I guess the question is really whether you want to teach them only
about EAD, or about EAD as well as practical real-life issues
surrounding EAD. If you're trying to limit to EAD only, something like
Oxygen will distract from that and get into the realm of all the
awesome ways that a good XML editor can help you when working with
XML. You wouldn't really be able to show XML in Oxygen without
introducing them to a number of great features of the editor: like
color coding of different syntactic elements, validation,
auto-completion of tags, real-time error detection... these things
would just show up during the course of your workshop. The color
coding would certainly help them parse EAD visually though, which
could aid in your teaching. Discussing editor choice and editor
capabilities will leave you with less time to focus on EAD though.

It would probably be jarring to learn about EAD in a workshop using
Oxygen, then go home to implement it and only have NoteTab or
NotePad++ available to you for encoding. If you've learned to rely on
something in the beginning, it could be hard to re-learn to do it
without all the built-in aids of a good XML editor.

On the other hand, learning the practical lessons of what a good XML
editor can contribute to your EAD experiences might be the most
important lesson some people take from your workshop! I remember
working with NoteTab Pro for 6 months before I used Oxygen. Within a
few months of using Oxygen, my understanding of XML and EAD had
increased dramatically, because many of the built-in aids really help
you understand XML better. For example, in something like NoteTab, you
often aren't informed about errors until long the fact. Oxygen's
real-time error detection means you have a constant tutor hovering
over your shoulder helping you understand closing tags, attributes,
etc. Another aspect that help students of EAD learn is the listings
all attributes and elements that are valid for the element you're
working within in Oxygen. It really helps them understand the
hierarchy and bigger picture.

Joyce

On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 11:13 AM, Michele R Combs <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I'm going to be teaching a one-day workshop on EAD encoding this summer and am debating with myself whether it's better to use a full-featured XML editor like oXygen, or go with something like NoteTab Pro or Notepad++ that just provides some general (mostly visual) XML assistance.  I've used Notepad++ in the past with students in our LIS classes with pretty good success.  I can think of fairly obvious pros and cons for both approaches.  I'd appreciate your thoughts, particularly from anyone who has taught similar workshops.
>
> Michele
>
> (be green - don't print this email!)
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Michele Combs
> Manuscripts Librarian
> Special Collections Research Center
> Syracuse University Libraries
> 222 Waverly Ave.
> Syracuse, NY  13244
> 315-443-2081
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--
Joyce Chapman
NCSU Libraries
Metadata and Cataloging/
Digital Library Initiatives
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