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MU in school? (22 posts)

  1. PeterStephens
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    I'm a high school English teacher looking to encourage writing through classroom blogging. Is there a good WordPress solution? Is MU overkill? I'd like 3 group blogs, each of which would have about 20 to 30 bloggers, each with her own page that she can customize to some extent. I'd like pictures, no videos (our school system doesn't want it very wild), no way for members to invite new members, non-members may see but no way for non-members to comment. Is there a way to get 2.3 to do that without involving MU?

  2. dsader
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    MU is perfect for what you ask. If you can do Wordpress, you can do WPMU. I have a few plugins/tweaks that make MU a vital part of the classes I teach.

    I've used MU heavily for 2 years, now. It is a delight/challenge to teach secondary writers to write forms other than the 5 sentence paragraph or 5 paragraph essay. I only wish they could respond to the final Government exam via trackback from their blog, though. Sigh.

  3. PeterStephens
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    Thanks, dsader! I love your site. High-functioning with an appealing, clean look. You know some code, though, and I'm okay at following a few directions in that line, but nothing more. I had no idea that mu could host a forum.

    Any suggestions for a hosting service for mu? I'm thinking of saving myself the trouble of three installs (one per class) if I can find a host that will do it for me.

  4. ekusteve
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    Peter,

    Do you want to end up with 3 blogs and each blog have 20-30 users, or 3 groups of blogs -- 60 to 90 blogs?

    If it's 3 blogs with multiple users on each of the 3 blogs, then I would suggest 3 installs of WP. Of course with this set-up, you will have multiple users posting to the same blog, so a custom look for each user will be difficult.

    If it's 60 to 90 blogs, then MU would probably be best. With this set-up, then each blogger will have their own blog and can use different different themes to have completely different looks. With this set-up, then it becomes pretty easy to display things (like recent posts) from all blogs on the main blog (homepage) of the mu site.

    I also agree with dsader...if you can do WP, then you can do MU. Once it's installed (the hardest part for most people) then it's just a matter of learning to administer it...from a blog users perspective, it's pretty much the same as mu.

    You may have to get into the code a bit to completely disable comments so that students (your bloggers) can't simply go into their admin and re-enable them, but that isn't too difficult on MU or WP. And, not allowing video will be difficult...any student will be able to link to or even embed video. You can do things to make the embedding more difficult, but there isn't a lot you can do about them linking to video...other than just asking them no to and looking for it and deleting it if they do.

    Good luck.

    Steve

  5. andrea_r
    Moderator
    Posted 16 years ago #

    "if I can find a host that will do it for me."

    Talk to the guys at incsub or edublogs.org. :) (same guys)

  6. dsader
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    WPMU embeds bbpress well enough, but I've been using punbb. To be honest, it's the Arcade mod that is all the fun. I set forum permissions per user/group, and a post count limit before they can register for Arcade privileges.

  7. PeterStephens
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    I had my new hosting service install MU. Thank you all for your suggestions!

  8. PeterStephens
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    dsader, how do you keep your students from embedding video or pictures? I'll threaten them, I'll choose admin settings to limit it, but are there other things you do?

  9. dsader
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    WPMU doesn't allow video embed tags in a post by default.

    I've coded my own video plugin to insert my own embed tags from youtube, slideshare and teachertube.

    If I'm uncomfortable with any video in the future I can pull the plugin and all videos are gone. If no plugin, no video, anywhere.

    I use a premium plugin as well, and I enable the plugin for all, but could easily limit access to the plugin if I choose.

    I have no trouble going to Blogs under SiteAdmin and suspending a goofy user now and again. Doesn't take long for the offender to come to me sheepishly. Every blog is read by every member of every group during every assigned post.

    Any assignment or blog entry is not complete until it has received at least three comments from classmates. Videos must be embeded in context within a post, no context = no post. Therefore, no abuse. Corny vids at times(Bart Simpson=Hamlet), but nothing vile.

    Threats work. I have an electric typewriter on a wooden desk next to mine, as well as a desk with dry macaroni, food colour, construction paper, and glue. Their "macaroni blogs" would be posted on the walls, too, if it ever got that far.

    If you want to stop images in posts, edit the kses.php in wp-includes and remove the tag and it'll be stripped from posts, too. Every assignment in every class prompts a discussion of hotlinking, fair use, copyright, etc. Properly linked/credited and coded image attributes are in the rubric.

    I run the school gallery website, Gallery 2, and WMPU plays nice enough with it via wpg2 plugin. School images, therefore any student images, are all there only. I need only worry about privacy/permission issues in one gallery rather than sprinkled throughout wpmu.

  10. PeterStephens
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    Excellent, dsader. I'm planning on running my blogs the same way now, down to the ever-present "macaroni" blog reminder. Thanks for all of the good technical information about removing tags and finding plug-ins. I haven't done WP in about three years, and then I got under the hood on only a couple of occasions. This is so helpful.

    I also may give students more points for posting one of the first three substantive comments to a blog post. I hope to spread the comment wealth more evenly that way.

    Thanks so much.

  11. PeterStephens
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    dsader (and anyone eise), I've got some plug-ins and Sandbox themes and I've configured upgrade-schema some, and I'm about ready to add my students' 75 blogs this weekend. I know it's harder to fix things site-wide after the blogs have left the paddock, so I thought I'd describe what I've done and see if you have any other suggestions:

    I've installed two plug-ins: plug-in commander and subscribe-to-comments.

    I'll make my kids authors, but I took out the line about uploading files and I added the line about switching themes. I'm so thrilled that I could change the default permission choices to get just the mix I wanted.

    New defaults: only members can comment, I've turned off ping (I hope) to avoid spam -- I have no use for ping, I don't think) Is there some file I can delete if I don't care about trackback and pingback? I seem to remember that when I ran WP 1.x years ago.

    I'll add the forum you mentioned above later, since I'll add it to only the main page.

    I'll determine the categories and subcategories and the blogroll (all the kids, first name only, in alphabetical order).

    Thanks!

  12. dsader
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    Farms spam pack from wpmudev.org(or some derivative) to keep up the fight against inevitable spam.

    Add your school/board Internet Use Policy to the login via the plugin hook in wp-login.php.

    Dashboard: Add your reminder about the "macaroni blog" and other privacy/abuse/suspension issues in wp-admin/index.php. Remove the planet feed and replace with own. Edit the edit_form_advanced.php so students can't change author/timestamp of post, I remove the custom fields and anything else that's over their head(and mine).

    Options: Comment out Dashboard-->Options-->Permalink. Permalink structures should be over their head and if fiddled with can be a real challenge to undo later.

    Footer: hook into the wp-footer to add your own "Contact Mr S", so you/your administration has a presence on every blog page. (Make sure every theme has the hook-most do).

  13. PeterStephens
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    Wow, wonderful ideas. Some will introduce me to new skills (how to "comment out"). I never thought about changing the dashboard material. This stuff is more flexible than I ever imagined. I'll have some fun this weekend.

    I really appreciate your time and thoughtfulness. Your site and your responses have been an inspiration.

  14. lunabyte
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    If you edit core files, be sure to comment your changes and keep a txt file with your changes (file, line) as well, so you can upgrade when the time comes, and reproduce your changes.

  15. PeterStephens
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    Very cool. I'll do that now. Thanks.

  16. mysorehead
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    I too am a teacher, we use inidividual student blogs, that cross post to the main blog and also to class blogs so we don't need to set up feed readers. We use a custom plugin for this.

    I've also written a flickr style clone for our photos (for the same privacy/security reasons) with tags, albums, photo notes, comments and written a plugin that uses the upload iframe to search for the photos for easy integration into the blog posts. We use the podpress plugin for video. Would love to eventually have a youtube clone.

    My group plugin is not finished yet (edited posts) are republished as new posts in the additional blogs but I'll release it when it is.

    I've also got a plugin which puts a writing ideas block below the post textbox, which can be used for questions of the week or contain brainstorm data, key words or other support text.

    We're using our blogs as digital portfolios (eportfolios) and have a "digital portfolio" category which uses a category template to post as S5 presentation (although there are overflow issues). We plan to send the digital portfolios home on a CD using S5 at the end of the year.

    Richard

  17. dsader
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    mymoreshead,
    How do you do the crosspost to other blogs/class blogs? If I try to autoblog more than a few feeds I get severe memory/cpu issues.

    I'd be interested in following your group blog plugin. I teach multiple classes/grades and that would allow more small group identity. Right now my younger bloggers are dwarfed by the senior bloggers(sadly, some seniors are dwarfed vice versa).

    Sounds like a lot of work.

  18. mysorehead
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    dsader,

    I have a group plugin where blogs can be designated as group blogs and assigned member blogs. This is done by the site admin. its just click check boxes and create group blog from this blog. No core hacks.

    When a post is posted it is also crossed posted to the group blog (can be a member of more than group). So when student x posts the posts is made a if he/posted on their class blog and on the main blog. I've thought about doing section blogs as well.

    The major issue of the plugin currently as it doesn't take into account edits or deletes. Edits are seen as new posts (should be an easy fix but I've not had the time) Categories are also transferred. It also turns off comments.

    I also used different themes for the group blogs so the various authors photo appears next to their name (this only runs on the school intranet.) The post title redirects to the student's blog from the group blogs.

    There is only 700 odd posts in the main blog so far not sure how well it scales. It all works though categories, months,..

    I'll try to scrub up the code - especially as wordcamp melbourne is coming up. There is plenty of stuff hardcoded though (will fix). When I've finished it will be GPL (uses extensive wp code for the category creation on the group blog) but I'm happy to share what I've done so far - email me at (olsen dot richard dot r at edumail dot vic dot gov dot au )

    Richard

  19. ericmacknight
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    Hello folks,

    I'm a little late to this party, but I'd love to hear what you all think about the 21classes.com vs. WordPress MU discussion that has started here: http://www.ericmacknight.com/wordpress/?p=97.

    As I say in my comment there, I would prefer MU if it does all the things wanted, but I'm not sure it does, or how user-friendly it is.

    Your two cents' will be greatly appreciated! If you have examples of MU installations running class blogs, that would be great, too.

    Thanks,

    Eric

  20. andrea_r
    Moderator
    Posted 16 years ago #

    I think cnet.com uses MU for their online courses.
    edublogs.org does it as well, and heck - they'll even help out (for a fee, but probably less than your other option).

    The other points (two, really) that I saw mentioned in your comments are available in MU either by default or with some simple plugin add-ons.

    (although a sitewide category feed might be a little tricky)

  21. theapparatus
    Member
    Posted 16 years ago #

    (although a sitewide category feed might be a little tricky)

    Nah, we do it. Do the sitewide tags solution where you use a seperate wp install and just use the category feeds off of that. :)

  22. andrea_r
    Moderator
    Posted 16 years ago #

    Well there ya go. :) I knew soemone woudl pipe up if they've done it.

About this Topic

  • Started 16 years ago by PeterStephens
  • Latest reply from andrea_r