Instructional Technology Conference 2008

Title: Bringing eLearning back to the desktop

Name: Helmut Doll

Audience Level: all

Audience: faculty, librarians, instructional technology specialists, lab directors, general

Length: one hour

Abstract:
In the last several years all components of instructional technology have moved from desktop applications to purely web-based systems. Courses, communication and administration are now all web based. However, now, Adobe, Microsoft and Google are creating environments to build desktop applications that incorporate the advantages of both, the web (e.g. currency) and the desktop (e.g. permanent storage). In the presentation I will focus on the future impact of this development on education and show examples of their use and development.

Description:
What would happen with our courses, if we and our students did not have Internet access for a week? In addition to the loss of communication with peers, friends, and the professor, they would also not be able to see the class materials, which are now frequently accessible online. But not only the students would suffer. Many assignments are posted and submitted via the Internet and our grade books are only available online.This is the situation after about 10 years of Internet in education, as the Web 2.0 evolution has changed the software landscape. Social applications and Rich Internet Applications have diminished the importance of the traditional desktop application and replaced them with online tools. ELearning has become almost synonymous with online learning. While the main trend in application development will continue to be to move more and more desktop applications to the Internet, all the major players in the software market are also preparing tools that will bridge the gap between the Internet and the desktop: AdobeÕs Air, GoogleÕs Gear and Microsoft Silverlight all try to enable developers to create desktop applications that bring the advantages of the Internet back to the desktop and also have the advantages of the desktop: Live data, which we have grown so used to from the Internet, and data that do not disappear after you close the browser. Imagine an application that you can hand to your students, that creates a connection to the LMS, when they are online, automatically downloads the current class materials and assignments, and stores these files automatically on the computer. The students can work on these assignments while they are not connected and the next time they are in wireless range, the assignment is uploaded and new information is downloaded.
In this presentation I will discuss how we can use these new types of applications successfully in the classroom and in administration. I will show examples of educational applications that benefit from the storage options provided in desktop applications and the concurrency of Internet applications. As an example of the development process, I will demonstrate how even web developers with intermediate experience can create an application using Adobe Air and Flash.

Session Type: Lecture/Presentation

Contact information/affiliation:
Helmut Doll
Department of Instructional Technology
Bloomsburg University
Bloomsburg, PA 17815
570-389-4848
hdoll@bloomu.edu

Equipment: Projector, Internet access

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