that ads will be added at random to free accounts. They can quickly be removed for $40 a year as part of the Edublogs Supporter scheme.
As you will see on the forum post and twitter link above the backlash has begun. Whilst it seems unfair to kick a free service I can’t help feeling let down by Edublogs. The service was always heavily promoted as being free and ad free. To suddenly turn on ‘in post’ Google ads without so much as an email to members informing them of this decision is disappointing. There are already tales of inappropriate adverts involving guns, dating agencies etc appearing on school blogs. The fact that these are planted inside posts makes it appear as if the author is promoting them.
I’d been thinking on and off over recent months that I should really own my own little part of the Web, so really I should thank Edublogs for spurring me on. The process of buying a domain and importing this blog was easier than I thought. I will detail the process in due course for anyone who is interested. Whilst costing a bit more than $40 a year, I’m pleased with the result.
I think it is important that we teach pupils to manage their on-line identities, and it will be increasingly important what employers, pupils and parents see of us online. If someone wants to find me then I think mrstucke.com is an obvious place to look!
So farewell Edublogs, I hope you get over this hurdle. I am thankful for getting me started so easily on this journey but I’m off to pastures new….
CC image from kamoda on flickr
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