Since I originally mentioned the link in February, Sasan has added a Flash demo of it.
Tama’s review (posted in February, but I’ve only just found it) of the Aperto link seems to indicate that it does have the functionality I’m looking for. His earlier comments about WebCT’s blogging tool covers most of the points that I was afraid of – in particular that it’s only visible to students on the course.
I’ve been looking much more closely at it, as I’d like the students on the MScIT (if we get it off the ground!) to start using blogs from the outset. One of the comments that seems to have arisen from the current cohort of MScELT students (using Blogspot) is that they don’t feel very comfortable with others potentially seeing their blogs. We’re having a focus group with them in a couple of weeks time, so I might get some clearer answers from them. Elgg, though, seems to make it very easy to set up different groups of readers, so, a student could make some totally personal posts, some for themselves & the tutor, some for the group, and some for anyone. The powerlink would make moving from WebCT to Elgg seamless, though as far as I know it only works with WebCT 6.
As we’ve not got WebCT 6 at present, we’re going to have to set it up, and then just link between the two – students will have to log in twice!