Web 2.0: Big app on campus

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"Every term I would get someone coming up and saying 'Dr. Hartman, here's the paper from the five of us, but I did most of the work.' Short of rolling out the Spanish Inquisition, there's not much you can do about it at that point," said Hartman. "With wikis, I can see who pulled the load and who didn't do anything."

User-friendly multimedia communication servers are also being used for more efficient uploading and distribution of educational multimedia to specific people without the need for IT help, according to Blackburn.

With permission from copyright holders, professors are posting things like films and language lessons to university servers. They can be accessed in streaming format by a specific set of students as designated by the professor. The files are automatically deleted from the server at the end of the semester, said Blackburn.

While undergrads do still have to get up in front of the class for Texas A&M's required public speaking class, technology has made the process a little less traumatic. Instead of critiquing a student in front of the class, a video of his or her speech, accessible only to the speaker and his or her professor, is uploaded to a server. The student then watches the video and submits a self-critique, while the professor sends a private critique to the student.

Universities are not just limiting tools to professors and classrooms. Students are given server space to develop Web sites, RSS feeds, blogs, podcasts, videos, discussion boards and e-mail groups for clubs, groups and political campaigns.

And then there's Second Life. In the spring semester of 2007, Texas A&M's department of recreation, park and tourism sciences started using the virtual world to run scenarios of park ranger exercises.

Second Life is being evaluated by several instructors, 1,800 of whom met at an in-world conference in May to discuss educational best practices.

The popular virtual world is of particular interest to universities making substantial revenue from online degrees.

Walden University faculty member Kevin Jarrett, who teaches an online master's course in education, won a $10,000 grant to spend six months researching Second Life's educational potential.

"It's one thing to look at a discussion board, wikis and blogs. It's something else completely different to physically act in a 3D environment with others in your class. There is increased engagement and feelings of identity," said Jarrett.

Hartman, a member of Drexel's Second Life committee, says his school's presence is a marketing tool right now, but that in-world classes are probably only three years away.

"Just like with hybrids and the car industry a few years ago, I need to start building that car because if I wait three years, I'll miss that curve," Hartman said. "I'm building it now as a prototype, but I don't expect to take it out and race it."

[jtmeister]

The irony of it all

Isn't it ironic how Millennials use of Web 2.0 tools is positioned as "self-absorption" in an self-published Xer blog...

[The_Decider]

When is the media going to stop using this meaningless marketing term?

Web 2.0 is a marketing term to make certain things seem more advanced then it is.

</endPetPeeve>

Students do not work that way. It is a rare student that comes to class prepared for informed discussion, at least at the undergrad level. New web tools will certainly help the educational process, but nothing will ever beat the interaction between a good professor and a class.

[LuvThatCO2]

buzzwords

"When is the media going to stop using this meaningless marketing term?"

You jest, right? CNET has been going gonzo using the term. They're practically married to it. They wont get getting rid of it any time soon. After all buzzwords have a very important function - they allow people to appear more knowlegeable than they are. And for a group of psuedo-journalists posing as techies such as you see at CNET, thats really important.

[Keh05nj]

Wiki Source

Hi folks-
The Wiki we use (and was quoted in the article) is one provided by LearningObjects (www.learningobjects.com). I would HIGHLY recommend this product, as its very easy to use and fits nicely in the Blackboard CMS. K. Hartman

[Keh05nj]

Wiki Source

Hi folks-
The Wiki we use (and was quoted in the article) is one provided by LearningObjects (www.learningobjects.com). I would HIGHLY recommend this product, as its very easy to use and fits nicely in the Blackboard CMS. K. Hartman

[bknauff]

Clarification - Learning Objects

Hi,
I just wanted to make clear that the blog and wiki tools being used Dartmouth are not "native" Blackboard tools. They are a third party product which can be licensed separately, and added to Blackboard, provided one's Blackboard license is at the enterprise level (that's necessary to allow this sort of plug and play). The company behind the tools is Learning Objects, and we've been very happy with the functionality their tools add to Blackboard.
URL: http://www.learningobjects.com/campuspack.jsp

Barbara Knauff
Academic Computing
Dartmouth College

[notesake]

NoteSake

Another site launched last week is http://notesake.com A webiste geared to letting college students write, edit, save, share, and collaborate on their class notes.

Ian Smith
co-founder of Notesake.com