SharedExperienceProject:Introduction
From SharedExperienceProject
The Shared Experience Project (Shex) was born over a coffee one morning in mid-2007. Here's the deal.
Contents |
A tool for educators
A lot has been said in recent years about the potential of collaborative wiki technologies for increasing innovation in the workplace. And although all of it (well, almost all of it) is true, the wiki phenomenon hasn't yet enjoyed mainstream adoption in the realm of business education, either as a topic or as a teaching method[1], and it is rarely used to its fullest capacity in other areas of higher education. As Geoffrey Moore, well-known consultant and author, might put it[2]:
- The technology-oriented geeks were on board with wikis and social computing some time ago ("I love technology and you need to check this out...")
- The early adopters among us have heard about and can appreciate the benefits ("Sure, it sounds great, but how can I do that?")
- The majority is still firmly planted on the sidelines ("I'm not lifting a finger until someone proves that this whole thing isn't just a fad.")
Where does Shex come in?
Shex stands for Shared Experience Project. It exists to make it easy for the early adopters - practitioners, consultants, academics, students and the eternal student in each of us - who share the vision and want to make it happen. It is a collaborative platform through which collective experience is captured. Most importantly, it is also a teaching tool through which that experience is shared and through which its users can build a collective understanding.
Originally focused on business education, the present vision and mission are now somewhat broader:
| The vision of Shex's collaborators is: | | | To share our experience and advance our understanding of teaching and learning |
| Our present mission is: | To bring that experience to everyone who wants it |
Guiding principles
First principle: Open mass collaboration
Shex is a platform for mass collaboration with the goals of building and sharing a collective experience. Anyone should be able to read it, edit it and add to it[3]. Those new to the concept of mass collaboration are encouraged to check out Dan Tapscott and Anthony Williams's book Wikinomics as a starting point. Those interested in its specific application to business education are encouraged to check out Philip Evan's The Wiki Factor as a starting point.
Like its most famous cousin Wikipedia, Shex contains content created by its contributors. As such, Shex contributors subscribe to many of Wikipedia's usage guidelines.
Second principle: Building understanding
Unlike Wikipedia, Shex has an additional and equally important layer designed to share the collective experience through an educational or learning framework (consisting of courses, topics and sources). The idea is to help participants build an understanding - not just to present them with data and information. Additionally, this layer is designed to incorporate content existing outside of the Shex system, resulting in a very rich learning experience. To date, the design of the educational layer has relied on the principles presented by John Biggs in Teaching for Quality Learning at University.
Third principle: Simplicity
In order to encourage adoption, Shex should be as simple and easy to use as possible. Much of the design reflects this basic principle. The site uses an editor with a familar look and feel, for example, and the main page is not cluttered with anything except only the basic options for searching and creating pages.
Getting started
It's easy to get started. Learn more on our Getting Started page.
Also check out the existing course content.
References
- ↑ Evans, P. (2006) The Wiki Factor, BizEd, Jan/Feb 2006, pp. 28-32.
- ↑ Moore, G. A. (1999) Crossing the Chasm, HarperBusiness, Revised Edition, 227 p.
- ↑ Until December 2007, editing of the Course, Topic and Source namespaces requires being a member of an approved group of contributors. This is a temporary measure to protect the content of three pilot courses currently being offered as part of the Entrepreneurship program at Mount Royal College. Stay tuned for a fully open approach in support of the vision for openness.
