wordpress in school libraries

WordPress in Libraries

Internet@Schools West

Buffy J. Hamilton

Polly-Alida Farrington

flickr.com/photos/ericmmartin/2986187518

“…having a web presence, no–

that having a really good and

really useful web presence–is

[no longer] optional.

Joyce Valenza, “Things I think teacher librarians should unlearn (20 & counting)”, August 24th, 2010

“The new blog format is much more interactive”

Prianka Ghoshal, Westlake High student, Austin Texas

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinavega/3353051874/

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3036/2913018697_ccbb33e993_b.jpg

What is WordPress?

Content Management System

http://www.flickr.com/photos/atibens/4578260998/

Open Source is Unlocked

www.flickr.com/photos/subcircle/500995147/

Open Source is Community

www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/170691672

flickr.com/photos/cyberslayer/952121271/

Many Ways to Build a Web Site

Why WordPress??

Web Based Admin update from anywhere

Spread the Work Around

Easy to add external content

Creativity & Freedom

www.flickr.com/photos/nattu/895220635/

Before WordPress

www.flickr.com/photos/24842486@N07/4375175725/

After WordPress

www.flickr.com/photos/glaciertim/4380929192/

WordPress in LibrariesExamples

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dawvon/3414373319/

http://library-online.org.uk/

How do we get WordPress?

WordPress.com EduBlogs.org

• Free!

• Easy!

• But a bit limited

Commercial Services

• Around $10/month• Easy install• Tech support• Unlimited possibilities!

For more hosts: http://wordpress.org/hosting/

Self Hosting In House

• Cost of server

• Maintenance

• IT support

• Unlimited possibilities

Technical Requirements

• Current WordPress Version 3.0.1

• PHP version 4.3 or greater *

• MySQL version 4.1.2 or greater

• Linux & Apache

* Might find some plugins require more recent version of PHP.

WordPress.com

Ways to Use a Wordpress Blog for a School Library • Announcements and celebrations

• Showcase collaborative projects with teachers and students

• Positive publicity for library events and learning experiences in the library

• Space for inviting participation

Ways to Use a Wordpress Blog for a School Library • Students and teachers can create blog

posts

• Showcase library created videos or other educational videos from YouTube

• Integrate book widgets

• Integrate RSS feeds of interest to students

• Integrate your other library program social media stream

Advantages

• Free

• No special technical knowledge required

• Themes provide a professional appearance with minimal effort

• Easy to embed many kinds of HMTL code as sidebar widgets and/or into blog posts

• Excellent spam filter

Disadvantages

• Ads

• Themes limited in options for customization

• Can’t add plug-ins

• Can’t embed javascript widgets

Live demo!!

Getting Started

Writing a WordPress Post

Themes

Sidebar Widgets

Widgets on Sidebar

Appearance Widgets

Text Widget & 3rd Party Content

Manage Comments

Can WordPress do…???

There’s a PLUGIN for that!

Plugins add functionality & features

Plugins Page

WordPress.com Stats• Requires API

code from wordpress.com

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stats/

Akismet

• Requires API code from wordpress.com • http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/akismet/

Simple Viewer Gallery

wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-simpleviewer/

OpenBook Book Data

johnmiedema.ca/portfolio/openbook-wordpress-plugin/

WP Contact Form Plugin

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-contact-form/

Add <!--contact form--> to a page

The Events Calendar

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/the-events-calendar/

Keep it Safe

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maistora/3237164755

Don’t leave the door unlocked Run the latest version

Back it up!

1. Backup your database:– Via web host control panel– Or wp-db-backup plugin

(wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/)

2. FTP to server and copy: • wp-content/themes• wp-content/plugins• wp-content/uploads (images, files, etc.)

WordPress on the go

http://www.flickr.com/photos/purplelime/1569139115/

WordPress App

MobilePress

• Detects mobile device

• Displays mobile version of page

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/mobilepress/

MobilePress

What else can we do with WP?

Set up a network of sites with WordPress MultiSite

Learning Mgmt System

BuddyPressbuddypress.org

… features – similar to Facebook, Twitter, etc – will probably seem familiar to many.

My philosophy of teaching includes instilling in my students a sense of exploration and play. And dealing with change.

The Buddypress site is an extension of that. In my email to my classes as school starts, I asked them to configure their blogs, get an RSS aggregator and explore the site. Explore is the keyword.

… features – similar to Facebook, Twitter, etc – will probably seem familiar to many.

My philosophy of teaching includes instilling in my students a sense of exploration and play. And dealing with change.

The Buddypress site is an extension of that. In my email to my classes as school starts, I asked them to configure their blogs, get an RSS aggregator and explore the site. Explore is the keyword.

Dr. Michael Stephens on his BuddyPress enabled course sites

Selected WP Books(There are tons more great ones!)

• Digging into WordPress by Jeff Starr & Chris Coyier (digwp.com)

• Beginning WordPress 3 by Stephanie Leary

• Smashing WordPress by Thord Hedengren

More Help!

• WordPress Codex - http://codex.wordpress.org/

• WordPress Forums - http://wordpress.org/support/

• WordPress FAQ’s - http://codex.wordpress.org/FAQ

• New to WordPress? –tips http://codex.wordpress.org/FAQ_New_To_WordPress

Thank you!

http://lib20.pbworks.com