BP2_ConceptShare

In researching Web 2.0 tools I chose ConceptShare.  When I first selected this tool I was thinking that is would be a tool that my students could use that would help them come up with a concept for their projects, but I was very wrong.  But this is a case of being wrong took me to something so right.  While researching this tool, I discovered that Full Sail uses this tool, so if any of the instructors or students who work at Full Sail have used it I would like to get some comments on how you like it.  

I reviewed the website and went to the blog which took me to a couple tutorials on schools and companies who have used it. I then requested a trial version and also talked to one of the representatives with took me through some of the features I hadn’t gotten to.  

I can see this as a very helpful tool, not only for my class critiques, but for proofing with my clients. Currently I either get an email or a phone call with the corrections.  Their comments may say “page 10, left column, 3^rd paragraph, change 3^rd sentence to read . . .  ”.  With this they could just highlight the problem area and then type in the new comments.  With this tool they can highlight and make the correction either in place or in the comments box.  They can go through the whole document with comments and if I don’t understand something I can reply back to the comment I don’t understand. 

A Main Asset

Two projects in the main asset

You can point at a problem area and make a comment

You can highlight an area of interest and made comments

Here I am showing points for the same problem,
circled another problem and made comment

It is very user-friendly; even my clients (who are not necessarily web 2.0 tool savy) could use it. When I received the trial version it took me about 5 minutes to start adding projects and to start commenting on them.

For my classes, I can have a learning resource center where I can create tutorial listings for demos I use in class or I’ve made for a project, then direct the students to the tutorial to fix a problem.  I can have students upload their projects here and either make comments or allow fellow students to comment.  It will allow the student to reply to me or anyone else as well. I can make it as private or as public as I want. 

I am also a member of the portfolio committee.  Currently, one of the faculty members is using a blog for the students to show their portfolio and to allow faculty and fellow students to comment on portfolios.  However, this would be a great tool, more interactive and allows for visual comments as well. Here we can easily see other faculty comments, eliminating redundancy, hence not wasting our time or the students.

At the end of the project I could make a PDF summary so the student could download all the images, comments etc into one document and keep for their records.

This may be a perfect tool to use for my capstone! I’ve gone way over the word count but I am so excited about this tool. I have already shared it with a fellow faculty member and plan to show my director tomorrow.