I think I have said this before — but I’ll say it again.. the Educause Quarterly consistently publishes some of the best papers for learning technologists…
The latest volume is strong throughout..
A few of my favorites this month are as follows:
“Fifth Annual EDUCAUSE Survey Identifies Current IT Issues”
By Donald Z. Spicer, Peter B. DeBlois, and the EDUCAUSE Current Issues Committee
In my mind, this is a must read for those supporting learning technology initiatives. Each year, Educause surveys the IT senior managers and develops this summary. It helps us understand what other campuses are concerned with, as well as place some of our efforts in a wider context.=======================
“Portfolios to Webfolios and Beyond: Levels of Maturation”
By Douglas Love, Gerry McKean, and Paul Gathercoal.
This article is a good follow on to an article from the same authors two years ago (On Implementing Web Based Electronic Portfolios).
I really like how it captures the dynamic nature of portfolios — bringing home the fact that portfolios are a as much a process as a product — and not a single product. Makes me want to make a rubric!! …. I think that this will be fuel for discussion in the e-portfolio community of practice!
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“Using a Framework to Engage Faculty in Instructional Technologies”
By Nancy Chism
Following on the heals of the UBC’s Learning Conference this article is timely! Like the portfolio article, this one emphasizes the iterative nature of the process of incorporating technology into teaching and learning –How we teach evolves over time, so one would expect that how we use technology will as well as we experiment and reflect on the process and results… . I look forward to digging into this much further…
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“One Course, One Web Site-of Course? Maybe Not!”
By Ellen R. Cohn
This article provides a good set of ideas around how one can promote sharing across course boundaries, and the associated curricular and community benefits. This is an area that a number of programs (e.g., Pharmacy) & projects (e.g., learning objects) have been concerned with here at UBC.
Over the years, I think I have seen WebCT-based examples of almost every one of the web site types described here at UBC and elsewhere. The various WebCT conference archives (accessible at the WebCT site — for example, http://www.webct.com/2003) are good places to look for examples, actually. Just goes to show you hwow software is rarely used exactly the way that the developers expect you to use it!
The rest of the articles are well worth reading as well.. just wanted to put in a word! Back to reading..