iSean

i have written previously about how i am less than enthusiastic about e-Portfolios in higher education. frankly, i think the great benefits of e-Portfolios are to the programs that adopt their use, but that the students see very little benefit. i’ve heard anecdotal information about how preservice educators can use these portfolios in the hiring process, but there is no research confirming that this is often the case. you can visit electronicportfolios.com and see how cumbersome it is to develop an e-Portfolio.

in any regard, this is the background that bring me up to this past week. apparently there are folks in my department who are looking at switching the portfolio that our students currently complete from a paper portfolio to an e-Portfolio. as i mentioned previous, i saw no value in having my students in my classes develop an e-Portfolio if later in the program they would have to switch back to a paper portfolio. apparently higher level discussions have started and e-Portfolios are being considered. i was asked to talk with a woman who was visiting to help our College of Education find a way to switch to e-Portfolios last week. She wanted to know what i use for my e-Portfolios. i explained that i don’t do them, but that i would strongly consider using WordPress (a blogging tool). the committee was intrigued by this option and i have been asked to join the committee later this month to explore the viability of this option. i have to admit, i was asked to call into this meeting last week without knowing what they were discussing and only learned the topic while i was on the phone. i haven’t fully thought through the idea of blogging an e-Portfolio, but as the woman talked about how they wanted something that students could continue to use after they graduate and all that jazz, the blog option just popped into the forefront of my thinking.

i am still not thrilled with the notion of requiring an e-Portfolio, but if our whole program is going to buy in then i suppose i should be front and center helping to make the implementation go smoothly.

Technorati Tags: portfolios, blogging, blogs, e_portfolios

i don’t often post Apple Macintosh specific stuff here. In fact, I use both a Mac and a PC; though, the PC is on my Mac. heh. but the newest operating system for the Mac is being released tomorrow and it’s supposed to be a great upgrade. i know on the PC side that many folks are less than enthusiastic about Vista with many folks choosing to stick with XP for now (and that includes me). but i’ll be upgrading my computers tomorrow when the fedex driver drops my new software off at my house. you can read about the 300+ new features in the OS release here, but one thing has me most excited . . . and it has to do with iChat.

i rarely use video chatting that’s built into iChat, but i now have some new folks to add to my buddy list. last week my dad’s Dell died. i helped him upgrade to a new Mac. yesterday my brother’s Dell died and he’ll be buying a new Mac laptop this weekend. both intend to use video chatting to talk with me and also to my children. but i am looking at this from another angle. every time they’d have problems in the past and give me a call, i’d have to talk them through what to do without knowing exactly what was on their screen. the new iChat has VCN built into the application. in other words, i will be able to chat with them and then have them click a single button on the iChat window interface to that allows me to see their screen and even take it over. this is going to make my tech support life much smoother.

i anticipate my father needing this much more than my brother. in fact, my brother did a quick search the other day and found a Mac using lawyer’s blog. this lawyer talks about all of the applications he uses to succeed so just reading this convinced my brother. my brother will be fine. but my dad is a whole different ball game. my dad helps to keep me grounded as i teach technology. i don’t think i can ever encounter a student who has technology skills that are below my father’s. i think my father has had a computer and a broadband connection for about 3 years now and he’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between being in Outlook Express and Internet Explorer. Most of the tech support I’d provide will be just helping him to learn how to do pretty basic stuff, but my hope is that this stuff is simple enough that it starts to be understood and that he stops fearing technology. anyway, here’s the quick description of screen sharing.

# Screen Sharing

Collaborate with a buddy via iChat. Work on a Keynote presentation together, surf the web as a team, or help each other with an iMovie project. iChat initiates the connection (asking permission first) with an audio chat so you can talk things through as you work or play. Trade views of each other’s desktops. Even drag files from one computer to the other.

i also bought a new external HD to accompany the new OS. i’ll be using this for Time Machine:

#Back Up Everything
Automatic backup, built right into your Mac. Never worry about losing a file again. Time Machine stores an up-to-date copy of all your Mac’s files on an external hard drive, personal file sharing volume, or Mac OS X Server. That includes system files, applications, accounts, preferences, music, photos, movies, and documents.

# Go Back In Time
See what your computer looked like in the past. Select a specific date and let Time Machine find your most recent changes, or do a Spotlight search to find exactly the file you’re looking for. Once you do, click Restore and Time Machine brings it back to the present.

my copy is scheduled to be delivered by 10:30 AM tomorrow. i need to get as much grading done today as i can. ;~)

Technorati Tags: Apple, Macintosh, leopard

well, i applied to do a sabbatical a year from now and i have passed the first round already. the personnel committee unanimously supported my proposal. faculty vote comes monday and then it’s on to divisional and through the channels. i wrote months ago about wanting to do research in Europe, but i couldn’t get anything off of the ground. my wife certainly did. she also applied for a sabbatical and has contacts in Italy, Paris, Amsterdam and even in Prague. i had nothing. so i decided to switch my focus to a non location specific project. i am going to be writing a Wiki-based textbook.

i previously wrote about wikitextbooks as far back as early 2006 here (Feb.) and here (Jan.). i tried hard to get a wikitextbook off of the ground and running, but i just did’t have the time. i now might have the time to get the infrastructure in place and even a decent version up and running. i have given it a lot of thought since my initial efforts. i have explored current wikitextbook projects that are in the works. one thing i’ve noticed about other projects is that they’ve been in the works for a long time. wikitextbooks are very similar to open source software, yet open source software seems to be having better success at getting projects up and running. in my sabbatical proposal, i explore why this is and why a wiki like Wikipedia can realize incredible success while wikitextbooks cannot. i don’t think the wikipedia model can work on a wikitextbook and my model will be a modified version of what Wikipedia uses. of course this won’t make wiki purists very happy, but they can stick to their guns and not see a wikitextbook realized all they want. heh.

my proposal takes the position that textbooks should be accessible to all students. an electronic version of a textbook can be much more accessible than a paper version. the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) is dedicated to Universal Design in Learning (UDL) and UDL is all about making instruction and content accessible to all students. Cast describes UDL as:

* Multiple means of representation, to give learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge,
* Multiple means of expression, to provide learners alternatives for demonstrating what they know,
* Multiple means of engagement, to tap into learners’ interests, offer appropriate challenges, and increase motivation.

UDL is at the heart of my proposal. personally, i think all textbooks should be provided in electronic format so that all students can more easily access the content. if a blind student wanted to use a screen reader then that could happen with an e-version. if a student with a learning disability wanted to listen then the same tools could apply for that. a student with low vision might just want the font size increased, etc. one textbook can be designed to work with all students instead of the paper model that has to be special made for some students. bleh.

i’ll be talking more about my proposal as it makes it way through the channels. if ultimately accepted then i can start work as soon as possible so i’ll rely on the few folks who read my blog to give me some feedback on various directions i’ve chosen. exciting times ahead . . .

Technorati Tags: CAST, ed tech, open source, textbook, universal design, wiki, wikitextbook

man oh man has the you know what hit the fan. i have written previously about writing a wiki-based textbook (here) and even started thinking about it back in July of 2006 (here). i even started an effort at one point here. this effort never really took off. i presented on wiki-based textbooks this past year at MACUL and generated a bit of interest. unfortunately, the effort never took off (and, that’s a subject for my sabbatical request being turned in on Monday). however, my wiki site has not gone unnoticed. i login every 4 - 5 months just to check on things. imagine my surprise when i arrived today and found that spammers started invading and creating page after page after page on my wiki. they started in august and it looks like they’ve added about 1000 pages of spam. and mediawiki (this is the wiki that drives Wikipedia as well) only allows me to delete 1 page at a time — and it’s a 2 - 3 step process even at that. egads. i shouldn’t be too surprised as my blog is using software (a plugin) that has stopped 24364 spam comments. wow!

you can see samples of my wiki’s spam by visiting the main page and click on ‘Random page’ on the left side menu. as you can see, the vast majority of my spam is written in Chinese with the Chinese characters and all. for all i know, it probably has a bunch of spam and then adds a sentence to say how dorky sean is. heh. i took some time to ban any users who have edited a page this month and then i turned off the ability to create a new account. but i have still have hundreds of users . . . errrr, spammers who have accounts and who i need to ban when i get the time. i wish i could get a user list with check boxes next to them and i could select all at once and hit Ban. i also wish i could revert my wiki site back to how it looked in early August since nothing productive has happened since then, but these options don’t exist. i searched Google and found a help site that explained how i could turn off allowing new users — but this forced me to go into a php file on the server — not for the non-geeky, that’s for sure.

i was pretty high on Mediawiki until this happened. egads it’s a pain. the only plus side is that i am no longer going to use this site and have a whole new domain site planned for the actual wiki-based textbook that i potentially write if i am granted a sabbatical. but, this certainly helps me decide to not make the site open unless potential authors are invited or send me a request so that i can check credentials. i still learn some lessons the hard way, unfortunately.

Technorati Tags: ed tech, mediawiki, spam, textbook, wiki, wikitextbook

i largely avoided linux for the vast majority of its history. i tried it on an old Mac at one point and quickly abandoned ship as it wasn’t ready for prime time. but, when Parallels for Mac came out and i upgraded to a Macbook last year, i purchased Parallels and quickly installed Ubuntu, which is an open source linux build that just happens to come with other open source solutions preinstalled. i have to say that i was amazed at how mature this operating system is. it really is ready to be used by the masses. the next version is out in 15 days and the snippets i have read lead me to believe that anyone who can get this OS installed is ready to use it . . . obviously, the getting it installed part is the hard part. using the OS is a breeze once it’s installed. and, Ubuntu does some things better than Windows and Mac OSs. at the very least, i hope some folks reading this (all 2 of you) give Ubuntu 7.10 a test drive. you might just be amazed enough to consider it over the more costly solutions. i’d love to see the elementary school where my children attend switch to Edubuntu. but, i doubt it’ll happen any time soon. they’re none too happy to spend big $$$ on Windows.

Technorati Tags: open source, linux, Ubuntu, edubuntu