Tuesday, November 23, 2010
ACM ePortfolio Workshop
A few weeks ago, I went to the ACM ePortfolio Workshop. It was interesting made me want to use ePortfolios in my student worker program. Now I'm developing the documentation and the program around that. My summary with links to relevant sites and presentations is on Google Documents.
Monday, November 22, 2010
CMS Selection
Thus far, we've looked at several CMS options.
- Reason CMS
- LiveWhale
- DotCMS
- Cascade Server
- Ingeniux
Reason and LiveWhale stand out as they don't look like the others. All have some of the same features, but the last three seem to have a much more cluttered back end for administration/editing, as well as hinting that there should be an editorial process in the publishing process, which seems to go against the way things are done here.
Most people who have anything to do with web pages here has the power to publish un-edited content. The major problem with this is that it requires HTML editing software, as most users are NOT code monkeys or even geeks. Most often, it seems the web editor of the department is a faculty member, department assistant, office manager, technical director or technical assistant.
Yes, the help desk, educational tech services, and communications web team do support them, but if they can publish pages, nothing is stopping them from publishing an ugly, unusable, or poorly-designed page or site. Not that all or even more pages or sites are. I think many of the departmental campus sites are okay or fine, but there are a few where the information architecture or page design leave something to be desired.
CMS Selection
Several months ago, I volunteered to help out with the new design of the college website. I didn't hear anything back from anyone, though I participated in one forum on the subject.
Then, after the proposals were received and the group had met once, the Director of IT Services asked if I wanted to join them. I said sure and spent the night reading the proposals to prepare for the meeting the next day.
It's been interesting to see others' perspectives in going through the proposals and seeing what they think about what we need, what we want and what "a good fit" means.
It's also been informative to participate in a working group as opposed to a project team. It seems a working group is a lot more loosely organized, whereas a project team, as lead by a project manager, is a lot more organized and traditional.
I've really realized I like working with deadlines and a more defined organizational structure, though I do enjoy freedom and autonomy.
Then, after the proposals were received and the group had met once, the Director of IT Services asked if I wanted to join them. I said sure and spent the night reading the proposals to prepare for the meeting the next day.
It's been interesting to see others' perspectives in going through the proposals and seeing what they think about what we need, what we want and what "a good fit" means.
It's also been informative to participate in a working group as opposed to a project team. It seems a working group is a lot more loosely organized, whereas a project team, as lead by a project manager, is a lot more organized and traditional.
I've really realized I like working with deadlines and a more defined organizational structure, though I do enjoy freedom and autonomy.
24/7 Lab
Occasionally, I've heard from students that they want a lab they can access any time. Last year, I decided to do something about it. I placed response paper in all the public and dorm labs asking if people were interested in a 24/7 lab and if so, what they would need there, in order for them to visit.
Response was good. Most of the respondents said they were interested in the lab and simply asked for a few basic software packages and one or two specialized ones (for statistical or mathematical analysis).
Using pre-approved budget money, I added dedicated computers to an existing dorm lab and with the help of residential staff allowed access to the space for all students. We are tracking the usage of the space overnight, to see if it is still needed.
Ideally, we'd have a larger space, which could be used by classes during the day, but for now, we've got two Apple and two Windows computers there, along with a printer and four thin client terminal computers.
Response was good. Most of the respondents said they were interested in the lab and simply asked for a few basic software packages and one or two specialized ones (for statistical or mathematical analysis).
Using pre-approved budget money, I added dedicated computers to an existing dorm lab and with the help of residential staff allowed access to the space for all students. We are tracking the usage of the space overnight, to see if it is still needed.
Ideally, we'd have a larger space, which could be used by classes during the day, but for now, we've got two Apple and two Windows computers there, along with a printer and four thin client terminal computers.
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