Educators forum?

Given that one of the eDGe's targets is the educational marketplace, what would it take to create a separate "Educator's Forum?" The purpose of the forum is to allow an exchange of ideas and best practices using the eDGe in a pedagogical setting. A suggested name for the separate forum is "eDGe-ucators." Possibilities? Roadblocks? Comments?

I will second the request.

I'm in. Going to school now, for a degree in Education.

We're looking into adding some organization to the forums and possibly add new ones. We'll take this into consideration!

I think that it's a great idea too. I'll be TAing this fall (starting PhD Economics) and would enjoy a chance to talk about how to use the Edge both as a teaching tool.

My main use for my eDGe is for teaching. I think this is a fabulous idea!

I'd like to follow that forum because I homeschool my kids and want to use my eDGe to help in that. IF I can justify it financially, I'd love to get each of them their own eDGes in a few years.

Count me in.

This is perfect! While I use my eDGe for my own studies, I also tutor for math, physics, and Aramaic. I also teach skills for living at a homeless shelter. I am much more organized with the eDGe and I think incorporating it into tutoring/teaching will be awesome.

I would also be interested.

Count me in. Have not received my eDGe yet, but its on the way. I am the director of online ed at a nearby community college and can't wait to see what the potential uses are for online classes.

F.Y.I - I received this reply to our request from Doug Atkinson last week:

"I think it's a fantastic idea. I will work with my IT group to get this accomplished."

So it looks like there's a good chance of this happening. In the interim, I thought we might get the conversation started on ideas about using the eDGe in the academic environment. I know from reviewing this forum and others that my knowledge of the eDGe's general technological capabilities is still woefully lacking, so I'm really interested in hearing what others are thinking. One of the ideas I was thinking about was being able to embed audio feedback comments (in addition to written ones) on student assignments. I really struggle with finding enough time to make meaningful written comments on assignments in classes of 40+ students, so it seems that the audio comments would be more efficient in terms of time savings, and could also potentially reinforce any written comments that were made. Of course, this assumes that the students had eDGes also, or that the files could be read on whatever devices the students were using, but it seems like it would be mutually beneficial. Thoughts?

My initial impression is that unless everyone in the class had the exact same hardware and software (e.g., they all had eDGes) so that the instructor has some degree of control over the students' experience, it can be incredibly time-consuming to support something like that. Embedding audio files within a document is definitely possible in Word 97 and newer for PC. It *may* be possible in Open Office, but not sure about other freeware text editors (not sure about Google either). And you can put specific requirements on software in the syllabus... but invariably there will be a subset who won't abide by it, but then still expect that any difficulty they encounter is your problem to solve. Unless there is someone else available who can provide tech support on an ongoing basis across all platforms, it will often be more trouble than it's worth.

Also, in the specific case, I'm not sure why it would be necessary to embed audio into the file unless the entire class had eDGes. If there was a subset who didn't have eDGes, then I would think it would just be easier to distribute an mp3 or whatever by itself in lieu of a marked up paper. Having a stand-alone--rather than embedded--audio file would probably eliminate most of the tech support issues.

Originally Posted by walt526

. . . Embedding audio files within a document is definitely possible in Word 97 and newer for PC. It *may* be possible in Open Office, but not sure about other freeware text editors (not sure about Google either). . . ..

Just FYI: I checked OOo 3.2 and it only inserts a link to the audio file in the document, not the audio file itself.

Originally Posted by Batman Jr.

One of the ideas I was thinking about was being able to embed audio feedback comments (in addition to written ones) on student assignments.

Just personally, I would be concerned that my audio comments wouldn't sound as polished as my written comments. If I'm marking up a student's essay, or providing a few comments at the end, I am very careful about what I write. I'm not sure that I could be that disciplined speaking, and would probably end up rerecording over and over again. (I'm thinking about the process of recording my outgoing voicemail message.) So, I'm not convinced that audio comments would be any less time consuming on my end.

The other downfall of audio is that you can't "scan" the way you can with writing. So, as a receiver of feedback (who admittedly is older and a student of an earlier time), I would prefer my feedback be written down so that it's easy enough to go back to without sitting through the whole thing. I know you were talking about audio comments simply to complement written feedback, but I know I'd be less likely to go back and listen to the whole file again and again. So, perhaps the kind of feedback you'd leave via audio would be different than what you'd write: expanded thoughts on what's already been written down, perhaps?

Just my initial thoughts.