The school year is all set to start in the United States. If you are looking at creating a good learning management system in your school so that students can be taught the subjects in a meaningful way, then you can use the WordPress to enhance the quality of education in the classroom.
It is the era of the internet and blogging. A blog provides the students and the teachers an empty canvas that can be brought to life through their thoughts, ideas, and the things that they would like to share with the student community. There are many popular educational blogs that have been built using WordPress.
Content management system can help you to share your ideas, thoughts, and everything that you like to share through the online media.
Why is WordPress a Good Option?
WordPress is a great option for classroom learning. It can be used in elementary classrooms right up to university and further learning institutions. The benefits that you can enjoy making use of WordPress in your schools and classrooms are as follows.
- WordPress software can be downloaded free. You can use WordPress to create blogs and other educational sites without spending any money.
- WordPress functions on an open source platform. It is not a proprietary software and is not supported by a single person or any company.
- There are many different plugins that can be used on WordPress blogs and websites to adjust the content according to your requirements. It is the best source that you can use to share all the educational stuff that you would like to offer to the student community.
- WordPress is highly flexible and offers you the freedom to create your own core code by making use of the various functions and features as well as the custom plugins offered.
How is WordPress Vital in Classrooms?
There are a wide range of tools that can be used to establish the teacher-parent relationship using WordPress. They are group discussion forums, newsletters, post subscription through email, contact forms, etc. Similarly, there are many ways by which the teacher can use WordPress to establish a good educational rapport and relationship with students.
- They can use communication tools like contact forms, newsletters, sending posts via email etc., to communicate with the students and to keep them in the loop.
- Creating a class website is very useful in allowing students to share a series of blog posts and videos they create. The class website is an opportunity for students to showcase their skills, creative talent, and their ideas and put everything into assignments. They can make use of assignment writing or essay maker tools to help them improve their writing skills.
- There can be different categories created for different subjects so that students can easily find the content they need. Reference materials and other information, including the handouts can be uploaded to the classroom websites for quick and easy access for the students. Links to certain articles and any other resource information from other sites can also be shared through the WordPress website.
- There are many tools that can be used to create a platform where private group meetings for students can be initiated. By using this platform, the students can carry out their assigned tasks whenever and wherever they want. There is no need for face to face meetings.
- WordPress can also be used to bring all the students and the staff of the school into one single multi-site network. This is an option that schools can try out so that the students will have just one account to sign in. It will also be easy for administration to manage one single WordPress school website.
How to Use WordPress in Classrooms?
Are you thinking about how you can use the WordPress to create websites and blogs in your classrooms or school? It can be used to create any type of content website you wish.
Classroom WordPress Website
If you are looking for better classroom involvement from the students, then why not look at starting a classroom website. You can create the right kind of classroom website that offers information and is interactivity.
The teachers that teach subjects in the classroom can join together to set up the website and have pages devoted to each topic unit taught in the class. You can include online activities, important website links, audio clips, video messages, PDF booklets etc. This will make the classroom website creative and interesting.
Class Blogs
WordPress can be used to create class blogs. This is a very important resource to tap.
These blogs can be used in a myriad of ways. Teachers can use the administrative class blogs to post learning resources, daily tasks, and assignments, due dates, class events, etc. This is a very good option to keep the students, and the parents informed about what is happening in the school. It can also be used to provide information to the parents about the students who are absent. This can also turn out to be a revision resource blog.
The class blog is a very good tool to represent the classroom to the local community, parents or even on a global platform. It is a place where a whole lot of media can be incorporated to showcase what the students are up to in the class.
The class blog should have a comments section where the students can expand their learning through communication with the teachers and other students in the class.
Student Blogs Section in the WordPress Class Website
The main purpose of class blogs is to improve learning and communication with students, boost their collaboration and discussion powers, and to let know parents know about the what is happening in the classroom.
From the student’s perspective, it is not a bad idea to include the student’s blog on the main classroom blog. Giving the students the option of creating their own individual blogs will help in improving their creativity.
Unique WordPress Websites & Pages for Specific Subjects
Teachers who handle specific subject areas for a wide range of class grades will find it useful to use one single blog for all the classes. This is a very good option for students looking to gather information on specific subjects taught in their classes.
For example, they could click on the teacher’s name to get information about class assignments.
Professional Educational Blog
WordPress is the perfect tool to create personal or professional educational blogs.
These special blogs can be used for a wide range of reasons and offer many advantages for teachers and students. It is a platform where professionals can share information and tips with other educators and teachers and share ideas and thoughts and reflections on their learning or their teaching practices.
This will help them to use blogs effectively to communicate with the students in the classes. Personal educator blogs can be used to collaborate with a global audience too.
Project Collaboration Blogs
Creating a project collaboration blog or a group collaboration blog is a simple way for students and teachers to collaborate with each other.
This allows you to share ideas and discuss related to teaching and to particular classes.
Conclusion
The above ideas should give you an idea of what WordPress can do to improve learning and help classrooms.
Visit WordPress.com if you would like to a free hosted WordPress website and WordPress.org if you would like to host it yourself.
Good luck.