[development] Proposal: Drupal University

Sat Jan 2 15:22:28 UTC 2010

> It would be great to some courses on views and cck

I wrote the Packt book on Views 1. A number of people have said it's
helped them to work better with Views 2. It's not "curriculum" so much
as step-by-step recipes for specific tasks.

http://www.packtpub.com/drupal-5-views-recipes
http://www.amazon.com/Drupal-Views-Recipes-Marjorie-Roswell/dp/1847196969

Its focus is on the end-user, but developers will likely get at least
some value out of it, too, if only for the comprehensive list of
views-enabled modules, the list of views hooks (which don't all
transfer to Views 2), and a few recipes on theming.

I've done almost no promotion, but seems worth a mention here.
Given the version, sales have been minimal, too, but it's a pretty good book.

By the way, lest anyone ask:  I originally planned to write the next
version, but seemed I needed some self-care more than I needed to
write the upgrade. I developed a vitamin D deficiency over the course
of writing the book. (5 ng/ml, really low)

Happy New Year everyone.

Margie

PS. I'll bet most of us have a D deficiency. Hmmm... maybe time to get
a solar-powered laptop... and a solarium (indoor sun room) for
winter... Hmmm, book sales not quite up to all that!

On Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 9:44 AM, David Shaver <d.a.shaver at dashaver.com> wrote:
> It would be great to some courses on views and cck
> David A. Shaver
> D. A. Shaver Web Design
> Web Page Design for Small Business
> www.dashaver.com
> PO Box 594 Galesburg,IL 61402-0594
> 309.343.0027
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 1, 2010 at 9:29 PM, James Benstead <james.benstead at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> After a brief discussion on the docs list this has now moved to g.d.o
>> at http://groups.drupal.org/node/42236. One way the project could work is
>> for hardcore Drupal developers to do a little consulting on the course
>> syllabuses for their area(s) of expertise. If this is something that might
>> be of interest to you, please join the g.d.o discussion. Thanks!
>>
>> 2009/12/28 James Benstead <james.benstead at gmail.com>
>>>
>>> I want there to be a set of free courses that people can work through to
>>> learn about Drupal. Initially, at least, these "courses" would be a
>>> reorganisation of existing material, kind of like the Drupal Cookbook.
>>>
>>> I suppose the skill/experience element here is going to be working out
>>> what the syllabus needs to be for each course. The courses can then point at
>>> existing documentation, whether that's text or videos or whatever. If there
>>> are gaps, we can write new documentation - so organising things in this way
>>> also helps us work out what documentation we need.
>>>
>>> I've posted to the Documentation list at
>>> http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/documentation - I guess that's the
>>> best place to continue this discussion. Would be great if you could help.
>>>
>>> 2009/12/28 marcia wilbur <marcia.k.wilbur at gmail.com>
>>>>
>>>> I'm not sure which direction you are heading with this.
>>>>
>>>> Are you possibly considering video elements with the course design or
>>>> text based courses?
>>>>
>>>> If you are talking about simply reorganizing, then it is just a matter
>>>> of management of information, correct?
>>>> If you are considering creating courseware or WBTs based on existing
>>>> documentation that could take a little more time and talent.
>>>> Either way, sounds like a good idea. I could help.
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 8:39 AM, James Benstead
>>>> <james.benstead at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for the comments.
>>>>> Drupal Dojo is great, when it's running - but it does seem to me that
>>>>> it lacks a little organisation. What I am suggesting doesn't necessarily
>>>>> need to be new documentation, per se, but instead the organisation of
>>>>> existing documentation under a useful structure.
>>>>> Perhaps calling it Drupal University is a bit misleading as I don't
>>>>> forsee there being any formal assessment or accreditation, but there would
>>>>> be structured courses to work through. For example, "Drupal 101: Beginning
>>>>> Drupal" which could teach complete newbies how to set up a core installation
>>>>> on a local or remote server; or "Drupal 201: Basic Theming" which could
>>>>> explain how .tpl.php files worked and how CSS works in Drupal.
>>>>> The Packt books are great, but they are short and sweet and they don't
>>>>> offer an overall structure. Pro Drupal Development is superb and offers a
>>>>> great structure, but it has its limitations: in short, it's a book. First
>>>>> off, you have to buy it, for real money. I have no problem with people
>>>>> making money out of open source software (especially when their work is as
>>>>> brilliant as in the case of PDD), but I do think there should be a free,
>>>>> "open source" alternative. If for no other reason, the cover price of PDD is
>>>>> huge for developers in 2nd or 3rd world countries (i.e., the majority of the
>>>>> population of the planet) and they should have an alternative. Secondly, you
>>>>> can't interact with a book: having a structured set of web resources would
>>>>> mean people could comment on and discuss the resources, kind of like
>>>>> students do on a real university campus.
>>>>> I suppose the resource that gets closest to what I'm thinking is the
>>>>> Drupal Cookbook - this could be Drupal 101. It fits my proposal because it
>>>>> doesn't provide new documentation, but just organises what's already out
>>>>> there. But more importantly, it answers the question, "I am at stage X in
>>>>> learning Drupal, what should I do next?". Granted, it answers the simplest
>>>>> version of this question, and for more advanced developers the answer well
>>>>> may be multi-faceted - "if you want to specialise in X, go and learn Y" -
>>>>> but it does crystallise what I'm proposing.
>>>>> Again, anyone got any more thoughts on this?
>>>>> --
>>>>> Google Talk/Windows Live Messenger/AIM: james.benstead at gmail.com
>>>>> Yahoo! Messenger/Twitter/IRC (Freenode): jim0203
>>>>> Jabber: jim0203 at jabber.org // ICQ: 7088050
>>>>> Skype: jimbenstead
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 2009/12/28 Yani <akayani at aapt.net.au>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://www.drupalbook.com/
>>>>>>
>>>>>> That looks like a good one. I'll make that my first D7 book.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Yani
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>> From: development-bounces at drupal.org
>>>>>> [mailto:development-bounces at drupal.org]
>>>>>> On Behalf Of Andrew Schulman
>>>>>> Sent: Monday, 28 December 2009 7:37 PM
>>>>>> To: development at drupal.org
>>>>>> Subject: Re: [development] Proposal: Drupal University
>>>>>>
>>>>>> > Shell out some cash on books by Matt Butcher / Packit Publishing.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The Packit books are fine as far as they go, but are usually short and
>>>>>> basic.
>>>>>> For a detailed look at Drupal's big picture, I highly recommend Pro
>>>>>> Drupal
>>>>>> Development, 2nd ed. by John VanDyk.  2nd ed. is for D6, but I see
>>>>>> that a
>>>>>> 3rd
>>>>>> edition for D7 is due out in April.
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
>

-- 
Margie
http://www.BaltimoreUrbanAg.org
http://www.FarmersMarketVideo.org
http://www.FriendlyCoffeehouse.org
http://www.packtpub.com/drupal-5-views-recipes/book