As far as blogging goes, I really believe that the set-up I’m using can’t be beat. It would be great if Glow could match it, tho – I’d move over, then

The reason that pupil personal email verification isn’t an issue for me, is that, because I set the blogs up for the students, then added them as users using the ‘gmail +’ trick, they’re all given admin rights, but I ‘own’ the blogs and there is no need to use their email addresses. I do the same when giving them Voki accounts, etc.

Adding a widget and custom header button must be possible, because I took those screenshots from a primaryblogger blog I setup – also wordpress based. They also provide the same widgets, no matter what theme is chosen (loads of themes to choose from!).

100 MB storage is great news – I could live with that, I think.

Querty Admin Panel …. maybe http://mclear.co.uk/ can help?

The qwerty admin panel just makes the interface simpler and easier to use.

Good luck with your project and thank you for choosing WordPress You made the right choice!

Primary Blogger has written several plug-ins and contributed various bits to the WordPress plugin which we would be very happy for you to use. I hope that RM/Glow understand how open source communities work and support the global community as well as the glow community in our ongoing efforts.

Here are 3 plugins/apps we would recommend glow adopt:

PGA top 4 games @ http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/top-5-educational-flash-interactive-games-for-schools/

Classdroid @ http://mclear.co.uk/sites/classdroid

CBBC News widget @ http://mclear.co.uk/2009/12/27/cbbc-news-wordpress-plugin-widget/

I would also recommend you allow embed and objects, other than that wordpress is a breeze of a system to adopt and your users will love it!

Thanks so much for this post – very helpful to us. As Andrew says in his tweet, we are wanting to give people to best experience that we can.

I will try and answer as many as your points as I can – we will always be open and honest with anyone who asks.

Glow should always enhance learning and teaching, and save a teacher time too! If it does not do that, people should not use it. I believe that Glow made me a better teacher in the classroom, as it solved problems for me and allowed me to engage more with my pupils. I love that Glow blogs will remove a barrier for me – in that the one login and no need for pupil personal email verification often got in the way of a good lesson.

Firstly, I was so chuffed to see that you were giving Glow bogs a try. There are a few people who have been pioneering in this area in Scottish ed, and you are one of them.

The dashboard – this will be fixed in the morning and you will be able to format text, add images and embed code including voki’s – this was not an issue when the blogs were in approval. Thanks to you, and others, for providing feedback and being so patient.

As I have mentioned, if a part of Glow does not make your life easier it shouldn’t be used. I would hope that the shibboleth authentication and possibilities of linking a Glow blog to other Glow services, such as forums, will do just that.

Adding a widget and custom header button – I don’t think this is possible within WordPress but will feed it back. We will be producing help vids for users soon.

It will be possible to import existing blogs into your Glow blog.

We are looking at widgets and plugins and will respond to the needs of users. Different widgets are available on different themes, which is usual for WordPress users – again help will be given.

Glow blogs will have a storage limit of 100 MB. Schools needing this increased will for any given reason will be able to request this, similar to the agreement with establishment Glow groups space.

Qwerty admin panel is also double dutch to me – but I will pass this on to the team!

Thanks again for this post, and keep the ideas coming. Glow has the potential to make a difference, but only if we keep demanding more.