Time-to-Adoption: Two to Three Years

Enterprise systems are already widely used in academia for administrative purposes, and will soon move to a service-based model that can be used between campuses and in the classroom. The next generation of enterprise and web services will include net documents, web applications, and place-based services designed to answer the needs of increasingly mobile users, who will want easy access to media, research, and work documents wherever they (the users or the documents) happen to be.

Key areas of development have thus far been in course management systems, portals, and library applications. New directions may include networked-based systems like portfolios, collaborative working environments, media authoring tools, and tools to manage social contacts and interactions. Shared writing environments like WriteBoard, Writely, and SyncroEdit are beginning to be adopted by those on the leading edge of academic technology. Web-based project planning and organizational tools like Basecamp or BackPack, which are just beginning to emerge, will grow in popularity and become more widespread. In medical, legal, and research fields, online document management services are already in use; before long, services like these will likely find their way into education.

Relevance for Teaching, Learning & Creative Expression

  • simplifies complex systems, making them more likely to be adopted and used
  • facilitates bringing information from faculty research to courses or on-line discussion groups
  • allows access to documents, information, and work-in-progress from any computer with an Internet connection
  • encourages collaboration on individual, group, and institutional levels

Examples

  • The Stellar Course Management System at MIT provides website updating, class rosters, and RSS feeds; coordinates academic calendars with class schedules; and even offers copyright information, among other features. http://stellar.mit.edu/
  • Pachyderm, a web-based multimedia authoring tool, allows non-technical authors to create compelling learning objects using web browsers. http://www.pachyderm.org

For Further Reading

Convergence
(Campus Technology, December 2005) Part of a list of 101 best practices in educational technology, this set of case studies and examples demonstrates various ways that campus services are converging. http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=17564

Is It Time to Start Sharing the Course Management System?
(Frank Tansey, in Campus Technology, April 2005) Discusses the value of sharing the CMS between instructional and administrative departments on campus. http://www.campus-technology.com/article.asp?id=10896

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