What this is about

This blog was created as part of a project for an ICT in education university subject. Here is the proposal.

Project Proposal

Discussion

Giving purpose and relevance to student learning is seen as important for intrinsic motivation. This can be created by working on projects that benefit others, not only in the class or school environment but in the wider community.

This proposed project will involve the development of a framework for groups in the community to set up an online environment to share their knowledge, creations and learning.

The starting point will be a wiki. This will be a place to access videos and instructions on how to set up a group wiki, social bookmarking groups, ways to upload and share photos, keep a blog for the group and share documents online. Many resources of this type exist on the web already and will be re-used if appropriate. New screencasts, videos and instructions will be created where they are required as part of this project.

The social bookmarking component of this framework will be the key component for sharing knowledge within the group and community. Each group will have their own social bookmarking group but will be able to also share to the 'wider community' group that will be created as part of this project.

Examples:

1. A women's group is working on healthy cooking recipes. Jill finds a good recipe on the internet for apple crumble and adds it to the group as a bookmark. Mavis sees that this has been added but knows of a variation that will make it healthier so adds her own note to the bookmark - 'use wholemeal rather than plain flour'.

2. A photography group goes on a historical field trip taking photos and documenting them of the local area. They create a web album in Picasa and make it publically viewable. They have added a bookmark into their social bookmarking group pointing to the web album. Also, they see that other people in the community can benefit or would be interested in what they have done so they aso add the bookmark to the 'wider community' bookmarking group.

3. A class project at a local high school involves creating a group within this framework and then finding and evaluating online tools that can be useful for others and sharing to the group. They create screencasts or slideshows with instructions on how to use the tools they evaluate. These are added to the wiki the group has created and shared via their bookmarking group. Many will be useful for others and are also shared to the community group.

4. A class project is to offer a service to the community. They decide they will provide a service that converts cassette tapes to CDs and video tapes to DVDs. They create the group wiki where they put the information on the service they are offering and how to go about contacting them etc. They also add the instructions on the conversion process as a video/screencast. They share the bookmark to their wiki in the community bookmarking group.

This platform will have the potential to be an ongoing and growing entity and can be used and re-used in schools. Students can incorporate content created from school projects and contribute to the knowledge during research. There is also opportunity to consider many aspects of the modern internet by looking at the platform and how it can be utilised, such as: social and ethical issues (copyright, privacy, collaboration), knowledge handling (bookmarks, tags), different ways of representing knowledge (i.e. not just text)

Scope

1. Create a wiki space to contain the instructions for community groups to set up an on-line collaboration environment. These instructions will be for the following tools:

• creation and use of a group wiki space
• creation and use of a social bookmarking group
• creation and use of a group blog
• creation and use of a group calendar
• creation and use of Picasa accounts for photo sharing
• creating and sharing Google Docs
  

The instructions may incorporate existing web resources, such as videos and screencasts where they are available. Otherwise they will be created as part of this project as necessary. Potential issues with use of these tools will be included (e.g. copyright, privacy).

2. Create a social bookmarking group as a wider community group. Include bookmarks to the resources created in the wiki space.
3. Create and maintain a blog. The blog will document the development of the framework as a journal and will also be intended to continue to be used to record updates to the framework and the wider community group of knowledge.

Constraints

While Web 2.0 tools are often very powerful and contain numerous features, this project will focus on base features that allow new group members to easily involve themselves without being daunted by a complex environment.

Assumptions

Internet access is required.
For student involvement the school's internet does not restrict access to the required tools and web sites.

Time Frame

This is a single semester project. The schedule is as follows:
Detailed Design phase - completed by 3/4/09.
Implementation phase - 8/5/09
Post-implementation/evaluation phase - 5/6/09.