Blogging Conundrum

Last year my class and I dove into blogging headfirst and it was a huge success. My students loved it. They learned a lot about writing and about each other. I learned a lot about my students, who struggled with spelling, who had great ideas, and who was empathetic (and who was not). Success is wonderful, but you can't dwell on it too long. If you don't build upon success, you fall. So, I am beginning to think about next year already (just a little). We used kidblog last year and I liked what it offered. However, what else is out there? Is there something out there that is better? Maybe another site has more options. Maybe another site allows for easier audio and video uploading.

On that note, I thought about my wishlist.
I want:

• my students to have their own accounts
• to have the privilege of approving both posts and comments
• anyone around the world to be able to comment on their blogs
• to be able to upload audio and video with ease

There are a few sites that I looked at and I narrowed it down to edublogs or back to kidblog again. I'm sure I am missing a great site, but I haven't done too much research just yet.

So, what do you use? Why do you like it? I am going to do more research but I put a great deal of stock it what others have used. I appreciate all of your comments, suggestions, and criticism.

Thanks!