Monday, December 15, 2008  

David Jakes is a professional speaker and blogger specializing in school-based technology, particularly focusing on teachers and administrators working in a Web 2.0 environment. Jakes uses an EditMe site (jakes.editme.com) to share the excellent presentation resources used in his keynote speeches and workshops. 

Anyone interested in leveraging technology in education will find this site a valuable resource. The content is thought-provoking, entertaining and full of great ideas. Best of all, the site allows you to benefit from Jakes' wonderful speaking engagements without actually being there. It's a bold move for a professional speaker to put his presentations online like this, but the quality here must lead many viewers to book David Jakes at their next professional development workshop, seminar or conference.

David was kind enough to share a few thoughts about his EditMe use:

"I've always been deeply interested in the potential of wikis for collaboration and building collaborative knowledge.  As an educator, I am looking for a tool that can directly support the development of a 21st Century Skill, and that specifically is collaborative knowledge construction.  Wikis certainly can supply that platform.  The next step is to understand how to best apply them to support this type of learning, and how to structure learning opportunities so that the tool can be leveraged most effectively.

I've seen most of the wiki platforms that are out there (Wetpaint, pbWiki, Wikispaces, etc.) and I chose EditMe because of the flexibility that I have in determining the permissions (who can edit and who can view) for each page.  The different combinations, and the ease of the application of those preferences to different pages gives me the flexibility that I want.  As someone who is on the road a lot and modifies digital content frequently, the ability to have a web-based solution that enables ease of editing (vs. FTP, web page editing software, etc.) is very attractive.  And the cost can't be beat.  I don't mind paying a small fee every month (less than the cost of a lunch) to have a sophisticated platform that separates me from other speakers in look and feel.  That's an advantage.

Additionally, I particularly enjoy the ease of embedding content from YouTube and Slideshare.net in my wiki pages."

Thanks, David, and keep up the excellent work.