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

[liv]

The course I taught this term had an internal website where lecturers could upload their slides, administrators could upload timetables and room booking information. There was also a general message board type area for students and teachers to contact eachother and extend discussions beyond the classroom. The first part is really really useful and sensible and integrated, just having a one-stop place for all information related to the course, updated nearly in real time. And there's a standard template for all courses, none of this balkanization between different departments, and it's all run by central IT.

The message board part is more Web 2.0 ish, I think, and isn't really very developed here; basically, any registered student, teaching assistant, teacher, or course leader can start a topic there, and there's no real guidance or incentive to do so. But that kind of thing could be extended to have a really useful system for communication between teachers and students, that would ideally be more or less asynchronous. So, something like that was more user friendly would be very useful for making teachers available outside class, but without expecting them to be constantly on call.