schooltool-developers team mailing list archive

["Tom Hoffman" <tom.hoffman@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 6:00 AM, Bill MacKenty <bmackenty@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hey Tom!
>
> Thank you for leaving a comment about my "rolling your own" post.  To be
> honest, I hadn't thought of School Tool - I thought of it as only a
> scheduling / calendaring / event system (can you tell I've only scratched
> the front page?). I'll poke more at school tool.

Hi Bill,

SchoolTool was originally conceived as more of a platform, but you
can't really just put out a platform that does nothing and expect
people to start using it.  Calendaring ended up getting done first
(ultimately, this turned out to be a mistake), now we're finishing a
basic SIS as "core" SchoolTool, but the more interesting parts,
actually, are components we've done with other schools -- the CanDo
competency tracking system and a student intervention tracking system
with Chris Lehmann at SLA in Philly.

> So here's the scenario:
>
> Students come to web page and fill out their name, grade, ID number, and
> then tick off the tests they want to register for:
>
> _ AP exam 1
> _ AP exam 2
> _ AP exam 3
> ...
> _ AP exam 32
>
>
> This then gets thrown into a database that we can query.  We basically need
> to use the data in 3 ways:
>
> 1. Billing: this is simple - count the number of AP exams and multiply by
> $50.00 - create a report so we can print bills
> 2. Ordering the tests - how many AP exam 1  do we need? How many AP exam 2
> do we need, etc ...
> 3. Room assignment - give me a list of all the kids taking AP exam 1, give
> me a list of all the kids taking AP exam 2, etc....
>
> From a programming point of view, this isn't really complex. We need
> students to be able to come back and make changes until the registration
> deadline (it is common for kids / parents to change their mind about AP
> exams)
>
> Do you think school tool can do this? I'll explore school tool's website a
> bit more.

With a little programming, it certainly can.  Of course, with enough
programming it can do anything...  But this would be pretty easy.  The
biggest headache would actually probably be logins.  Do you want
students to have to log in?  Would you be using LDAP or something
else?

> Nice to hear from you, by the way - I read your blog feed daily and enjoy
> your thinking about education.

Thanks Bill.  You should join me on EVE Online sometime.

--Tom