Posts made by Christie Mason

Ive also been using InnovaStudio instead of FckEditor for CMS (Content, not Course, Management Systems) and Blog applications.  CMS and blog applications are just a database.  So far it seems that users who are not web savvy understand how to use Innova with less support/training than FckEditor, but that may be because I set up Innova to use a site's CSS in addition to the embedded font setting, elementary header tags you see in a text editor like the one being used here. 

Down the road, I can see a problem with text editors that embed format settings into the content, especially, font, font-size, text colors and background colors.  It doesn't look like anyone here gets crazy with that but I've usually experienced at least one user in every implementation that goes a little Crazy.

Christie Mason
Nothing on the web is private.  That statement is not about creating fear or caution.  It is about exploring all the ripples, ramifications and unintended consequences. 

"Do not write anything that you would not want your mother to read." is one rule of thumb I have seen promoted.  But, many assignments are designed to demand that students dig into into inner dialogue and publicly expose it, "I want to know what you are thinking".  Dialog that they would not want their mother to see, yet must be exposed to gain the approval of the instructor.

I keep remembering a certain professor from my past with his continuous urgings to "delve deeper, expose more".  I confess that it got to the point that I made up stuff simply to satisfy his demands, also got an "A+".  What would I do with that professor today?  If I adhere to the "mother" directive then my private thoughts would stay private and I would flunk the course, yet pleasing the professor would be a directive with equal and opposing weight.  How would I resolve that conflict?   Since the demands of the professor are known and immediate, and since being successful in school means understanding how to please professors,  I would still make up stuff and post it.  Stuff that I would not want my mother to read with fingers crossed that it would never be viewed by unintended audiences.  The demands of the tangible today override intangible considerations of the future.

It may be that everyone on this forum understands how to self-censor their postings, everyone may even carefully consider every blog assignment with full awareness of what they demanding from their students;  but not every instructor is a member of this forum.

Christie Mason

It is true, SCoPE discussions on any topic tend to fragment a lot, more than any other discussion forum (around 75 over the last 5 years) that I have experienced. 

I do not know if it because it is browser only, or if it is the participation audience not understanding when, or how to split a thread or the application being used, or something else.  It is something I have been trying to figure out but have not.

Christie Mason
It is true, SCoPE discussions on any topic tend to fragment a lot, more than any other discussion forum (around 75 over the last 5 years) that I have experienced. 

I do not know if it because it is browser only, or if it is the participation audience not understanding when, or how to split a thread or the application being used, or something else.  It is something I have been trying to figure out but have not.

Christie Mason
I hope that no one has the perception that I am promoting the total lockout of blogging.  I am also not promoting waiting around for IT to install blogging, or other collaboration tools, behind firewalls.  I just think there are some points to ponder, that haven't been pondered.

I love discussion forums and I remember when it was discovered that Yahoo was, still is but not as blatently, harvesting information about members of their free discussion groups.  It was also very, very easy to scrape group pages and obtain all sorts of info, without being a member of that group.

There is no such thing as free.  When you use, or have students use, a free online service you do not really know what will be done with that information, or if it is a secure environment now and what type of focus on security and privacy will be maintained in the future.

If there's one thing that doesn't change about the 'net, it's that it's always changing.  What is private today will be exposed tomorrow, what is secure today probably won't be secure tomorrow, the agenda of a free service will change as it's sponsors and community change.

Christie Mason