Our school is very close to making the plunge and moving to Sharepoint. We need it to provide off site access to files, both individual and shared. We will most likely also use it for some of our web page needs for groups and departments.
Before we make the plunge, I’d like to hear more from people who are using Drupal for file storage. Is it working well? Have the roles and permissions available out of the box been enough for you? Or have you had to code your own changes? Does the search feature meet your needs? Any modules you’d strongly recommend or strongly NOT recommend?
One of our engineers has installed a demo version of Drupal and we hope to play with it this week, but as I’ve done my research, Drupal seems to be more of a toolbox than a product. It looks like you’d need lots of time on the forums to find the best modules for your needs. Is this indeed the case?
Thank you for any light you can shed.
(I have been reading forums, EdTech listserv, etc. I’m hoping that I can gather other information via this blog post.)
Ack, don’t do anything without talking to Bill Fitzgerald at Funny Monkey. He is an educator and runs a Drupal consulting business. Drupal is powerful (as is Sharepoint), but I’d rather spend my money on consulting/support than on licensing.
I’d second the reference to Bill Fitzgerald. I’ve been using an edu-specific Drupal install for 2 years at our school (sp.glenview34.org). While I have not exp with Sharepoint, Drupal is very powerful. As with many tech products, there is a learning curve. Drupal is known to have a steeper curve than others, but you can customize it greatly.
A couple of highlights:
The DrupalEd distro from FunnyMonkey is excellent. Out of the box you get the ability to allow users to create their own Organic Groups. This is powerful. These means that is teachers/students want to create on-the-fly group to share file storage, forums, documents, wikis- they can. You as the box admin don’t have to manage. They can create these groups quickly and without much instruction. Group dialog and communication is easy.
You get individual blogging, page creation, group online newspapers and much more.
You can set up mailing lists to parents, IM systems, ratings- the list goes on.
I use it for not only staff but students. We allow student to create pages, collaborate and store files.
I’d be concerned that a tech has installed a demo and is going to make a decision based on working a demo for a few days without the understanding of the collaborative power of a properly configured drupal install.
Also, check out the drupaled.org group. Post there. They are a lot of techies, but they fall all over themselves when an actual k12 educator posts. Makes them feel all warm and fuzzy…..
Reggie Ryan
wiredclassroom.org
Arvind and Reggie,
Thank you for your suggestions and the information you have shared here. I appreciate hearing from people who have used Drupal. Interesting that you both mentioned Funny Monkey. That came up on the EdTech listserv as well.