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WP Briefing: Episode 85: WordPress in Education

Discover why WordPress is becoming a cornerstone in student education. In this episode of WordPress Briefing, host Josepha Haden Chomphosy explores the vital role of WordPress in the school curriculum and how it equips students with essential skills for thriving in their future careers.

Credits

Host: Josepha Haden ChomphosyEditor: Dustin HartzlerLogo: Javier ArceProduction: Brett McSherrySong: Fearless First by Kevin MacLeod

Show Notes

Transcript

[00:00:00] Josepha: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I’m your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. Here we go.

[00:00:28] (Music intro)

[00:00:39] Josepha: It’s been a while since I talked to you about the digital divide. In case you’re a brand new listener, check out episode 17, and actually everyone, just go check out episode 17 because bridging the digital divide, teaching people how to embrace technology fully and how to make it work for you, is one of the primary motivators of my decisions in WordPress.

[00:01:02] Josepha: WordPress’s unique position as both a tool that’s ubiquitous in its use and a community that is all-encompassing in its skill set means that if you know a bit about how open source works, you can use it as a tool to learn digital literacy and practice technical skills. Even though this is one of my primary motivators, I have never actually succeeded at getting WordPress into schools.

It’s not for lack of trying, it’s not for lack of interest from the community; it’s more that it’s hard to fit into curriculum-based learning. After all, we’ve had ways to learn WordPress for as long as we’ve had ways to use WordPress. It’s just that it takes a long time to design instructional material, even when you know the content like the back of your hand.

And open source stuff just moves really quickly. However, that didn’t stop us from spending years refining the content that we do have into the learning pathways you can now find on learn.WordPress.org. If you’re an educator, you can use those almost out of the box. But if you’ve got learners in your home and want to make a case for why their school should bring a little WordPress based digital literacy into the classroom, I’ve got five good arguments for you for why they should give us a chance. 

[00:02:16] Josepha: The first one, as I mentioned before, WordPress as a tool is practically ubiquitous. It powers a significant portion of the web, so it’s easy to find examples to aspire to and content creators for guidance. And given that it is so prevalent, knowing WordPress ensures that students are well prepared for a wide range of job opportunities in the digital industry, making them more competitive in the job market overall.

Second is that WordPress is a free and open source piece of software. In our case, it’s free in both meanings of the word. Free, as in no cost and no constraints. That means students have freedom to experiment with the code and with the design, which gives you that feeling of joyous experimentation that a lot of us had at the start of the web before there were CMSs. It taps into a different kind of creativity that results in technical curiosity and, ultimately, growth.

[00:03:13] Josepha: The third thing is that the best way to learn WordPress happens to also align with the concept of project-based learning, which is one of the best methods for learning in general. I believe that to be true. I’m not an educator, but I really believe that project-based learning is the best way to learn complex topics. It’s an active way to learn. You get a bunch of tactical skills in there, like development, alongside the basics of good collaboration, critical thinking, and problem-solving. Obviously, these are all skills that are directly valuable in the workplace, but I have also found them profoundly useful in my day-to-day existence. You know, as a human participating in a society. 

Number four is a bit of a spicy nugget, but WordPress is essential for creating and managing digital content, which is table stakes right now. That’s a foundational skill for most web dev jobs, but also marketing, journalism, and communications. And beyond that, everyone knows that your best leaders are the people who can tell a compelling story based on the information they have. The ones who can connect the dots in a way that makes it matter to you. This is a spicy, of course, because of the confusing do si do that AI is taking with the content landscape. But I believe that people are the best storytellers, and stories are what keep us all moving forward. 

[00:04:34] Josepha: And then the final thing is that there is a whole wide world of open source. There are so many products and projects that use an open source license, right? Like you, listener, I can guarantee I don’t even know who you are, but I can guarantee that you use at least one item a day that has some open source thing in it.

And most of these open source projects are international. They’re developed on a global scale across numerous countries by people with various levels of education. And it’s this vastness of scope, this broadness of connection, that will give you, give your student, a chance to understand how to work across cultures, how to build something that is more than the sum of its parts, and how to embrace the concept of altruistic generosity that leads to a triumph of the commons.

[00:05:26] Josepha: Because just as I’m sure that you, a complete stranger, touched something open source today, I’m equally sure that the people we bring into open source will be able to solve the biggest problems of tomorrow with better connections and more skill because of what we taught them here today. If all of this sounds compelling, but you’re not ready to, like, go into your school administrator, your superintendent, your local, I don’t know, education board.

If this felt right, but you don’t know for sure, and you want a little bit more experience with it before you go advocate for it yourself, I will have in the show notes over on WordPress.org, I’ll have in the show notes of this podcast a series of events that are coming up. We have a couple that have already gone by WPCampus, I think just wrapped up a few weeks ago. But there are a handful of events that are happening across the world that is specific to youth wanting to learn technology, working with WordPress to get that done.

[00:06:26] Josepha: And then educators as well. You can also always stop by the Training Team and ask them questions about how this all works, why it works together their philosophies behind their learning pathways. There are so many ways that you can get answers to the questions that you might have about why open source, and especially WordPress, is worth trying to get your students exposed to and working in and contributing to.

[00:06:52] (Music interlude)

[00:06:59] Josepha: That brings me, now that I have finished with my little soapbox, to our small list of big things. Gosh, I hope you all missed hearing teeny tiny rants about WordPress and open source from me over the break that I took in August, but before you respond to that, feel free to respond to me in any comments. Let’s first get to the small list of big things. 

[00:07:23] Josepha: First up, the full WordCamp US schedule has been released, so if you’re planning to attend that, you can take a look and get your schedule, your personal schedule, for the week figured out. But if you’re still on the fence, there might be a speaker or two in there that tips the scales for you.

The next thing is that the WordPress Contributor Mentorship Program Cohort number three, the third one, will happen in Q4 this year. The call for mentors and mentees has just been completed. But you should keep an eye out on September 9th, I think. So, at the end of this week, the final list will be announced. This program has been excellent for mentors to give back to the community while enhancing their leadership skills. And the mentees who participate have received personalized guidance and a chance to develop skills and network within the community, and a good portion of them continue to contribute to WordPress itself and other open source projects that we rely on as well.

[00:08:20] Josepha: The third thing is that YouTube has been an essential platform for sharing complex ideas with a diverse audience. And our WordPress YouTube channel is no exception. It has been slowly warming itself up. We have a team that’s warming up the content over there. WordCamp information gets on it now. But in keeping with our commitment to meeting the needs of both current and future users, just making sure that we meet people where they are, I’m excited to announce that Jamie Marsland will be taking on the management of the WordPress YouTube channel. So for anyone who’s attending WordCamp US, stop by and say hello to Jamie in person.

And then, finally, I have a really important call to action. So, we are still working to reactivate our meetup groups. The Community Team is driving that charge, and they need your help to reactivate any group that’s inactive. Last month, a list of groups was shared and marked for removal from our chapter program. And we requested responses by August 5th to keep those groups active, but due to the summer holiday, we have extended it a little bit. We’ve extended it to September 16th, which, if I am remembering my calendar correctly, is a couple weeks from now. So if your group is on that pending closure list, email support@wordcamp.org to let us know if you want to reactivate the group or if you are ready to step down and have a new leader show up, and we can help you figure out how to get that done. Either way, if you’re on the list, email us let us know what your hopes and, dreams, and plans are there. 

[00:09:58] Josepha: That, my friends, is your small list of big things. Don’t forget to follow us on your favorite podcast app or subscribe directly on WordPress.org/news. You’ll get a friendly reminder whenever there’s a new episode. If you liked what you heard today, share it with a fellow WordPresser or future WordPresser. But if you have any questions about what you heard, then you can share those with me at WPbriefing@WordPress.org. I am your host, Josepha Haden Chomphosy. I’m so glad to be back. Thank you for tuning in today for the WordPress Briefing, and I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks. 

[00:10:29] (Music outro)