WordPress Blogs for Education(Or “How I Learned to Stop Giving Book Homework &

Increased Class Interaction”)

COMMENTS & QUESTIONS

Write them down and give them to me afterward. [ 2 ]

Why WordPress?

HTML Joomla Moodle WP

Static;Unnecessarily complicated to update

BIG;Unnecessarily complicated to navigate

FOR education;Unnecessarily complicated to build

Simplicity;Acts like a blog, looks like a professional site

12 3 2 1 (12)

We recently switched The Jeonju Hub to WP (from Joomla) for these reasons [ 3 ]

Why Make a Class Blog?

1. Meet the students where they are (technology)– Technology = a high-interest way to get them to write/communicate– Self-posting encourages self-editing/self-rewriting

2. Increase interaction– Quiet kids contribute more (participation grade)– Read, review, respond to classmates (start a discussion)– Students model writing skills (self- /peer-comparison)– Encourage Critical Thinking Skills (read well to respond well)

3. Helpful for the teacher– Teachers also model good writing skills (and can post rubrics)– Less loose paper homework, bad handwriting, late papers– Auto archive student work for later review (no papers or folders)– Absent kids have no excuses for no homework– You can schedule homework and assignments

4. Mobile (WP supports smart phone use)Reference: http://www.assortedstuff.com/stuff/?p=70 [ 4 ]

Class Blogs: 4 Ideas

1. Assign Homework as comments on a Post– (Later students comment on previous comments)

2. Assign notebook/project homework in greater detail (paperless)– (Post answers in the comments)

3. Assign students to write their own Posts to educate their peers

4. Flip your classroom! – (Video lectures = hw; workbook problems in class)

My former students’ WP sites [ 5 ]

WP: What Should You Know?

1. Sign-up, Login, Dashboard (overview/stats)2. Appearance & Widgets (sidebar)3. Categories (classes) & Tags (keywords)4. Posts (categories) & Pages (no categories)5. Comments & Akismet (Spam catcher)6. Users & Scheduling

Dated, but useful tutorial for setting up WordPress [ 6 ]

WP 1: Signup, Login, Dashboard

More about using WordPress for Classrooms [ 7 ]

Sign-upwww.wordpress.com

Loginyoursite.com/wp-admin

WP 2: Appearance & Widgets

Live Preview Changes Click-and-Drag Widgets (42)

Find great WordPress themes! [ 8 ]

WP 3: Categories & Tags (Posts)

Categories = Classes Tags = Search word (keywords)

Posts ONLY – this is how you sort and search on your site [ 9 ]

WP 4: Posts & Pages

Posts Pages

Key difference: Posts = archivable (categories & tags), Pages = act like menu items [ 10 ]

WP 5: Comments and Akismet

Settings -> Discussion Akismet is built in!

Basic recommendation: “Before a comment appears -> Comment author must have a previously approved comment” [ 11 ]

WP 6: Users & Scheduling

Users Schedule Posts

Roles: Author = write, publish, delete, media uploads / Contributor = write & edit only, after admin publishing NO edit [ 12 ]

Notable WP Users

[ 13 ]

FREE TEMPLATES FOR EDUCATION

Write them down and give them to me afterward. [ 14 ]

Chalkboard Themehttp://theme.wordpress.com/themes/chalkboard/

Find more great WordPress themes! [ 15 ]

Runo Lite Themehttp://theme.wordpress.com/themes/runo-lite/

Find more great WordPress themes! [ 16 ]

Book Lite Themehttp://theme.wordpress.com/themes/book-lite/

Find more great WordPress themes! [ 17 ]

Academia Themehttp://theme.wordpress.com/themes/academica/

Find more great WordPress themes! [ 18 ]

Adventure Journal Themehttp://theme.wordpress.com/themes/adventure-journal/

Find more great WordPress themes! [ 19 ]

THANK YOU!

PPT Template: WordPress from Lester Chan [ 20 ]