Steve Radwanski
Jeff Young, blogged for the Chronicle of Higher Education on October 7, 2009,
“Google argues that its new Google Wave system could replace e-mail by blending instant messaging, wikis, and image and document sharing into one seamless communication interface. But some college professors and administrators are more excited about Wave’s potential to be a course-management-system killer.”
Some of have argued that Google Wave initially, is less manageable than Blackboard which many colleges and universities use today in a number of ways. On first glance Google Wave seems like a great idea. Having used it in its infancy, there are a few restrictive features making it hard to use.
First, you can only invite a certain amount of people, then you must, search for friends, which is not the most user friendly. Second, Google is working on a settings tab to customize your view of Google Wave, however right now it just says,
“This wave is where you will be able to customize your personal options and extensions, but we are still working on it. Just bear with us and we’ll update you when there’s something to look at. Happy waving!
Dr. Wave”
Thinking to the future and the potential of Google Wave, it has the possibility to create a seamless environment for collaborating on projects with colleagues around the corner or on other ends of the country. You are also able to drop PowerPoint, PDF’s, and other types of files right into Google Wave for your counter parts to download and view which is extremely useful.
I am not optimistic that Google Wave will replace Blackboard just yet, but it may be an easier way for administrators to collaborate on projects together.
Related Posts
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Could-Google-Wave-Replace/8354/
Unless Jeff Young and the Chronicle have given their permission to re-post the entire article from the Chronicle, I would highly recommend giving a bit more attribution to this post. It’s really in bad form to “borrow” an entire article verbatim… I’ve been blogging for 5 years and while I engage in a lot of blockquotes, I do not post someone else’s work without giving a full on disclaimer that I didn’t write the piece.
Also, Google Wave is actually less accessible than (gasp!) Blackboard. Google Wave is currently inaccessible for users who have visual impairments. In addition to its current lack of accessibility, Google Wave is very buggy. The larger the wave, the less stable the platform becomes.
In other news, I have 9 invitations to Google Wave if any of the NASPA Tech Tools folks are interested in joining the wave party.
While I appreciate the addition of “This article appeared on the website for the chronicle of higher education on October 7, 2009.” at the beginning of the post, I would have liked to have seen some original thoughts/analysis on Google Wave from the NASPA Tech Tools perspective.
Why should I visit NASPA Tech Tools when I can read the original article on the Chronicle site? Original analysis from a student affairs perspective is necessary to make NTT relevant to readers and association members.
I would also note that the Chronicle’s online use policy is quite clear about republishing entire articles:
I 100% agree with Eric. I will give you the benefit of the doubt you were not malicious by copying and pasting an entire article while passing it off as your own. However I would love to see you impressions and opinions of wave as a user. Can Google wave help in emergency alerts, campus wide calendars, or course mgt systems?
I hope this was a 1 time incident and has not happen in the past and hope you share your voice more in the future.
Eric and Jeff, thank you for your concerns. I spoke to Jeff Young, and he did not see anything wrong with linking, but I can definitely see your point, and understand the language from the Chronicle. I will definitely speak with our leadership team and discuss our criterion for posting things.