Next-Blog Link
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I am trying to do some investigation about various blogging platforms available for teachers to use in my school district. I know about Edublogs…but the problem right now is that the only way one can register on a blog is if they have their own blog in the community. WordPress.com has recently found a way around this. (yeah!!)
My next problem, is that in trying to make blogs as safe as possible for the kiddos, I’m a little weary of that “Next Blog” button in the upper right corner. I have no control where that button leads…and essentially since it looks like a link from my (the teacher’s) blog….the kids WILL click on it.
This could be a problem. Is there anyway to remove that “Next Blog”button? Perhaps have an option so it doesn’t show up if you chose for it not to be there?
Thanks,
Kary -
WP.com staff has created seperate blogs on a case by case basis in the past. You have to contact them directly via the Feedback option on your Dashboard and explain your situation to them. I’ll be honest though. I don’t see them setting up a large number for a class in this case though but you can ask.
A better idea though would be to download the Multiuser software yourself or have someone in your district’s IT department do it for you (Why do I think you’re now laughing at that statement? :) ) and have them set it up on your school’s server. That way you can have control over the sites. (The next blog link is not present in teh software as well. It’s a WP.com feature currently only.)
Good luck,
-drmike -
Kary
It depends on what you’re gonna get the kids to do. If they’re only reading the blogs and not actually writing on them then they don’t need to log in.
If they aren’t logged in then they won’t see the blue admin bar and the “next blog” link will not be there.
I don’t know what will happen if they have author rights on a blog, but they aren’t admins.
Hope this little helps in some way!
Collin
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I understand the not registering/logging in thing…but then we’re right back to where we are at Edublogs. In education…you always have to prepare for the worse. And unfortunately these days…its crazies and perverts (so you want to secure your blog as much as possible …no one can comment/post unless they are registered) and you want to be able to control the links on your websites (where do they go???)
School districts have to be so careful. We live in a litigious society and some parents are mayor of Sue City. As a teacher sending her kids to a blog, I have to be able to control who comments on my blog AND I have to be able to control where the links go (ie the Next Blog button).
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Okay…unfortunately all this is irrelevant. I just signed up as a user-only account to see what the process is like. As the “owner” of a blog, when I tried to register this new user onto my blog, it was then that I realized that in order to register a new user you need their email address. Students don’t have email addresses.
Ah well….
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KB, another idea maybe a Wiki of some sort. I know that while MediaWiki, the software that powers Wikipedia, asks for an email address, it doesn’t require you to have one. I also know that you can also set it to only allow edits to be made by accepted users and you have options of approving users to be accepted. I don’t know if the free wiki hosts would allow you to use these features but I’m sure asking them wouldn’t hurt.
Hope this helps,
-drmike -
Thanks drmike for your replies. The first one…the WPMU thingy….never gonna happen in my district. We have IIS servers and since the software is in beta, they will not even consider doing this. Just not enought IT resources to fix all the problems that will insue with these two issues.
As for the wiki idea, that might work. Its just been my experience that free wikis have very little options and are basically a free-for-all (not in a necessarily good way when you need controls and security). But I’ll certainly look a little further as I’ve worked hard to get the district to even consider unblocking blogs at all and possibly allowing some teachers to use them with their kids. (gasp)
I can’t blame them for being cautious. Its just all the issues faced with a free service coupled with the lack of any funds to put towards this endeavor is really tying our hands.
Thanks again for your suggestions. I wish it could have worked out here. I love WordPress.
Kary
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I’m interested in removing the next blog link altogether. Is there a way to do this, and do I need to be running WP off of my own server to do it?
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If you’re running the regular wordpress software and hosted elsewhere, you won’t have the blue bar. It only shows when you’re logged in. You can remove it via CSS but staff has asked us not to modify theblue admin bar along the top as it’s a sitewide tool.
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I’ve looked into this whole issue recently, as I’m starting a blog network for my students here at WordPress.com too. If I were teaching kids, I’d do what Dr Mike suggests and set up my own WPMU. That way, everyone would be in one community and there would be no outsiders at all; you can set the rules for what’s appropriate and enforce them. It’s the most useful way, I would think.
Because I’m teaching adults in Canada, the situation is a little different for me.
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@Kary
reflective teacher just told us about a free, filtered email service that’s specifically for students and schools in this thread https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=9571&page=4&replies=119#post-70759P.S. I hate the “next blog” button and never use it so I don’t go find myself in a porn blog. There’s also come twit out there who makes her own sex videos and tags every one of them with “wordpress.com”. She’s advertising I guess but it really peeves me because her posts have nothing whatsoever to do with using wordpress technology.
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I believe they took Mature Blogs out of the Next Blog system for just that reason, didn’t they? But you can’t filter for creeps, which is why it’s a problem for kids.
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@raincoaster
I recognized from the outset that drmike was right. The best and only pervert control is for Kary’s school to to have their own wpMU.I did ask for the mature blogs to be removed from the “next blog” line-up but I didn’t know if they had actually removed them or not so I just stopped using it.
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First, I never thought about downloading the MU version of WordPress…..and I don’t know why, I love playing with stuff like that, and since it’s open source, it should have occurred to me it would be available to the general public FOC…….I’ve just added an entry into my non-existent “to-do” list lol
Second, If you need email to set things up with any website or service, there are plenty of free permanent options like Yahoo, Google, Hotmail (personally I’d stay clear of Hotmail)….or a temporary solution called Trashmail.
Trashmail is an add on for Firefox allowing you to give a temporarily created active email to a website, and the first 2 (you set the number) of replies bounce back to your real email….allowing you to respond to activation emails or sent passwords…..and the website only has a temporary email for you, which dies after 2 bounces, or two weeks have elapsed, which means if they wanna spam you, it bounces back to them as a dead email.
Having said all that, I like the idea of installing the MU, and having effectively a gated community….my instincts would be to pursue that avenue if I were in your shoes.
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