What is the continuing role of electronic portfolios?  An article in Campus Technology reviews the issues related to ownership of the content, and what happens when the student graduates.  A student-centered approach seems most logical to me — effective use comes when the student feels ownership of the content and  sees a practical use for its existence (like getting a job).  If they find the portfolio tool useful after graduation it seems short-sighted for the school to terminate the relationship.  If the institution accepts that the student ‘owns’ the content, and that the school simply provides a service — just like facebook or any other such service — then this relationship, and any risks, should be clear.  You have an acceptable use policy, and if users abuse the policy their accounts get shut off.  But this also means accepting some institutionally uncomfortable, or at least potentially uncomfortable, situations.  Welcome to the world of user-centric content!

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What is OpenCalais, and what is this semantic web stuff all about?  Sure I watched the video on their site, and read through the documentation.  Somehow this all will make web content in general, and these blog posts in particular, easier to find and link with other relevant information.  Which all sounds good, but I want to see it in action.  So I installed their Tagaroo WordPress plug-in.

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OK, so we’re all trying to figure out what, if anything, social media is useful for — other than having fun and wasting time with friends and family.   The New Media Consortium has put together a site reviewing what they’ve been experimenting with.  We have a group here that is viewing a webinar on October 27 on Effective Use of Social Media for Student recruitment ( if you’re in New Haven and want to join us just let me know.)  I’ve had some success with Twitter in advancing business interests, but nothing I’m ready to wrap an official company strategy around.  I really like LinkedIn (especially for helping students/alumni with career networking), but it seems like Facebook gets all the attention.  And don’t forget blogs — not quite as sexy as Twitter or Facebook perhaps, but still finding a place in college communication efforts.  Talking with peers, experimenting, and exploring — that’s a type of progress, right?

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If Google Wave lives up to even half of the hype surrounding its closed beta release it still will be an awesome product.  Some are raising the notion that is could bring a number of web 2.0 concepts together and become a new tool for personal learning systems — and replacing the traditional course management system.  But then again moving things to the Google cloud is not without its concerns, as recent outages highlight.  And it may be that Wave doesn’t live up to its hype — time will tell.

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Why do IT projects so often run over budget and over time?  Perhaps thinking too big, too costly, and too risk adverse is part of the problem.  All three conditions often lead to a long project timel ine, another significant risk factor.  A recent computerworld article discusses the increasing use of  ‘lite’-thinking with open-source/web 2.0-type tools.  The advantages? Read the rest of this entry »