Introduction - cole camplese

I want to welcome Cole and thank him for agreeing to contribute to the Impact of Open Source Software and Open Educational Resources on Education series on Terra Incognita. Cole will be looking at how the Web is finally starting to fulfill its promise as a platform to support and extend conversations. Faculty and students are engaging in the use of social media to participate in unprecedented ways — creating, mashing, and embedding content from all over the Internet is the becoming the new norm. What should we be doing inside the academy to understand and embrace this new form of literacy? In this post we’ll attempt to investigate the changing role of the web as a platform and ask some critical questions about our own future.

Camplese has recently worked to integrate several new emerging technologies into curricular activities at Penn State to support digital expression. He and his team have lead the creation of the Blogs at Penn State , Podcasts at Penn State , and the Digital Commons . Camplese oversees the annual Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology , several community development events, and numerous other initiatives designed to support the adoption of technology for teaching and learning.

I have now had the opportunity to work directly with Cole for longer than 2 years at Penn State, and have always found it enjoyable. I am very excited about having Cole contribute to the Impact series and look forward to some active participation and development of dialog. Cole’s post is scheduled for November 5, 2008. Please feel free to comment (early and often!), ask questions, build on the conversation, and enjoy.