Re: [seul-edu] Site tools for Schoolforge

[Harish Pillay 9v1hp <harish@iqmind.com>]

Tom -

Hi.  Thanks for your comments on your increasing success with Zope and CMF.
I would be curious if you could do a quick (a 10 minute) once-over on how 
that compares with the Microsoft product called Encarta Class Server 
(http://www.microsoft.com/education/?ID=ECS).  I have mentioned this
product on this list before, but have not had much success on getting 
suggestions on alternatives.

Thanks.

Harish 

On Thu, Nov 29, 2001 at 11:54:25PM -0500, Tom Hoffman wrote:
> On Thursday 29 November 2001 08:38 pm, cg@cdegroot.com (Cees de Groot) wrote:
> 
> > It'd be even easier today with the Zope CMF product,
> > a sort of portal out-of-the-box with membership services and other cool
> > stuff, and you have a gigantic pile of Zope products to adorn that all
> > (there's a weblog, a yahoo-like directory thingie for organizing url's,
> > addresses, etcetera). The advantage over PHP is that these things
> > integrate a lot better.
> 
> I've started putting together a Zope CMF site for the high school where I 
> work, Feinstein High School in Providence, Rhode Island.  
> (www.feinsteinhs.com (yeah, I know, I inherited the url and haven't changed 
> it yet)). It is still rather rudimentary, as I'm learning as I go, and I've 
> been swamped by assimilating 150 new computers, etc in the last month, 
> training teachers, etc.  
> 
> Anyhow, an added benefit to using Zope and CMF for SchoolForge would be 
> increasing familiarity with Zope among educators.  I've come to the 
> conclusion that in about a year I'll have an absolutely killer digital 
> portfolio and assessment system running on Zope (it'll take a year because I 
> don't know what I'm doing).  Also, the whole Zope product system makes it 
> plausible that moderately clueful teachers can drop dynamic content tools 
> like weblogs, wikis and polls into their class websites with a minimum of 
> fuss.
> 
> I think Zope is potentially a great tool for schools, so I'd suggest using 
> it.  I'm so completely and utterly swamped at the moment that I can't offer 
> much "expertise," but that's my two cents.
> 
> --Tom

-- 
Harish Pillay 9v1hp, Chief Technology Officer
I Q m i n d . c o m -- Where Learning Never Ceases

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