enjay Posted August 28, 2009 Posted August 28, 2009 We're considering starting a school newspaper. We don't want to put this online (for quality control and editorial reasons), but would like something a bit more impressive/pro/"whizzy" than simply producing a Word document. Any suggestions?
localzuk Posted August 28, 2009 Posted August 28, 2009 Not sure what you mean by 'impressive/pro/whizzy'? The software package isn't the key bit - its the person who does the work, and whether they have the design skills to make it look impressive. Personally, I'd say use something like InDesign.
enjay Posted August 28, 2009 Author Posted August 28, 2009 What I meant by "impressive" was that if we have them do it in Word, it will have a fixed page size (and probably be plagued with ClipArt!). A HTML or possibly even blog-style product would be more flexible and appeal more to the MySpace generation. The "person" who will do the work will be a class-load of Year 9s, who will have one 50-minute lesson per week. I couldn't justify the cost of 20ish copies of InDesign for this...
localzuk Posted August 28, 2009 Posted August 28, 2009 The problem here is not necesserily one of a problem with the software, but maybe one of how the paper is put together. How about creating a more formal news team structure? ie. have your journalists, who simply create the articles, gather the photos etc... and then have editors who do the sticking of it together. That way, a single design would be implemented and then stuff stuck in it however it fits. Also, you said it wouldn't be going online, then said you would want a html or blog style thing? This is kind of contradictory.
enjay Posted August 28, 2009 Author Posted August 28, 2009 Also, you said it wouldn't be going online, then said you would want a html or blog style thing? This is kind of contradictory. Sorry, I meant the WWW; browser-based and only available in school would be fine. I know I'm not explaining myself very well here, but that is mainly because it is only a fledgeling idea at this stage (not necessarily a bad place to be, mind you).
localzuk Posted August 28, 2009 Posted August 28, 2009 Ok. I would suggest something like a wordpress blog then, as Sysman suggested. This could then have a tiered QA system - students can submit articles, complete with images etc... and then they have to be approved/edited before publishing. You'd need a good template though. 1
OllieC Posted August 29, 2009 Posted August 29, 2009 Yeh WP blog sounds like it'd do the trick... I'd be interested to see how blogging type things can be used in our school in the future. I've heard that the head's well up for everything web 2.0'ish. However, if you want something more traditional that does indeed look whizzy then have a look at Pages (part of iWork on OSX). It's so easy to make jaw dropping stuffs. Take a look at our school newspaper, the resources guy puts it together and we get it printed on glossy paper. (Wouldn't know how much that cost us. ) http://www.arthurterry.bham.sch.uk/downloads/att/ATTOct2008.pdf If you have access to any macs I'd recommend it.
PEO Posted August 29, 2009 Posted August 29, 2009 I've now setup a blog style staff board for the staff intranet... will see how it works out in September
localzuk Posted August 29, 2009 Posted August 29, 2009 Yeh WP blog sounds like it'd do the trick... I'd be interested to see how blogging type things can be used in our school in the future. I've heard that the head's well up for everything web 2.0'ish. However, if you want something more traditional that does indeed look whizzy then have a look at Pages (part of iWork on OSX). It's so easy to make jaw dropping stuffs. Take a look at our school newspaper, the resources guy puts it together and we get it printed on glossy paper. (Wouldn't know how much that cost us. ) http://www.arthurterry.bham.sch.uk/downloads/att/ATTOct2008.pdf If you have access to any macs I'd recommend it. To be honest, whilst that is better than some school newspapers it still has the same old problem of not having a single style throughout. It has different fonts, different page styles, different numbers of columns, etc... So, whilst Pages looks like it can create good stuff, it still comes down to editorial guidance to ensure it is a shiny finished product. Maybe I'm just far too fussy?
OllieC Posted August 29, 2009 Posted August 29, 2009 To be honest, whilst that is better than some school newspapers it still has the same old problem of not having a single style throughout. It has different fonts, different page styles, different numbers of columns, etc... So, whilst Pages looks like it can create good stuff, it still comes down to editorial guidance to ensure it is a shiny finished product. Maybe I'm just far too fussy? Yeh I agree to a certain extent. Ours goes for a more magazine'y format, I guess to make it seem more exciting....lol.
enjay Posted September 7, 2009 Author Posted September 7, 2009 Okay, looks like WordPress Internal has it. It looks like I can just chuck it in as a sub-domain of our Intranet, so security shouldn't be an issue (bearing in mind I'm going to be running this on our FRDC to start with!). Any other hints/tips/gotchas I need to be aware of? Has anyone used this on a CC3 network? We need this to be as simple as possible for the students - the lessons are to be about research, writing and presentation skills, not about how to use blogging software! The students will be creating blogs on topics of their choosing, and maybe a "life at school" blog too in place of a more conventional newspaper.
enjay Posted September 11, 2009 Author Posted September 11, 2009 Possibly being stupid here, but I can't get WordPress installed correctly - does anyone know if it will run on a Windows server, or whether it needs to be a Linux one?
localzuk Posted September 11, 2009 Posted September 11, 2009 Should work on Windows - easiest to install it under WAMP in windows though IIRC. IIS + PHP + Mysql isn't the nicest of setups. You may find it easier still to run a virtual machine with a LAMP install instead though... 1
enjay Posted September 14, 2009 Author Posted September 14, 2009 Okay, definite progress here. I have WAMP installed (on a test PC for now) and have created a WordPress blog in it. Our students will be creating a number of blogs, or rather lots of students will be creating one blog each. I can achieve this by making lots of copies of the WordPress folder, but I was wondering if there was an easier way. Any WordPress "gurus" out there?
f21970 Posted September 14, 2009 Posted September 14, 2009 You could always turn it into an e-book - you know the flippy pages like Computer weekly. Theres some freebies to help do this.
enjay Posted September 14, 2009 Author Posted September 14, 2009 I've got WordPressMU installed, but as I try and configure it, it tells me it can't be installed to localhost, and to try localhost.localdomain instead. Huh?! Initially, I'm just playing around with this on my own test PC, but once I'm happy with it, I was going to move it to a server and let the students loose on it. Would I be better installing to the server now instead?
garethEds Posted September 14, 2009 Posted September 14, 2009 When we wanted an internal WAMP server we downloaded XAMPP onto a test machine and then ran a hardening script which secured the server. It installed WordPress without any issues and has been running ever since without issues. Give XAMPP a try. I prefer it over the WAMPServer you can get. Gareth
enjay Posted September 14, 2009 Author Posted September 14, 2009 Not sure my issue is the choice of WAMP over XAMPP is it? Looks more like it is WPMU not liking the localhost path... I'm more than happy to be corrected on this, though - as you have probably worked out by now, I know nothing about this sort of thing!
localzuk Posted September 14, 2009 Posted September 14, 2009 Try using the computer name and domain instead of localhost.
enjay Posted September 14, 2009 Author Posted September 14, 2009 Try using the computer name and domain instead of localhost. Tried that, and get 'cannot display this page', tried the IP instead and got a 403 Forbidden.
localzuk Posted September 14, 2009 Posted September 14, 2009 Tried that, and get 'cannot display this page', tried the IP instead and got a 403 Forbidden. Take a look in the apache config file - it might be that wordpress doesn't allow localhost, but you have localhost set in there. Somewhere, there should be a setting for the hostname/domainname, which you could change to whatever your machine is called, then use that with wordpressmu.
ajbird Posted September 16, 2009 Posted September 16, 2009 I think the virtual LAMP setup would save you a lot of grief... there are loads of great, free magazine / newspaper wordpress themes out there.. any chance of a screenshot when you have got it all up and running sounds like a great project.
enjay Posted September 17, 2009 Author Posted September 17, 2009 This is really starting to do my nut now... Wordpress MU seemed to install fine, but whenever I try to log in, it tells me that either my password is wrong or that cookies are disabled. Also, with both WAMP and XAMPP, I don't seem able to get the site on any address other than "localhost", which doesn't help the students when they come to start creating their blogs themselves. Can anyone tell me where I'm going wrong please?!
enjay Posted September 17, 2009 Author Posted September 17, 2009 Okay, so I was being daft - turned the firewall off on the test PC and everything works a treat now.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now