wordpress

About WordPress MU
toc [|WordPress] Multi-User allowed multiple people to syndicate their blog posts to a single blog. It also allowed a blog user to send their posts to different blogs based on category or tags using an rss feed. It is __no longer active__ but was incorporated into Wordpress 3.0. The link at the beginning has been updated.

Strengths

 * Allows for students to have one blog that can be used in multiple classes
 * Blogs can be set up to be found in search engines or not if student is younger
 * Great classroom collaboration
 * Students can work and collaborate outside of the classroom
 * Many easy to use themes
 * Ease of use for a student who can do all of their work on one blog and send it through syndication to separate class blogs.

Weaknesses

 * Back end support requires some coding knowledge
 * Requires good hosting for it to run smoothly
 * Back end syndication can be time consuming when working with younger students because the teacher has to do it

Opportunities

 * Increase student writing
 * Give students a global audience
 * Collaborate with schools from all over the world
 * Increase collaboration within the classroom
 * Teaches students how to use HTML code and links effectively
 * Increases collaboration outside the classroom among teachers (see example skipping through kindergarten)

Threats

 * Anyone can comment on a student's blog (To combat this threat, I use my email for their comment notifications so I see all of their comments)

Classroom Uses

 * Collaborate with a school elsewhere so students can meet and share ideas on the [|Wordpress]blog
 * Have student writing on the blog so students can comment on and see each other's work
 * Create an online newspaper for a school
 * Use as a showcase for student work with parents, administrators and people outside the school
 * Create an online newspaper as a project to study a unit

Examples
The Future of Teaching -- A group of educators who write posts about where education is headed. UMWBlogs -- The University of Mary Washington has a huge multi user site and it is available to all faculty and students FABlogs -- Fredericksburg Academy, an independent school, uses multi user for its' blogging platform Flattening the World -- A sixth grade Geography class' blog ttfa16's blog -- A sixth grade student who has written 100 blog posts in less than 6 months! [|Wordpress Guides] -- A nice blog with a lot of guides how to create themes and plugins in [|Wordpress Training] [|WordPress Development] - A WordPress related services company. Skipping through kindergarten : Pinellas County kindergarten teachers sharing ideas on differentiated instruction.