We've used a number of authoring tools with teaching colleagues, who generally
find them all confusing and time-consuming.
If teaching materials are Powerpoint files, they go onto our Student Intranet in
that format.
If teaching materials are handouts and are to reach students as on-line
handouts, then we convert them to PDF files.
If the teaching materials are to be converted into proper interactive on-line
learning materials, then only the keenest will be given web authoring software.
More usually, they will take their existing materials, describe their ideas for
interactions, then an ILT team of multimedia graduates on secondment and Modern
Apprentices will convert into web format, usually using Dreamweaver and Flash.
Teachers shouldn't learn HTML or XML: buy software to do the donkey work.
The only Word-to-Web conversion we tend to do in software would be when I get
sent minutes, job vacancies, and a few other things for our Staff Intranet
(9000+ files) or our Internet site. I don't usually use Dreamweaver's strip, as
it still leaves in too much for my liking.
Most of my web work is done in Hot Metal Pro, which converts Word files into
very minimalist HTML ... and it's all syntactically correct.
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David King
Dudley College
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http://www.dudleycol.ac.uk
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