The document discusses using WordPress blogs for education. It argues that WordPress blogs can meet students where they are with technology, increase interaction through self-posting and commenting, and be helpful for teachers by making homework paperless and automatically archiving student work. It then provides tips for using WordPress, including an overview of signing up, the dashboard, categories and tags for organizing posts, commenting features, and user roles. Finally, it lists some free WordPress themes that could be suitable for education purposes.

1. WordPress Blogs for Education
(Or “How I Learned to Stop Giving Book
Homework & Increased Class Interaction”)

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

3. Why WordPress?
HTML Joomla Moodle WP
Static; BIG; FOR education; Simplicity;
Unnecessarily Unnecessarily Unnecessarily Acts like a blog,
complicated to complicated to complicated to looks like a
update navigate build professional site
12 3 2 1 (12)
We recently switched The Jeonju Hub to WP (from Joomla) for these reasons [3]

4. 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]

5. 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]

6. 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]

7. WP 1: Signup, Login, Dashboard
Sign-up Login
www.wordpress.com yoursite.com/wp-admin
More about using WordPress for Classrooms [7]

8. WP 2: Appearance & Widgets
Live Preview Changes Click-and-Drag Widgets (42)
Find great WordPress themes! [8]

9. WP 3: Categories & Tags (Posts)
Categories = Classes Tags = Search word (keywords)
Posts ONLY – this is how you sort and search on your site [9]

10. WP 4: Posts & Pages
Posts Pages
Key difference: Posts = archivable (categories & tags), Pages = act like menu items [ 10 ]

11. 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 ]

12. WP 6: Users & Scheduling
Users Schedule Posts
Roles: Author = write, publish, delete, media uploads / Contributor = write & edit only, after admin publishing NO edit [ 12 ]

13. Notable WP Users
 [ 13 ]

14. FREE TEMPLATES FOR
EDUCATION
Write them down and give them to me afterward. [ 14 ]

15. Chalkboard Theme
http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/chalkboard/
Find more great WordPress themes! [ 15 ]

16. Runo Lite Theme
http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/runo-lite/
Find more great WordPress themes! [ 16 ]

17. Book Lite Theme
http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/book-lite/
Find more great WordPress themes! [ 17 ]

18. Academia Theme
http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/academica/
Find more great WordPress themes! [ 18 ]

19. Adventure Journal Theme
http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/adventure-journal/
Find more great WordPress themes! [ 19 ]

20. THANK YOU!
PPT Template: WordPress from Lester Chan [ 20 ]