Battambang gets WordPressing at Kinyei in June

On Monday 13th June Kinyei commenced its first session of a 4 week open workshop series on WordPress with Alexandra Roberson and Seavyi Yonn as the facilitators. It took place at Street one and half Cafe Shop. Many people from NGO organizations, schools, and myself joined the workshop series for four weeks every Monday from 5:00 to 6:30pm.

I think the WordPress workshop helped me improve and learn many things such as, new and up to date technology, blog designs, web site for the Kinyei organization and my own blog posts.

There are many reasons why I attended the WordPress Open Workshop Series:

  1. I can know and learn the latest technology
  2. Create my perfect WordPress blog
  3. Upload images and video
  4. Learn the importance of widgets to attract people who read your blog. Widgets make it easy for viewers to quickly look at the right of page and navigate to most recent post etc.
  5. People around the world can use WordPress and blogging platforms to share their information, stories and activities via text, photos and video.

These are just some of the many important points I learned at the WordPress workshop series.

The Most interesting point that I found at the Workshop

Learning how to upload pictures to your website was the most interesting point for me in the workshop so I’m going to share how to do this with all of you. Uploading pictures is very important for my blog or and organisation’s website. I think that the reader can understand the activity by just seeing the picture and the text description. It enables the reader to make sense of what you’re talking about easily and quickly.

Here are the steps to uploading pictures to your blog:

First, you need to re-size your picture using Irfan view, Photo Shop or other image editing programs.

Second, save it for ‘the web’ to reduce its file size – (this optimises your images for your website by reducing the time it takes to load your image when a user visits your page).

The participants practise upload picture and video

The participants practise uploading pictures and video

Third, I click on insert picture in WordPress and chose the picture I want to upload. I upload picture which I have already re-sized.

Fourth, I select where I want the image to go by aligning it either to the left, centrel or right of the blog post.

Fifth, I like to tell the readers or audience (including Google as it cannot read images so you need to describe it to Google using descriptions) about my picture by adding alternate text, image title and caption to describe my picture.

Using pictures with text description in our blog or website helps attract and hold viewers attention.

What makes for a good workshop learning environment?

Learning is not only dependent on your instructor but also your classroom environment. I think that Kinyei is a good environment for learning through workshops. For example, at the WordPress workshops they had equipment such as a projector, computers, tables, chairs and a white board  that the facilitator could use to present their workshop. Moreover, Kinyei is a warm and friendly place because it has snacks and drinks for when we had break time. They also asked the participants to complete a feedback form at the end of the series so they can learn how to do it better for the next one. I really like this activity because Kinyei can know about the points they need to improve and the positive points of things they did well. Kinyei always pay attention, take care and are friendly to everyone in their workshops and other projects.

Learning WordPress at Kinyei was a great time for me. I learn many things about WordPress. It also gave me the chance to interact with both Khmer and Foreigners through English language. It’s good time for me to practice English and share ideas about Cambodians and Westerners.

Kinyei is holding a series of 4 Open Workshops on WordPress

Does your organization have a website that is in need of revival with fresh content and updates? WordPress is designed for the ‘non-techy’ and provides a user-friendly easy to manage and update website solution. Many of us are working for NGO’s and Community Based Organisations who have limited budgets especially when it comes to communications. WordPress is FREE! We want to share what we know about updating and maintaining your WordPress website so you can keep your supporters up to date on the latest development news.

Alex holding WordPress tutorial with Kinyei interns

Alex holding WordPress tutorial with Kinyei interns

What do we mean by Open Workshop?


**Kinyei Open Workshops is a free community run programme for skill sharing and education, everyone’s welcome to attend at no charge.

When are the workshops?

  • Introduction to WordPress: Monday 13th June 2011 5pm-6.30pm
  • Adding a blog post vs. a page: Monday 20th May 2011 5pm-6.30pm
  • Working with images, video and maps: Monday 27th May 2011 5pm-6.30pm
  • Working with widgets: Monday 4th July 2011 5pm-6.30pm

Who is running the workshop series?

Communications Officer for CORDE and Kinyei Consultant: Alexandra Robertson

I’m currently working as Communications Officer at Cambodian Organization for Research, Development and Education (CORDE) and a Consultant at Kinyei. I hold a Degree in Marketing and Public Relations and upon graduating began working in online marketing for UntangleMyWeb.com, as a Web Marketing Copywriter. It was here I learnt to navigate multiple website content management systems in order to update website content and blog posts. I always found WordPress extremely user-friendly to use, which is why I encourage its use for organizations who don’t have a technical genius to call on everytime their website needs updating.

I left UntangleMyWeb.com to work in community development and a core part of my communications roles at CORDE and Kinyei hasbeen to develop and update websites with the organizations latests news and development initiatives using none other than WordPress! I have found WordPress to be an ideal tool when training Khmer counterparts in updating blog articles and general website information, which is why I want to help make it accessible and achievable for other Cambodian NGO’s in Battambang.

Who should attend the workshop series?

Anyone involved in updating and maintaining their organization’s website. If you are a foreign volunteer and would like to join the workshop we encourage you to bring a Khmer counterpart to ensure the skills are delivered sustainably.

What languages will the workshops be in?

English and Khmer

How do I register?

Please email workshops@kinyei.org with:

  • Your name:
  • Your Khmer Counterpart’s name (if applicable):
  • Organisation:
  • Does your organization have a website?
  • Does your organization currently use wordpress?

Please note you will need to commit to all 4 sessions and the workshop can only cater for 8-10 people so first in best dressed.

Materials needed: Please bring your lap top if you have one to practice what you’re learning in real time.

Where the workshop will be held: Kinyei Office, St 1.5 Battambang Town

Look forward to seeing you in June for some WordPressing,

Kinyei Collaborate for change www.kinyei.org