[TYPO3-edu] what makes t3 interesting for edu institutions

[Andreas Balzer]

Hi!
 > i just thought about what makes typo3 interesting for educational
 > institutions
Good idea :)

I would like to critizise your ideas a little bit ;) (don't take me to 
serious please ;) )

 > what we have so far:
 > - powerful user administration
This is not very interesting for schools.
 > - extranet/intranet possibilities
Schools have to secure their databases. They highly try to seperate both 
systems (sometimes even with different network wires in one room)
 > - ldap coupling
same as the above
 > - single-sing-on
if you decide to use TYPO3, you decide to use it.. There's no real need 
for single-sign-on for schools I think. T3 offers nearly everything a 
school needs



 > + It's open source so it might be interesting for technical oriented 
 > schools
There are afaik no schools that have the personal or interest in viewing 
such a monster code like T3 has ;) And I think there's hardly any 
student who likes..
to dive into the code, see how it's done and modify it.
 > + It can be easily adapted to almost any imaginable scenario.
That's a good one
 > + Powerful newsletter functionality including categorisable content 
based on usergroups.
That's not a good one. Schools send their information through printed 
papers. A newsletter is not the kind of communication tool that schools 
are using primarly.
 > + Multi-client capabilities (one BE serves different (sub-)domains)
Hardly any school needs subdomains.
 > + DAM can be used as a base for real document management.
Yeah, that's a good idea, but it has a major problem. A school doesn't 
have the personal to manage it and students don't like to invest the time..

OK.

Some other ideas (they are not perfect too):
- TYPO3 offers you the best collaboration possible.
- Involve your students (through project websites and course related 
websites)
- Offer your students and their parents easier ways to communicate (with 
the headmaster and the faculties & their teachers thorugh: Chat, boards 
and comments.)
- Give your faculties the possibility to present themselves.
- Enable your students to learn at home through downloadable worksheets
- Minimize the cost for printing by offering formulars online
- ....

I think it's not about those technical things that a school or 
university is interested in. It's more about the practical things that 
can make the life easier. Most teachers don't want to invest time into 
learning something new. It has to be pointed out that T3 helps them in 
managing their workload but also gives their students a nice place to meet.

So again: Please don't take my critics to serious, but I don't think 
that words like ldap are those things that interest them.. if they know 
what it means ;)

Anyway: We should point out that T3 doesn't work with most webspaces. 
You need a good server system behind..

Greetings
Andreas