[DG: Teaching & Learning] templates redux

[Bruce D'Arcus]

This is sort of a followup to earlier question yesterday about
portfolios, and to a more technical question I raised about how
"templates" are understood in OAE back in August of last year.

<http://collab.sakaiproject.org/pipermail/sakai-ux/2010-August/001440.html>

In a subsequent reply, John explained that "For now the main way a
template works is as a way of providing pre-populated html."

I really don't understand the reasoning behind this: why it's
important (or I guess more specifically, why this particular solution
to the need for reuse), and why it's defined this way.

Today I read new content like this on the wiki about "templates" ...

<https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/3AK/Out+of+the+Box+Course+Templates+Discussion>

... and am again asking "what are OAE templates again?"

Meanwhile I read recent discussions of the ePortfolio initiative about
using XForms to do portfolios, which seems really mostly because it's
not apart of the core OAE architecture.

So I'd like to make a more affirmative suggestion (rather than just
asking a question): you need to better define a core concept like
this, and to do it in ways consistent with broader software
engineering usage: as something like a method of binding a data model
to an output view (which appears to be what the portfolio group is
after).

I don't think it does any good to call what is effectively dumb (in
the sense of having no structured meaning) copied HTML a template;
it's just copied content.

A template, then, should be what both the portfolio group and core OAE
functionality needs (at some point; no huge rush): a method to
facilitate more structured authoring of content (syllabi, say).

And for sake of more concrete and forward-looking argument, what if
templates in OAE might be based in part on this sort of a direct
WYSIWYG editor:

<http://www.aloha-editor.org/demos/960-fluid-demo/>

... where one could just easily create, and move around (via
drag-and-drop*) these editable  divs**?

Bruce

* say like this <http://demos.9lessons.info/ddorder/UIpage.php>

** and this example of 3 column CSS in place editing is pretty cool
too <http://aloha-editor.org/demos/3col/>