• WordCamp – WP in Education Roundtable

    Nov 16.09 | Learn   

    The WordCamp NYC Educators Roundtable featured Matt Mullenweg, Joseph Ugoretz, Jim Groom, Luke Waltzer, Tom Woodward,  facilitated by Mikhail Gershovich.  I have the audio posted below, and with a crew like this you know the discussion is worth listening to.  So my apologies, as the audio is less than perfect.  I only post it here because I didn’t see anyone else recording it.  At least you know it is live and unedited!

    Some highlights:

    • Students owning content – does the perception of ownership motivate/empower them? or is it not so much owning as being searchable? -
    • How to get WordPress approval from the administration? Jim Groom at Mary Washington started their blogs on an external host.  Had 3,100 users out of 4,500 students by the time they were noticed – new CIO said “I can’t shut you down if I wanted to!” – Mullenweg says “it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission.” Groom references a Lessig comment about managing risk as opposed to avoiding risk and letting avoidance freeze innovation.
    • Mullenweg says multiple logins not a barrier to using a resource — make the content worth using and students will make the effort — others respond that content needs to be good, but interaction adds value.
    • Lots of discussion around the idea of aggregating content – using WordPress to pull content in from multiple sources — but maybe not everything belongs in the same aggregation stream.
    • Discussion around the concern of exposing student content to public view — should not be an all or nothing choice — WordPress makes allowing degrees of publicity possible — bigger issues for K-12 audience – parents who support openness should speak out — don’t isolate education from mainstream — if our content can’t play in the mainstream then we are no longer relevant.

    Enjoy the presentation:

    WordCamp Educators Roundtable

    WordCamp Educators Roundtable

    WordCamp Educators Roundtable

    WordCamp New York City 2009 » Saturday Sessions

    Roundtable: The Future of WordPress in Education. Facilitator: Mikhail Gershovich.

    Other soon-to-be confirmed sessions: Public vs. private in academic settings, several others.

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    • Author: Randy

    In my day job I serve as Information Technology Director for the Yale School of Drama. Otherwise I garden, play guitar, build stuff out of wood, take photos, play around with technology and have been blogging since 2003.

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Randall Rode's online home for thoughts, notes, and experiments with a wide range of technology topics. Visit the about page for info on my recent projects and professional background. I welcome your comments!

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