Tangerineworks

 

Kowari

Developer / DBA / Systems Architect

Kowari is an early-years learning platform for children in their first few years of school

It is built around an application/plugin framework which offers a variety of skins or themes, depending on the age/ability of the child. In addition to this is a fairly extensive administrations system

The main areas are

  • Kmail - an email-like application with a flash module which allows drawing, typing, sound, photograph and video recording... so children can take and send videos to other users of the system. The adminsitration of address-books etc is controlled by the admin system.
  • A Launchpad application - a multi-foldered directory for icon links to :
    • third-party applications
    • their own drawings / writing / sound / photos / video (recorded with a similar module to the kmail one
    • local documents (eg: word, pdf, images)
    • youtube clips, googlemaps etc
    • Sub-folders
    This content can be set up by a teacher and shared with individuals or classes.
  • A File manager with icon links to a child's work - images, text and kmail, journal content. Files can also be uploaded, deleted, rename or moved with a drag-drop interface
  • A Calendar / Journal application with day / week / month / year views. Content and events can be set up by the children, for themselves, or by teachers to be shared with other classes / groups
  • An Adminstration system which is used to manage which skins/themes that children/groups have access to, their kmail contacts, relationships between students/staff/relations etc, classes and groups etc

There is also a fairly complex login / permissions system where a PC can be "registered" for a class, so when a child comes to log in, they only need to click on their picture rather than type in a password... depending on which level they're at. Older levels have an assisted flash-keyboard to enter their passwords. It's also possible for children to log in from home or internet cafes if need be - using their full password/kmail address

In addition to this, a parent or teacher (once logged in) can also click a child's icon to view their work

In the final stages of my involvement the system was being demoed to schools - with about 80 schools in the database.

Development was eventually brought in-house.

  • PHP
  • MySql
  • Apache
  • Linux
  • Flash Integration
  • HTML / CSS
  • Javascript / jQuery
  • Extensive use of Ajax