The Server Room

Every student gets their own web server.

A complete Digital Technologies program for Australian schools, from Year 7 HTML and Python to Year 12 web applications with databases. Real code that really runs, on any school laptop, with nothing to install.

Try the demoSee the pathway
My Web AppPrivate server
index.htmlstyle.cssapp.jsapp.pydatabase.sql
from flask import Flask, render_template, request
import sqlite3

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route("/books", methods=["GET", "POST"])
def books():
    db = sqlite3.connect("books.db")
    if request.method == "POST":
        db.execute("INSERT INTO books VALUES (?, ?)",
                   (request.form["title"], request.form["stars"]))
        db.commit()
    rows = db.execute("SELECT * FROM books").fetchall()
    return render_template("books.html", books=rows)
127.0.0.1:5000/books

My Book Collection

  • The Hate U Give ★★★★★
  • Boy Swallows Universe ★★★★★
  • Holes ★★★★
  • Dune ★★★★★
Add book
books.db
titlestars
The Hate U Give5
Boy Swallows Universe5
Holes4
Dune5
Server log
"POST /books HTTP/1.1" 200
"GET /static/style.css" 200
"GET /static/Style.css" 404

Real development, without the workarounds.

School security settings stop students installing the tools developers use, so Python is often taught with clunky workarounds like Tkinter windows. The Server Room gives every student a private web server in the browser, so they learn how HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python or PHP, and SQL work together in real applications.

Nothing to install

Everything runs in the browser. If a laptop can open a website, it can run a student's server.

The real thing

Real PHP 8.4, real Python and Flask, real SQLite. Wrong file names give 404s and syntax errors show as they would on a real host.

Private by design

Each student's site runs in its own sandbox. Students can't open each other's work; teachers can open all of it.

No other online platform in Australia delivers the Digital Technologies curriculum v9.0.

A sandbox, not a click-through course

Experience shows that step-by-step online coding courses don't work in the classroom: students click through without understanding. In The Server Room, the curriculum resources teach the ideas, set the problems and give students everything they need to solve them.

The sandbox is where they solve them, their own way: organising files, reading errors, searching the web and debugging, the way developers work.

One sandbox from Year 7 to Year 12.

Students get used to the sandbox in Year 7 when they learn HTML and basic Python. By Year 12 they're using the same tools to build web applications with databases.

Years 7–8

First websites and Python

  • Web pages, folders and links in HTML
  • Python with turtle graphics
  • Input, decisions and loops
Years 9–10

Interactive sites and databases

  • CSS, responsive design and JavaScript
  • Relational databases and SQL
  • Server-side PHP and e-commerce
Years 11–12

Software Development

  • Web applications in Python (Flask) or PHP
  • Validation, files, searching and sorting
  • Cybersecurity: logins, hashing, SQL injection

How a lesson works

  1. Learn the idea

    Short lessons with diagrams, worked examples and quick checks, drawn from Vic Farrell's Digital Technologies and Software Development textbooks.

  2. Solve the problem on their own server

    Students organise files and folders, write the code and press Run. They read the server log and the errors, and search the web or ask an AI for help, just as developers do.

  3. Submit to the teacher

    Work is saved as they type. When they're ready, students submit a copy and keep going.

  4. The teacher marks it

    Teachers run the student's work themselves, read the code, and mark against a rubric. There's no auto-marker deciding what counts.

Ready to teach, even outside your specialty.

Every lesson comes with a teacher view, so a teacher who is new to the subject can still teach it well.

Answers and models

Suggested answers to every question, and model solutions for every project.

Step-by-step walkthroughs

How to make each project, in order, with what to show the class at each step.

What will go wrong

The errors students will hit, why they happen, and how to fix them.

See work as it happens

Open any student's project while they work. You don't have to wait for submissions.

Rubric marking

Mark against the rubric, write feedback, and return it to the student's workspace.

Whole-school literacy

A Digital Literacy program any subject teacher can deliver.

For schools

One subscription covers every Digital Technologies class from Year 7 to Year 12, plus the Digital Literacy program.

Whole-school subscription

From $5,000 a year

All courses, all teachers and students, Years 7–12. Indicative pricing for pilot schools.

Textbooks and workbooks

Optional

Printed textbooks and student workbooks from Vic Farrell Publishing to match the courses.

Works with your LMS

Schoolbox · Canvas

Planned LTI 1.3 connection so students open it from their course and teachers' marks flow back.

Try the demo