Sakai in Small "Schools"
I was pleased to see Michael Feldstein's blog post about Sakai at smaller organizations (he also alluded to the strength of Sakai's teacing and learning leadership). Coincidentally, that's exactly what I was planning to blog about.
I've been spending some time reaching out to Sakai users that I don't typically speak to on a regular basis to find out how things are going with their Sakai experience. And it seems that a bunch of these conversations have been with liberal arts colleges and other smaller institutitions. They are all doing extremely well with Sakai, typically but not always, in conjunction with a Sakai Commercial Affiliate that provides hosting and support. Here are a few that I've spoken with recently:
- Allegheny College, a liberal arts college in western Pennsylvania with 2100 sutdents. Hosted by The Longsight Group.
- Washington and Lee, a liberal arts college in Virginia with approximately 2100 students as well. Also hosted by Longsight.
- Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (NEOUCOM), a medical school that servers several universities and has an enrollment of less than 1000. Longsight again (I'm detecting a pattern...hmmm).
- The University of the Arts in Philadelphia with its 2400 students have been using Sakai for a long time. They are self-hosted.
The experiences of these organizations clearly illustrate that Sakai isn't only for large research universities. I know the commercial affiliates are working to get these stories out. I hope we will see folks from some of these schools present at the upcoming 2010 Sakai Conference and, of course, at other conferences where those considering a new system might hear what they have to say.
(FWIW...I put "schools" in quotes because in the UK, "schools" fairly unambiguously refers to primary/secondary education while in the US it can refer to any type of educational institution. Here I'm obviously using it in the US-sense))
, a Sakai Commercial Affiliate
Well, I'm going to cheat here
Well, I'm going to cheat here a bit as I just posted a comment on this same topic to Michael Feldstein's blog post so I'm going to paste it here as well...the fact that you both have the same first name has made this even easier!
POSTED ORIGINALLY TO: http://mfeldstein.com/sakai-small-schools-and-pedagogy
Thanks Michael for highlighting this topic. When I first got involved with Sakai in 2005 one of the things that really struck me was the fact that I was “judged” not by the school I represented but for the ideas I brought to the community and my time and effort in contributing to the project. As I got more and more involved I started to see the benefits that comes from working within this type of meritocracy where your “stature” is based on the value the community places on your contributions and not your name or the name of your school, etc. This model is one that I’ve now started to feel many organizations could benefit from adopting.
With regards to the specific issue of small schools and Sakai, I obviously completely agree that the notion that Sakai is only for large research institutions is, simply put, a myth. It is easy to understand how this myth began as the core institutions who started Sakai (MIT, Stanford, Michigan, Indiana, etc.) were all large research institutions with big technology budgets. But this is a bit like saying that you need to have the resources of a Ford or GM (well, maybe these aren’t the best examples) just to be able to drive a car. Yes, you may need major resources to build a new car from scratch but certainly not to just drive one…which is kind of what we are doing at Marist….we drive Sakai but don’t build it…with one caveat, we like to toss in our ideas that we think might improve the driving experience and then help test those ideas when someone implements them. Which, now that I think about it, wouldn’t be a bad idea for car makers….;-)
Again, thanks for highlighting this important issue.
Reading the post I must say
Reading the post I must say that Sakai has team worked well with the small schools.Well the nation has really got a very good Team working on big projects.I must say that this institution has got a large number of skilled manpower working with them to keep the good works going.
I never knew that "schools" denotes all kind of educational institutes .I am here in Nepal and here "school" refers to only primary/secondary educational center as same as there in UK.
Thanks Michael for
Thanks Michael for highlighting this topic. When I first got involved with Sakai in 2005 one of the things that really struck me was the fact that I was “judged” not by the school I represented but for the ideas I brought to the community and my time and effort in contributing to the project. As I got more and more involved I started to see the benefits that comes from working within this type of meritocracy where your “stature” is based on the value the community places on your contributions and not your name or the name of your school, etc. This model is one that I’ve now started to feel many organizations could benefit from adopting.
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