[Osdc-edu-authors] Osdc-edu-authors Digest, Vol 5, Issue 2

[Heather James]

I mention three metaphors in the article, RPGs, MMORPG, or having feet in
both worlds, or ladders for learners. Anything ring a bell?

- Heather

Learning Drupal

There is a huge demand for training in Drupal; for more skilled developers
and even end-user training. At DrupalCon San Francisco, I started an
open-space discussion about Learning Drupal.  Having just started at Acquia
as Manager of Learning Services, I sensed that there were more than a few
things people wanted me to hear. I had lost my voice a few days earlier,
which was timely, as it forced me to listen more.

One of the most heated discussions was *curriculum*.  Before even clearly
defining what curriculum was, the group passionately debated instructional
design, methods, and assessment.

To help develop the training ecosystem for Drupal, I'm looking more closely
at the learning ecosystem of other open source software communities, both
the open and commercial offerings. What can we learn?
WaSP<http://interact.webstandards.org/>from Opera and P2PU
open web degree <http://www.drumbeat.org/project/p2pu-open-web> from Mozilla
are two efforts to make a comprehensive open source web curriculum. From
just these, I can see that you can’t rush into an open source curriculum.

*Learning Drupal, the MMORPG*

Since DrupalCon, we (in the Curriculum and training group) meet once a
week<http://groups.drupal.org/curriculum-and-training>to talk about
training and developing a common language around Learning
Drupal. In the very beginning, the discussion was unruly, meandering from
instructional design to syllabus. Finally we found the best place to start:
identify learning outcomes: what do you need to know to be a Drupalista?
(notice I said “be” and not “do”, more on the later).

We’ve recently prepared a survey <http://groups.drupal.org/node/72288> to
find out what Drupal users actually do. We had a hypothesis that we’d find
people fit into certain ‘roles’, but even when we pilot tested the survey,
we found they were as platonic shapes & ideals. Yes we all know what a
square is when you talk about it, but you won’t find it in the wild. Yet, we
still use roles to describe ourselves.

Training for hybrid roles, with multiple outcomes and end goals is making
Drupal look more to me like an MMORPG than a Lego set.

*Feet in two worlds*

Because our community is a flexible, extensible CMS we’re made up of
developers. Developers provide services to their clients, as well as create
unique products. They *extend* Drupal. Yet, because Drupal is not strictly a
framework, our community envelops more than developers. These people are
site builders and end-users, utilizing the work of the developers; they
evangelize Drupal, they create business opportunities or advocate with
Drupal. They *stretch* Drupal.

The tension in the community comes up sometimes. For example in  discussions
of a new slogan <http://groups.drupal.org/node/66353>: are we aimed at
attracting developers, or are we aimed at attracting end-users? Drupal has
feet in two worlds. This is why comparisons to either Django or Wordpress
are “apples to oranges” comparisons.

Training in that environment is a challenge. Becoming a Drupal user, and
having a valid full role seems to centre around the notion of being a
core-committing developer. But is everyone aspiring to be a developer?

There is an implicit notion in discussions of curriculum in Drupal that
‘beginner’ stuff is that clicky stuff you do in the interface, and
‘advanced’ stuff is the real coding. But not everyone is starting in the
same place nor pointed in the same direction.

Yet everyone needs to understand the fundamental principles central to
mastering Drupal. Because trust me, you *can* take down a Drupal site with a
mis-configured View. And everyone needs to understand how vital
contributions are, and how they can contribute in their own way, even if
it's not a core patch.

*Ladders for learners*

Understanding these different audiences also sheds light on why training is
so complicated. Often one's prior knowledge or imprinting from other systems
can create the most barriers to learning. It's not one-size fits all with
training.

As trainers, we need to help learners get into the Drupal community and
realize their own potential and make their best contributions. I think we
can spread best practice & open source spirit to End-users, Site Builders
and Developers. We can position learning ladders where people are starting
off, whether it’s someone coming from political organizing or someone coming
from Java development.

I think in that way, we’ll be able to have a really diverse, strong, smart
and flexible community. Which is actually how I think of Drupal itself.


On 8 June 2010 21:58, Libby Levi <llevi at redhat.com> wrote:

> Hi Heather,
>
> If you send me the text of the article, I can help you out with an image.
>
> Of course, if you have something in mind, we can do that too!
>
> thanks!
>
>
>  .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . ..
> .
>
> Libby Levi
>
> Red Hat
> Brand Communications + Design
> llevi at redhat.com
>
>
>
> On Jun 8, 2010, at 4:50 PM, Heather James wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
> I submitted an article for review recently. This was the "background" post
> about what we're doing in the Drupal community. What do you all think?
>
> http://opensource.com/education/10/6/learning-drupal
>
> Should I gather an image for this?
>
> I'd like to submit another article, but I didn't want to deluge the system.
>
>
> Heather James
> Manager of Learning Services, Acquia, Inc.
> http://acquia.com/training
> p: +1.781.995.2776
> e: heather.james at acquia.com
> t: twitter.com/hjames
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Osdc-edu-authors mailing list
> Osdc-edu-authors at redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/osdc-edu-authors
>
>
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