Comments on: I love sprouts!

By: Sheila’s work blog » ICOPER Widget workshop

Sheila’s work blog » ICOPER Widget workshop — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:37:03 +0000

[…] elsewhere? I’ve already been burnt by this kind of changing business model my love affair with the Sprout Builder widget application came to an abrupt end when they monetized their business […]

By: Widgets, web 2.0 and learning design @ CETIS08 | Sheila’s work blog

Widgets, web 2.0 and learning design @ CETIS08 | Sheila’s work blog — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:35:40 +0000

[…] I’ve already publically declared my love for widgets, I was delighted to co-chair the “planning and designing learning in a world of […]

By: Sheilamacneill

Sheilamacneill — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:52:41 +0000

Hi Fred

Thanks for your comments. I haven’t had any problems viewing the sprout pages or any sprouts I’ve built. However some people haven’t been able to view the sprouts with explorer. So there are obviously still a few bugs to sort out. Remember the days when things only worked with explorer – how times have changed

By: Fred Riley

Fred Riley — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:51:53 +0000

I came across this blog from the JISC CETIS newsletter. Sprouts seem like a useful tool at first glance, and the intro video is very professionally made. Looking through the website, though, the “What are Sprouts?” page regularly and consistently crashed my copy of Firefox 3, even after a reboot, which doesn’t inspire confidence. Neither does the Features page have much technical information. In particular, I’d have liked to see an example of the HTML code comprising a Sprout, which is mentioned in the video – I strongly suspect that the code links to applications and data on the Sproutbuilder website, which if true is asking for future trouble as all functionality and content would be locked into the company’s servers.

There are other mashup tools around (see http://www.programmableweb.com/) which, though not as user-cuddly as Sprouts, at least leaves the developer in control of the code, and I’d prefer to stick with them. As ever with e-learning tools (yeah, I know, this goes beyond e-learning, but I’m talking in a HE context), ease of use and authorability is at the expense of loss of control and proprietary lock-in.

By: carnet

carnet — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:54:48 +0000

Sheila,

Thanks for trying out Sprout Builder. I am glad it was a fun and engaging experience. We have seen many educational uses of the product and even have a team member focused solely on educational markets. Please send us any feedback if there are features you would like to see built.

best,

carnet