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