thinkdrop

Drupal Gardens is a powerful but easy to use website builder making it easy for anyone to launch their own Drupal site. Drupal Gardens simplifies site building with point-and-click theming and content editing interfaces. Additionally, Drupal Gardens is hosted so users don't have to worry about server configurations or updates.

Drupal Gardens is also a powerful teaching tool. We've seen first hand how effective Drupal Gardens is to teach novice computer users the fundamentals of Drupal. In effect, Drupal Gardens is helping to demystify Drupal and removes the technical requirements of getting it up and running. This is a huge consideration for us as we design the Pilot Program.

By using Drupal Gardens as the training tool for the Pilot Program, we will be able to quickly build out websites using Drupal and all of its tools with the students. With a limited initial time schedule, our key focus is on developing interest and awareness and leaving students with basic tools and support to continue exploring. Through the active and experiential learning principles of MACILE model, we plan to build a yearbook site. With Drupal Gardens pre-built features and enhanced AJAX interface, we will be able to experiment quickly and easily as we teach concepts like content, layout, informational architecture, and design.

Drupal Gardens is supporting the Pilot Program by offering beta invite codes for students and teachers, as well as local Drupal developers, providing technical support during the program, and helping to promote the Kickstarter fundraising drive.

A deeper look at the benefits of Drupal Gardens for the Pilot Program

Solid Core: Gardens is Drupal 7

Drupal 7's release date is just around the corner. Drupal 7 might not be the best choice for professional sites until critical bugs are resolved and key modules ported. However, due to its radical improvements to Drupal, it is a good fit for our Pilot Program. Less is definitely more for this summer's implementation. By using D7 we can focus on the basics and building blocks of Drupal and not get caught up in downloading modules. Also, by covering Drupal 7 now, these kids will be prepared when it is released and becomes the dominant version in the industry.

A big component to our project that we wanted from the beginning is Student Profile pages. In D7, everything is a field, configuring and creating user pages is personal again. Drupal 7 also ships with more RDFa support. Although we won't go fully into the under-the-hood details, we will touch upon rich data types and semantics in our early overviews.

Drupal Gardens ThemeBuilder

ThemeBuilder will make it easier to teach the concepts of web development and design. Students will still be able to learn the basics of theming and the key properties. The end result will still be the same: a themed site. We will be able to demonstrate and talk about CSS, but we recognize that given the limited amount of time, Advanced CSS lessons are out of scope. Our curriculum is geared to cover the basics. We want to encourage students to dig deeper, and learn as much as they can on their own. The Advanced CSS feature of the Theme Builder will allow the students to continue to grow their skills over time.

Two weeks is not enough time to get into details. Those of us that are programmers/developers know that it comes from repeat use that we learn and effortlessly churn out mark-up and functions. Spending less time on the complexities of web development allows us to spend more time on the concepts of web development. Our goal with this program is to introduce an understanding of the internet and its value and importance to the world while sparking interest and awareness; those that want to learn more will go deeper, and both Drupal and Drupal Gardens allow for that.

Fully Hosted: No files or server configurations to mess with!

Another one of our goals is to leave behind computers/access points so the students can continue to work with Drupal and also remain in contact with us. The logistics, however, of technical support for students were a nightmare. Also, we want to encourage the students and teachers to create additional sites. With Gardens, our sole requirement is making sure the computers have decent internet connection, a challenge indeed, but not as complex as worrying about databases and installing Drupal locally, or maintaining servers for them over time.

By lowering the technical barriers of entry like server setup and management, and the intellectual barriers of entry like understanding linux, databases, and programming, we can start teaching Drupal focusing initially on the most basic skills instead of the most challenging. Because Drupal Gardens allows you to export the site you have built, learning may continue on to the more advanced topics such as custom development and database management.

Looking Ahead

We are currently exploring returning to the Dominican Republic in January for another 1-2 week course, integrating and expanding upon our findings. Our working goal is to develop a curriculum for 2011 Summer Session. Working with the students throughout the year will allow us to better determine how to tailor the curriculum for different learning and age levels.

Giving Back

ThinkDrop is committed to sharing our results and experiences with community and Drupal Gardens team. Additionally, our multi-lingual curriculum will be available for anyone to implement. Spanish is the fastest growing language in the United States. We are equally as committed to working with Internet and Drupal education in the states as well as less advantaged communities.

Drupal Gardens is in Private Beta. Open release is expected in August 2010.