September 11, 2008
Professor Uses Web 'Widgets' to Share Course Content
Mark C. Marino, a lecturer in the writing program at the University of Southern California, has turned his Web page for a writing course he’s teaching into a series of modular “widgets” that others can easily drop into their own Web pages.
Mr. Marino says that using Web widgets for online course materials furthers the goals of open courseware, efforts by professors and colleges to give away their lecture notes and other teaching materials online.
His course teaches a Classical Greek method of constructing or testing an argument known as literary topoi. So one of the widgets, shown below, gives definitions of the five types of topoi and links to videos on how to apply them.
For many of the widgets, Mr. Marino used a Web service called Pageflakes, and to use some of the pieces on your own Web page, you need to sign up for the free service. For professors who want to make their own widgets, that and other free services are available, including Netvibes and Clearspring.
The main benefit of widgets over traditional Web pages is “portability,” Mr. Marino said in an interview. “We’re kind of saying ‘steal my content — take any piece of this class easily and put it where you want it.’” Mr. Marino talks more about his experiment on the Writer Response Theory blog. —Jeffrey R. Young
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Jeff, Thanks, and I’d just like to add that we had a team of people working on these widgets, including the students who appeared in the videos.
These tools were developed in collaboration and consultation with the Writing Program’s Kevin Egan and Jack Blum, along with Mira Zimet from the Office of Communication, who did wonderful work with the videos.
I look forward to feedback from anyone who tries to use the tools.
— Mark Marino Sep 10, 07:06 PM #
Alex Chapin, a Curricula Technologist, from Middlebury College and I producing a day long meeting for NERCOMP (http://www.nercomp.org/) in March 09 on Educational Widgets and Gadgets.
If you are a New England based school using widgets in your curriculum and your interested in presenting your project please e-mail me at Eileen.mcmahon@umb.edu. I’m still looking for presenters. Thank you!
— Eileen McMahon Sep 11, 12:04 PM #
Where can one get this specific widget? And what is it called?
K
— Kathleen Johnson Sep 11, 12:43 PM #
I just got an iTouch yesterday to start experimenting with. I think Widgets may be a good place for experimentation in this area. Especially since the iTouch offers so many possibilities well beyond iPods for a similar cost.
— George Sep 11, 01:22 PM #
Oh I see, its a Topoi widget. I just thought that was a customized title.
— Kathleen Johnson Sep 11, 01:29 PM #
George, I agree. We designed this widget with an eye toward mobile device screens but also course blog sidebars.
Kathleen, it looks like you’ve found the answer, but just to be clear for others:
to get this widget, just press the “Get Widget” button beneath the topoi widget above. The rest of the widgets are available through the Pageflakes page.The best way is still to copy and paste the code, though Widgetbox does include auto-sharing to Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, Wordpress, Netvibes, and other sites — a functionality that works to varying degrees.
— Mark Marino Sep 11, 02:30 PM #