Saturday, December 13, 2008

Education 2.0 and Assessment

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In the last year I've spent way too many hours thinking about Education 2.0 and assessment. Most of my thinking has been about ways to gather objective data about the impact of adding the various Web 2.0 tools. (There are plenty of Social Science studies that ask students how they feel about Web 2.0, but very little about actual impact on student learning.)

But this week I started to think about Education 2.0 versus the assessment activities that we are currently carrying out at the college. We're supposed to design some activities to assess student learning. These activities should do a couple of things:
  1. Check to see if our students are learning what we say they should learn. That is are they meeting class, program or college objectives.
  2. Check to see how effective the activity is. The results of the assessment activities are should provide instructors some insight and feedback about student performance. If the students perform as expected then it can probably be assumed that they learned the subject. If the students don't perform as expected, then something probably needs to be changed.

I think the assessment activities are very valuable, and coming from industry, I'm surprised that we don't do more complete assessments.

But as I work on Education 2.0 and see it's impact, I feel a little perplexed by the assessment activities we're doing at the college. It's like we're on a big ship where we need to deliver a cargo to a distant port. We're being asked to measure a bunch of little things like cabin temperature or number of cans of chili left in the food locker. These things may be somewhat important to a successful voyage, but in the big picture they're actually pretty incidental to things like steering the ship. Moving from Education 1.0 to Education would be even bigger than changing the ship's course, it would be like changing from a sail powered boat to a modern nuclear powered ship.

There still's some value in measuring the little things, but they have such a small impact on student learning compared to moving to Education 2.0. I'm hopeful that the rest of the college will soon share this feeling.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Situation Target Proposal (STP) For CBC Technology

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I'm on the newly revived Columbia Basin College Technology Committee. We had our first meeting on Dec 9, and it looks like a good group. Kim Tucker is leading the committee, and here are her opening remarks.



And here are some photos of some of the committee members. Please do not make fun of Nina until we move these photos to her blog. I asked her to do this!








The next step is to define where CBC is currently at regarding technology. Jerry Lewis volunteered himself, and then me to do this, and Brian Dexter said he'd also help. Jerry talked about doing a survey of what hardware and software people are using ... which could be useful to define our current situation.

But as I started to think about it, the things that define that define our current situation aren't really things. It's my belief that the important factors about our current situation are these properties of our technology tools and toys:


  1. How easy is it for an instructor to use the tool. This could be measured in the number of hours of training required to begin using the tool, and the number of hours required to implement a class.
  2. How easy is it for students to use the tool. This could be measured in the number of hours of training required to begin using the tool.
  3. What measurable benefit is there. (Has any measurement been done at all?)
  4. Cost of purchase.
  5. Cost of ownership. This would include support and administration costs.

This line of thinking brings me around to seeing that I must've already defined some goals. It looks like I'm thinking that technology should:

  1. Be easy for instructors and students to use
  2. Have a measurable impact on student learning
  3. Be inexpensive to purchase and maintain

I'd also like to add that I believe that in the near future educational software and teaching components will be "open". By this I mean there will one or two widely accepted XML standards for defining things that might be used in a class such as lecture or presentations; quizes tests and other assessment tools; exercises and labs; etc. I believe any tools we choose should support open standards. This will prevent us (by us I mean instructors and support staff in general) from wasting time developing class modules that we may have to abandon in the future. It will also allow us to easily share with other instructors and take advantage of the nature of Web 2.0.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

How do you spell Proselytize?

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Yesterday I had a revelation. My mission to spread Education 2.0 in the Dry has turned into a something akin to a religious mission. (If religious analogies make you uncomfortable why don't you stop reading now. I'm not saying I'm more popular than the Beatles, but there I can see where some individuals may be upset by my comparisons.)

I've seen the light of Education 2.0 and I want to spread the message and open the eyes of those around me. Education 2.0 is so simple to use and has such potential to improve education ... I just want to spread the word. But I'm worried that my zeal may turn away those I'm trying to help. I can almost feel the office doors slamming as I walk down the hall, and hear the whispers "maybe if we're quiet he'll just go away."

I can totally understand and relate to this attitude. I can't even count the number of times I've been told about some piece of hardware or software application that was going to make my life better/easier only to be disappointed. And when I first heard about Web 2.0 my first thought was "here we go again ..."

Now, when I try to convince educators and instructors to try Education 2.0 I hear these arguments:
  1. I'm an English teacher (or Math or Art or Kindergarden teacher) and it's too hard for me to learn something new.
  2. My students are already learning, and my class is full of lecture and other activities. There isn't time to add anything new.
  3. I don't teach online classes, so I don't need this.

These arguments are perfectly valid, but I am on a mission tell people that:
  1. I'm an English teach (or Math or Art or Kindergarden teacher) and it's too hard for me to learn something new.
    Education 2.0 is NOT about you. You don't need to blog or create videos, let your students do it. Let them participate. And if you do want to use it yourself, Web 2.0 by definition is point-and-click; so it's easy to use.
  2. My students are already learning, and my class is full of lecture and other activities. There isn't time to add anything new. All you need to do is add the activities, you can still lecture. Again, it's for the students to do, not for you.
  3. I don't teach online classes, so I don't need this.This works just well for students in traditional classes as it does online classes.
What I've found is that no amount of talking convinces anyone. What they need to do is experience it for themselves. It's amazing how quickly people pick it up when they take 30 minutes to start a blog or create a youtube video. And every group or individual who I've worked with has quickly seen the light and become a believer.

But how to get more people to take the 30 minutes to do that?

So be warned ... I will soon be biking to your neighborhood and knocking on your door! I am on a mission.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

The Computer Science Marketing Video Rough Demo

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This is a rough demo of a movie that could be used for marketing the Computer Science Department. It took 15 minutes to shoot and edit using Windows Movie Maker, which is FREE! Just think how cool this could be if we took a little time and worked on it. We can also ask the CBC Jazz Band if they will give us some recordings to use as a backing track.


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Saturday, September 27, 2008

Swimming Straight

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My swimming has really improved this year, although you might not be able to tell from my race splits. I've been getting lessons from Lincoln Djang, and every session with him has been great. I'm constantly amazed that each time we meet he can quickly spot some way to improve my stroke, and then has a drill that allows me to correct the flaw and at the same time get a kinesthetic feel for the correction so I can work on it.

But even though my pool times have dropped dramatically, I've had mixed results in the open water. Apparently I don't swim very straight, I curve pretty dramatically to the right, and if I don't sight every 5 strokes I'll quickly be way off course. I can't quite figure out why this happens, but this photo from a recent race may be a clue ...

Friday, August 22, 2008

Web 2.0 Class Videos

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Here are some of the student produced videos from the Web 2.0 Track!


Intro to Education 2.0




Web 2.0 Overview and The Internet Cloud By Bruce Wolcott





Blogging (and Delicious) By Debi Griggs

Camtasia Help

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If you want help with almost any aspect of Camtasia, they have a great library of movie tutorials.

Windows Movie Maker Help

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Designing and editing movies is a pretty complicated process. There are many tutorials to help you, but one of my best suggestions is to do your homework and watch as many videos and movies as you can ... but with an eye towards creating your own.

Rather than listing a bunch of links here, I'm providing a link to my Delicious page. Go there and click on the video tag or windowsMovieMaker.

Audacity Help Links

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Here are some helpful links for learning and using Audacity:

Audacity Help
Audacity Wiki
Audacity Guide

I also have a bunch of links at my Delicious page.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

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Here's a photo album from our class on Thursday. The photo album was created on the Adobe Express site and then embedded in this blog. This class has been great so far, the students are all interesting and fun. I've learned a bunch from them, and I hope they have learned as much from me.






Wednesday, August 20, 2008

lunch

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i licked all of the desserts

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Add the URL for your blog here!

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After you have created your blog, leave a comment here with your URL. This way the other students can subscribe.

For example, my URL is http://aasako.blogspot.com

Welcome to the Web 2.0 Class!

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Lisa and Pat showed up early so they helped me with the welcome video. This is another of the things we'll learn how to do.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Web 2.0 Movies

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Here's the list of Web/Education 2.0 movies for the NWCET Summer Institute.


A Vision of Students Today
Pay Attention
Education Today and Tomorrow
A Vision of K-12 Students Today
21st century pedagogy
Evolution of Technology and Teaching
RSS in Plain English
Video: Wikis in Plain English
Technology Fear Factor in Education
3 Steps for 21st Century Learning
Curriculum 2.0

Thursday, August 14, 2008

NWCET Summer Institute Web 2.0 Track Intro Letter

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Hi Everyone!

My name is Tony Sako and I'm the instructor for the Web 2.0 class next week. I hope that you're as excited as I am for the class. We're going to cover blogs, wikis, audio and video podcasting, screencasting (and more). It's a very hands-on class, and I believe that you will find that the skills you learn will be very valuable for you and your students ... not to mention a lot of fun!

We're going to try and cover a lot of ground, so it would be great if we could get started quickly. The first thing we'll do is get to know each other, which will be critical since we'll be working together to on manyt of the projects. To accomplish our quick start it would be great if you had a brief intro about your experience and background. You don't have to write anything down, just think about it. I'd also like you to think about the following questions:

1. What do you want to get from the class? Are there any subjects in particular that you want to concentrate on?
2. Are you already using any of the Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis, etc.?

As a final request, it would be great if you could bring your own digital cameras and microphone/headsets if you have them. We're using BCC's equipment, and they have some flip-cams we can use, but I think it's better if you have a camera that you're used to. I have 7 or 8 microphone/headsets which we can share, but it would be great if you had your own and could bring it.

I'm also going to post this message to my blog at http://aasako.blogpot.com so you can post comments there if you would like.

See you next week!

Tony

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Adding images to the blogger template

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It's pretty easy to add images to a blogger post, but apparently tricky to add the them to a template. Actually, it's easy to add the image once you know where blogger stores it, just use the img element. But finding where blogger stores the image is a two step process.




  1. Start a new post.

  2. Click on the Add Image button.

  3. Browse and find the image on your computer.

  4. Click the Upload button

  5. Switch the Edit Html view in the editor. (Look in the upper right hand corner.)

  6. Adding the image will actually add some code that looks similar, but not exactly, like this;


    <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vi8HfoevOdc/SHqd35vYMiI/AAAAAAAAAC4/yylR4tmAif8/s1600-h/delicious_32x32.png">
    <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222660301607416354" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt=""
    src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vi8HfoevOdc/SHqd35vYMiI/AAAAAAAAAC4/yylR4tmAif8/s320/delicious_32x32.png"
    border="0" /></a>

    Look in the img tag, and find the src attribute. (Bold in the example). This is the path where your image is stored.


  7. You can then cut/copy this URL and add it to an img tag in the blogger template.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Adding the talkr link to a blogger template

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Talkr is a cool service that automates the podcasting of your blog. There are a few alternatives (scroll down the page if you follow the link) you might want to check out, as most of the talkr stuff seems to be more than a year old. I don't know if this indicates anything about their general health ... Two Three more things that raises my suspicion are:

  1. Their web site has the code for linking into the old blogger, but the code for adding their code into the new blogger templates doesn't work. It looks like a lot of people are asking about it, but no one has published an answer (until now ... look at my solution)


  2. Their example code has a link to an image that is no longer available. I fixed this by making my own copy, you can grab one if you want.

  3. And ... the owner put talkr up for sale last year. So it looks like it may be on it's way out.


Hopefully talkr is healthy and will stay around, because it took me a couple of hours to figure out how to add a link to my template.

So here's what I'm sure you really want to see, the way to add talkr to your blogger (blogspot) template. This is the code that I have working on this blog and the steps for adding it. (Disclaimer - The process is straightforward if you understand XHTML, CSS and XML; but probably total mumbo jumbo if you don't. If you don't understand it then you probably don't want to attempt it. Please don't post any comments asking for help or asking me to debug your template. Sorry, but I won't be around to respond. You'll either get it or you won't. If you don't then my suggestion would be to invest some time and learn XHTML, CSS and XML. )


  1. If necessary log into your blogger account, go to the dashboard, and then go to the Manage: Layout page.


  2. Click the Edit HTML tab link to open your template in the HTML editor.


  3. Check the Expand Widget Templates box to expand the widget code.


  4. Before you make any changes I suggest you save a backup copy of your template by clicking the Download Full Template link.


  5. In the editing window, scroll way down past all of the CSS stuff. You're looking for a place to put the talkr link in the template. I put mine just after the header line for each post. My template already had a div for this with the class of post-header-line-1. It didn't have an id, just the class. It was just before the div that holds the post content, which has the class "post-body entry-content". (Hopefully that makes sense, because if it doesn't then I'm assuming that you don't know much about HTML/XHTML/CSS/XML and the code looks like a jungle of garbage to you.) You can look for this code, but again your template might be different than mine.
      <div class='post-header-line-1' />
    <div class='post-body'>
    <data:post.body/>



  6. Change the first div <div class='post-header-line-1' />
    so that it can hold some content. Change the end /> to just >,
    then add a < /div>You should now have

    <div class='post-header-line-1' >
    </div>

    <div class='post-body'>
    <data:post.body/>


  7. Copy and paste the following code into the div, between the div start and close tags. (Note that the entire href should be a single line, it looks like multiple lines here because the window is narrow.)

    <a expr:href='&quot;http://www.talkr.com/app/fetch.app?feed_id=48184&amp;perma_link=&quot; + data:post.url '>
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    </a>



    you should end up with the following:


    <div class='post-header-line-1' >
    <a expr:href='&quot;http://www.talkr.com/app/fetch.app?feed_id=48184&amp;perma_link=&quot; + data:post.url '>
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    </a>

    </div>

    <div class='post-body'>
    <data:post.body/>

  8. That's it. Save the template and test it out. But make sure you save it and test it, don't test it in a preview window as the link won't work. If it doesn't work, reload the template code you saved above. (You did save a copy, didn't you?!?).



Here's a brief explanation of what this code does. Hopefully you know that the
<a href='URL' > is used to add a link. The tricky part here is to build a URL from 2 pieces. The first piece is the link to talkr. They give you this for blogger, it's the

http://www.talkr.com/app/fetch.app?feed_id=48184&perma_link=
section of the href.

You need to add the URL to each post, but since each post has a different URL you have to find the variable that blogger uses to hold the URL for each specific post. In the old blogger code the variable was <$BlogItemPermalinkURL$> But this doesn't work in the new blogger templates. And again, this is what worries me a little about talkr since they still have this on their web site.

In the new blogger templates, you use data:post.url Blogger kind of tells you this in some of their documentation, but they get it wrong too, as they use posts instead of post.

The last step is to get the two pieces together, the fixed string piece and the variable. This took me awhile to figure out as I couldn't find anything but basic documentation on the elements in the new blogger schemas. But I snooped around the blogger template code and finally got it. In the blogger templates, and in the case of an href, you use expr:href=' "string1" + "string2" ' to combine two strings and have them end up in the href attribute. Note the alternating quotes. Since we're combining 1 string with a variable, we use expr:href=' "string1" + var '

Somewhere in all of the processing, the inner double quotes get messed up unless you use the XML symbol for them, which is " So the expression becomes expr:href=' " string1 " + var '

Now, it almost works if you substitute the talkr URL
http://www.talkr.com/app/fetch.app?feed_id=48184&perma_link=
for string1 and

data:post.url
for var The last thing to fix is the & in the URL. It gets messed up somewhere in the processing too, so you need to substitute the XML symbol &amp;

Technically speaking my explanation isn't exactly complete but I'm trying to keep it brief, so please don't nitpick me to death. Just go have fun with your templates and blogs.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Ideas for new Web 2.0 Classes

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1. I just saw this post about college classes on Search Engine Optimization What a great idea!

2. And then there's all the blogging stuff:
a. Starting a blog
b. Customization
c. Adding images
d. Adding a podcast
e. Feedburner
f. Technorati

Web 2.0 Grant Proposal - the generic version

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Last week my brother Gus and I took a quick trip to Monterrey Mexico so I could race in the ITU Aquathlon World Championships, or Campeon del Mundo. The entire trip verged on the surreal, being in a world championship race, trying to communicate on 100 words of Spanish, and all of the sitting still while travelling at 400 MPH. Some things were way over the bizarre redline, the Mexican sushi, sharing a taxi with the coach of the Mexican National Triathlon Team and flying through a lightning storm in a commuter airplane.

But, we had an excess of hangin' out time ... and Gus helped me build a "short" generic proposal for a Web 2.0 grant by culling through all the writing I've already done and a little more scribbling and hand waving. That Gus is so smart. Yeah, I know he let me torture him with 4 days of travel and mystery, but he really is smart.

Anyway ... here's the first draft of the proposal.


Web 2.0 Grant Proposal

Tony Sako
Ass. Prof. Computer Science
Columbia Basin College
July 2, 2008

Even though the name Web 2.0 may make you think that it’s a new version of the web, it isn’t really a new technology. It a term used to define web sites that allow users to add content without having to know how to code in HTML. These sites have been growing in number, and they have allowed for a huge increase in amount of information added to the web.

Web 2.0 sites are often broken into categories depending on the type of function or service they offer. For example, there are blog sites that allow an individual to keep a personal log, and other users to add comments to the log entries. There are also wikis, which build silos of information by allowing multiple users to add, edit and annotate information. Wikipedia and Wikiversity are famous examples of wikis. There are also
media sharing sites (images, videocasts, podcasts, screencasts etc.) such as Flickr and YouTube; social networks such as MySpace and FaceBook, social bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us or Digg; cloud computing sites such as Office Live or Google Docs; virtual worlds such as Second Life, and mashups that combine the functionality of more than one site.

The students graduating from high-school have been called the Millennial Generation, but a better name may be “The Young & The Wireless” as they have never known a life without the web, and they are very much accustomed to using Web 2.0 sites. They instant message, they belong to social networks, they blog and add videos to YouTube. They not only do these things, they take them for granted. They’ve never known a life without the web, cell phones or Starbucks. Several studies have shown they take it’s availability for granted, see it as a vehicle for self-expression, and expect others to use their content.

Web 2.0 and the technical aptitude, attitudes and habits of the Millennials present educators with some outstanding opportunities and a few challenges. For example, one of the criticisms of the industrial age class model is that there is very limited discussion. Due to time constraints a typical class will consist of an instructor lecture(s), followed by limited discussion and then some assessment activities. A Web 2.0 enhanced class (called Education 2.0 or the digital classroom) makes it easy to have online discussions through blogs. This allows classes to expand discussion time and move towards a more cyber-Socratic, discussion based classroom; and away from the industrial age classroom model

One of the challenges of Web 2.0 in education is to ensure that industrial age classes aren’t simply moved to the web. For example, Stanford has made podcasts of some of it’s lectures. While the lectures are interesting the podcasts simply show a talking head along with whatever slides were included in the lecture. There is even less discussion than in a normal classroom, so in some sense it’s even worse than the typical industrial age classroom.

Stanford could make this into a great Web 2.0 experience for it’s students by allowing them to edit the video and add supplemental graphics and text. While the end result should be a better video, the thing to remember is that the video itself isn’t the important thing. The important thing is that the students will have participated in the creation of the video. And, this participation will surely enhance their understanding of the subject. Contrast how much a student would have to understand the content of a lecture to make it better as opposed to how much a student would comprehend by simply watching a lecture.

A well designed Web 2.0 class would be very much like a well designed traditional class, where the more students participate the more they gain. The difference is in the additional opportunities for participation. In addition to participating in classroom discussions and assignments students can keep their own blogs, build their own wikis or create their own podcasts and videos.

Web 2.0 presents CBC two huge opportunities. The first is to add Web 2.0 to traditional classes to enhance student learning and move towards a more Socratic classroom. There are already a few instructors at CBC who have started using some of the features of Web 2.0 in the classroom. But without some guidance these early adopters are in danger of falling into the trap of creating their own blogs, or making podcasts or screencasts of their lectures; and failing to allow their students to participate in the creation of content.

The second opportunity for CBC is to build on it’s excellent start in online education. Blogs, wikis, media sharing and cloud computing will enhance student learning in any class, online or in class. In addition, Web 2.0 makes it easy to add content to the web, so there are many new educational resources such as Wikiversity or the Stanford podcasts available on the Internet. With some guidance, Web 2.0 could be an enhancement to any and all of CBC’s online classes.

Another way that Web 2.0 may affect online education at CBC is in respect to WebCT, our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) (also known as a Course Management System (CMS)). While WebCT has proven to be a valuable tool, it has a few shortcomings that may be addressed by the movement towards an open source VLE such as moodle. In addition, an open source VLE may provide a better path to the future than a proprietary tool such WebCT. The new open source modules for moodle are available free as opposed to having to pay updates or maintenance for a proprietary program such as WebCT. And, new course material is developed in an open XML format, which makes it much easier for instructors to share course information. I believe it would be worth while for someone at CBC to investigate the VLE situation.

Since Web 2.0 is Internet based, it also presents tremendous opportunity for sharing and teaming with local K-12 districts, colleges and universities worldwide, and local for profit and non-profit organizations. Web 2.0 allows anyone in any of these groups to add content, which means experts from around the local community to experts from the world can add to course content. And since the course material is hosted on the Internet it can be easily be shared. The same course material can be used by students in a K-12 class, a college class; or even for training purposes by employees in industry. Web 2.0 has the potential to erase the lines between different educational institutions and allow delivery of world class material to anyone that wants to participate. This would be tremendous step towards meeting the truly seamless educational vision developed by Rich Cummins and Lee Thornton for the Tri-Cities community.

Web 2.0 also presents opportunities for CBC outside of the classroom. Social networks can be used for recruiting and delivering information to prospective students. Social networks can also be used to stay in contact with alumni, and allow them to stay in contact with each other. This would be a great communication tool for the Foundation in it’s fund raising efforts.

As mentioned above, there are also some challenges, decisions and issues that should be addressed when implementing Web 2.0 in education. For example, how do we know if adding Web 2.0 is actually helping our students meet their educational and life goals? There should be some assessment using objective metrics to answer these questions.

There are also at least two legal issues that must be addressed. The first is ensuring that any online communities we host or participate follow the same rules as our real world society. That means protecting individuals from harassment and bullying; or unwanted sexual advances, especially in the case of minors. This can be addressed with policies, but there must also be some way to ensure that the policies are enforced. The second is ensuring that all of our content is accessible. Podcasts and videos should have text based equivalents, and blogs or other text based content should have audio equivalents. Some of this can be addressed with more automation, for example you can make a link from a blog to a site that will read the text. We just need to ensure that this link is included in all our text pages.

There is also a set of intertwined issues, the question of Intellectual Property (IP) (who owns the content) and using a hosted service or hosting our own. If you add content to a hosted service such as Wikipedia or Facebook, then they own the content. This is satisfactory as long as they stay in business and offer free access; but what happens if they decide to charge for access or go out of business? In some cases this can be solved by hosting our own service, for example there is free wiki software or free social networking software we can run on our own computers. However, having our own service has the obvious tradeoff that it’s not as visible as the major services. How many people would know to use the CBC wiki or even know that it exists as opposed to Wikipedia?

I’d like to propose seeking grant based funds to help guide CBC in the testing, implementation and assessment of the various Web 2.0 tools, starting with our students and classes but eventually including the local K12 districts, other state colleges and universities and local businesses. These funds should also support the resolving real and potential issues, and developing policies and guidelines for Web 2.0 use by CBC students and faculty, and the community at large.

Friday, June 6, 2008

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This is a test of the Atom feed