Putting together some materials for a presentation in the edna10 Live Classroom for next week I’ve been compiling visuals about edna milestones.
if you’ve been following edna for the last ten years you will know that the face of edna has changed over that time. (I’ve often disrespectfully referred to them as edna’s facelifts)Here are a few pointers (although I’ve probably left many things out- you might like to comment):
- Launched originally with a logo created by a student at Blackfriars Priory School in SA. The logo was chosen from entries submitted to a competition. The original was a globe showing a map of Australia. Great care was taken to ensure that Tasmania was visible. The globe looked like an eyeball complete with an eyelid. The name for Education Network Australia was EdNA Directory Service. The basic purpose of EdNA in 1997 was to work as a searchable directory of selected internet resources
- In 1998 the shortlived edna.com was launched
- In November 1998 the logo was modified slightly, a new banner line implemented, and the website implemented frames (remember how we were all so hooked on them?). We are now known as EdNA Online. The newsletter EdNA News and Views is already available.
- October 1999 EdNA Online launched a Flash home page, with the byline Building the Australian Knowledge Society.
- Then in 2000 there was a basic change in EdNA’s purpose in life. Services increasingly focussed on communication and collaboration, and with connecting people, rather than just being a searchable online directory. EdNA email services based on Lyris software are already in place and well used, EdNA Online Communities are launched.
- October 2001 - we went for what looked like simplified home page, with RSS fed news headlines running down the right hand side, drop down menus, sector specific links, two levels of search, and behind it all some new technology.
- In 2002 we launched the Calendar for Australian Schools, an online calendar of events that schools might like to celebrate. In 2003 this was also available to schools as a wall calendar, and in 2008 the 6th version of the wall calendar will be sent to every school in Australia.
- September 2003, the logo has shortened. The eyeball on the world is still there. My EdNA is launched, a personalised login leads to a page where the user can select EdNA Online RSS feeds for recently added resources, sector headlines, browse categories, as well as selected RSS feeds from other education sites. The search box has disappeared from the home page, instead you search via the Search Centre. EdNA tools and services are accessible via series of drop down menus that come down from a double menu bar at the top. The words Register and Login make their first appearance on the home page.
- In 2004 we launch a series of workshop programmes to teach people about metadata and RSS feeds. We’ve created hot topics in Higher Ed and Theme pages for schools.
- March 2005 EdNA Groups is launched. Based on Moodle, it had had a trial launch in November 2004, and suddenly online tools took on a whole new meaning!
- June 2005, Mobile edna, and Java Script Generators for EdNA RSS feeds are available.
- December 2005 we launch Single Sign On. One login will get you into My EdNA, Groups (My Groups), and My Lists. Sandpit Groups has been created where the adventurous can play with new web 2.0 tools.
- Mid 2006 - a real change! A new logo, EdNA Online becomes edna, new backend software brings the demise of my edna for the time being, new look and feel to the web site, sector entry points, new colours and layout. Our tags become Find. Join. Connect.
- Work has continued apace in 2007 with the release of the URL shortening service url.edna, refinement of the search functionality, upgrade of Groups, Sandpit Groups and Lists with new versions of the underlying software, experimentation with new tools in Groups and the Sandpit such as LAMS, Live Classroom, all leading up to the 10th birthday celebrations. You can now use edna’s RSS Converter tool to convert any RSS feed into Javascript.
If you want some visual reminders see the powerpoint presentations available at http://sandpit.edna.edu.au/course/view.php?id=107
What a long way we’ve come in 10 years, and this is only one possible slice of the cake. I’ve been at edna for 7 of those 10 years, and I can assure you that things are always changing, we are always looking for new challenges, looking for new ways to maximise benefits for the Australian education and training community.
Stay tuned for what is coming next…
Post a Comment