DrupalCon Boston 2008

It's been a few weeks now since I attended DrupalCon Boston, and there's is a lot of exciting news to report. Lots of cutting edge technology, and more Mac laptops than I've ever seen in one place!

For those of you wondering what Drupal is, it is a Content Management System (CMS) or platform. What is does is allow you to build a website using a wide array of tools, and manage all its content so it can be updated dynamically without having to use HTML or PHP. Drupal is extremely useful for building community websites. More at www.drupal.org

Here is a brief list of some of the things I learned about:

Theming techniques - this is how you get your Drupal website to look the way you want it. There are many ready made themes available, but they tend to look standard when you're looking for a unique look. A lot can be done by editing CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). When it comes to organizing content that will not look the same over every page, you use a thing called panels. These function a lot like tables in HTML. So basically you just have one big content block and fill it up any way you like with panels.

Integrating Flash into Drupal - I saw a demonstration where an animated Flash banner was updated using Drupal, by changing the background image, text and other elements, all with Drupal forms!

SWF Address - this is an open source script that allows you to create custom URLs for sections of an all flash site. A Flash website is one big file, as opposed to a conventional website that is many files linked together. This makes it impossible to user browser features such as bookmarks and the "back" button. With SWF address, you can create a unique url for each section of the site, enabling the user to bookmark pages and use the forward/back buttons, history, etc. Very exciting! Soon we will have websites that are entirely Flash and powered by Drupal!

Flex - Flex is a code only application for creating SWF files (the same format Flash exports) Best part is version 2 is open source!

Open Laslo - this is an open source application with it's own coding language that enables developer to create pages that "gracefully degrade". This is achieved by exporting SWF files and DHTML (dynamic html) from the same content! By having both versions, users that don't have the flash player can experience similar rich web experience as those that do.

One highlight of the week was a session led by Dimetri, a an extremely talented 12 year old web developer! It was amazing to see such a young person speak with such authority and have a room of 200 adults hanging on his every word! Video of this and other session will be available on the web soon.

I will leave you all with that...and here come the links:

DrupalCon Home
Website Showcase

Two BPS Conferences

I am excited about HOME's blog. Here is my first submission.

I have just participated at two conferences with he Boston Public Schools over the last couple days. One at Media Technology High School and the second at Northeastern University. It was great to see our small but dedicated community of school supporters, students and teachers working together, sharing ideas and picking up new energy and inspiration from each other.

It was truly great to see the students struggling to find their own voice in their work and to see some experimentation and to talk with the students who were very open, confident and aware of risk taking and learning.

One of the interesting points that was raised, was evaluation of media literacy and media projects in schools. I pointed out that we have the tools in schools to evaluate this by looking at student grades, MCAS scores, and attendance records. We recently completed a small study of our students at English High and found that their MCAS scores in language arts were 25% above their peers. We also found that, among other things, our students' attendance records in other courses improved substantially during their enrollment in our media courses. It is important to realize that not all media literacy and media projects are going to yield these kinds of results.

Renee Hobbs from Temple University pointed out in her keynote at Northeastern on Saturday, that there are differences in what some teachers and educators consider to be media literacy. She was clear that it is not enough to include media such as films, video , and the internet, in classes. The approach has to include analysis, peer and teacher support, and a learning environment that allows us to question our assumptions and encourages us to make changes based on what we are learning. A great media program is going to expect students and teachers to stretch and grow.

Both the conference at Northeastern, and the open house at the Media and Technology High School were terrific opportunities for us to see a snapshot of where we are today locally.
Let's keep the dialog going!!!

Blast From the Past

Here for your enjoyment are some old videos from English High School and Social Justice Academy. To choose from the list of videos, click on the "menu" button.

Blog Created

It's been a long time coming, and HOME, Inc. now has a blog. This blog will feature frequent updates on what's going on with our various projects. For those that are just finding us now, you can take a look at our website: www.homeinc.org, or simply continue reading.

HOME, Inc. ("Here-in Our Motives Evolve") is a 30-year old, non-profit organization.

Our mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of young people.

We teach video production and media analysis to educators and youth to foster confident, creative, individuals with the ability to think for themselves.

Our programs help students develop creative media projects that foster teamwork and communication skills. HOME's media projects and programs focus on teacher and student collaboration and the ability to effectively evaluate media messages, in order to enhance critical thinking skills.