H Students Craft Dynamic Web Sites - Lake Highland Preparatory ...

casestudy.NET HelpsStudents CraftDynamic Web SitesLearn how one high school teacher used Visual Studio .NET and ASP.NET WebMatrix to teach his students how to create interactive Web pages.by Lee ThéSolution SummaryInstitutionLake Highland Preparatory School,Orlando, Florida. Honorsprogramming class.ProjectCreate curriculum to provide students anopportunity to use state-of-the-artsoftware to develop relativelysophisticated Web sites. The lessonsinclude Web programming, SQLtraining, Web services, mobileapplications, and a case study calledNothing but .NET. The case studyincludes a student activity database,login screens, Web service application,calendar event application, and a slideshow activity. See the lessons atwww.lhps.org/scarbeau/webmatrixlessonsuse.htm.Tools• ASP.NET Web Matrix• .NET Framework 1.1• Visual Studio .NET• Visual Basic .NET• Visual J# .NET• Accessigh schools have a reputation for teaching yesterday’stechnology. But computer science teacher BrianScarbeau decided to break with that tradition—with-Hout also breaking the budget at Lake Highland PreparatorySchool in Orlando, Florida. Microsoft ASP.NET WebMatrix was a key tool that allowed Scarbeau to teach hisWeb design class how to build interactive Web pages usingMicrosoft ASP, and stay within budget.Scarbeau knew his Web design class needed updating. The curriculum had previouslytaught students only how to build static Web pages. He knew they’d need tolearn how to build dynamic ones to be competitive in college and beyond. But suitabletools had only recently become available—notably the updated Web Matrixreleased in June 2003.He says, “I chose Web Matrix because it’s compact [has a relatively small file size], it’sused by Web professionals, it looked like it would be easy to use—and it was free.” Hewas also confident he could learn it himself in the limited time he had available. WebMatrix is a community-supported, WYSIWYG tool for ASP.NET. You can download itas a 1.3MB file from the Microsoft Web site, along with the .NET Framework it requires(see Resources).Web Matrix’s features include an ASP.NET page and HTML designer, SQL Serverdatabase management, data bound page generation without coding, multiple .NET languagesupport, class browsing, XML Web services support, mobile application support,projectless file and FTP workspaces, a development Web server, and a built-in gateway tothe ASP.NET community. So, it’s a long way from being just a demonstration tool that6| .netU Fall 2003 | www.fawcette.com/dotnetu

casestudybase manipulation: creating a database,connecting to it, entering records, searchingand sorting records, and conductingdynamic searches from a Web page. Lesson12 added record validation, “which isa great feature of Web Matrix,” Scarbeausays. The next lesson covered calendar controls,followed by one on mobile applications.The last lesson dealt with Web Services.Then students put all the lessons towork and created their own Nothing but.NET sites.The case study covered the creation ofa student works database. This could includeshort stories or poems that a teachermight want to enter into the database, usinga teacher login page. In addition,Scarbeau had students create a calendar“Another cool thingabout Web Matrix is theaccess from mobileInternet devices—wireless devices likePDAs or phones. Thatwas pretty sweet.”Figure 1. Build an Interactive Web Site. Students create this home page when they finishtheir teacher’s Web Matrix-based lessons. The case study allows students to create a PigLatin translator Web service application, an events calendar, a database of literary work, ateacher login page, a form for teachers to fill out, and a slide show of digital pictures orscanned-in artwork. See the live site at http://bgscms.europe.webmatrixhosting.net/.of events, along with a Web services applicationthat converted text to Pig Latin.Finally he had them add a slide show ofphotos.Then it was time to take his new curriculuminto the classroom. When he introducedstudents to the project they wereexcited to learn they were some of the firsthigh school students to be learning .NETtechnology—both because it’s up to dateand because it’s what the real world is using.Not to mention getting to build dynamicWeb pages.However, an initial glitch did arise.In early lessons, Scarbeau tried to teachstudents the principles of object-orientedprogramming (OOP) that underlie.NET. However, the students found theconcepts hard to follow. So, Scarbeaushowed the flexibility that’s characteristicof all good teachers and switchedgears. He concentrated on showing stu-Figure 2. Work with Databases. Students get a head start at working with databases bybuilding a form they create during their lessons. They then enter this form into their JamesBond movie database.8| .netU Fall 2003 | www.fawcette.com/dotnetu

casestudydents how to use Web Matrix, ratherthan its conceptual underpinnings.Things really got rolling when he showedthem how to download and install WebMatrix and the .NET Framework; thento create a page with Web Matrix anduse its commands.IT professionals will probably agreethat the most practical part of Scarbeau’scurriculum is the collection of databaselessons that followed the introduction. Onthe other hand, the last two lessons coveredthe two aspects the students enjoyedthe most, according to Scarbeau: mobileapplications and Web services. For theformer he covered downloading Microsoft’sASP.NET Mobile Internet Toolkitand Phone Emulator Software, which studentsneeded to create applications formobile phones along with Web Matrix.Then he dealt with adapting the JamesBond movie database he’d created forNothing But .NET.The last lesson, on Web services, showedhow to both create and consume them.This lesson included details such as howto use Web Matrix’s XML Web ServiceProxy Generator, which helps create theproxy a Web service requires between anapplication and the Web service.“Record validation is agreat feature of WebMatrix.”Scarbeau’s students also praise this newcurriculum. Eleventh grader Andrew Hillsays, “It’s really different. Before this I used[Macromedia] Dreamweaver for Web applications,and straight Java for programming..NET is cool because it pretty muchcombines the two and lets you put a lot ofinterfaces straight into the Web.”Junior John Root says that although he(like the other students) had trouble understanding.NET conceptually early on,“By the end of the lessons we realized howpowerful it could be.” He also confirms thestudents’ interest in mobile applications:“Another cool thing about Web Matrix isthe access from mobile Internet devices—wireless devices like PDAs or phones. Thatwas pretty sweet.” .netUABOUT THE AUTHORFormer Visual Studio Magazine executiveeditor Lee Thé writes occasional technologypieces to pay for scuba diving trips for his wifeand himself while he works on a science fictiontrilogy. Reach him at aw66@att.net.ftponline.com’s Newest Management Tool:Tips, tricks and techniques to keepyour development team on top• Get secrets to effectively manage yourdevelopment team• Pick methodologies, and execute them• Figure out what’s broken, and fix it• Join discussion groups covering lively debate topics• Safeguard yourself from the “five deadly waysto kill a project”• Keep your fingers on the pulse of development trendsGOwww.ftponline.com/resources/managingdevwww.fawcette.com/dotnetu | .netU Fall 2003 |9