In my web development class, I want our students to create their own blog in order to write weekly posts about class topics and in order for manipulation in later assignments. But I would also like those same posts to appear on a separate class blog. The class blog will consolidate all of the individual posts into a centralized location, besides providing additional resources for our students. So I'm trying to discover the best set of technologies for easily setting up this framework.
Requirements:
- The class blog already exists as a WordPress custom install. No decision has been made on the student blog platform, but I'm leaning towards Blogger for easy integration with Google AdSense.
- The final solution has to be a free and web based.
- It has to be easy to set up and use for my students as most of them are not familiar with web publishing yet.
- It requires minimal effort on my part.
- WordPress allows remote publishing with either ATOM or XML-RPC. So the capability should be there for some sort automated solution.
- Ping.fm does allow publishing to multiple blogs. The down side is that it does not contain a WYSIWYG editor and may require more set up skills than the students have at this point.
- I'm still researching if FeedBurner can accomplish what I want. It may require installation of a widget feed reader on the class blog. Not ideal because of the time it would require of me to setup and maintain.
- Microsoft Word has attempted to integrate Blog writing into the software, but I've had difficulties getting it to work with Blogger. I haven't tried it with WordPress. And since Word is not web based, I would prefer to stay away from it.
- I could just require students to copy and paste posts in two places. Bad for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the time involved on their part.
Do ALL the posts from the individual blog go to the class blog, or is it only selected posts? If you have to select, it becomes a bit of a hassle.
ReplyDeleteI have a set up where I have a Google Reader account that subscribes to individual RSS feeds from various blogs. Once, I could mark individual posts as "share" and they would be added to a new consolidated feed, but Google took that feature away. So, now, I decide what posts I want to consolidate and select "Send To Blogger".
If you do not have to select posts, but simply want all of them, I think there are easier solutions. Google "re blogging".
I think it would be like this. WordPress allows remote publishing with either ATOM or XML-RPC. So its capability is more than others.
ReplyDeleteRealist Theorist,
ReplyDeleteYes, all posts. I considered the Google Reader idea too, but forgot to mention it in the post. Great search terms, btw. I just used it and it's offering me a bunch of ideas.
WDC,
Yes, it would seem so.