Using Drupal: Moving One Step Closer

Who I am: Chris Lehmann

What I do: Principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA (Opening 9/06).

What I did: Technology Coordinator / English Teacher / Girls Basketball Coach / Ultimate Coach at the Beacon School, a fantastic progressive public high school in Manhattan.

Email: chris [at] practicaltheory [dot] org.

Comments

Matt Skurnick about Sustaining the Teaching Life
Mon, 25.03.2013 14:05
Jon Goldman was both my
English Teacher in 9th
grade and Advisory Mentor
for my four years at
[...]

Karen Greenberg about Saving Lives v. Changing Lives
Tue, 14.08.2012 11:13
Perhaps a more apt term
would be "altering
trajectories". Think
physics - two objects in
motion [...]

Amethyst about Saving Lives v. Changing Lives
Mon, 13.08.2012 22:51
I really appreciate this
blog entry. Our roles as
teachers require, at our
best, a deep [...]

Mark Ahlness about The Long Haul
Mon, 13.08.2012 22:33
Chris, thanks. Pete is my
hero, and has been for a
while, but now that I'm
retired, after 31 years
[...]

Gary Stager about Saving Lives v. Changing Lives
Mon, 13.08.2012 22:15
Chris,

No need to worry about
semantic arguments.
Others all around us are
debasing our [...]

Subscribe to Practical Theory

Creative Commons

Blog Administration

Open login screen

Syndicate This Blog

RSS 0.91 feed

RSS 1.0 feed

RSS 2.0 feed

ATOM 0.3 feed

RSS 2.0 Comments

Powered by

< Teaching and Shortcuts | Creating A Link To Moodle From Drupal >

Friday, August 15. 2008

Using Drupal: Moving One Step Closer

I've really enjoying playing with Drupal the past few weeks. We've done a site redesign at SLA, and now our DrupalEd install is our front page. I've learned a ton about Drupal, and while it does have a steeper learning curve than a lot of other systems, it is insanely flexible and powerful.

I've learned how to configure menus, ported the homework checker from Moodle (the first piece of real interactivity between Moodle and Drupal at SLA), configured a Upcoming Events calendar so that we can have that as a sidebar on the side of our page, posted our Student Handbook in wiki-style format, created a private faculty handbook wiki that we will continue to build together over time, and generally tweaked the site so that it closer and closer to what I want our web site to be. (And as soon as we have a student who is willing to take a stab at designing a sleek custom theme, we'll redesign the look, too.)

As we continue our work with SchoolTool, and as both SchoolTool and I play with interoperability between SchoolTool, Moodle and Drupal, we will move closer and closer to the Killer App that I've been dreaming about. I've no doubt now that Drupal is the absolute right pick as the content management system for that app.

(oh... and just a huge shout-out to Bill Fitzgerald of FunnyMonkey. He is as patient and available mentor as a person could want with Drupal. If you need a consultant or you have specific needs for a DrupalEd install, hire him. He is a teacher first which means that a) he can teach how to use this stuff, and b) his solutions make sense for schools and the classroom. Without the changes in Drupal that he has made by creating DrupalEd, there's no way I would have seen the power of Drupal in schools. And without his patient mentoring, there's no way we would have been ready to move Drupal to be the front of our website. Thank you, Bill!)

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: SLA, drupal, open source, killer app

Posted by Chris Lehmann in Ed-Tech, SLA, School 2.0 at 21:37 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Hello, Chris,

It's been fun seeing your site come together -- you've done some very nice additions to it -- the Moodle connection is particularly slick.

Congratulations on the ongoing work, and thank for the shout-out --

Cheers,

Bill

#1 Bill Fitzgerald (Link) on 2008-08-16 07:19 (Reply)

Chris -- Excellent next generation of the SLA site design, fella. I know I've been asking you when it would take place since you first opened it up 3+ years ago, but the wait has been worth it.

And I appreciate your commitment to waiting until you have a student who wants to take on the graphic design/branding components. Even though you clearly have access to professionals who could pull that trigger for you, you remind each of us daily what this is really about: the students and authentic learning applications. Congrats!

#2 Christian Long (Link) on 2008-08-16 11:43 (Reply)

Hi Chris

Great work on the site. I am particularly interested in your moodle homework checker integration. Can you maybe comment on that for me. Or direct me to some place that i can read about it on my own.

Thanks
Warren

#3 Warren on 2008-09-25 08:36 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_. Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images. To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
	Remember Information?