Steve O'Connor's Page

Hi Steve, I have a technical question about Elgg. I just installed it yesterday and find the "community support" in Elgg above my head. In the past I've used Ning but I work with 5th grade students and don't want to be in violation in their terms of use.

I want to add a widget that allows me to grant permission for users to join. Or blocks people from joining. I'm fine with having to add all the users myself.

I keep reading that in order to add a widget I need to go to /mod directory. I'm using a hosting service and the help desk there told me I need to create this folder. I don't know how to do this.

Thank you for the comment! I will participate more, I promise. I was just amazed at what few tools are out there.

:) Aparna

I'll check out commentpress. Sounds like what I may be looking for. I am using edublogs for the school blog, but that uses WP, so I'm thinking it would still work. Thank you so much for your help!

That sounds interesting. I like the organization of the wiki, but the comment feature of the blog. Thus, I've been wrestling with finding the right platform. I think having students comment on each other's work is so important. I'd love to hear what you think of commentpress. Do you use standard wordpress now, or WP w/ edublogs?

So then, do you prefer blogs for posting student work, to allow for comments?

Hi Steve. I was wondering if you have any high school contacts who would be interested in participating in a nationwide SAT Vocab Video Contest @ MIT university. You can view contest details at BrainyFlix.com Please let me know. Thanks!

Funny, I thought the same thing about your blog. (Did you see my blog post for today on K12 Open Ed? :)

Wow -- what a post! Very helpful -- but also scary and a little depressing.

I'm not sure where the project I'm working on is going. It is fortunate, but also challenging, that it is a big project with a lot of teachers who are ready to jump into this big time. (Very unusual from most any other schools I've worked with.)

This is very difficult for me. I am SUCH a believer in student blogging and not creating artificial, closed environments that don't foster real 21st century skills development. I am also a realist about the policy implications though.

If you set up an online space to discuss this, I'd be happy to join in. (I looked for discussion on sites like Will's, I support blogging, etc. but didn't find much. You're in my feed reader in the meantime.

Btw, on an unrelated note, I see you're interested in open source. I do some work with open source content that might be of interest to you. (See www.k12oened.com.) We recently started an open dictionary for kids and teachers that we're pretty excited bout.

Hi, Steve. I just spent a half hour reading the WordPress MU posts on your blog. Very informative - thanks.

I am in the midst of setting up a WordPress MU installation for a middle school. The technical aspects are manageable, but I am struggling with the policy issues. I am trying to weigh the need to moderate everything for safety reasons against the desire to teach kids responsibility and be more independent.

Another non-trivial issue is the amount administration required by all this. At a middle school with 70+ teachers and 900+ students, the amount of moderation traffic might be overwhelming.

Anyway, your blog is helping me think through these issues. Let me know if you have any other advice related to the above.