iSean

i just came across an article titled, “The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education — 2007” and i looked the list over and checked out some of the apps. i like to think i am fairly on top of technologies that can be beneficial in the classroom yet i hadn’t heard of any of these tools. and that has me thinking . . . is it worth it for a teacher/educator to invest time using one of these tools in teaching and learning? i have no doubt that some of these tools can be beneficial for a teacher and a learner; however, that’s not my concern. i would be worried that i’d put a lot of time into a tool OR that my students would start a project and the tool would evaporate — go away. it’s one thing to use Google tools or some other more mainstream developer’s tools because they have a lot of funding behind them and there is little chance that the tool would be gone in an instant. but many of these other tools may not last. is it worth the risk to invest time and energies into them???

some folks in the blogging community are buzzing about the Adobe Learning Summit where Adobe apparently made it clear that they want to be players in eLearning. Ellen Wagner of Adobe even has a white paper (PDF, 199kb) where she describes Adobe role and vision in eLearning. i think the white paper is worth a read. let me first say that my sense of big corporations who jump on the eLearning bandwagon is that they tend to be behind the times when it comes to eLearning. you look at one of the biggest players, Blackboard (Bb), and it’s probably much easier to find critics than fans. my problem with Blackboard is that i can EASILY find similar tools from the open source community that are better than Blackboard in just about every aspect of their product. on the other hand, i have never been a big fan of software that tries to be everything for everyone. i never liked my browser to be everything (e.g., Netscape had the browser, email, calendar and all that jazz in some versions); rather, i wanted a browser to specialize in browsing and an email application to specialize in perfecting my email experience and i could pick the best apps for each task. so Bb being a jack of all trades never appealed to me. I get my content management from Drupal and my community forums from phpBB and Wordpress is great for blogging, etc . . . life is good. but part of this issue of being everything is that Bb is missing out on much of what is currently available. our students are big into Facebook and YouTube and Flickr and tools like this, yet these aren’t a part of Bb at all. Instead Bb is slowing adding new services (e.g., blogging) that are implemented poorly and can only really be used for class and not carried with the student once the class ends. yuck! but, for many instructors a tool like Bb does make it easier to shift to online learning so kudos to Bb for that.

back to Adobe . . . the Adobe corporation clearly has their pulse on the market. early in the white paper, they discuss YouTube and text messages and IMs and even smart phones. Adobe is a big player in the technology field; however, they haven’t traditionally been players in education — at least not with an eye on education even though they’ve had products used in education. the white paper does a good job of describing the eLearning market — we are a market after all. if we weren’t a market to be served then the business community would not deliver products to be bought. Adobe clearly has to see a way to benefit and make money before they jump in, so the white paper describe this market. of course, Adobe does not restrict their market to K-12 or even K-college; rather, they also identify the kinds of e-Learning that corporations engage in (e.g., they cite up to 40% of corporate education being offered via eLearning).

the white paper makes a case that Flash Professional is the number 1 application in eLearning. perhaps i’ve not paid attention well, but i learned to use Flash back in the 90s and i still have yet to actually use it in my teaching and i teach almost exclusively online these days. it’s far, far too cumbersome and time consuming for use in individual lessons, that’s for sure. but i digress. clearly, the biggest Adobe application in education is Adobe Acrobat and the Adobe Reader for creating and viewing PDFs. for the especially geeky (myself included) Adobe Dreamweaver is certainly near the top of the list, but most eTeachers are not using Dreamweaver, nor will they ever. most instructors are relegated to Bb-like tools. and Adobe recognizes the importance of Learning Management Systems (LMSs). Adobe is not making a decision to add a competitor in the LMS market . . . instead, Adobe wants to extend the LMS and online learning experience with their tools (remember BASF — “we don’t make the products you buy; we make the products you buy better”). i think this is a wise decision, but they don’t need to hear it from me as they’ve no doubt spent a lot of time trying to find their place in eLearning. i think their focus on making “just-in-time access” to online learning and e-Materials is a step in the right direction. i like that they want to extend rich and engaging learning experiences. i will patiently wait to see how this is carried out.

(moments later) if you explore the Adobe eLearning website you can get a feel for what they are working on. for example, i just mentioned that they want to help extend current tools like LMSs — Adobe already has a LMS Integration tool that fits into Bb, which allows for using the LMS to set up meetings. i checked out the PDF describing this tool and it looks just like a typical Bb add-on that will never get used and is more of a tool for an audience that does not yet exist — a solution looking for a problem. i hope this is not the direction Adobe is going with their eLearning focus. i generally like the Adobe applications that i use (e.g., Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Acrobat, Flash, and Fireworks), so my hope is that the eLearning solutions that emerge are congruent with the products that Adobe has used to make their name and/or that Adobe is looking at web 2.0-like solutions (see, for e.g., Google’s online applications).

Technorati Tags: Blackboard, online learning, ed tech, Adobe, eLearning, learning, technology in education

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

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

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

just in case you’re curious, the MACUL conference speaker proposals are due tomorrow. i have been presenting at this conference since i moved to Michigan in 2000 and it’s a great little conference. i say little, but it’s probably one of the largest state technology in education conferences around. it’s really a regional conference and thousands of educators will flock to the conference. last year was in Detroit and this year is in my backyard — Grand Rapids. i am running into a problem as I’d like to present on something novel and innovative and i can’t decide what to do. hmmm. last year i talked did a presentation titled, “Wiki, Wiki, Wiki . . . Textbook?” and i have since switched to the idea of an open source textbook, but not using the wiki. so, i guess i jumped the gun by trying to be too innovative, eh? that being said, the theme of the conference is, “Technology: 21st Century Learning Tools” so an innovative focus would probably be welcomed.

however, i would really like to focus on assessment and the method of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) — describing strategies for how technology can really enhance the process and make it all possible, etc. i could demonstrate how i am doing this in my classroom with weekly surveys and how easy it is to make curricular changes and adjustments and all of that jazz. as exciting as this is to me, i can also picture a potential attendee reading about assessment and CBM and thinking, “ewwww.” heh. so therein lies my dilemma . . . do i want to potentially impact more people or do i want to present a really meaningful session for a small number of participants? i think i’ll actually stick with the CBM idea, but i’ll fiddle with ways to make the session sounds as exciting as i think it can be. time will tell if it works or not. for that matter, i still have to be accepted. ;~)

Technorati Tags: MACUL, CBM, assessment, technology, technology in education

i am having all sorts of problems with setting permissions on the Drupal site i have created. i want to make student blogs public so that i can pull them down with an RSS news reader and so that their blogs on my Drupal site can be read by the world. i also want to keep all course content and information private so that only students can view it. so far, i have accomplished keeping my blog private where i make course announcements, etc. however, the links i have at the top of each screen (i.e., course links i created) are showing up on the restricted page that anonymous users see and it’s the login screen for students. i would rather have these links show up after students get logged in. hmmm.

phpBB is also forcing me to spend a lot of time learning the ropes. as i mentioned previously, i have upgraded from version 2 to version 3 and this is a HUGE upgrade. all of the administration tools are new and permissions are vastly different. i ended up figuring things out, but i actually had to change the way i set things up to get it to work. i was pretty frustrated after spending the hours i spent. i am typically a pretty good guy at trial and error and figuring out how to tweak, but this stuff was boggling. i can’t imagine a teacher who isn’t very astute at using technical technology tools even hoping to use these tools if they have to set them up in the first place. that’s discouraging to me because i really want to be an open source cheerleader.

but, i think it’s sometimes nice to see that even geeks run into troubles using technology. heh.

Technorati Tags: drupal, ed tech, phpbb, open source, technology in education

well, my semester starts in a little over a week and i still haven’t decided on the tools i’ll use. i was really hoping phpBB version 3 would be out, but they released a release candidate 4 in late July and i doubt that the final version comes out in the next week. i’ll wait until next week to decide, but i fiddled with an earlier release candidate and i really like what they’re doing with this upgrade. i am probably going to use the RC 4 even though it isn’t a final version. ah well.

drupal is up to version 5.2 and i’ll likely be using it for my classes this semester. i’ve used it a few times in the past and it’s a nice replacement for most of things that Blackboard does, but i really need a gradebook module to fully break free from Blackboard. i thought one was being made last summer as part of the Google summer of programming or something like that, but here we are a year later and i haven’t heard about it being ready yet. i might check out drupaled.org’s drupal release that is customized for educators. that means that they’ve set it up to install with extra modules already included that help educators use drupal more effectively in their classes.

i plan to take a few days early next week and explore some other potential tools that could supplement the tools above and make for some better online learning for my students. for what it’s worth, i am scheduled to teach 3 online courses this fall.

Technorati Tags: CMS, phpbb, drupal, lms, ed tech, technology in education

i am one of the select few individuals working this summer to revamp and update our teacher education program. i get to help figure out how to best provide our future teachers with the strategies, skills, and know-how to use technology in their future classrooms. wow. currently, we have a single technology course for preservice educators that is required. it is a prerequisite for getting into the College of Education and is taken before any students can apply to the COE. i hate this model. getting a college sophomore in ED 205 who doesn’t have experience with lesson plans and who doesn’t have teaching experiences to draw makes much that is taught in ED 205 seem like an abstract concept. so, i have much higher expectations for the new model we create.

in the best case scenario, the various classes and professors in the COE would work together to teach all of the ISTE NETS-T (that’s the standards for teachers with regard to technology in education) and a technology course wouldn’t be necessary. i spent much time reading up on things in the Journal of Computing in Teacher Education. the bottom line is what i already knew . . . that most college of education faculty are not prepared to teach their students the various technology standards or even a decent sized nugget of the standards. thus, an educational technology course is still fairly necessary. but, i am going to push for some of the easier standards to be transferred to other courses. i am going to make a case that other professors should be modeling the use of technology in their teaching and some standards rely on access to classrooms, so they are more ideal for student teaching.

we had our initial committee meeting and i think (still early) that our technology course is going to be moved away from being a prerequisite. in fact, the course might now be moved to occur in the semester before student teaching. this is also the semester that will occur after a semester where students go into the classroom for a field experience called student assisting (not as interactive as student teaching, but not a passive experience either). i am quite pleased with the potential of this model. our students will have actual classroom experiences to draw on when doing the ED 205 requirements. i am keeping my fingers crossed the end model turns out this well. but, our whole College of Education is just now being emailed the minutes and results from our initial meeting. hmmm.

Technorati Tags: ed tech, undergraduate, teacher, preservice, technology in education

i am back on my blog after a few weeks of intensive teaching. the next 2 months are devoted to writing materials for use in an undergraduate educational technology course for education majors. i have dibbled and dabbled with various iterations of this “textbook” in the past. i am currently an author for the textbook that been used previously in this course. i get 50 cents a copy when the textbook is bought new. we have between 400 – 500 students take this course per semester, but most buy the book used as my royalty check is typically just over $100/year. given the time i put into writing the textbook, i think that works out to about 2 cents an hour (kidding). seriously though, the profit i make is meaningless. i see no reason to help a publisher and a college book store rake in well over $20 off of my students so that i can get enough money to buy my students pizza once per semester. this is the thrust of why i want to bypass the publisher and the bookstore. my contract with the publisher will not allow me to write another textbook for profit to compete with the current textbook so i have no intention of doing so. i do have the intent to have a new product for our students this fall. moreover, i have no intent of claiming authorship, so i think it would be hard for McGraw-Hill to come after me.

i wrote an article last year called, “wiki . . . wiki . . . wiki textbook?” i argued that wiki-based textbook should be replacing the paper textbooks most educational institutions are using. i really liked the open source nature of the wiki engines. well, after time to reflect and test things out and hold many conversations (including a conference presentation in March of 2007) i have come to a new conclusion — i am abandoning my wiki-based textbook ideas. instead, i am going with the open source CMS tool called Drupal. Drupal has a module I’ve installed called, “Books.” my experience is that the Drupal book module will help to produce a much better product for learning. Much like a wiki engine, Drupal can allow for anyone to edit and contribute content. however, i have no intention of being that open with my textbook. for one, i had a wiki-based textbook started and after more than a year, i am dealing with spammers signing up and adding spam far too often. i’ve forced users to register to make changes and they even jump through this hoop. i am going to be trying some strategies with the Drupal book tool, but I still am planning on allowing anyone to potentially contribute material and everyone will encouraged to add comments to various material pages. but a textbook cannot be edited during a school semester, so taking advantage of the technology is somewhat limited. i do plan to have a mechanism in place to allow for content to be added and edited but it will be in a queue waiting for the appropriate time. while in queue, folks who are interested can view this text/edit/revisions, etc. and discuss, etc.

i will spend more time on this new textbook over the next month, but this is where i am right now. i am not ready to give the web address to the new book yet, but i will post it soon enough with another link to the older wiki-based version so that folks can see the differences back to back. stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: drupal, ed tech, technology, wikis, wikitext