[wp-edu] WordPress for Education Implementation Guide

[Douglas Hanna]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your email and you do have a valid point.

This list serves as a place to discuss WordPress in education. On a
broader level, it is a place to discuss how technology (specfically
blogging) can be used in education.

This list definitely isn't here to push Automattic or WordPress down
anyone's throat by any means. Of course, we want to promote WordPress
in education and make it viable for education, but we want to do that
within the scope of the community. With this list, we're hoping that
people can share ideas, best practices, etc. and just get a
conversation going around blogging and education. I think the rest of
the "magic" happens from there.

The idea behind the document I suggested is not to replace anything
we're doing or the community is doing, but instead to help it. From my
experience in education and from what I have heard, educators
(particularly administrators) are often hesitant to implement
WordPress in the classroom or on their campus for any number of
reasons. Them knowing more about WordPress, who uses it, how it's
used, etc. is a good way to help reduce or eliminate that hesitation.
Having a document that any campus or school advocate can easily show
or send to that person in doubt can be helpful and at the very least,
saves the "convincer" time and energy.

Personally, I think anything that brings more educators, campuses, and
classrooms into the blogosphere and onto WordPress benefits the
WordPress for education community. It is more ideas that can be
shared, more people to help develop plugins and create best practices,
more students that can learn about and benefit from blogging, etc.

This proposed document is certainly not formalizing WordPress as a
product or limiting what we can or should discuss here. If anything,
it is providing us with a jumping off point for further discussion.

Let me know if you still have any doubts or concerns. I'd be more than
happy to explain or address them.

--
Douglas Hanna
Automattic | WordPress.com
Blog: http://www.serviceuntitled.com