Today, I won first place in the first WPMU Plugin competition for a plugin called “Toggle Admin Menus“. The plugin allows SiteAdmins to reshape the core user menu system for WordPressMU.

Here at STJ I needed the plugin to simplify the admin menus for students for a couple of reasons. First, some core menus had functions I was not interested in enabling for students such as deleting their blogs, uploading certain media types, and editing permalinks. Secondly, some menu functions needed replacing so students could “enhance the artistry” of their communication so I’ve reworked or tweaked Tagging, Widgets, Comments, and Themes. This plugin allows me the simplicity of ticking checkboxes to turn on and off a variety of core Worpress menus/functions without having to edit code in the WPMU download/install package.

This plugin was one of my many plugins I worked on this summer. The plugins I wrote were written solely to support my own deployment of WordPressMU at STJ. My involvement in this type of communcation technology project emphasizes the following: synchronous and asynchronous student interaction, general outcomes in the Alberta Language Arts curriculum, my skill set as an education technology specialist, the role of student and teacher as digital citizens in the 21st century. To that end my plugins tend to be popular with “edubloggers” whose sites are more of a “walled garden” version of WordPressMU.

In particular, I need to thank the following mentors, hosts, troubleshooters, and testers of my plugins:
Farms at incsub.com (creator of edublogs.org)
Andrea_r from Homeschool Journal
Marko at boonika.org
indojepang at Terminalmusik
James Groom at Mary Washington University
Nemo at Domus Neminis