1.02.2012

Publishing to multiple blogs

I'm looking for some ideas.

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.
Ideas I have looked into:
  • 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.
Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

3 comments:

  1. 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.

    I 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".

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  2. I think it would be like this. WordPress allows remote publishing with either ATOM or XML-RPC. So its capability is more than others.

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  3. Realist Theorist,
    Yes, 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.

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