I’ve been test driving a free blog platform that seems ideal for anyone who is new to blogging, or for someone who is unlikely to write a great deal of text. A blog is a powerful and engaging vehicle for learners to express themselves and to show what they know. Blogs also have tremendous potential as digital portfolios that showcase learning.

Tumblr is a free blog hosting service that is quick to learn and easy to use. It’s especially well suited for sharing a photo, video, or piece of art work, accompanied by a brief description or explanation. This can be particularly valuable for learners who struggle with writing.

Setting up an account takes less than a minute. Part of the process is the choice of a URL that ends in tumblr.com. I chose paulhami.tmblr.com for my new tumblr blog. This means that anyone who goes to http://paulhami.tumblr.com will end up at the sample blog I’ve been creating.

It’s almost as easy to create a post in tumblr as it is to set up the account. In tumbler’s “dashboard”, simply click on the button for the desired type of post. This brings up the appropriate template. I’ve illustrated this below with the template for a “Video” post.

Publishing the post so that anyone can view it online is simply a matter of clicking ‘Create Post‘. Of course, you have the option of previewing your post before publishing. You’ll notice that you can write a significant “caption”. A little experimenting indicates that the caption can be as long as you want to make it. The same holds true for captions that accompany photos.

A few points worth noting:

• “Text” posts can incorporate images.
• The “Quote” template offers space for a quotation, along with a place to include the quote’s source, and again the option of writing a “caption”.
• The “Chat” post is designed for the blogger to share dialogue. Many learners I have supported would appreciate this as a place to write jokes!
• In an “Audio” post, the user may upload MP3 files up to 10 MB. Again, there is the opportunity to describe the audio.

It is also worth noting that a great deal of customization is available. The tumblr blogger has many ways of making his or her blog unique so that it better reflects the blogger’s personality.

There is considerably more that can be done with tumblr–social networking through “followers”, connections to Twitter and/or Facebook accounts, password-protected blogs, and more. I’ve focused here on the basics. To see examples of some of the possibilities, please check out my sample tumblr blog HERE.