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Is there a good content management system that could run on Linux that could be used with middle school students? The idea is that each kid would create his/her page and then the pages would all be reviewed by the teacher (for spelling, grammar, etc) and posted. These are middle school kids so having a nice editor that allows them to easily insert pictures, change colors, make tables, and anything else 'kid-like' would be great.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

6 Answers 6

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There are a lot of great open source CMS out there.

I personally prefer Drupal. However, I have had good experience with Joomla as well. TWiki isn't exactly a CMS, but it might meet your needs as well.

Drupal: http://drupal.org/ Joomla: http://www.joomla.org/ TWiki: http://www.twiki.org/

Drupal has a great OS community supporting it, and is not as flooded with commercial extensions/addons as Joomla is now. However you can still find everything you need, and then some for Joomla, for free.

Another nice thing about Drupal is you can install additional page editing tools such as FCKEditor and such for more advanced text/document editing features, like the ones you mentioned needing.

TWiki seems like a nice tool, but its more like a wiki. Hence the name. But I think you could use it for what you are trying to do as well.

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You might want to take a look at MindTouch Solutions (used to be DekiWiki by MindTouch). It's an open source collaborative wiki-like platform that could be used in a setting described by your question. We use the old DekiWiki setup (little older than the current 'Mindtouch' software), but has the similar capabilities:

  • Bi-Directional API: Allows developers to add Wiki capability to existing applications
  • LDAP/AD Integration: Utilize existing user directories and authentication
  • Multiple Skinning Support: Customization flexibility and simplicity
  • Files and Tagging Versioning: indexing for search with category and chrono-tagging
  • Permissions: Pages, groups, spaces and other full page level authorizations
  • Media Support: Page level attachments, rich media support and image gallery
  • Platform Independence: Linux, Solaris, MacOSX, Windows or Unix via Mono or .Net
  • Lucene Search: Enterprise class search tool searches indexed pages, file types and tags
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I know of only one CMS for schools. Moodle.

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  • Moodle is truly the answer for student - teacher sites Jul 19, 2009 at 9:12
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    Moodle is a Course Management System not a Content Management System. FWIW Aug 27, 2009 at 14:12
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Check out OpenSourceCMS -- you can try before you buy install.

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Check out WebGUI. I've implemented this for a non-profit, and have used it in the workplace and it runs great.

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In the 7th grade "Technology in Careers" course that I taught, we used the free, hosted WikiSpaces with success. Nice not to need to install anything, and the templates are friendly.

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