Using Wordpress for your Class

What is WordPress.com? Wordpress.com is an online publishing platform which was established in 2003. The site allows users to start a blog or build a website with little technical knowledge for free.

Why should WordPress.com be used in a classroom or educational context?

I strongly believe that WordPress.com should be used in a classroom setting and within the education system because it fosters “participatory culture”. The tern, participatory culture was coined by Henry Jenkins where “(1) the low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, (2) strong supper for creating and sharing creations with others, (3) informal mentorship as what is known by the more experience is shared among novices, (4) members who believe that their contribution matter and (5) members feel a social connection with one another” (Jenkins, 2006). This is why I strongly believe that WordPress.com should be utilized for educators to allow their students to participate online with each other so the students can share their ideas and creativity so they can participate more actively and engage more deeply with their peers where it is believed that participatory culture “changes the way youths think about themselves and alters the way they look at work that is created by others” (Jenkins, 2006).

*This is a great introduction video for users who have not used WordPress before*

TPACK Framework

WordPress encompasses the notion of participatory culture and the TPACK Framework where students can share their work, ideas or creativity on the site so other students can benefit from each other’s participation. Although I am not a teacher or in the PDP program, I do hope that future educators and scholars can learn outside the textbook. If I were to become a teacher in the near future, I would utilize WordPress or other blogging platforms so other students can interact with other students to build a social connection and allow them to build ideas of each other to further their creativity and learning. With that said WordPress.com has over 409 million people viewing more than 15.5 billion pages each month where students are more likely to learn from other students in their classroom or within their age gap (WordPress.com Website).

Here is a video of Henry Jenkins emphasizing participatory culture on education:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYbSD_GdkjU

Caution for using WordPress

WordPress continuously have updates almost everyday in order to develop other services such as Gravatar and Simplenote. Moreover, WordPress privacy policy changes occasionally, so WordPress encourages visitors to view its privacy policy section frequently as any changes will “constitute your acceptance of such change” (WordPress.org website).

Last semester, my professor used WordPress for our class to blog about our weekly assignments which fostered an environment of mutual respect where we were not afraid to share our personal stories or lives.

References:

Jenkins, H. (2006). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. An Occasional Paper on Digital Media and Learning. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

LearnWebCode (2014, April 29). WordPress Tutorial 1: Introduction. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OBfr46Y0cQ

Pull: How Technology is Changing the Conversation (2014, January 20). Henry Jenkins: The influence of Participatory Culture on Education. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYbSD_GdkjU