A workshop for

faculty, librarians and educational technologists

August 15-16th, 2006 - Skamania Lodge, Stevenson, WA

Workshop Participants: Murdock Workshop Evaluation Survey

Introduction

     The Internet has been an integral part of higher education for well over a decade. Most colleges and universities use a relatively stable and familiar set of tools to facilitate communication, teaching, and research over the 'Net. These technologies typically include e-mail, listservs, course web pages, course management systems, online registration, online library catalogs and research databases, electronic reserve readings, etc.

     Just as we have become familiar and comfortable with these important tools, however, a new set of Internet-based information technologies are arriving on the scene. Labeled collectively and somewhat ambiguously as Web 2.0 or the "Live Web," this new generation of technology is more interactive both on the level of users using it and the software running it. Its key characteristics include software like Wikipedia that leverages the collective intelligence of users and enables collaborative work; the long tail phenomenon, which leads to the availability of information (whether it be rare books, obscure folk music, or other media) that previously would be un-economical to widely preserve or distribute; the ability to reuse and remix information for business, artistic, educational, or other ends and along with this, a more nuanced view of copyright known as "some rights reserved" and exemplified by the Creative Commons licensing model.

     This workshop will examine some concrete opportunities of this new generation of Internet software in the context of a college/university research and teaching environment. It will demonstrate how these new technologies can create a richer learning experience for students and emphasize collaboration between faculty, librarians, and information technologists through this new technology. Participants will be encouraged to develop preliminary plans for collaborative projects using some of the concepts covered in the workshop.

Participating Institutions: Lewis & Clark College, George Fox University, Linfield College, Willamette University, University of Portland, Pacific University