Creating a Blog

I do like blogging as long as there is a purpose. When I was in Arizona for two weeks, I used a blog to keep my family updated on what was going on during my course work. That was a purpose. Just to have a place to rant and rave about stuff, while a worthy purpose and very therapeutic, is not what I would want to have published on the Internet for prying eyes to see.
My plan for my students, though it may be lofty, is to have my journalism students create blog pages. I'm not quite sure how it will evolve, but I'm hopeful that the process will ferret out story ideas and allow students to pre-write. Additionally, I may have my journalism students actually create an entire website of their journalism experiences, which should include analyzing articles, writing articles, reviewing a documentary, and creating a photojournalism video. One obstacle is that I can't keep the websites up indefinitely because I will eventually need to sites for future students. Thus, I'll need to work out how I will overcome that issue.
Finally, I will be working this issue out while I have a student teacher in my classroom. I think that it will be a great learning experience for her as well.
If you are reading my blog and you have some constructive comments, suggestions, questions, please post them.
If you are reading my blog and you hate it, please just stop reading. No need to comment. Thanks.