The idea:
When I thought about how Lenora could approach the task of creating an online anti-bullying resource with her limited website design skills and dial-up Internet, I did not think a website was the way to go. The challenges Lenora would face in building a website are not a good use of her limited time. Taking both the time needed compared to Lenora’s priorities and commitments and her Internet access into consideration, I think Lenora should create a blog instead of a website. A blog would not require a significant amount of website design skills as many come with premade, intuitive templates. Additionally, a blog would not (necessarily) require outside hosting, and would come with many useful features for sharing her content and encouraging interaction. As Lenora may not be confident in her skill set, she could start with something simple, then, as her confidence grows, she could add additional features. A blog would also be a good platform for others to contribute with guest posts.
Solution for dial-up internet:
To mitigate potential difficulties with Lenora’s dial-up connection, I suggest that she use an offline editor to create her blog posts. There are many offline editors available for both Mac and PC, and Lenora could download the .exe at work and bring it home if the file size was too large to download at home. If she did not want to download a client, Microsoft Word 2007 and higher has a blog editing function. Many offline editors allow users to create posts and see it exactly as it would appear on the website, so Lenora could get the text and basic formatting done at home and perhaps upload smaller files. With drafts mapped out at home, Lenora would only have to add the larger files and images while at school, then she could make the post go live with limited extra time spent at school.
Building an audience:
To build her initial audience, Lenora could share a link to her blog in the Cradleboard Teaching Project Teacher’s Circle. She could also use Twitter, or other social media plug-ins to promote the blog and to provide additional avenues of interaction.
Curation as an additional resource:
When considering a blog as a solution for Lenora, I thought about how I usually find blogs I’m interested in–Pinterest. I don’t think Pinterest is ideal for Lenora’s situation, but it did remind me of Spiro’s (2014) point about curation when he suggests that education will move toward learning professionals curating content. I didn’t think Pinterest was what Spiro meant, so I did a quick search and found two similar websites that could be useful for Lenora: Mentormob or Scoop.It. I have not personally used these, but I believe they would enable Lenora to curate content from her blog as well as items already hosted online, lessening the need to upload using her dial-up connection or staying late at work. As these are meant to facilitate learning, they would complement the blog and perhaps be suited for an online Pro-D.
Drawbacks and considerations:
A drawback to both using a blog that Lenora is not hosting herself and using curation platforms is privacy and ownership of information considerations. Lenora wishes to create this resource for band teachers and may not want her content accessible to the public. Making the blog private could restrict access to her intended audience if Lenora doesn’t add them as permitted users and, her dial-up connection may prohibit her from quickly responding to requests for access. However, being open to the public also creates potential problems; moderating comments, for example, would be time-consuming and a burden on Lenora’s dial-up Internet connection. Lenora would encounter similar issues with the curation platforms and their privacy settings. Additionally, Lenora would also need to carefully examine the privacy policies of both the blog (if she’s not self-hosting) and the curation sites to ensure they meet the requirements of the privacy policy governing her school board and/or geographic jurisdiction to safeguard her information and that of users and contributors.
Spiro, K. (2014). 5 elearning trends leading to the end of the Learning Management Systems. Retrieved from http://elearningindustry.com/5-elearning-trends-leading-to-the-end-of-the-learning-management-system
Hey Meghan,
Great post – I agree with you that social media tools seem to be Lenora’s best option given her circumstances. The ability to create content offline and then post when convenient is one of the great features of blogging. I also especially liked how you integrated the concept of curation.
As students (and educators) create digital content it should become a focus how we preserve, identify and catalogue our work. I know that from an art education perspective we spend a lot of time on the concept of curation, but this can be a foreign concept to some other disciplines.
While I am not a Pinterest guy, I will definitely check out some of the other platforms you mentioned. As my school moves toward digital portfolios as a means of curation, I am always looking to provide my students with different options for their work.
Cheers,
Mark
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the feedback.
I always have curation, organisation, and cataloging in the back of my mind from my previous work at a provincial museum (where I cataloged, organised and maintained the collection database). I see a lot of benefit in curating and organising resources in a way that lets others explore and make their own connections. I definitely see how this would be useful in an art class and as a pro-d. If you find a curation platform that works for you I would love to see how you end up using it.
–Meghan
WOW!
I did not know so many options were available offline. Very few of the applications I use on a daily basis (for work) are Microsoft based, so I really did not know there were options such as you described. Cool!
K:)
Hi Keri,
I think we’re all learning new things in this round of discussion. It’s funny because I see the Microsoft Word offline blog templates every day in my IT class and never really considered using them for my class until I also considered Lenora’s challenge of dial-up Internet. Even though we have broadband at my school, we’re often slowed down if something “sensitive” has been going on and the Great Firewall is busy censoring. However, using an offline editor would allow the students to blog regardless of our Internet status–we could post when we have sufficient access–just like Lenora. This could add a whole other dimension to my class that, until now, I thought would be too difficult to attempt! I love how the case studies and the subsequent discussions are giving everyone so many ideas.
(Sorry to hijack your comment–I had a lightbulb moment when I was replying and wanted to share.)
It’s funny. I’ve also seen the offline blog templates on Word, but never thought to open it up and see what it was all about. I kept looking elsewhere on google for software that will allow offline blogging. I wonder how many other features I have sitting right under my nose that I don’t know about. . . .
Hi Momoe,
Thanks for you comment.
It is funny, isn’t it? I know I always get caught up in looking for the perfect software for various tasks and projects and I tend to overlook what I already have. Sometimes I wonder if being able to Google things is sometimes more of a hindrance than a help. For example, in my particular situation, things seem to work better when I make use of what the (limited) resources at my disposal. While that does not put me on the cutting edge, it does allow my students to make-do and adapt the resources we have to meet their needs. Although I wish I could offer more in my class, being flexible and able to adapt are worthwhile skills to build.
–Meghan