*Please describe your work:* I am a developer, working for Prof. Jim Slotta out of Toronto. The aim of the development group is to create a technology platform for researchers in the learning and education field.
Prof. Slotta is a very strong believer in collaboration between research and development teams across the globe. More importantly, to build a community where ideas and code can be shared. Therefore, we try to: 1. Reuse components built by peer groups 2. Build components with an eye on making them adoptable by other peer groups. The closer we can get to a shared base platform, the ease of (and therefore the willingness for) collaboration between research groups increases across the world. *How do you get support from others in this work?* We are currently collaborating with the University of Berkeley, The Concord Consortium, and the SCY project (comprised of numerous European universities). Since we are hoping to benefit from their great work, and contribute our own to the pool, we receive a lot of support in setting up and understanding the tools they have developed. We also work closely with many of these groups to develop components that address their needs in turn. *What positive experiences have you had with community support?* The retreats (in various forms) that are held between the community members have been great (and essential) for continued cooperation. It helps the groups understand what others are working on, and what their vision is, on a more profound level. Sharing code components is also a great way for teams to come together and benefit from each other's experience. For example, we will soon be integrating our systems with the Portal (user authentication) which was born as a result of the collaboration between Toronto and Berkeley. The Portal has also been adopted by the SCY group is Europe. We are currently building the RoOLO (Repository of Open Learning Objects) with support from SCY. Bekerely and the Concord Consortium have also shown interest in adopting this repository for their own work, which is extremely exciting. *What negative experiences have you had with community support?* I cannot think of any particularly negative experiences, other than the usual inefficiencies arising from trying to build components. But these are necessary sacrifices that must be made for success in the long run. *What would your ideal community support system be?* The ideal would of course be a close-knit community where the relationships between members is completely voluntary. It is one where members are actually excited about pushing the whole community forward, knowing that what benefits the community is also beneficial to them. Tying community members too closely to each other is also another common pitfall that might result in tension. Awareness of everything other members are working on though is invaluable because it provides opportunities for further collaboration. *If you received an e-mail with a post on a topic interesting to you, how likely would you be to reply if you could do so in your e-mail client? What about clicking to a web page?* Either would be fine (granted that the post topic is actually of interest), but I would be more likely to respond if I could just respond from within my email client. *What are keywords of topics that are important to you?* education technology platform "smart classroom" gestural proximity repository interactive immersive media *Are you a part of any online communities for your work now? If so, which?* Encore, SCY-dev, ROOLO-dev, SAIL There might be more, but I don't remember all of them right now :) *Are there any blogs you read for your work? If so, which do you read the most?* I do not follow any particular blogs *Do you blog? If so, at what URLs?* No, unfortunately not. *What types of records would you like a community site to keep track of?* Number of members (and its growth), who is collaborating with whom, and on what topics/ideas, a little profile of all organizations invovled a how to access the public resources they might be offering, and how to get in touch with their members. *Which of these record types would you use? (read, comment, add) - learning environments (read, comment, add) - frameworks **(read, comment, add)* *- data analysis tools **(read, comment, add)* *- defunct projects - research papers* *Do you have any time to contribute to the development of a community site? If so, how? (e.g. moderating, making a logo, developing the visual theme, etc.)* Unfortunately not, due to the part-time nature of my employment, and the pressures to deliver technology solutions in a timely fashion. *Can your answers to this survey be shared online? (yes with my name, yes only anonymously, no)* yes only anonymously *What is your name (not shared unless allowed)?* Ali Ajellu *E-mail address (not shared unless allowed)?* [email protected] On Sat, Apr 25, 2009 at 5:53 PM, Turadg Aleahmad <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks Jim! > I've updated the survey and put it into a nice web form. Everyone please > give it a go, > > http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=cm1wUDJmTVMtQmdoUTVMUUlCUl9kMlE6MA > > You can spend as little or as much time on it as you want. If you have any > feedback on the survey itself, it's still malleable. > > -Turadg > > > > On Sat, Apr 25, 2009 at 12:44 PM, Jim Slotta <[email protected]> wrote: > >> hey turadg. >> drupal is pretty cool. I've been using it for a research project, and its >> all going smoothly so far. >> I think it could be a fine space for Educoder to grow - does al the RSS, >> et. >> >> A place to connect the google gropu into, as well. >> >> >> You can take a look at the working draft site at http://educoder.com/ >> .. Once that's ready, I'll serve it up at http://educoder.org/ , >> >> cool. >> >> Here is my survey response. I hope others will respond too!! >> >> jim >> >> >> Please describe your work: >> >> I develop technology enhanced learning environments for education. I am a >> researcher who works closely with coders for implementation as well as for >> ideas. One of my emphases is on open source development, with the goal of >> getting re-usable materials out into our community. I want to make it >> easier for researchers to get traction in this kind of work - providing >> systems that they can easily configure and (hopefully) adapt for their own >> investigations. >> >> >> How do you get support from others in this work? >> >> So far, I've had some difficulty. My approach has basically been to try >> to build systems that other researchers (and their coders) would want to >> use. Did pretty well with WISE. Not so well with SAIL. Although the SAIL >> Portal, developed by my gropu, is currently being used by two other research >> groups. >> >> One other approach that may be working is that of co-design. We tried it >> with WISE 3 but it didn't play out, maybe because of Java, maybe for other >> reasons. We are trying it again with RoOLO (Repository of Open Learning >> Objects) and it may be working. We hope. >> >> >> What positive experiences have you had with community support? >> >> There seems to be a real value held by coders in our wider community to >> help other coders (ie, from other labs) adopt their innovations. I've seen >> numerous conference calls, text messages, etc to support the adoption of >> portal, RoOLO, O-trunk, etc. >> >> What negative experiences have you had with community support? >> >> basically, people (researchers, and coders) being too consumed with their >> immediate efforts, and not having any spare cycles for the community side of >> things. Also - the need to deliver on funded projects can often get in the >> way of developing a more comprehensive or re-usable solution. Also, the >> tendency to want to use code that was developed in one's own group - and the >> inevitable overhead of adopting code used by others... >> >> What would your ideal community support system be? >> >> Ideally, I think we should have a small set of back-end systems that make >> it easy for a research group to get up and running: POrtal, repository. >> Then, a small set of front-ends (learning environments, tools, materials, >> etc) that grows ever wider - since no two researchers are really going to >> want to have the same thing. >> >> >> >> If you received an e-mail with a post on a topic interesting to you, >> how likely would you be to reply if you could do so in your e-mail >> client? What about clicking to a web page? >> >> If it had a link in the e-mail, I am likely to follow the link (like in >> Facebook). I think this is actually how facebook has managed to get people >> coming in. Once they follow that initial lionk, they are curious to click a >> few times. Hmm, this makes me wonder - I haven't gotten any FB e-mails for >> awhile, and consequently haven't been in FB for awhile... >> >> >> >> What are keywords of topics that are important to you? >> >> learning environments, research, smart classrooms, hand helds, open >> source, online community >> >> >> >> Are you a part of any online communities for your work now? If so, >> which? >> >> ENCORE (http://encorewiki.org) >> >> Are there any blogs you read for your work? If so, which do you read >> the most? >> >> not really. >> >> Do you blog? If so, at what URLs? >> >> only personal stuff. >> >> What types of records would you like a community site to keep track >> of? >> >> code-related activities. Who has downloaded? Who has uploaded? Versions >> of code. >> I like the idea of content types for different code types. >> I would like to have some social information for the members - what >> projects are we working on, What actual code resources (with links) are we >> using. Finding a way to make those records easy for people to keep up would >> be good. >> >> Which of these record types would you use? (read, comment, add) >> - learning environments (yes - read, comment and add) >> - frameworks (yes - read, comment and add) >> - data analysis tools (yes - read, comment and add) >> - defunct projects (yes - read, comment and add) >> - research papers (yes - read, comment and add) >> >> Do you have any time to contribute to the development of a community >> site? >> >> yes, >> >> >> If so, how? (e.g. moderating, making a logo, developing the visual >> theme, >> etc.) >> >> building content, moderating, maybe. >> >> Can your answers to this survey be shared online? (yes with my name, >> yes >> >> yes. >> >> >> only anonymously, no) >> >> What is your name (not shared unless allowed)? >> >> Jim Slotta (feel free to use) >> >> E-mail address (not shared unless allowed)? >> >>> >> >> [email protected] >> >> >> >> What do you think? After some feedback I'll put it into a Google Form >> to send out and pass around. The results may also be shared in the >> June CSCL panel on supporting edtech developer exchange. >> >> survey may be too long for many respondents.... >> >> jds >> >> -t >> >> >> >> >> >> >> > > > > -- Ali Ajellu Co-founder & dir. of Technology RealtyTeller.com Tel: 416 - 836 - 5954 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SAIL-Dev" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/SAIL-Dev?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
