Teaching+News,+Issues,+and+Controversy+with+WordPress+MU

Presenter: [|Jeff Mummert], Hershey High School

For more information on my presentation, please see:

[|Beginning WordPress] [|Intermediate WordPress] [|Advanced WordPress]

Or, for WordPress examples, see:

 To use wordpress on your own - you must download application Two options – host from your own server, run off remote server

Can customize

wordpress.org - where to get the application to download

wordpress.com - get free space to create blog

Another hybrid - wordpress mu (Multi-user) Open source (similar to moodle as in open source application) Installs on your server – mu – acts as a parent that reproduces “children” Web space – Hershey blog runs on a server at site – has lots of “children” blogs Valuable with students – easy to create complete originals – can customize easily Uses examples of blog posts as examples for students to write their own (models expectation) He collects news stories – history changes…uses as a springboard for student posts Recent event stories within year – students do background check on content- blogs are concise, have hyperlinks, responsibility w/citations Blog posts get listed in order of when they are published Considers blogs as writing assignment Provides rubric AND adds: “This site is going public…either you are getting published or not getting published”…he retained control over who made it “live”. Out of 90 students, only 1 did not get published He gets post, reads them, then pushes them out – he sometimes offers one blog across several classes Teacher was going for collaboration/communication Posts end up like a forum – stacked Example: American cultures II – Issues & Controversies in American History Plan: Student research, decide point to argue, students provide their view of history Showcase example from one of his students – Charles Lindberg responsible for death of child? Once published, it got more comments – “checked out some of your links and tell me why you think this”. “This is a very unpopular view…explain thoughts.” Mechanics – administer, security, safety External – what you see Internal – dashboard – Students’ dashboard has fewer options than administrator He “owns” the parent and gets ultimate rights He can turn things on/off on the parent site Student comments never go public unless he allows, he puts comments out to see Dashboard gives him rundown of what’s happened since he logged in Every time a new user logs in – it asks to rank (so each person is assigned level of rights) Students can be subscribers (allow to view), contributors (allows to contribute), editor (allows to publish) Most often enter students as contributors He grabs 100 themes and slaps them on the local access…that allows teachers to pick from the list as they create their own page. Found under the design panel He can use widgits (similar to igoogle) He can add a calendar – students don’t do or see this – all administrator controlled Finds his content through Google Reader Reads blog posts – way to read hundreds of blogs without ever having to go to the web sites themselves (similar to bloglines) He uses this to find articles that are used in his description of use above Uses class time to model, but also has dedicated laptop cart to do 1:1 during class time Word press MU – no really good way to upload users in batch So if you are asking your tech person to add this…they have pentamation? Dagon Design – created a plugin for importing users in word press