Implementation Plan - TeamBox and Diigo

If you were following my blog, you would know that earlier I had planned to use Facebook and a Social bookmarking tool as the technology I would use in my class.  However, there's been a slight change in my plan. I recently attended the e-Learning in Action conference in Sharjah and came across a tool called TeamBox which I decided would add value to my course. So finally here is my implementation plan.


The course that I’m going to implement the technology for this project is CIS 1203 – Web Technologies.  This course introduces the basic concepts of the World Wide Web and its underlying technologies. The course also describes current popular web applications like search engines, social networking, wikis and blogs as well as emerging web technologies and trends. The course provides the students with basic skills to plan, design, develop, and publish static websites using an industry standard web authoring tool.

The assessment strategy of this course includes two group projects, besides other time based assessments. In the first project students were required to build a small website for a PSA of their choice. The major focus of this project was the use of HTML and CSS and the ability of the students to gather content for a small site. The mechanics of building a site and adhering to good design principles were important at this stage.

In their second project, students will be building a larger website with an authoring tool. However the main focus of this project is not just the site but also the way students plan, design and gather requirements for this website. They will need to work harmoniously in teams and manage their time. They will also be gathering and building up content for this website by visiting various other similar sites, using stock images, writing content, linking to other multimedia resources etc.

One thing I noticed from the first project is that students were not able to manage their time. it was also difficult to assess student contribution. Most teams started working on their project few days before their project submission deadlines. So to make sure they manage their time effectively they will be required to use an online tool called TeamBox which is a lightweight project monitoring tool. They will also be using a social bookmarking tool called Diigo to bookmark and share their resources with their team. In the final presentation, they will need to explain how they planned and managed their project. They will refer to their TeamBox entries to do this and they will also show their references for the project using diigo.

The evaluation of this project will be on three main criteria:

• ability of students to plan, manage and build their website in a timely manner that shows contribution of individual students within the group
• ability of students to gather content, reuse existing material like Javascript code etc, get ideas and inspiration from existing sites
• the site itself will be evaluated in terms of design, layout, mechanics and best practices.

I believe that TeamBox and Diigo will allow the students to collaborate with their team members and with me as well. This will also help them document all tasks they have performed in their project and help them to learn basics of project management. Causal thinking will happen when the students understand the importance of managing website development and working in teams and team collaboration with the help of online tools. Furthermore, casual thinking will also occur when students realize the importance to managing and organizing the various resources they come across when working on a project.

Expressive thinking will happen when students are able to present their work using these tools.  I believe that technology will support learning by doing, but let's see what will be the actual outcome :)