Colleges Consider Using Blogs Instead of Blackboard – Chronicle.com 
Please read the linked article above and then let me know what you see as the advantages and disadvantages of using a blog (WordPress) instead of a learning management system (Blackboard)?
I’ll tell you what I think. First here’s my disclosure statement. I’m a huge fan of WordPress and I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Blackboard during my ten years as a user. (Has it really been that long?) That being said, I don’t see why an institution would choose to use an application designed for reflections (WP) when an application designed to manage courses (Bb) fails. It would make more sense to investigate why Bb is failing or evaluate another LMS like Moodle.
I like the commenting feature in WordPress but it isn’t a threaded discussion board. I like the ability to review blog stats in WordPress but it isn’t a gradebook. I can see how some professors could teach their courses using a blog but it won’t meet the needs of the many.
There are non-LMS alternatives to Blackboard (such as Drupal) but I don’t see WordPress as being one of them. Now if we want to talk about using WordPress as an alternative to an ePortfolio management system I am ready to talk. For now, I’m sticking with Blackboard as my LMS.
Thoughts?
(delicious tags: Blackboard LMS higher_education K-12)
I’ve been giving some serious thought to migrating all of my course webpages (which I design myself) onto a free blog service, but the one I’m looking at (Ning.com) charges $24.95 a month for an ad-free page.
I’d like more than just a blog feature; I’m also looking for a threaded discussion board, which Ning does offer.
Anybody know of another free blog service with threaded discussion boards?
I wrote about the Chronicle article on my blog this morning. Here’s the URL:
http://virtualteaching.wordpress.com