"Are Daedalus and Commonspace Dead?"
Conversations
This e-mail message was originally posted by Todd Taylor and is now copied in its original form from the acw-l archives.
I've been a strong supporter of both of these products for years. I've worked in the Daedalus booth and I applauded Paul when he was giving sneak previews of CommonSpace (code name "Turbo Dog") in hotel rooms at conferences. I still proudly wear their t-shirts. Almost exactly this time last year, we (Daniel Anderson and I) were in a situation similar to Judith's and we bought licenses for both DIWE and CS for a newly funded classroom. At the time I think it was the right decision for us.
However, I would not make the same choice today because our campus' immediate and long-term future requires us to think in terms of web-based instructional tools, not LAN-based ones. A week ago today on the WPA-L list, Fred Kemp himself wrote, "computer-based classrooms have reached their peak as a concept," suggesting that LAN-based approaches are dying or dead.
If and when Daedalus and/or Common Space create a reliable, scaleable, affordable way to allow instructors and students to sit down at *any* workstation with a contemporary web browser (and a live connection) and use the application fully, I'll be one of the first to jump back on the bandwagon. Until then, I'm forced to look for other solutions, despite my romantic attachment to software (like DIWE and CS) designed by writing teachers for writing instruction.
The bottom line, though, for folks like Judith, I think, is that DIWE and CS might make good sense for the time being. If you have extra money and no writing software, DIWE and CS are great products. If your campus technical folk cannot provide you with or lead you to reliable web-based tools but they *can* install and support DIWE and CS, then your new facility should function fine for a reasonable length of time. If you can't assume that your students will have reasonable access to technology outside of what you provide in class, then you're still living largely in the LAN-based world anyway.
However, I have to say (gulp) that the current versions of DIWE and CS are not, as the online description of LSU's "Student Technology Fee Plan"** requires, "state of the art." It's a painful moment for me to feel that it's now time for the professional community in and around ACW-L to consider the question: "Are Daedalus and CommonSpace are dead?" Perhaps Fred or the folks from SixthFloor can fly in and declare that all will be made well soon with new versions. That would be a relief.
- Todd Taylor
vol. 4 Iss. 1 Fall 1999