WordPress Any Good?
By: Jason Itec
Recently, there has been a trend of school districts utilizing teacher-created classroom blogs by WordPress. WordPress started out simply as a free online blogging program, but over the years it has transformed into a very powerful and versatile content sharing platform. WordPress users as well as web developers have been pumping out a steady supply of free and premium themes and plug-ins that can transform a basic WordPress site into just about anything you can imagine. This benefits educators in that a site can be created that integrates a teacher blog, assignment calendar, as well as uploaded course material that students can access at their convenience.
WordPress has designed an educational tutorial to help teachers design and maintain professional looking classroom websites. These classroom sites can be created to be very complex, and the amount of student involvement and interaction is up to the creator. A teacher can assign specific roles to each student so that they will be permitted to contribute to blogs and share thoughts and ideas. The roles can also be expanded to allow students the ability to create and share their own original content on the class website. This can allow a safe and secure platform for students to comment on peer work and share ideas.
Also, WordPress can also be utilized in its open-source formatting for students to create their own personal websites as class projects. For instance, a lesson in ancient Chinese history could lead students to create a fully integrated website with pictures, videos, and information about a specific dynasty or region. Students would not only be researching, filtering, and sourcing historical content, but they would also be learning how to size images, embed video, and create an aesthetically pleasing website.
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