Web2Learn

I reviewed my progress in using electronic portfolios to enrich student learning, outreach and assessment this year. I developed performance criteria, assignments and help sheets to guide the students. The graduate computer graphics students did a good job presenting their work and reviewing each other, the design students neglected the online systems. The faculty team built up trust and reached out to useful partners. Read more here:
eportfolio_summary_jun09-cheng2

I am very excited about helping the Honors College incorporate Wordpress or other tools to support incoming freshmen discussing Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains. Like my nephew and nieces, Alex Goodell was greatly inspired by Paul Farmer’s work. He has initiated an the summer reading program & dialogue via his blog post. As an avid Wordpress blogger and Twitterati member, he has found contacts so he will travel to Ghana this summer. Louise Bishop, acting dean of the Honors College is envisioning that the students could use blogs to support development towards the Senior Thesis. I would be really psyched if we could get these students to model reflective learning for the rest of the campus.

The Chronicle of Higher Ed describes using Blogs for education, including a video from University of Mary Washington.
Article: Colleges Consider Using Blogs Instead of Blackboard
Video: Can Web Tools Replace Blackboard?

Tulips for spring!

I was happy to learn that it is possible to customize headers in our Wordpress install – it just depends on which theme that you install.  The images work most consistently if you upload them at the EXACT pixel size requested : somehow the cropping is problematic.  Don’t know why my widget bar is now too wide:  somehow when I tried changing the page width to 1024pixels, it got messed up.

And I found a fun little Flickr.com flash flag and looking at everyone else’s photos, and making contacts and ….. which makes it all too evident how one could spend huge amounts of time online.  Click “what is this?” to see how to make a badge.

My experiments with galleries are on my Light blog.

In Fall 2008, 16 intermediate architectural design students used PBWiki for sharing and the Plone system for reflections about design studio competencies.
In Winter 2009, 36 first year grad students used the Plone system in a computer graphics intro
In Spring 2009, we have three cohorts currently in classes using ePortfolio systems:

• 87 first year undergraduates using the Plone system in a computer graphics intro taught by Jill Salter
• 66 second year undergraduates using the Plone system and Google Sites as a class wiki in design studio
• 5 hand-picked advanced students exploring Wordpress MU/BuddyPress and other Web2.0 tools with me (here)

Snapshot of results:

• Students in the computer graphics classes are receptive to learning technology; those in studio find it a distraction from their core mission.  In team-taught studios, compliance varies according to the instructor attitude.

• Response to reflective questions has varied greatly.  Those adept at graphics tend to be less interested in verbal assignments.  Introspective students with poor graphic skills can be much more expressive in writing than through drawings, models or computer graphics.  It helps the instructor to see that students understand concepts, even though they lack proficiency in generating visual results.

• Google Sites is very accessible and quick to learn, BUT you can’t backup or move the sites and they have a fixed quota limit!  Compared to PBWiki, which I have used  for 5 previous classes, Google has not set up a support infrastructure.

>>  Keep new requirements minimal.  Target sharing of artifacts that benefit the whole (i.e. site analysis, factual design data)  Provide strong documentation, support and examples for the eager to excel.

I was able to add a blog to my Flickr account and send an annotated image to it from Flickr that became a post.

I don’t think I can do that for this account because of the password redirect.

We had a good discussion on Wed April 15.  Students advocated for providing paths for both beginners and advanced web designers.  For the latter, Will K explained that those like him with their own domain would want to have full participation in all the social networking aspects of BuddyPress.  At the same time, he wants the freedom to customize his site.  He found the idea that he couldn’t just drop in any plug-in to be a big constraint :  he is used to having a great deal of freedom.  Will would like to enrich his existing website with his school work, present himself professionally and continue the portfolio after graduation.

Sarah T. expressed that having an easy on-ramp for beginners is also crucial.  While she grasps technology quickly, she could see how the many menus and choices on WPMU/BuddyPress could easily be overwhelming.  We need to support the many students and faculty who are less comfortable with technology.

On a different note, I was horrified to learn that Google Sites cannot be expanded, backed up or exported. ( From working with PB Wiki, I had just assumed that if I gave them $100 to 200, the quota would zoom up.)  So my glorious Arch384 experiment requires a workaround just after I got everyone on board with it: either all our large files go elsewhere or I recreate the site on my academic account with a larger, but still finite quota.  YIKES!!!   Google has been getting requests on this for over a year and they still haven’t implemented it.    Lesson learned:  Next time read the fine print before jumping in.

I’m going to use this UfoliO site as a course site for my pilot students trying out WordpressMU / Buddy Press with me.   I will use this as a workspace for thoughts about work-in-progress and I plan to build more of a presentation website.