Let me begin by saying I have no problem with a website trying to make money, but I do have a problem with a free site changing all of its services to pay services; especially an educational site. This is exactly what is happening with Edublogs. In the past I had several great free options from Edublogs, those features are now part of the pay service and have been removed from my site. For example, my Cluster Map is gone as well as my Vodpod. Once these items were free and we were even encouraged to use them, but now they fall under the pay domain. Similar to a drug dealer handing out some free junk just to get a person started and then charging for it later. Now I’m wondering which services will go next? Will I lose my header? Blogroll? Is it only a matter of time and money before I lose my blog all together?
My school chose Edublogs in the past because it was relible and free, but now we will have to look for other options, because I can’t expect the teachers and students to pay for blogging. And without basic features like Cluster Map and Vodpod, are the teachers and students truly receiving a real blogging experience? These events are unfortunate. I can understand that Edublogs needs to make money to cover operations costs, but this feels a little bit like extortion to me. Putting the squeeze on teachers and students is ugly.
Tags: cluster map, edublogs, Education, extortion, money, pay service, plug ins, student, teacher, vodpod, widgets
