Sometime ago, Will Richardson of Webblog-ed News was talking about how it may be possible for grade school/high school students to have a complete records of their educational experience — papers, essays, assignments, etc.– in one place via the magic of blogs and/or wikis. Students could build on past work and have a collection that showed them where they’d been and where they could go. I thought it was a fabulous notion and I tucked it away in the recesses of my mind.

Now I’m reexamining that notion in light of my graduate school experience. I started grad school last March, and the frustration I’m feeling towards how my contributions are managed is mounting. Northwestern is on the quarter system, so every quarter they open a new section in their course management system — Blackboard. Blackboard is billed as a “web environment for class participants to communicate and collaborate”. However, every quarter that environment turns over and a new crop of collaborative environments is constructed. Every quarter I lose the conversations and collaborations that were built with others in my degree program, instructor insights, supplemental reading lists and articles. Some of this I can swipe and keep on my harddrive, but most of it is gone.

Why would it be hard to assign an environment for every class/every quarter and have that environment persist? I like the idea of having an end-to-end experience of my graduate school program, but I’m not sure that Northwestern would change their wicked ways. Guess I’ll ask them…

Has anyone set up something similar for a degree program? Thoughts?