WHAT AM I ABOUT TO SEE?

This is a section where our basic ideas are taking shape. Some of these are pretty rough - but soon we hope to get a working model going. The basic idea is FaceBook + Moodle + iGoogle. Here is what you will see (the link to the demo section is at the bottom of the page):

The "Dashboard"
The first page is a basic dashboard. It has a list of all the classes you are in as a student, as well as a list of all news, events, shared objects, and bookmarks from all courses. You will also notice that there are tabs for profile page, a community area, and help. Most of these are not created yet.

Sample Course Page
Click on the link for "ENGL 1301: Introduction to Literature" from the dashboard page. This is what a course inside of New Vision would look like. The first thing you see is a list of the recent activity for all students. Since this is designed to be social, the idea is to let students see what other students are doing.

Every place an assignment or function is mentioned, a link is inserted to make it easy to quickly see what is being referred to.
Links open a section in the current window, rather than going to sperate page that confusion come students.
The exact assignment that students submit is pulled up when the appropriate link is click. No downloading assignments or going to separate areas to view.
Students can leave feedback by entering it directly into the web page, or submitting a link to a comment left on the actual assignment itself.

Shared Objects Where do submitted assignment links come from? As students are assigned activites, they go out and create a project on the web some where. They then take the RSS feed, embed code, permalink, ect. and add that to the "Shared Objects" area (RSS feeds would be crunched and each item added as a seperate "object"). When they are ready to turn in the assignment, or share it with the class, they then click on the Share button for that object and then designate how it is shared.

Bookmarks
Because this system would generate a massive amount of information, bookmarking wall items would be essential so that students can find something later.

Content Tab
The content tab would be a place that holds all course content and instructions in a chronological list, much the same way Moodle does.
Connect Tab
An area for internal communication. Tools like a Gchat IM box and a Zoho chat room would be ideal here for online virtual hours. Any discussion board tools could be included here.

Control Panel Tab
This is a sample of what grading could look like for instructors. A fully configurable rubric would be pulled up in a window next to the actual assignment itself. The instructor gives feedback, saves the feedback, and the next student's assignment is displayed. Simple, yet effective.

Enter the demo section.

GETTING STARTED

First of all, before you get too much farther, make sure you have read the essential reading listed below. This series of blog posts is where this whole crazy idea started.

If you are not already familiar with the learning theories listed below, please make sure yu get a basic understanding of each one.

Once you are familiar with all of that, check out the demo introduction section to see what this "new vision" would look like. This is what we have so far - all smoke and mirrors that so far doesn't actually work, but soon we will release an open-source project that will get the ball rolling. (the tab above leads to the demo itself - see the introduction section only if you are unfamiliar with the demo)

Coming soon: a discussion area to share ideas and brainstorm how to get this new system rolling.

WHAT AM I ABOUT TO SEE?

GETTING STARTED

ESSENTIAL READING

LEARNING THEORIES