Brainstormers

[j4]

If someone told you they could offer you Support for learners, teachers and researchers using "Web 2.0" technologies and mobile devices to access institutional systems ... what sort of things would you be asking them for? Please assume that they have reasonable quantities of time and money at their disposal, but that they would really prefer not to use up too much of that time having an argument about what "web 2.0 technologies" means. :-}

Comments

[monkeyhands.livejournal.com]

When I was a student, I think the thing I'd have liked most would have been a human explaining how the email system worked. A human explaining how to do internet research and why it would be necessary in the future would have been good too. Yeah, we got printed info about it, but I never wrapped my head around the concept. I'd never used email or the internet before and I just couldn't believe that it would ever have any relevance to my life.

No amount of new technology, however exciting, could have got me to access the technology available, because my problem was with technology per se, IYSWIM. I only got into using the email system at all because a friend got irritated with not being able to contact me and dragged me up to the computer room for a drunken demo in my second year.

I guess these days things are very different. Most students have already used the internet to copy ^H^H research their A'level essays, and they're probably all on Facebook or whatever. So one option is to work with, or mimic, things like Bebo, Facebook, MySpace or whatever, so that students stay within their comfort zones as far as interfaces are concerned. Or you do something new and innovative and use a lot of resources to reel in neophobes like me.