iterativelearning

Dspace is an open source systems that academics can use for sharing their work. It allows not only text files, but multimedia as well.

Quickly skimming the site, they list many other American universities already using it. What struck me about Dspace, especially after watching their introductory video, was that while configuration, etc. seems fairly straightforward, it might be better to route these database-oriented responsibilities to the main campus library staff who are already assuming more IT-like jobs than leaving it up to each individual department whose internal staffing resources might be already pretty constrained.

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Dspace

Since reading about Yammer in a higher ed environment, I’ve been experimenting a bit with it myself. It’s basically an enterprise, Twitter-like client. One thing I like about it is that, ideally anyway, it kind of emulates spontaneous hallway conversation – that potentially rich seed bed of great ideas. Because Twitter has achieved so much popularity of late and faculty are busy juggling the classic tripartite (teaching+research+service), it seems that now might be a good time to give this thing a whirl. It’s as easy as Twitter and so the barrier to entry is all but nonexistent (e.g., 5-minute demo in a department meeting).

In classes, especially online, students could use it as a complement to traditional LMSs; it would be another way to promote interaction and collaboration.

When Twitter was first being discussed among academics as a potential learning tool, I remember David Parry was one of the first I read who shared his experiences with using Twitter as an educational tool. (If you haven’t read it already, I highly recommend reading his Twitter for Academia.) I wonder if he’s done the same with Yammer?

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Chronicle of Higher Education, Twitter, Yammer, David Parry