I’ve certainly been learning about some neat Web 2.0 applications lately!  A couple of hours after I posted about Meemi possibly being used by my students to post their work if our District tech staff can’t get Tumblr through the filters, I learned about another web application that has the potential of being even better than Tumblr (which I named as the number one Best Web 2.0 Application for Education in 2007).

Vox is a new micro-blogging application.  I’m still exploring it, and am finding that it has some clear disadvantages and advantages compared to Tumblr.  I just don’t know yet if its advantages outweigh its disadvantages yet.  And, since I haven’t spent that much time on the site, I might still be missing some things.

First, a couple of disadvantages.  Its interface is not as simple and elegant as Tumblr’s, though its not that much more difficult.  And it doesn’t allow you to insert images off the Net just with a url, though you can search through iStockphoto.  There may very well be other problems that I haven’t found.

Vox does have two big advantages.  One is privacy — you can keep your blog private and only allow those who you want to see it. 

The other is that, unlike Tumblr, it allows people to leave comments.  And you can limit who can leave comments, and require that they all be approved prior to posting.

Glady Baya raised the issue of Tumblr not allowing comments, and shared her concern that they haven’t responded to her question about if they might be doing so in the future.  They haven’t responded to my email asking the same thing, either.

Vox’s two advantages can be very big ones for working with a class.  I’m going to check it out further.  I’d also certainly be interested in what other people think.