It’s difficult to get where you want to go, especially when you don’t know exactly where that is! For myself I have an image in my mind of that place, but the names of the tools I’m working with elude me. The image of my flight destination is this:
I am sitting at my laptop in any number of exotic locations, I am communicating both synchronously and asynchronously with a number of people of varied ages and technical skill levels. My communication with all of them is friendly and inviting to participate in. The tools that I am using are seamlessly flowing to support our communication. The tools are widely varied and are flexibly applied, depending on the intended purpose. I am comfortably in control of these tools. They are organized in my mind, and I extract and use them as carpenter would use her tools. The tools are not the magic (though for those persons interested in tools these are marvelous ones!). The tools are used to make the magic. The right tool for the right purpose. While many of these tools may be flashy mac features, there are an equal number which can be used for free; shared by a community with access to only one computer amongst them; and above all connect people to people. In this beautiful place I am happy connecting people and their ideas to other people and their ideas. I am deeply content in this place because I recognize that connecting people and ideas is how I can participate in eradicating ignorance and promoting peace, in small and large ways.
In this course I would like to focus on tools which support the creation of community based idea banks. Here community members could deposit (share) and withdraw (discover) ideas in a closed system. I would like to learn about existing platforms which would support these community banks (particularly open source and/or freeware). Additionally I would like to seek out some video conferencing options which allow for more than two people to communicate synchronously while still being able to see each other online.
To choose the tools to accomplish these tasks during ETEC 565A and beyond, I think Bates & Poole have the right idea:
“Decision making about technology.. is a complex process, requiring consideration of a great number of factors. Decision making in this area is also about personal choice, driven as much by values and beliefs as by technical considerations. These different factors cannot easily be related to one another quantitatively. In the end, an intuitive decision has to be made, but based on careful analysis of the situation.” (Bates & Poole, Effective Teaching with Technology in Higher Education: Foundations for Success. 2003. p.78)