Since it appears Journals won't be supported in 1.7 anymore, it is with some reluctance I will probably be replacing my Journals with Assignments - they are not the same thing. Just the name "Assignment" makes it sound like something the teacher is requiring, you do it, turn it in, then forget about it once it is done.
What I liked about the Journal was the way the student could see all their entries on one page when they clicked on the link in the upper left (on my site). This encouraged them to think of the Journal as a progression of thought and showed how their thinking or reflection was evolving as the course went on. It didn't look like a gradebook but rather was more personal - a journal that they "owned" rather than a series of assignments from the teacher.
When they click on Assignments then it looks like a gradebook - each assignment is separate and they click multiple times in order to view each entry. (And journal-like entries are mixed with other writing assigments). One of the harder things is to get student to connect the material earlier in the course to material later in the course and one of the uses of my journal was to get them to keep reflecting on this. Sure I can ask them to do this using the Assignments, but the just the layout of it makes it more difficult and I don't think they feel the "ownership" that a Journal encourages.
Bottom line - a series of Assignments is not a Journal - nor is a Blog unless they allow for making the Blog private. [ Yes a peer-available or public Blog adds another dimension but depending on the course may not be appropriate. ]
Just venting here. Hacking Journal to work in 1.7 is not an option for me.