As you continue to think about social software and the opportunities for experimentation and adoption on your campus, we invite you to post your questions to this page.  Until the end of April (and longer if questions continued to be posted), Dan and I will check this page on a daily basis and will give our responses.  Of course anyone in our community is invited and encouraged to contribute as well by simply adding your thoughts, comments, links, etc. to the responses below.  So, instead of emailing each other individually, just put your questions on this page and check back frequently to not only see the responses but also respond to other questions too!

NOTE: After you've written your question below, "Format" it as "Heading 1" (see toolbar above) so that it shows up in the Table of Contents.

What is EPAC and how do I join?

Previously sponsored by the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative/Educause Learning Initiative and the American Association for Higher Education, the EPAC Community of Practice has been a leading resource on electronic portfolios since October 2002.  Current EPAC co-facilitators include: Barbara Cambridge (National Council of Teachers of English), Darren Cambridge (George Mason University), Helen L. Chen (Stanford University), and John Ittelson (California State University Monterey Bay).  Joining EPAC is currently free and all community members share the following benefits:

• Virtual interactions through monthly online chats & discussions, audio and video conferences discussing ePortfolio-related issues, case studies, pedagogical approaches, assessment techniques and best practices;
• Networking and face-to-face opportunities with EPAC members at conferences and meetings;
• Exchange of resources via the EPAC email listserv and eventually the EPAC website;
• Tracking of international and national conferences, requests for proposals and funding opportunities;
• Active exploration and evaluation of tools and practices to support ePortfolio-related activities, reflective thinking, and community-building. 

Because we are in the process of transitioning our listserv to a new host sponsored by MERLOT, send your contact information to Helen L. Chen <hlchen@stanford.edu> if you would like to join or remove your name from our listserv.

What are some resources for using social software to support foreign language learning?

Mixxer (language exchanges using Skype, voice over IP telephony): http://www.language-exchanges.org/

The Mixxer is a free educational site for language learners and teachers to find a language partner for a language exchange. The language partner is someone who speaks the language you study as their native language and is studying your native language. The partners then meet online to help each other practice and learn a foreign language.

CALPER at Penn State: http://calper.la.psu.edu/tools.php

CALPER has implemented three discussion-type tools for use with L2 (and other) learning environments. These tools have either been created or modified to perform with two critical features: (1) Unicode-encoding (UTF-8) and (2) MySQL databasebackend.As a service to the profession, CALPER offers support in the use and implementation of any of these tools to language educators who are interested in using them in their FL instruction.

Also, make sure to check out Todd Bryant's article on Social Software in Academia in Educause Quarterly with lots of links: http://www.educause.edu/apps/eq/eqm06/eqm0627.asp

Does anyone else have any other resources to share?

What software is available that includes assessment rubrics and back-end reporting, e.g. E-Portfolios?

There are many different ePortfolio tools available which range from homegrown solutions, commercial/vendor tools, and of course open source.  EduTools recently conducted a review of seven ePortfolio products which might be of interest -- http://eportfolio.edutools.info/static.jsp?pj=16&page=HOME

The product list and features glossary is available on this website.  I recently saw a demo of Taskstream which does have an equivalent of a "rubric creation wizard."  In terms of back-end reporting, you might check out Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).  An excellent workshop was given by Sharon Hamilton of IUPUI and Terry Rhodes (formerly of Portland State and now at Association of American Colleges & Universities) at the last AAC&U Learning and Technology Conference in Seattle, WA.  The slides for their workshop, WK4: A Nation Goes to Cyberspace: How Electronic Portfolios Can Help Assess Achievement of Liberal Education Outcomes, can be downloaded from here: http://www.aacu.org/meetings/technology_learning/tech06/index.cfm

Is it possible to use wikis for data collection such as administering a survey or poll in a class?

I'm afraid I didn't turn up much in a quick google search.  This website does provide some insights into how a wiki might be useful for data collection:

http://denham.typepad.com/km/2003/11/wiki_km_survey.html

Any other ideas?

How can I integrate these social programs into notification systems for the school?

Quite timely given recent events -- this posting from the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) listserv offers some insights into using something like text messaging as a notification system.

As a less expensive, yet flexible system for campus-wide alerts, some universities are licensing text messaging systems as described in this eWeek (a technology-oriented publication but reasonably comprehensible). It has been claimed that email is "old-people technology" in the minds of the millenial generation, and they're more inclined to call or text one another.

Text messaging article from eWeek:

http://www.eweek.com/print_article2/0,1217,a=205795,00.asp

Where can I get more information about the Summer Institute at Wallenberg Hall?

Please check out: http://wallenberg.stanford.edu/institute.html

Dan & I are leading sessions on Designing Learning Spaces and Using ePortfolios for Teaching, Learning and Assessment, respectively, during the week of August 13th.  Early bird registration has been extended until May 11th and team discounts are available.  Please feel free to email us directly if you have any questions or would like more information.

Free Session - Educational Potential of Second Life, Friday 4/27, 11 a.m. PDT/2 p.m. EDT

ENCORE: Exploring Educational Potential of Second Life

This FridayLive! session is introductory but it will have more emphasis on educational applications within Second Life than did its predecessor.

I'm resending this message since I omitted the link to the BRIEF Flashlight Online survey.

Friday April 27 at 2pm EDT

In response to lots of inquiries and requests, we have increased the "room" size to accommodate more people.

You may have completely forgotten about the topic, the event, the date/time, even whether or not you have registered! - Please be encouraged to re-register if you have any question - our system will keep track and send login info ONLY to an email address once - so if you mistakenly re-register but use the same email address you will receive only one set of info

Please register for this FridayLive! session here. In order to shape the session, we're asking registrants to let us know, via a brief Flashlight Online survey, what their interests and questions are about Second Life and its educational potential.