----------------------------------------------
 --- Tutorial proposal form                 ---
 --- for students working with Jim Mahoney  ---
 ----------------------------------------------

 Basic guidelines :

    A typical tutorial is 3 credits : one class per week
    and 8 hours or so of work.  Tutorials are usually for juniors
    or seniors working on advanced or interdisplinary work related
    to computers for which no corresponding course exists.
   
    Group tutorials are also possible; ask around and come talk to me.

    The best way to submit this form is to 
      1) edit this file to include your answers,
      2) email it to mahoney@marlboro.edu, and 
      3) discuss it with me in person.

    Please do come talk to me about your specific situation in any case.


 Your name :            Ryan Dolan and Patrick Tyrrell__________________
 

 Tutorial title :       Community Web Development_______________________


 Desired credits :      2 Credits_______________________________________


 Tutorial description: (appropriate for the registrar's permanent record)

  In this tutorial we will attempt to learn the basics of contemporary web
 design, including basic XHTML and CSS, which will culminate in a functional
 web-site design by midterm.  The second half of the semester will be focused
 on learning how to install and manage the DRUPAL content management system,
 with the final weeks being spent on designing community-based modules for
 Nook.


 What exactly do you want to study?  
 Be as explicit as you can, including a schedule if possible.

  We're looking to use the first half of the semester to cover basic web design
 through learning simple XHTML and CSS, and using it to complete a functional
 web-site by spring break.  After break we will do a very quick overview of
 installing DRUPAL and theming, and then we will spend the remaining weeks
 focusing on designing town-meeting-based modules for Nook.  We will also
 spend some time before break working out the details of how we will proceed
 with DRUPAL and Nook.

XHTML - Weeks 1, 2
 - Week 1 - Basic Site - Head, Header, Footer, Body w/ Tables, Navigation, 
             Strict Standards
 - Week 2 - Incorporating DIVs
CSS - Weeks 3-6
 - Week 3 - Adding simple styling to website - Headers, Para., Body
 - Week 4 - Layout: Styling DIV tags, SPAN tags
 - Week 5 - More complicated layouts, 2-3 Columns, Basic Images (BG)
 - Week 6 - Compliance: IE 6
 - Week 7 - Show Midterm projects
          - Layout Featureset and Outline for DRUPAL project

-Spring Break-

DRUPAL
 Installation + Set-Up / PHP MyAdmin / Theming - Weeks 8, 9
 Module Development (Further details to be decided week 7) - Weeks 10-12
 - Week 13 - Final Projects, Class Summary, Talk about what Ryan Dolan can do
              better in setting up tutorials, etc.

 How does this relate to your plan and/or other course work?

  I believe a significant portion of my plan will focus on looking at how
 computers and the internet can be used as tools to build and strengthen small
 communities, mainly here at Marlboro but also in developing communities around
 the world.  This will also be greatly helpful in my internship, where I will
 hopefully be managing the computers in a small orphanage community in Oaxaca,
 Mexico.  There I'm hoping I can use web sites to strengthen the community
 through web-sites such as Nook, so the portions on using DRUPAL should be
 especially useful. Another central part of this tutorial is giving me 
 more marketable job skills that my Marlboro education would seem to disregard.

 What resources have you identified?
 (e.g. books, articles, websites, experience, ...) 

  I believe I will be centrally using the O'Reilly book, Web Design In A
 Nutshell, to both read through when learning XHTML and CSS and as a reference.
 Beyond this book both myself and Patrick will be using various links on the
 references page for your Web Design course, especially for the div tag, in
 which the web design book seems to be sorely lacking.  As for DRUPAL, we will
 mostly be learning by experience through the installation and Patrick's
 experience with PHP MyAdmin, and through online resources while working on our
 community-based Nook modules.

 What will be the gradeable products, and on what schedule?
 (e.g. projects, programs, papers, tests, ...)

  During the XHTML and CSS portions of the tutorial we will be bringing in
 weekly work on our web sites to demonstrate what we have been learning and how
 we are applying it within a functional website.  These weekly updates will 
 cumulate in a final publishable website by Spring break.  This schedule should
 allow for a weekly progress grade and a larger cumulative midterm grade.
  The second portion of the class will begin with the installation of DRUPAL,
 which we should be able to demonstrate in-class.  We will then begin working
 with DRUPAL through cooperative work on a single module or set of modules for
 Nook, again allowing weekly progress grades to be given based on the work we
 show in class and again on our final project at the end of the semester.