Digital Life – What Consequences?

I will readily admit that this isn’t going to be a fully fleshed out blog post, just some musings based on a few recent experiences I’ve had at work.

For assignment one, I chose Blackboard Collaborate as the synchronous platform to review. I have some experience with this platform, since we use Blackboard at the College where I work. I’ve taught a couple of one-hour workshops using Collaborate, and have not had any problems with the technology. Recently, we have also decided to try to use Collaborate as a meeting tool – geographically, our three campuses are 30 miles apart and it’s difficult to schedule in-person meetings.  The other day, a colleague ended up having to drive those 30 miles after all, to meet in-person with her committee when the Collaborate software failed.

This has led me to think about the balance between the promise of technology and the sometimes less-optimal reality of implementing it. This summer, I had been scheduled to present at a conference, using video conferencing, but could not because the connection kept dropping out. This was also from work – a location that has a fast internet connection and a high level of technical support.

I suppose this is somewhat related to our previous conversation about disparity of access to technology (hardware and software), but I’d actually like to go in a different direction.

It seems like we take the stability of web-based platforms as a given, in both personal and professional settings, when in reality we are placing our trust in a company that is far removed from our own local interests. True, most companies will do their best to provide a stable interface – they’ll lose business if they don’t! – but I do wonder what the implications are.

I’m curious to know more about the content rights that faculty members retain for course materials that are put into a learning management system (do they become College property, or does the faculty member own the copyright? What about “common courses” that are designed by a department but taught by adjuncts?). I’m also curious about what happens to the ownership of the material if those courses are turned into open educational resources. The asynchronous learning management system that I reviewed is called Canvas, and it allows faculty members or course designers to make the course public, giving anyone read-only access to the course. Individual institutions must have policies that address these questions.

Perhaps I’ll follow up on these musings and do a little research!