Student Solution

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I wanted our 8th grade students to write using a blog. I envisioned it as some type of journal writing assignment. Then I wanted the English teacher to give a topic and have the students respond to it. My Spanish teacher wants online portfolios for the kids (eFolios).

I found a number of tools to do each; but I was looking for a solution that solved blog+portfolio+discussion board. I got Movable Type, but it’s pretty limited for aggregation. (I also had a hell of a time getting it to run on Windows Server 2003 and IIS; then once working, it kept mysteriously breaking).

Then I found Drupal. It is an amazing open-source “… dynamic web site platform which allows an individual or community of users to publish, manage and organize a variety of content, Drupal integrates many popular features of content management systems, weblogs, collaborative tools and discussion-based community software into one easy-to-use package.”

If your in education and looking like I am, you owe it to yourself to check-out. Also visit Bryght for a Drupal service provider (they’ll do your whole school for $39/MONTH).

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