Community Information Systems
Last update: 20 Oct 2004

Objectives

It goes without saying that the primary objective of this program is to deliver a complete, useful, well-documented, and polished web application to our project partners. Along the way, however, there is much that we will learn. Below are lists of some general and specific learning goals for each quarter. You will be asked to reflect upon your progress toward these goals at many different times and in many different ways throughout the program. Becoming comfortable with and good at this reflective practice is, in itself, an objective of this program and of an Evergreen education.

Although the objectives listed here are unlikely to disappear or be changed much as the program progresses, it is quite likely that more objectives will be added as we come together as a learning community and make collective decisions about what objectives we want to pursue.

Fall 2004

By the end of the fall quarter, students will...

Social context

  • have basic familiarity with concepts and terminology related to community informatics and community networking
  • have basic familiarity with concepts and terminology related to community studies
  • have basic familiarity with concepts and terminology related to political economy of information and communication technology (ICT)

Project management

  • be aware of concerns and issues which fall under the umbrella of project management
  • gain competence in communicating with both the client and the team members
  • have practiced estimating the time and effort required to complete various project tasks
  • have practiced monitoring both individual and team performance
  • develop useful means of reporting both individual and team activity
  • gain confidence presenting information about the project to others

Software development

  • become familiar with general approaches to software development
  • complete a comprehensive set of requirements for the project

Web programming

  • understand the distinction between "client" and "server" in relation to HTTP and scripting
  • become familiar with web standards and understand the purpose and value of standards
  • be able to use a simple text editor to create web pages using valid XHTML and CSS
  • be able to save web pages to a web server and edit those pages both by logging in remotely and by using FTP
  • be able to integrate PHP commands into HTML documents to produce web pages
  • develop full familiarity with elements of HTML forms and ways to process forms using PHP
  • understand and appropriately use general programming structures such as variables, arrays, conditionals, and loops
  • appropriately use common PHP built-in functions
  • become familiar with a wide variety of PHP built-in functions and be able to use reference materials to figure out how to use any specific built-in function
  • compare different ways to structure databases and to store and retrieve information
  • be able to invoke the MySQL interpreter and use it to create and modify database information
  • integrate database content into web pages by using PHP database functions to interact with MySQL
  • learn some strategies for debugging PHP scripts
Winter 2004

By the end of the winter quarter, students will...

Social context

  • have a good working understanding of community informatics and community networking including current issues and controversies
  • have a good working understanding of community studies
  • have basic familiarity with concepts and terminology related to social change
  • have basic familiarity with concepts and terminology related to globalization

Project management

  • communicate effectively with both the client and the team members
  • have practiced estimating the time and effort required to complete various project tasks
  • have practiced monitoring both individual and team performance
  • report consistently about both individual and team activity
  • refine presentation of information about the project to others

Software development

  • develop approaches to planning, communicating, and utilizing design documents for software
  • plan and implement means to test software
  • produce a preliminary design for the project

Web programming

  • design and document the database for the project
  • design and begin implementation of the user interface for the project
Spring 2004

By the end of the spring quarter, students will...

Social context

  • have good basic understanding of social change
  • have good basic understanding of globalization
  • have good basic understanding of political economy of ICT
  • have good basic understanding of the various theories of the network society including their strengths and weaknesses

Project management

  • communicate effectively with both the client and the team members
  • be skilled at estimating the time and effort required to complete various project tasks
  • be skilled at monitoring both individual and team performance
  • report consistently and effectively about both individual and team activity
  • confidently present information about the project to others

Software development

  • understand the major concerns for porting web applications to different servers
  • plan and implement means to test software
  • produce all necessary documentation for the project

Web programming

  • create a polished, well-designed, user-friendly web site for the project