Weblogs in Education: Online Discussion and Matrix

This is interesting and certainly worth consideration when designing online education and training, especially where the approach is to be oriented toward active learning.

Matrix of some uses of blogs in education.

This week and next I'm helping to facilitate an online discussion on the use of blogs in education for about 400 members from the B.C.-wide Educational Technology Users Group.

We are facilitating the discussion through a multi-author Typepad blog (there are 4 other facilitators involved). We've structured the sessions to begin with an introduction to what blogs are and how to read and write them. We're now moving into Day 4 and from hereon we get into far more interesting stuff - what are the actual applications of blogs in education. It is a very diverse group of participants ranging widely across job descriptions, disciplines and skill sets.

To help facilitate this discussion and my own thinking on it, I've worked up this matrix of some of the possible uses of blogs in education.

6:17:33 PM    

Breeze Live: Web conferencing from Macromedia

The field for "synchronous" events is getting larger again. The big question is, will any of the publishers and vendors in this space ever make any money? At $83 a seat per month for the hosted version, Macromedia seems to be working on that problem.

Macromedia joins Web-conference crowd. The Flash and Dreamweaver maker, with the introduction of Breeze Live, adds its product to the crowded market for online meeting software. [CNET News.com - Front Door]

Quotes from the press release:

"The product is available in both hosted and standalone versions, launched as an add-on to Macromedia's Breeze line of online corporate education software.

With Breeze Live, Macromedia faces competing products such as Microsoft's LiveMeeting, as well as software from WebEx Communications, Akiva, Viack, Latitude Communications and Centra Software, among others.

Breeze Live enables online conference organizers to set up Microsoft PowerPoint demonstrations in advance, and applications such as spreadsheets and product presentations to run automatically and be changed spontaneously, during a meeting. The software also lets its users also save live meetings.

Hosted versions of Breeze Live, including video and archive capability, start at $83 per month per user. Macromedia did not announce standalone pricing."

9:38:36 AM