The crafty folks at Edublogs just got my money. I’ve used my edublog for the past few years as a quick way to post content (videos, instructions, review games) for my students. Since I don’t use it much in the summer, I was surprised when I got an email from a colleague saying she couldn’t embed a glogster page on her edublog. After checking it out, I found that I couldn’t either. It turns out that edublogs has turned off the ability to embed most codes in the free version.
Edublogs, I think, is running WordPress MU (MU is actually a fully integrated part of WordPress now). For certain installations of WordPress MU, users have to load a special plugin (this link is probably outdated) or change some permissions on the admin end to allow embeds (thanks Jill L. for the tip). Apparently, Edublogs figured they could get more pro users by turning it off.
The bottom line is that I finally caved and paid the $40 US for Edublogs pro. I’ll try and get a grant to cover it later because I think I’ll set up student blogs on the platform. While I thought about moving to another platform (for free), I had a lot of posts and felt invested in the edublog anyway. It appears that a lot of other sites are looking for revenue in new ways too. Glogster is advertising heavy for their Pro version and ClassTools.net is now offering an ad-less “Premium” membership. I use these a lot with my students and really hope the free versions remain without too many things stripped from them. It’s sad to see great tools moving to paid versions, but I understand the time that goes into creating and maintaining these sites.
Coming in the next 2 or three weeks, however, I’ve got a story from the creator of a site I cherish that has pledged to always remain free. Stay tuned.
Realizing A Personal Legend Too 