“How I use Drupal to roll my own LMS,” or “Eight Reasons why Drupal is better than WordPress”

In this presentation, I will give an overview of how and why I use Drupal as my platform of choice for creating online learning spaces. Since my assigned teaching area is New Media, my pedagogy is often as much *about* technology as it is *through* technology. Therefore, the choices I make regarding our course websites give shape to the opportunities my students have for creating content and learning to express themselves digitally within a participatory learning experience. These choices must closely reflect and demonstrate my teaching philosophy and pedagogical agenda. For this brief talk, I will structure my remarks around a list of ways in which Drupal is better than WordPress. This somewhat facetious framework invokes the long-running generic debate between proponents of the two platforms, but it is not necessarily my aim to convince WordPress adherents to switch sides. Rather, I will focus on why Drupal has been a good choice for me and ultimately argue that a working knowledge of how any works with or against pedagogical goals is an important component of course design.