pheWork

It's funny that this was waiting for me in my inbox, because we were just talking about how badly Blackboard needs to have an integration to Google Apps to supplement the Blackboard Content System.  While the Content System does a excellent job of sharing content between courses and publishing content externally - and the portfolios are pretty useful; the Bb Content System can't touch Google Docs for usability in terms of collaboration and overall ease of use.

To its credit, the Content System can create workflow and collaboration around a greater range of filetypes (really, anything in a digital format); but when it comes to collaboration around word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations - there is really no comparison.  We have instructors who go through hours of training to use the Bb Content System and still not feel comfortable, but spend 10 minutes with Google Docs and "figure it out."

Google Collaborates on Moodle Integration -- Campus Technology:

"Through the integration, users loaded into Moodle will be automatically loaded into Google Apps Education Edition, 'providing users with Web-based e-mail, document authoring, spreadsheets, presentations and sites, all integrated with their online learning platform,' explained Moodlerooms' West Coast Managing Director Michael Penney. 'This greatly simplifies the task of implementing a collaborative suite, as well as enables institutions to leverage the work they've already done integrating their platforms with their other systems. From a teacher's perspective, this provides an easy way to assign students to collaborative tasks without having to worry about the students having different operating systems or incompatible software or being unable to access an online system. From an IT staffer or CIO's perspective, this provides an integration tested with large-scale data loads and built on industry standard SAML 2.0 and OAuth protocols for secure single sign on and information transfer.'"

While the linked article is geared more toward conferences or seminars, it is very applicable to teaching - especially in higher-ed. One of the issues not addressed by the article below is that the backchatter is not all via Twitter. At the very least, there is Facebook and IM chatter going on as well. Do any of you have any stories or advice for recognizing or taking advantage online chatter during class time?

How to Present While People are Twittering | Pistachio:

"So the next time you present at a conference, instead of being confronted by a sea of faces looking at you, you may be phased by a sea of heads looking down at their laptops. The challenge is how to adapt to presenting with the back-channel."

I'm in a meeting with extended education and one of the heavy themes at the moment is collaboration between colleges in order to fill in holes in programs in order to be able to offer them online.

It strikes me that it would probably be healthy for an institution to look at programs of study and their components from time to time to look at the overall makeup of the institution. It seems like threads like public policy, law, technology and business are underlying and sometimes foundational themes that are interwoven into nearly any course of study. Would it be better to replace a generic program of study in business with a strong core of competence in pervasive issues like business, public policy, planning, or technology for any and all degrees?

It seems that, to be competitive, an institution needs to have a great MBA program because labels like those allow you (and potential students) to compare institutions based on pre-set criteria. On the other hand, a broad, abstracted study of business may be less pragmatic than the intricacies inherent in the needs of a particular industry. On the other hand, that level of abstraction is valuable to help a student prepare for work in any industry, without regard to where they initially hope to focus. Interesting, anyhow.

I just noticed that Google Docs - iPhone version has a great viewer for slide presentations. Very slick and convenient. Simple forward and back buttons that fade out quickly when not in use. I'm impressed. If only they would add an edit mode or a standalone app for Google Docs, it would be even better.