Profweb’s recent stories, columns and reports not only make it the crossroads of IT integration, but increasingly better known to teachers of the Quebec College Network. Collaboration among teachers, pedagogical counselors and other partners has furthered the use of IT in our colleges. Few teachers, however, know the Profweb Personal Space which will soon offer 2 GB of space for teachers to install applications such as a blog, a forum or a wiki for educational purposes.
Registering for a personal space is simple. Just follow these easy steps:
- Select the tab “Personal Space” on the Profweb home page.
- Choose “request for a space.” from the dropdown menu and
- Fill out the application.
Shortly afterwards, you will receive confirmation of your request. Upon receipt of this email, you will need to access your space’s configuration settings, using the information provided in that message. Once your password is reset, you can install the applications you want to use (blog, forum or wiki) and activate your personal space.
Blog (WordPress)
Coming from a contraction of the words “web log”, the blog was at first seen as an application to publish articles in the form of dated memos similar to a diary. Numerous teachers, however, use blogs as course websites without any chronological references.
The web page of Martin Bolduc contains interactive tests. Samuel Bernard, a math teacher uses his blog as part of his statistics course to transmit course content as well as tutorials in the form of video clips to students as shown in the illustration at right.
This space for personal communication allows you to give your students a voice on subjects you have chosen and to pass on information about your course. You can also ask students to create their own blog as part of an educational activity. The sense of belonging that a blog creates for students is an important motivational factor.Shortly afterwards, you will receive confirmation of your request. Upon receipt of this email, you will need to access your space’s configuration settings, using the information provided in that message. Once your password is reset, you can install the applications you want to use (blog, forum or wiki) and activate your personal space.
.jpg "Espace web")
Wiki (MediaWiki)
MediaWiki is a software that allows a group to create and collectively edit an original website creating copyright-free material. Students then can actively participate in content development of the course, and the teacher can follow the evolution of the collective work and refer back to previous versions if necessary.
A project using a wiki was created by Danielle Duchesneau as part of a nursing course using MediaWiki, the wiki application featured in Profweb’s Personal Space. This site is a concrete example of how to use this tool as an educational resource:
Forum (PhpBB)
Like the Roman Forum where citizens met to discuss trade, electronic discussion forums are public or semi-public (open only to your students) spaces for discussion. The forum may contain several discussions on topics as varied as your course requirements or topics covered in class.
The forum may also just represent a place to share your passion for your discipline as does Steve Bourdeau, whose site offers readings, audio and video files and the chance to express yourself in English when it is your second language.You can also publish documents created with other software or web applications in your Personal Space.
Click on any image for more detail or a link to the site.
If you would like more information or want to comment about Profweb’s Personal Space, do not hesitate to contact us at info@profweb.ca.
