Episode 85: WordPress in Education  ## Metadata - Author: [[WordPress Briefing - A WordPress Podcast]] - Full Title: Episode 85: WordPress in Education - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/95908c66-4c9b-485a-94ba-6acbca746870 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - Intro Bridging the digital divide remains a core motivator for advancing WordPress in educational settings. WordPress serves as a versatile tool that not only facilitates the mastering of digital literacy but also nurtures technical skills due to its widespread use across the web; this exposure increases students' competitiveness in the job market. Additionally, its open-source nature offers students the freedom to experiment creatively with code and design, fostering a spirit of innovation. The project-based learning approach aligns perfectly with WordPress learning, equipping students with essential skills like collaboration, critical thinking, and problem-solving, which are valuable in both professional and daily life contexts. Furthermore, understanding WordPress is critical for anyone looking to create and manage digital content, a foundational skill for careers in web development, marketing, journalism, and communications. Storytelling remains a vital component of effective leadership, underscoring the necessity of human insight in an increasingly AI-driven content landscape. Transcript: Speaker 1 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 smallest of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I'm your host, Josepha Hayden-Champosie. Here we go. 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. 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. WordPress is 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 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. 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. 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, I have also found them profoundly useful in my day-to 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 dosey-doe 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. ([Time 0:00:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/fcc6615f-0455-4a76-9a6c-75d5a315ce2c))