Using the name of the man who changed literacy in the world forever, WordPress is apparently going to impose a fairly steep learning curve for millions of users by integrating a new editing tool called “Gutenberg.” Based, I assume, on the popularity of drag and drop editors and themes that allow users to easily shift page and post elements, the new editor comes with a lot of options. Perhaps too many options, particularly for users who prefer simple blogging or want to present products as quickly as possible in their online store. I think of the poets I have helped to begin their own “easy” WordPress sites. This is going to throw them into a tizzy.
Of course, if we want to remain in the old realm, we can opt to do that, but only by installing another plugin. In my experience, the more plugins one has, the more potential for theme conflicts.
Not only that, I have a feeling that if one is already employing a theme that uses a visual editor, the impending version of WordPress is not going to play nicely at all with that theme. I’ve a suspicion that WordPress wishes it could do all that enhanced HTML sites can do. However, if we wanted to do all that coding, we’d have continued to work in html. WordPress, in its early days, was simple, if limited in design aspects. But, simple. Easy to blog. This new editor is definitely going to change the WordPress game like never before.
So I find myself in a place where my students stood often: facing a new technology and having to shift my cognitive paradigm and be open to making change.
I guess I’d better be ready. As a teacher (albeit a retired one), I never asked my students to do something I would not be willing to do myself.
stepping lightly into the unknown