Lenora’s limited experience with developing a website, and her limited online access at home, are two important considerations for determining an option that might best meet her needs and goals. One potential solution for Lenora would be to create a wiki, as this would allow for the sharing of documents and information, as well as offering collaborative opportunities for her colleagues to discuss problems, ideas and resources. According to the Bates SECTIONS framework (2014), the first step in selecting technology is to know your students (or in this case, Lenora’s colleagues), their similarities and differences, what technologies they already have access to, and what digital skills they already possess or lack. Therefore, if Lenora is experiencing difficulties with online access and technical expertise, it seems likely that many of the colleagues with whom she intends to collaborate will be experiencing the same challenges. Lenora will need to bear this in mind when she is selecting and developing her online anti-bullying resources. As her colleagues seemed to have enjoyed utilizing the cradleboard.org resources, perhaps Lenora could get some feedback from them regarding some of the aspects of this website that were positive and beneficial, and other areas that needed to be changed or addressed. This would give her a starting point in determining what her own resource might look like in order to best support and meet the goals of her anti-bullying project.
Creating a wiki requires minimal technical expertise, and the user friendly interface would allow for flexibility in creating the organization and visual layout of the website. These templates would be adaptable to Lenora’s needs as they may change in the near future, and she would be able to design her wiki during the initial stages with opportunities for personalizing the content and design as she becomes more comfortable and clearer with her intentions. According to Coates (2005), an important aspect for consideration is the ability of a given technology to be adaptable to the needs of diverse academic cultures and communities. Google Sites and Wikispaces are two options for creating a wiki that Lenora may wish to explore, as they would provide the flexibility and adaptability needed to address the diverse and changing needs of her community of professionals. Both options offer Lenora a basic starting point from which she can develop her knowledge and level of comfort with designing and maintaining a wiki, and both options offer a user friendly interface from which to work with.
As far as privacy and access are concerned, a wiki would allow Lenora to control and manage the accessibility of the information and discussions contained within. She could decide to share access only amongst colleagues or have the wiki available online publicly, and she would be able to determine the level of permissions for each individual person that has access to the website. Regarding the content of the wiki, different documents, presentations, photos and videos could be incorporated into and shared within the website. Many of these items could be created offline when Lenora is working at home, and she would be able to integrate and upload this content into the wiki when she has better online access, such as during her time at school. This should help support her in maintaining the balance between work and personal time that she is seeking.
References
Bates, J. (2014). Teaching in digital age, Chapter 8. Retrieved from http://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/
Coates, H., James, R., & Baldwin, G. (2005). A critical examination of the effects of learning management systems on university teaching and learning. Tertiary Education and Management, 11,(1), 19-36. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11233-004-3567-9
Allen,
I think you raise some great points. Access seems to be a central concern in this scenario. A Wiki sounds like a great idea as it will allow Lenora’s colleagues to post and comment on resources. I also like your idea re: asking for feedback from Cradleboard users on what aspects of the site they prefer.
Your point about looking to the future is interesting. It is nice to have the option to adapt and change her content. Do you think that Lenora will need to change her platform in future?
Hi Colleen,
I think that the anti-bullying work will likely take shape in ways that Lenora (or anyone else for that matter) would not be able to presently anticipate, and she’ll want to leave open the possibility of being flexible and adaptable to changing needs and goals. It would be difficult to predict where the anti-bullying work might take Lenora in the future, so I think that it’s important that she work within a framework that allows her to adapt and change without having to scrap her plans in order to move in a new direction. This would allow her to continually build on the content and resources without having to forego her previous work and gains.
Hi Colleen, Hi Allen;
I had thought of a wiki too because of its flexibility in terms of being able to update content and give different groups read or write access. As you both point out access and privacy issues are paramount with this group of participants.
It is interesting that you commented, Allen, on Lenora being able to upload more complex media from school if she so chose. I hadn’t thought of that. You are absolutely right, though, that a wiki would be a form of technology that she could monitor from home, yet still add very interesting assets if she chose when she had broadband access.
Great ideas.
Kind regards,
Tanya
Hi Tanya,
Thanks for your comments. I remember that from my own past teaching experience, creating a classroom wiki with my Grade 5/6 students was a very user friendly project and offered plenty of opportunity to change and adapt as we become more comfortable with the process. The ability to control the access and privacy on our wiki provided us with some great discussions around digital citizenship and social media.
Hi Allen,
I think that you’ve come up with an excellent solution here. The only question I really have is, how would you suggest Lenora get people to use the wiki. I know that you have identified some easy solutions, but do you think her users will see it as a easy technical solution?
Jason
Hi Jason,
It’s a great question, and one that I was considering myself. I wonder if perhaps Lenora could use the cradleboard.org project website to initially share information about the wiki and the ways in which it will be used. I think that if Lenora keeps the layout of the wiki, and the goals of the anti-bullying project, to a smaller and more specific focus at first, this would help her colleagues to share ideas and resources without getting too bogged down in the technical aspects of using a wiki.