Taste of Tech

I’m not a bleeding edge kind of guy. I don’t generally install new software right away. I wait for the bugs to be worked out. I let a couple minor revisions go by. Then, I upgrade, but only if there’s something that the new version has that I need.

So why am I so frustrated with Wordpress? After all, it was less than a year ago that I was complaining that new releases of the blogging software were annoyingly frequent. A delay in the release of Wordpress 2.5 shouldn’t be a big deal.

Here’s why it is, though: last year, I decided to skip every other upgrade for Wordpress. Since their schedule called for new major releases every four months, that would mean that I’m upgrading the product every eight months. That’s a good pace. It keeps me from falling too far behind, and yet it means that I still have time to do other things, too. I have 70 blogs installed on my server, and upgrading them is a daunting task. Add to that the needs for retraining staff and re-writing the blog-auto-generation scripts that I use, and the every-other-release approach makes a lot of sense.

So last year, I upgraded Wordpress in the spring when version 2.2 came out. I re-wrote the getting started guide, configured the blog-generation script to use the new versions, and made sure all of our plugins and themes work correctly. In the fall, then, I skipped version 2.3. It introduced tagging for the first time, and when it was released, it was supposed to be a transition between categories and tags. All of this was to be finalized in 2.4, when the transition to tags would be complete. Rather than confuse myself and my users with the tags vs. categories debate, I was happy to wait for 2.4 to be released in December. That way, I could spend some time getting used to it over break, and implement it when returning to school in January.

But 2.4 was canceled. The Wordpress people realized that their schedule was a bit overly-ambitious, and they skipped 2.4 in favor of 2.5. No problem. I’ll just wait for 2.5. It’s scheduled for release on March 10. That gives me two weeks to play with it, and then over spring break I can install it for some of my teachers.

March 10 came and went. The release date was pushed back to the 17th, but that date has passed now, too. Officially, the release date is now March 21, but we’re starting to see how reliable these dates are.

Looking at the Wordpress Trac (which manages the software development), there are still 374 active tickets for 2.5. That’s not a big deal. Many of these are minor problems or feature requests that will ultimately be pushed to the next version. What is a problem is that there are still nine high-priority defects at the moment, with new items being added all the time. We have also just begun to see release candidates. Translation: we’re probably not going to see 2.5 by Friday. I’d be very surprised to see it before April 1. Add to that the inevitable patches and security releases that follow a major update, and I probably won’t be comfortable using it on my blog before mid-April. Then, I can start figuring out which plugins are going to work, and how things are going to change for the teachers in my district using blogs. I’m also strongly considering a move to the multi-user version of Wordpress, but I’ll have to investigate how that will affect the current blogs.

Hopefully, we’ll be switched over to the new system for new blogs before the end of the school year. That way, teachers starting new blogs over the summer won’t have to upgrade. In the meantime, if you want to play with the development version of Wordpress 2.5, you can do so on Chris Johnston’s site.

My favorite first grade teacher finally has a blog. I was talking with her about it a couple weeks ago, and it was interesting to hear why she wanted to blog. Her school district provides a web site creation tool. They can easily put announcements, homework, classroom rules, and schedule information online. They can choose the neat animated graphics that elementary schools seem to love. But that site didn’t meet her needs.

She likes Wordpress for two reasons. First, it’s easy to get information online. Click write. Type what you have to say. Click publish. That’s all you have to do. She also likes the theme choices. Just because it’s a site for an elementary class, doesn’t mean it has to have a distracting or juvenile theme. She ended up picking something that’s definitely not first grade. But it fits her personality.

The blog came with added benefits, too. When she’s ready, she can have her students writing and commenting on her blog. She wouldn’t be the only first grade class doing this. She can also easily offer RSS feeds and email notification for parents. They can sign up and get the content emailed to them automatically whenever she posts it. She can’t do any of those things with the tool her district provides.

Do you want to be a teacher-blogger too? If you’re a BBH teacher, start here. If you’re not, head over to Edublogs or Wordpress to get started.

If you’ve been following along so far, you have encountered a lot of resources, and have learned a lot, and probably have opinions, ideas, and comments about what you’ve been finding. You can certainly leave comments here on my blog, and there are lots of places on the read/write/web where you can make your opinions known.

But at some point, it’s time to start your own blog. If you have something to say, blogs are one of the easiest ways to say it. Consider these potential blogging applications for teachers:

• Replace the class web page: A lot of teachers have web sites, and use various tools to maintain them. My contention is that teachers want to be teachers, not web designers. They want to focus on kids instead of CSS. They don’t have time to learn Dreamweaver. They just want to get their homework assignments online. Blogging is a great way to do that.
• Replace the weekly newsletter: Nearly every elementary teacher I know sends home a weekly newsletter. Instead of doing that, post each item to your blog. These can be short, simple posts. “Next week, please bring in an empty egg carton for the art project we’re going to do.” A few of your parents will grab your RSS feed and will get instant updates. A few more will sign up for email notification, so they get notified via email automatically when there are new posts. Others will just check your web site weekly to read the “newsletter” online. For the few that don’t have Internet access, print out the week’s blog posts every Friday, and send it home kidmail.
• Post student work: Everyone who has studied it has concluded that kids do better work when they have an authentic audience. If they’re creating something that is on the Internet, that Grandma can read in Florida, they’re going to work harder on it and produce a better product.
• Engage the professional community: You’ve been reading blogs at least since “Summer Renewal 2.” You’re reading one right now. Use your blog to document your own professional growth. Highlight neat things you’re doing with your classes. Discuss the challenges you’re facing. Other people will find your comments valuable.

How do you set up a blog? That’s actually the easy part. If you work for the Brecksville-Broadview Heights Schools, you can set one up on our server by logging in to the user management system, and selecting “Make Me a Blog.” If you don’t work for my district, or you would rather not have your blog hosted on the school’s server, consider Edublogs. James Farmer does an excellent job providing free blogging space for educators and students. He uses the same Wordpress blogging software that we use here at BBHCSD. If you’d rather go with something that doesn’t have to be education-related, try Wordpress.Com. They host free Wordpress-based blogs, too.

If you need help with Wordpress, check out my Wordpress Getting Started Guide. You can also check out the official Wordpress documentation, but you may find that it’s a little more technically oriented than it needs to be.

Assignment: Go set up a blog and say something.

A school district technology coordinator expressed frustration today after learning about yet another Wordpress update. Version 2.2 of the software was released last week. This is the seventh update of the software since the beginning of 2007.

In this district, every staff member is eligible to have a blog hosted on the district web server. Because the district uses plugins and other features not compatible with the multiuser version of Wordpress, each blog is maintained as a separate installation. That means each blog has to be upgraded individually.

This wouldn’t really be so bad, if it weren’t for the plugins. The plugins have to be disabled before upgrading, and then re-enabled one at a time. Failing to follow this procedure can lead to database corruption problems and a seriously broken blog. This is complicated by the fact that sometimes the plugins don’t work with the new version, prompting a need to update or replace the plugins. Themes have also been known to break with new versions, leaving the user with a blog that lacks the visual appeal previously enjoyed.

All told, a major release upgrade can take a couple weeks or more. Minor upgrades can be done in less time, but generally involve more than one full day of work. This is ignoring the fact that the scripts to create new installations, the skeleton database used for new blogs, and the documentation provided to the users may also have to change.

The Wordpress development team has committed to releasing a new version of their software every four months. With anywhere from 3-7 security and bug fixes between major releases, this means a new version of the software is being released, on average, every 39 days. Specifically, there have been two major releases and ten minor ones since version 2.0 was released on December 26, 2005.

Put another way, if the district upgrades the blogs to the current version before the summer class on blogging begins on June 11, chances are good that there will be another new version to install before the end of June when the tech coordinator leaves before vacation. And if he installs that version before leaving, there will more than likely be another new version before school starts, with another major release coming shortly after the school year begins.

The frustration is compounded by the fact that 13 of the last 15 Wordpress releases have included bug fixes and security patches that are required to keep a secure server running. Choosing not to upgrade leaves one vulnerable to attack, especially if the server houses other services in addtion to Wordpress. Because older versions of Wordpress are no longer maintained, users must continually upgrade to maintain the latest security patches. BlogSecurity.Net reported earlier this week that 98% of Wordpress blogs are vulnerable to attack, because they don’t have the latest version installed.

“This doesn’t mean we’re abandoning Wordpress,” the technology coordinator reported. “But we’re hoping the development team adopts a more streamlined approach to upgrades, and a more sane timeline for updates.”

During the EdTechWeekly postshow last Sunday, we ended up looking at my blog. A few people commented on the theme, and I explained that I had it custom designed for use in our district. Many of our teachers have expressed an interest in blogging, but were frustrated by the theme choices available. Especially at the elementary level, teachers felt that there weren’t enough kid-friendly themes available. All of the blogs ended up too grownup-looking. They asked for more kid-friendly themes to use with their blogs.

I talked to Darrell McGuire at Pegasys Computer Technologies. They work on a number of network projects with us. I asked them to create some kid-friendly Wordpress themes for use in our district that would work with sidebar widgets. They’ve created several, and over the course of the last few months, I’ve tested most of them on my site.

The intention from the beginning was to make these freely available to anyone who has a use for them. Based on the discussion last Sunday, there seems to be some interest in them, so I’m posting them now. Please remember that we’re just starting to use these, and they may have some display problems, especially with some widgets. They have not all been thoroughly tested. Keep in mind that they’re written for Wordpress 2.1 or later. That doesn’t mean they won’t work with earlier versions, but I haven’t tried them.

All of these are dervied from styles created by Becca Wei and Michael Heilemann. Their work is GPL, so these are too. Feel free to use them if they fit with what you’re trying to do.

If you work for the Brecksville-Broadview Hts. Schools and you have a blog on our server, you may already have access to these themes. If you don’t, contact me and I’ll get them installed. Don’t try to download and install them yourself, because there’s a good chance you’ll need a Wordpress upgrade first.

BBHCSD Simple B

This is the first theme. It’s very simple, with a nice texture in the header. It was more a proof-of-concept than anything.


BBHCSD Terrifying Bee

Bees are our school mascot. In this theme, we were aiming for something Escher-like. I wanted something like the lizards that walk off the page in his work. We ended up with this, which none of our teachers will use because it’s terrifying. It’s only here because Dave Cormier likes it.


BBHCSD Floral

This one is probably my favorite of this group. It’s not necessarily kid-oriented or related to the schools in any way, but the color palette and rounded edges make it appealing to kids (at least, they make it appealing to my kids).

BBHCSD Reading Bee

Back to the bees. This one is a lot less threatening, and also has an academic aspect to it. This one was immediately popular with some of our teachers.


BBHCSD Water Lilly

This theme was somewhat inspired by the work of the impressionists.

We’re going to continue to do more themes for teachers, and have a few in the works right now. When I have another batch that are suitable to share, I’ll post them, too.