[Using Sakai] WebDAV & Sakai

[Marshall Feldman]

Alex,

At least one teacher's needs are not covered by this. Here are some 
examples:

  * For an article I'm writing, I want to use that diagram of a gizmo I
    used in a lecture last year. So I enter "gizmo" in Spotlight, it
    finds the file on Sakai, and I just drag and drop it into the
    article document (depending on the nature of the article, the
    document can be in Word, OO.o, LyX, Eclipse, or Mathematica) on my iMac.
  * Keep all the references I use in Zotero, and for those for which I
    have copies of the document, keep the copies on Sakai as linked
    attachments, so that clicking on the link opens the document on
    whatever device I'm using at the moment (Mac, PC, tablet, phone, ...)
  * Use data from my research for my teaching; keep the data on Sakai so
    that they are directly accessible from whatever device and software
    my students or I might use (Excel, Calc, SPSS, SAS, R, ArcInfo,
    Mathematica, etc. on PC's, OS X, IOS, Android, Linux, etc. devices)
  * Backup copies of files: *good*; multiple copies of files: *bad*.
    Don't want to have to upload and download multiple copies of
    because, besides wasting time, the files easily can get out of sync
    and this approach can result in unwanted file proliferation. The
    sole exception is student versions, since an individual student with
    write privileges could screw up a file for an entire class. (So
    could a professor, but this is called "creativity.") Instead, want
    students to be able to access files that the LMS knows it has to
    make a copy rather than let the student work directly with the
    original, but this should be done behind the scenes so the student
    doesn't know they're not working with the original.
  * If a student sends me a Sakai Message to ask for a good example of,
    say, a portfolio project assignment, I just click on Spotlight,
    search for "'portfolio project,' 'year:=2010-2014','course:=ENG
    101','grade:>=A-'," have Spotlight generate a list of student
    portfolio projects in ENG 101 offered between 2010 and 2014 and that
    received a grade of A- or higher, then I select one or two of these,
    and automatically Sakai puts links to the examples into my reply to
    the student.
  * If I decide to add something from a file to something I'm working on:
      o I don't want to stop what I'm working on and have to open a web
        browser, click on a bookmark, enter a username and password,
        click a tab for the location where I think a file resides, waste
        half an hour before I realize it's somewhere else, click on
        another tag, find the file, use some stinkin' point-and-click
        interface to download the file, then use some other stinkin'
        point-and-click interface to open the file in the app I'm using
        for my work, only now it's three hours later and I forgot what I
        was originally going to do with the file in the thing I'm
        working on.
      o I don't want to stop what I'm working on and have to open a web
        browser, click on a bookmark, enter a username and password,
        click a tab for the location where I think a file resides, waste
        half an hour before I realize it's somewhere else, click on
        another tag, find the file, use some stinkin' drag & drop
        interface to download the file, then use some stinkin'
        point-and-click interface to open the file in the app I'm using
        for my work, only now it's two hours and 55 minutes later and I
        forgot what I was originally going to do with the file in the
        thing I'm working on.
      o I don't want to stop what I'm working on and have to open an app
        (Cyberduck or whatever), click on a bookmark to access a
        Resources tool in a Sakai site that I think has what I'm looking
        for, navigate up and down the folder hierarchy, waste twenty
        minutes before I realize it's somewhere else, click on another
        bookmark, find the file, use some stinkin' point-and-click
        interface to download the file, then use some other stinkin
        point-and-click interface to open the file in the app I'm using
        for my work, only now it's two hours and forty minutes later and
        I forgot what I was originally going to do with the file in the
        thing I'm working on.

I also used to think I'd have no use for a microwave, believe power 
windows were only for lazy people, wondered what kind of person would 
record TV shows, and thought anyone who paid extra to use a smartphone 
rather than a 12-button mobile phone was just throwing money away. But 
thankfully I wasn't in charge.

I also realize that some of this, like Sakai-Spotlight integration, 
would take considerable development work. But other things, like 
Zotero-Sakai integration could be done today if we could use WebDAV to 
mount remote file systems (which, incidentally, would at least partially 
allow Spotlight to work with Sakai).

I hope this nails down, once and for all, why solutions that only 
transfer files do not meet teachers' needs. This doesn't necessarily 
mean if you asked teachers they would tell you this, anymore than 
someone who's never used a microwave oven would be likely to tell you 
they need one.

     Marsh

On 2/14/15 5:20 PM, Alex Ballesté wrote:
> I think d&d is a great feature specially if you use chrome that allows 
> you to upload folder structure. It would be great the same behaviour 
> on all browsers and if we could use it in other parts of sakai like 
> attachments, but for now is what we have. IMO we have a powerful team 
> in resources d&d, zip/unzip and webdav, and teachers needs are covered 
> in this aspect. I feel that the next goal of resources should point to 
> versioning files or sharing them across sites... Just thinking aloud.
>
>

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