August 22, 2008
We would like to get some idea of what users of this community would like to see happen to EduSpaces? If you are using the service, please let us know. Thanks.
Posted by Eduspaces Central - EduSpaces news
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A wider variety of themes please - even if just old ones revamped like the blue and white one from an older version?
Also a better editing system for creating our own. The current one doesn't work very well as will only save one amendment, and that prevents you trying out adjustments to a default. The latter being a good learning tool for CSS/HTML. Could also be more user-friendly with a WYSIWYG editor?
Thanks
Hi Dave,
Overall, I like the way that Eduspaces performs. There are a couple of features that could be improved.
Hi Rick
I agree about the main page being dominated by a few posters, but I'm not sure how that can be overcome, as looking at them, it seems as if a class has signed up to a feed & they're all publishing it.
The options I could see to prevent it (I've mentioned this over at Elgg1.0)
1: If you want to include postings from an external blog (which I think is a Good Thing), rather than just saying that you have permission, you have to actively include something in the HTML on that blog (much as you have to claim ownership in order to use Google Analytics etc)
2: Have a list of blogs that are contributors to the home page. This could be done either by including them all, then removing those that seem to be predominantly re-posting blogs that don't appear to be owned by the poster; and/ or a selection process to have a range of users who have predominantly relevant posts in the range of languages used by the site. The latter, though, is a little more divisive - as someone has to make a choice, and may miss those occasional but interesting posters - who, after all, often provide the real gems, as you get to know who has an interesting blog & probably use RSS to follow them specifically, rather than relying on the home page.
Hi I would like to see the technical issues resolved to improve the picture of who is active in the community and improve communication and cohesion
I think the has been a degradation of performance and a loss of confidence in this community since Christmas. The failure to provide assistance to the users on technical issues is impacting on the quality of the interactions here. Many regular high quality contributors seem to be having technical difficulties with their feed into this space. The repetition of postings is making nonsense of the flow of ideas in individual blogs, and this along with other unresolved issues, may be acting as a disincentive to remain active on the site.
I would like to see some new way of identifying users who are still active, logging in, and commenting rather than just by volume of posting. It is difficult and time consuming to identify "active" members as the front page has become a churn of news feeds.
Regarding improving the site/service, what do you think is the best way to finance these developments/improvements?
One option is to change the terms and conditions, to be a little more like Facebook, so that all data is owned by EduSpaces, this would allow it to be harvested and sold. A second option is to put adverts all over the site or the third option is to charge users.
All thoughts welcome. Thanks.
Eduspaces is by-and-large an academic community. Sharing ideas and discussing issues used to be the focus of the community. The give-and-take helped me clarify my thinking, which in turn helped me with paper writing. Eduspaces enabled me to meet educators and instructional designers from around the word. Several of these contacts are invaluable to me.
While not quite the same process, Eduspaces served as a surrogate for presenting a paper at a conference. The audience was willing to participate and the perspective was international in scope. All of these things made Eduspaces a valuable learning community.
Unfortunately, the events of last December disrupted the unique personality of Eduspaces. In my opinion, the Eduspaces community has not fully recovered. This is unfortunate.
I would be deeply saddened if Eduspaces were redesigned as a Facebook-type environment. Facebook and Eduspaces are significantly different communities. My business is not everyone's business. I do not want to be part of a Facebook community.
IF Eduspaces claimed ownership of anything posted to Eduspaces, in my opinion, this would "ring the death bell" for Eduspaces as an academic community. Claiming ownership of anything posted within Eduspaces would kill the sharing of ideas. How could I publish a paper where Eduspaces claims ownership rights to my thoughts and words?
Eduspaces provides a way to communicate. That is its purpose.
I hope that Eduspaces can be improved so that communication can be easier, a more accessible process. I agree with Carol's comments about the front page of Eduspaces. The current format does not communicate well and makes it difficult to see/hear who is saying what. For whatever reason, the "blog scroll" has come to be dominated by a few posters. I do not like when this happens.
There is no way to see who is currently online. The random display of pictures of Eduspace members is cute to look at and takes up a lot of screen space, but what purpose does it serve? My picture never displays. I guess I am not important enough to be randomly selected. Everyone's ego needs to be stroked at some point.
Of Dave's three options, I would prefer the use of advertisements on a web paper, so long as, the size of advertisements does not take over the web screen. Somehow, Google has managed to include advertisements in its screen design without destroying the usefulness of the web page.
In addition to being a professor, I am also a certified public accountant in the U.S. (CPA). I understand the need to make money and to provide cash flow to pay for operations. This was really the issue last December. Unfortunately, irrespective of the technology-related issues, the Canadian organization was not the right fit for the Eduspaces community. There was a personality clash that I do not think could be overcome. I am happy that the sponsorship change did not take place.
Of Dave's three options, I would prefer
I really enjoy Eduspaces. I truly hope that the community will revitalize itself and become more like it was before last December's events.
Rick Lillie
Now we come to the crunch of the matter finance. Thank you Dave for making that plain. In response I would say adverts to raise revenue would be fine. Subscriptions, in long term that depends on the community being value for money to me as a user. This is an unknown quantity at present, but with the potential for ending the ongoing uncertainty possibly a good solution.
The option of changing the terms to sell any data, count me out I agree with Rick Lillie on that one.