Things I learned at Drupal Camp Sacramento 2012:

First I want to thank everyone who made Drupal camp possible: I really enjoyed this event and I met a lot of great people and had a great time. I don’t normally spend whole weekends in Sacramento without a good reason, but Drupal Camp was worth it for the following three reasons:

1. Major changes are happening to Drupal in Drupal 8. Nate Haug of Lullabot and Jen Lampton announced that Drupal will be adopting the Symfony framework to make better use of object-oriented programing, and adding a new theme layer using the templating engine called Twig. Creating Drupal themes will be a lot easier. Also, because Twig is well documented and is used in other frameworks outside of Drupal, it will be easier to find and maintain skilled designers. Learn more about Twig.
2. I was also introduced to a wonderful module maintained and developed by Jen Lampton called Total Control. This module drastically improves the dashboard that comes with Drupal 7 and makes it easier for administrators to maintain the site. It’s based off of panels and views, which makes it easily customizable within Drupal. I was able to install it, set it up, and lay it out the way I wanted it in just 5 minutes. If you’re looking for a Drupal 7 dashboard replacement, you can’t go wrong with Total Control.
3. The greatest takeaways from Drupal Camp was Chris Shattuck’s Keynote presentation. His first topic was on streamlining the classroom environment. To be a good educator in the traditional sense, you have to have multiple skills: performing arts, quick thinking and lots of planning, to name a few. And although engaging lessons and lectures take time to plan, it’s hard for students to follow along at their own pace. It’s even harder to find all of these unique skills in one person. So what can be done to make this process easier for everyone?

Videos. Chris talked about a site called Khan Acadamy which hosts educational videos that aim at helping students learn at their own pace. Using videos in place of lectures allows students to learn at their own pace and frees up time for educators to have one-on-one discussions with their students. Khan Academy inspired him to come up with Build a Module, a similar site aimed specifically at educating new Drupal developers. Build a Module hosts over 680 Drupal informational videos on topics basic to complex.

Something unexpected tends to happen when teachers integrate videos like these into their teaching style: people start helping each other on their various projects and goals. The end result is that everyone becomes a teacher, improving students’ educational experience, and making the teacher’s job easier at the same time.

As I turned onto I-80 heading back to the Bay Area, I thought of the potential impact these videos could have on Drupal education. They could also spur innovation by spreading knowledge more effectively, creating new Drupal experts. They could also reduce two-hour road trips to two-second Google searches. Drupal Camp was definitely worth the drive.

For information on larger IT trends and how Drupal fits into the big picture, download our Technology Outlook.