What is 21Classes?
21Classes lets teachers set up and manage a multi-user blog solution with independent blogs for students instantly and easily. It is a hosted service you can use without any installation or programming knowledge.
What's a blog?
A blog is a user-generated website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order. Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.
What's a user?
A user (or member) is any individual user ID or login. Each user can have an unlimited number of blogs. So if you register 10 members, each member can have dozens of individual blogs according to their individual needs.
What differentiates 21Classes from other blogs services?
Most other services mainly offer blogs for individuals. With 21Classes you can become a blog host yourself in minutes. 21Classes is specifically designed to be used by teachers as it gives teachers complete control over content and student blog entries as well as security settings for their students’ accounts. The site admin panel allows central control over the whole network.
How does it work?
As a hosted application, 21Classes is very easy to use. There is no software to install, no maintenance and no updates required from your end. With a few clicks you can set up and run your own personal Classroom BlogPortal and invite students to join.
Every Classroom BlogPortal consists of two layers: The first layer is your class homepage where users can register and login, find new blog entries or news and assignments. The second layer consists of all of the individual student blogs.
What does 21Classes cost?
21Classes is a FREE SERVICE for classrooms of up to 10 students providing 1MB of web space for each of these 10 accounts. An automatic image resizing automatically scales larger images to around 50KB of size so it also allows students to upload and show multiple photos or other images.
Beyond the FREE SERVICE we offer on-demand upgrade options so your blog community can grow with your needs. Please visit our shop to find out about paid features and pricing here.
Why do I need 21Classes?
21Classes is the easiest way to set up and manage your own private-labeled multi-user blog solution for your students.
How can I use mydomain.com?
There are two options:
The first and simplest option – domain mapping. To enable this service you simply have to set the IP address (under “DNS setting”) of the 21Classes server as “A-record” with your domain registrar. You will reach your BlogPortal http://www.mydomain.com and your blogs can be reached under http://www.mydomain.com/user1.
Alternatively you give your server your own name and follow the settings procedure described above. In that case you may also enlist subdomains (i.e. http://user1.mydomain.com) and direct each of these domains to the 21Classes server. Users can then use the sub domain instead of the directory name (i.e. http://www.mydomain.com/user1) too.
Please make sure you have properly set up your domain name in your 21Classes Administration section and make sure there are no spelling errors.
Please note: To use your own domain you need to upgrade as this feature is not available in free classroom blogs.
Can I use my own design?
21Classes provides you with a rich selection of pre-formatted template designs. Alternatively you can customize your portal pages and change the blog templates used by your students to meet your design needs.
21Classes templates can be changed by adding pictures, changing colors, customizing the navigation bar and much more. With basic CSS knowledge you will be able to personalize your classroom blog even more – just try it.
How can I integrate my classroom blog into an existing website?
The easiest way to do this is to add an additional link to your new classroom blog in your existing navigation. Additionally you may add sub-menus for navigation within your own classroom blog. The sub-menus are dynamically generated and therefore very easy to maintain. Please refer to the question "How can I use mydomain.com?" in this section.
Do you provide support?
21Classes provides support for all paid accounts. During the launch period of this new product we also offer free e-mail support for free accounts. We will inform you about our updated support policy as needed.
Do you have any more questions? Please get in touch with us.
We will be happy to help!