Boston Collaboratory School - Mentoring Horizontally, Up, Down and Sideways

Plans for a new way of connecting students with their community

Problem: Schools and students are traditionally disconnected from their community and seldom do they work on interrelated projects that will benefit both the school and the people of the community.

Solution: Mentoring students to develop free software, such as the Drupal content management system, will introduce students to the myriad of careers and skills necessary to build a successful web presence - cooperatively. A web presence is more than just a website and also includes items like video, audio, and content that is compelling. No longer are we limited to a brochure online type of approach. Engaging people is the name of the game now. Beyond a web presence, students will also be mentored in ways to engage their community in building platform tools owned by the community.

How to: The Boston Collaboratory School will use the free software Drupal as the framework for a curriculum to mentor students in relevant technical and non-technical skills which can be applied at local and global scales. Mentors will connect students' interests and community needs, with Drupal serving as a gateway to introduce students to the many different career paths they might take. The focus of the Boston Collaboratory School on projects which benefit communities will also give these students practical experience creating ethical businesses in the form of platform cooperatives and participating in the free software movement via the Drupal framework. Read more