Blogs, Wikis, Feeds, and Centralization/Decentralization
Dangerous Discussions/Clothing the Emperor issue for this workshop.
“How can an effective balance be achieved and maintained between the
forces of centralization/control/support vs.
decentralization/guidance/independence
(with respect to
blogs, wikis, etc? i.e.,
tools that at least for now are freely available to anyone and can be
used without any college or university official ever finding, noticing,
or being able to control what is done?)
For more:
http://www.tltgroup.org/ProFacDev/DangerousDiscussions/Issues/blogs.htm
Steve Gilbert's semi-serious observation:
1. Whatever approach your institution is using now is wrong.
2. The next step will be to over-correct, eventually resulting in a policy that is equally wrong, but at the other extreme.
3. Ad nauseum.
Discussion Questions:
Where should course-related blogs, wikis, etc. be hosted?
How should they be supported? By whom?
What are the benefits and costs of hosting blog/wiki/newsfeed software
on the college/university servers?
For faculty? For tech staff? For legal counsel?
How long should a faculty member wait for the college/university to
provide blog options on campus servers before deciding to go ahead and
create one using Blogger (commercially available service without any
usage fee)?
Who is responsible for quality control, standardized “look and feel”,
tech support, training for the educational use of blogs, wikis, when the
college/university does not offer software or servers for these
purposes?