The Changing Face of University Websites
August 29, 2006
Maish Nichani has posted an article, “The Changing Face of University Websites“. The article takes a positive view of the latest redesigns coming from many institutions. Maish approaches the new designs from the positive viewpoint that institutions in this generation of web site redesign are adhering to web standards much more than before. XHTML and CSS are being widely adopted, information architecture is organizing the site and making it easier to access content, and home pages are “also showing a common structure”. RSS is being used, and branding is being applied more consistently throughout sites.
All of this is encouraging as Richmond looks to create the next generation of its web site. We’ve recently reorganized the support structure for the web and made plans to implement a new CMS. Once we have our new Web Services department up and running, I hope to see Richmond’s site come together according to many of the principles Maish outlines in his post.
Technorati Tags: standards, web
NMC Campus Buzz Session
August 22, 2006
Last night I attended the first Teachers' Buzz Session on the NMC Campus in Second Life. The group's focus is on teaching and learning in Second Life. While NMC is sponsoring the meetings, they're not setting the agenda. As a result we all spent a bit of time during last night's one-hour session quietly waiting for someone to steer the cnversation.
Eventually we decided to share ideas for future conversations. The group is going to meet every other Monday at 6 PM SLT (there is some talk of finding a time that's easier for people in the European Union to attend).
The idea of holding a class in a virtual world is interesting but I need something specific to really appreciate it. Last week Gardner told me how he'd like to someday assign the creation of a performance of Shakespeare's plays in the Globe. What would students build? Where would they focus - on the environment, the action, or something else? What could they teach him? It's a compelling vision but the tools to make something like this happen need to be much easier to use before a project like this could happen.
These days it's hard for me to imagine much more than using virtual space as a way to bring students together outside of the classroom or to bring people who are geographically separated. Listening in to the Teachers' Buzz will hopefully give me more ideas.
You can see a transcript of the conversation here, and photos from the event are here.
Next meeting is September 4.
Technorati Tags: buzz, nmc, nmc-campus, Second Life
I Read the News Today Oh Boy (Well, Almost)
August 19, 2006
I want to thank Alan for his comment on my post about leaving Second Life. It was enough to convince me to give Second LIfe a second chance. Developments on the NMC Campus lately, like the art exhibit have been interesting.
Like our own Boatwright Library, The Malcolm Brown Library on the NMC Campus in Second LIfe has had a renovation this summer. Previously the NMC's Library has had a few terminals that link your web browser to sites on the web, as well as a few books you can read if you're good with your SL camera.
This morning I walked through the Library and came across newspapers hanging downstairs. What's more, it looks like the newspapers are fairly recent. An article in the Washington Post, “Hezbollah Balks At Withdrawal From the South” is from August 15.
All of a sudden I thought how cool it would be if NMC could manage to update these newspapers every day with the current edition's image. They could make it so that touching the newspapers gives you the option of opening each paper's web site in your browser. I could come to the reading room, glance at the newspapers, and browse to any that seemed interesting that day. All of this would be an interesting alternative to browsing my bookmarks. I might even bump into others who are checking the news and start conversations about some of the stories we've come across. That's something I can't do when I'm browsing my bookmarks.
One thing that would have to be fixed is the resolution of the newspapers. I don't need to read the stories themselves, but at the resolution of the current newspapers, I can't make out all of the headlines. Down the road it would be interesting to see if there was a way to bring more of the newspaper content - beyond the front page - into SL so I could see more stories than just the front page. If the Library could have education periodicals, it might facilitate more conversations, since that's a common focus.
Technorati Tags: nmc2006, Second Life
