Content Sharing And Publishing At SCVi

Overview

We use a variety of methods for content sharing and Publishing at SCVi.  Within the school, Facilitators, Learners, and Staff need to share documents and Media.   Outside the school, we publish content for consumption by Parents, Learners, Staff, and the public.  With the transition to Google apps for education, we have the opportunity to consolidate many of these things under the scvi-k12 domain. We also want to take a close look at which publish methods can be found by web crawlers for search engines.  The purpose of this posting is to give some background and discuss options on how this might work.

What We Do Now 

Internally

Internally, we mostly deal with sharing content.  Here are some of the most common methods.

• Drop Box  : Documents shared between teachers and students
• Flash Drives : Most Learners and Facilitators carry Flash Drives for document and content sharing as well.
• E-Mail : File Attachments and discussions
• Network Attached Storage : Video and picture sharing.
• Google Docs : This is done on an ad-hoc bases using student's own e-mail addresses.

Externally

Externally, we are mostly focused on sharing information with staff, teachers, parents and the public. Here are some of the methods that are used.

• GoDaddy Web Site : The main school web site has a great deal of information
• Ed Line : Student grades, Attendance, and Assignments
• Yammer : Staff Discussions
• Constant Contact : Parent/Staff  E-Mail Notifications (Monday Message)
• BlackBoard Connect : Parent/Staff Email and Phone Notifications
• Google Groups : Discussions and E-Mail Lists
• Wix Web Pages: Communication to Parents and student projects (Example, Example, Example, Example)
• Prezi Web Pages :  Learners sharing content with Parents, Peers, and Facilitators (Example, Example, Example, Example)
• Google Docs : Communication to parents, Student Work 
• Facebook : Discussions, Photo Sharing (Example, Example, Example)
• Picasa Web Albums : Photo Sharing (Example) 
• Shutterfly : Photo Sharing (Example)
• Google You Tube : Video Sharing. (Example)

Focusing On Web Content

If you focus just on the Outward Facing web content,  many publish methods can be grouped into these high level organizations.

• Documents : Information organized by topic.
  
• Blogs : One person speaking to an audience in chronological fashion.
  
• Discussions : Back and forth discussion between people. Can be chat or e-mail.
• Photo/Video Sharing/Albums :  Really, just another  kind of document.
• Tasks, Planning : Calendars, To Do Lists, Events

 Most good social networking sites take pieces of these and tie them together.   There are a TON of different options.  Here are some we have looked at.

Service	Documents	Blogs	Discussions/ E-Mail	Photo/Video Sharing/Albums	Tasks, Planning, Calendar	Custom Web Site	Friends, Networks, Connections
Google	Google Docs	Blogger	Google Groups, GMail	Picasa Albums, YouTube	Google Calendar, Google Tasks	Google Sites	Google+, Google Groups
Facebook	No	Wall Postings	Chat, Postings, Messages	Google Albums	FB Events	No	Yes
Jive SBS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tasks	No	Yes
MyBigCampus	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Moodle	?	?	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes
Yammer	No	No	Yes	Pages	No	No	Yes
Edline	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Joomla	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
GoDaddy	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	?
Wix	Sharing	Yes	No	No	No	Almost	No
Word Press	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

 

Looking At Google

With the transition to Google apps for education, we have the opportunity  to consolidate many of these things.  Though, we want to strike a balance between flexibility, searchability and consistency.  It is still yet unclear where things will land. Though, here is a first pass at some of our ideas.

Scenario (Use Case)	Google Solution	Other Solutions We May Use
Facilitator Web Site, School Web Site	Google Sites	Edline, Others TBD ***
Learner, Staff, Facilitator  E-Mail	G-Mail *	-
Mail Lists, E-Mail Notifications, Discussions	Google Groups	Blackboard, Yammer, Constant Contact
Calendar	Google Calendar	-
Generic File Sharing	-	Drop Box, Ubuntu One
Documents	Google Docs	Open Office, MS Office, iWork
Tasks, Planning	Google Tasks	Trello
Photo/Video Sharing	Picasa, YouTube	Facebook
Social Networking	- **	Facebook, My Big Campus
Student grades, Attendance, and Assignments	-	EdLine

* With POP and IMAP support, some folks may not know they are using G-Mail.
** Google Plus is not included in Google Apps For Education
*** We don't want to be too prescriptive.  If someone has a passion for a certain technology, they should be free to try it out.