Wordpress mu - Charlie Reisinger

WordPress Mu, Charlie Reisinger (Penn Manor)

21st = innovative
communication, collaboration, criticial thinking are components of classrooms in history

They began with WP because teachers wanted web pages.

15th century blogs - guttenberg press, movable type

Wordpress

html did not allow for good layout

web 2.0 was a marketing term Tim O'Reilly

Tools were as easy to publish as using a toaster

NY times is moving their content engine to blogging format.

You are looking at blogs without knowing it.

Blogging engines - wordpress, typo, livejournal, moveabletype
-does not live out in the cloud, you can install it on your server.
-choose the engine that will serve you best.

PM chose wordpress because it's supported very well. Open source with a large community of users.


MU= multiuser

Edublogs runs Wordpress MU

Edublogs is not the best way to go from a strategic level.

Why run your own then?
-cost, $6500 a year
-your content is stored elsewhere, internet issues sinks your day
-reduce training issues when changes occur, control deployment


Shop Talk (PUT IT ON A DEDICATED SERVER)
-lamp (loves linux) Linux (OS), apache (web), MYSql (database runs on server), PHP (code, engine that delivers page, builds webpage)
-ubuntu
-3gb ram
-virtualized

Mamp Pro (installs LAMP) ONe click solution for setting up your personal webserver. Go gray.
-aside - download and install to test Moodle 2.0


Plugin Suggestions
-FireStats - get statistics (who is looking, what are they looking at, graphs)
-nextgen gallery - rotating banners
-podpress - podcasting
-LDAP Plugin - server authentication for wordpress mu (check for mixed authentication) Penn Manor does not tie it back to active director

blogs.pennmanor.net/list ( check out their job link) LIst automatically puts most recently updated at the top.

As admin, your dashboard looks same as user. Site Admin block differs from reg user
-work on landing page
-set spam
-allow/disallow registrations for new blogs/accounts (decision point)
--Blog upload space check - enabled, limit to 150 MB. Can change per user. Set low to get started, get people to embed instead of hosting their vids/images. Set max upload size per file- 26000 KB Upload file types
--Can we control themes/skins? Site Admin>Themes, Many work with multi-user version, but not all.

Moodle v blogs - can change layout - more customization

Plugin Issues
-may not get upgraded as WP upgrades
-be cautious

REMEMBER:
The / blog is VERY IMPORTANT. Never rename it!

Multiple directories, after slash.

Script mines database to post on the main blog page. That page is linked to from the webpage site.
-wordpress dev - become a member to get code for lists

Set up new blog:
Teacher enter email, they get notified
Student with no email - use id@school.net - print info for them. Any email, nothing needed really. It's only to generate the email.

Set up users: Wordpress dev has script to upload

Roles: Administrator, Contributor, Author, Editor


Posts versus Pages
Pages are content that is more static.
Posts are the 'diary' entries.