Replied to WordPress of One's Own: Or, thinking through creating a not intimidating menu of options for domain installs by AlanaCallanAlanaCallan (Reclaim Hosting Community)

Hey there,

New and just wading in here :blush: I work at Fleming College in our Learning Design and Support team/department

Our medium sized college has always offered our students and faculty a choice in terms of the platform they choose to use: Wordpress, tumblr, weebly, medium, etc., mostly because we didn’t have anything else to offer them other than the LMS that was supported by the institution.

This past September our communication courses for first year have been using wordpress.com (mostly) as they were encouraged by the teaching faculty who were also using wordpress.com sites for their own writing. The redesigned communication courses have the students learning to write, give and receive feedback, and loop through this cycle several times for an authentic audience. First semester focuses on personal writing, the second focuses on professional writing.

(just wanted to provide some context for my reply - they had to go with wordpress.com as there was no plan or budget to do a local install or have it hosted for the college)

Feedback from the faculty teaching team after teaching for almost 8 weeks is how to template and simplify space for students to use, here is a direct quote: “could we create dedicated blog page for students that would be a pre-made, fool-proof template? When a student’s WordPress blog does not work and we can’t fix the problem, it is very frustrating to be helpless beside an exasperated student.”

I am inclined to suggest freeing up the expectation that the student’s use wordpress and that they instead use a platform that they may already be familiar with (like tumblr etc.,) and create a space AND use categories/titles that are consistent so that the faculty can go in and review, comment, provide feedback etc., easily.

Many students may choose to use wordpress either way but…

One thing that we do here that may help the conversation is that our library holds workshops to assist students in creating their online presence, creative commons, attribution etc.,

I’m interested in any thoughts or feedback on how to approach the our communication faculty request… am I heading in the right direction??

Thanks!!

Alana

There may be a bit of a path forward here that some might consider using that has some fantastic flexibility.

There is a WordPress plugin called Micropub (which needs to be used in conjunction with the IndieAuth plugin for authentication to their CMS account) that will allow students to log into various writing/posting applications.

These are usually slimmed down interfaces that don’t provide the panoply of editing options that the Gutenberg interface or Classic editor metabox interfaces do. Quill is a good example of this and has a Medium.com like interface. iA Writer is a solid markdown editor that has this functionality as well (though I think it only works on iOS presently).

Students can write and then post from these, but still have the option to revisit within the built in editors to add any additional bells and whistles they might like if they’re so inclined.

This system is a bit like SPLOTs, but has a broader surface area and flexibility. I’ll also mention that many of the Micropub clients are open source, so if one were inclined they could build their own custom posting interface specific to their exact needs. Even further, other CMSes like Known, Drupal, etc. either support this web specification out of the box or with plugins, so if you built a custom interface it could work just as well with other platforms that aren’t just WordPress. This means that in a class where different students have chosen a variety of ways to set up their Domains, they can be exposed to a broader variety of editing tools or if the teacher chooses, they could be given a single editing interface that is exactly the same for everyone despite using different platforms.

For those who’d like to delve further, I did a WordPress-focused crash course session on the idea a while back: Micropub and WordPress: Custom Posting Applications at WordCamp Santa Clarita 2019 (slides).

RSVPed Attending Missed Conversation @VConnecting at #OER21xDomains #OER21

***UPDATE*** On Sunday April 18 Ian Linkletter [announced](https://twitter.com/Linkletter/status/1383896567279538177) that his legal fees have extended beyond the amount raised in his fundraising campaign from a few months ago. We had always intended to discuss online proctoring and academic surveillance during this session and now with this new development we are dedicating the event to Ian’s defense fund. If you are unfamiliar with this case the [Electronic Frontier Foundation has a good overview of what is at stake](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/02/student-surveillance-vendor-proctorio-files-slapp-lawsuit-silence-critic) and we ask that you:

**Give to Ian’s GoFundMe in solidarity with this cause**

We are having a Virtually Connecting Missed Conversation following the #OER21xDomains conference on Friday, April 23rd, 8pm UK time.

Our guests include #OER21xDomains keynote speakers Jasmine Roberts, Rajiv Jhangiani, Laura Gibbs, Tutaleni Asino, and our participant discussants include Maya Hey, Georgia Yee, Sarah Silverman, and Errkie Haipinge . Your Virtually Connecting buddies/hosts are Autumm Caines, Maha Bali, and Brenna Clarke-Gray.

We will focus on reflecting on the conference in general, and specifically would like to address the topic of online proctoring and surveillance in education. To keep the conversation intimate we will not be sharing a Zoom registration, but you are welcome to watch live and post comments/questions on the YouTube livestream, which we will be monitoring.

To know the time in your local time, see below:

Watch Live via YouTube

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April 23, 2021 at 12:00PM - April 23, 2021 at 01:00PM

My only issue with the scintillating conference is that I now have 100 open browser tabs full of awesome articles, resources, and materials that I’m going to have to read through and process. Worse, I’ve only touched on 1/4 of the content at the conference and it’s going to take a few months to watch and think about the balance.
Later today at 9:05 AM PST / 12:05 PM EST / 5:05 PM BST I’ll be making a live presentation on A Twitter of Our Own at the OERxDomains 2021 Conference hosted by the Association for Learning Technology and Reclaim Hosting.

Come join me to see how we can extend our domains to use social readers and enable website-to-website communication to improve our online experience.

[Note: I’d previously been scheduled for a much longer workshop session, but due to changing conference time constraints, my talk will be a 20 minute demonstration. I’ll schedule some time early next month to do the longer hands-on portion of the original workshop to help people add the technology to their own websites.]

My slides for the talk, including a number of links to helpful resources, will be available later today.

Cartoon television with metal antenna on top showing a rainbow colored test pattern and the words OER x Domains 21

RSVPed Attending A Look at Plymouth State University’s ACE Framework

Apr 21, 8:15 AM 30 minDOM21
Speakers:Robin DeRosa, Martha Burtis and Dave Cormier
Chair: Dave Cormier

In this session Dave Cormier (University of Windsor) talks with Robin De Rosa and Martha Burtis about of Plymouth State University to discuss the development and rationale behind the ACE Framework (https://colab.plymouthcreate.net/ace/), a mission-aligned instructional framework centered around Adaptability, Connection, and Equity (ACE). While the ACE Framework was initially developed in response to the “great pivot” of Spring 2020 as a result of the global pandemic, the goal was to abstract these recommendations and lessons from any singular event (or technology) in order ground the framework in a broader re-thinking of practice as a means to effect a more humane approach to teaching and learning.

This session not only provides insight into the thinking behind and development of the framework during COVID-19, but also demonstrates specific examples of how and why the framework can and has been used.

Watched Using WordPress Multisiste during a Pandemic from OERxDomains 2021 (YouTube)

Apr 21, 4:15 AM 28 min

This discussion focuses around the ways in which various campuses experienced the impact of pandemic on the various tools and platforms they supported on campus with a specific focus on WordPress Mutlisite, although it proves to be a broader conversation around the challenges of shifting not only online, but from synchronous to asynchronous ways of imagining teaching and learning.

Bookmarked Modern Publishing: Digital Tools for Modern Publishing Processes (Modern Publishing)
The publication of scientific results is an essential task of scientists. The peer review of a publication by other scientists ensures its quality. Their publication is proof of their achievements. In addition, it provides the basis for discussions within a scientific community and serves as a basis for further findings. It is therefore desirable for the publication to be dissiminated and received as widely as possible.
Katharina Schulz in domains21 ()
RSVPed Attending Outside Their Domain: Introducing German Higher Ed to Domain of One's Own

Apr 21, 3:30 AM 30 min
Speakers:Christian Friedrich and Katharina Schulz
The concepts and ideas around a Domain of One’s Own (DoOO) are not yet widely known or implemented in Germany. While there is a fairly strong ethos of independence in parts of Germany’s OER and ed-tech communities, DoOO has not gained traction.

In this session, we will present a project that started in February 2020. The project’s aim is to provide easily accessible information about DoOO as well as ready-made materials for those who would like to implement DoOO in their teaching. After basic research, we started by recording podcast conversations that explore DoOO from different angles, covering a student’s perspective as well as technical, didactical and strategic aspects. Based on these conversations, our own experiences with DoOO and available materials, we are developing guidelines and checklists for different stakeholders. The project Domain of One’s Own is funded by the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW HH) as part of the Hamburg Open Online University (HOOU), a cooperation of several institutions of higher education in Hamburg.

One of the impulses for our project was Educause’s “7 Things You Should Know About a Domain of One’s Own”, which prompted the idea of producing similar materials tailored for the German Higher Ed landscape, while seminal projects at the University of Mary Washington and at Coventry University serve as important reference points. For the German discourse, discussions around digital literacies can provide a basis for starting the conversation about Domains.

In our pre-recorded conversation with Jim Groom, we share an insight into our experiences so far and talk about the challenges connected with advocating for a concept largely based on shifting control from teacher to student in a rather traditional higher education landscape like Germany. During the live session, we look forward to engaging with the communities around OER and DoOO by taking up questions and comments from the chat. With this session, we also hope to spark conversations around how to tackle more conservative spheres of higher education. Some of the questions that could be addressed are:

What can a conservative and largely publicly funded Higher Ed landscape gain from DoOO?
What kinds of reward structures, staffing structures, technological infrastructure and incentives are ideal for DoOO?
What kinds of success stories or good practices can you share about introducing DoOO?
EDUCAUSE (2019). 7 Things You Should Know About a Domain of One’s Own. [PDF] Available at: https://library.educause.edu/resources/2019/10/7-things-you-should-know-about-a-domain-of-ones-own [Accessed 09 April 2021].
Coventry University Group (n.d.). Coventry Domains. [online] Available at: https://coventry.domains [Accessed 09 April 2021].
University of Mary Washington (n.d.). Domain of One’s Own. [online] Available at: https://umw.domains [Accessed 09 April 2021].
Friedrich, C. (2019). Digital Literacies und Offenheit: Was wir tun, damit Menschen das Freie Netz formen können. [online] Available at: https://blog.wikimedia.de/2019/06/27/digital-literacies-und-offenheit-was-wir-tun-damit-menschen-das-freie-netz-formen-koennen/ [Accessed 09 April 2021].

RSVPed Attending What I learned from 20 years of giving domains as Christmas presents: Tools and concepts for owning an online identity

Apr 21, 3:00 AM 20 minDOM21
Speaker:Dominik Lukes

I bought my first domain on the 15th of April 2000. Now, more than 20 years later, I have almost 30 domains to my name with a few expired ones in the rear view mirror. Not all those domains are for me, though. I have set up domains for projects as gifts to friends and family members. I’ve given domains for birthdays, Christmas and to celebrate the birth of a child. For some, I also host their sites, others their emails.

My first domain was to share teaching materials before the concept of Creative Commons was even conceived. Some domains were to help projects but most were about maintaining online identity. This session will outline the key lessons I’ve learned over the years about online identity, the technology required to maintain it and the knowledge, skills and mindset involved. It will cover:

• Key knowledge and skills required to own a domain
• Pitfalls and hidden difficulties with domain ownership
• Ways of leveraging a domain into a website or an email presence
• Changes in the processes and options over the last 20 years and future prospects
• Novel ways of hosting websites, emails and identities
• Dilemmas faced by individuals and institutions in maintaining online identities

Watched Opening Plenary OERxDomains21: Joy and Care in Open Education in times of pandemic with Tutaleni Asino, Orna Farrell, Nicolas Garcia and Catherine Stihler from YouTube

Apr 21, 2:00 AM 45 min
Speakers:Catherine Stihler, Nicolas Garcia, Tutaleni Asino and Orna Farrell
Chair: Joe Wilson

Our conference opens with a plenary session: Joy and Care in Open Education in Times of Pandemic. We are delighted to welcome a panel comprising Tuteleni Aseno from Oklahoma State University, Nicolas Garcia, student president at City of Glasgow College, Orna Farrell from Dublin City University and Catherine Stihler, CEO of Creative Commons. We are also looking forward to thought provoking keynotes from Jasmine Roberts, Ohio State University, Laura Gibbs from the Tiny Tales OER Project (formerly University of Oklahoma) and Rajiv Jhangiani from Kwantlen Polytechnic University in British Columbia.

Strong coffee brewing past the witching hour here in Los Angeles. Beginning to peel the eyelids open during the peak of the Lyrids meteor shower for what portends to be an interesting two days of talks at .