Week 5 - Ken and Liz

This week saw the first of our participant presentations in the virtual conference room. Ken teaches 20 Great Ways to Promote Your Business Online. Yesterday evening he showed us his very well established Profitable Hospitality website where he shares not only his own knowledge and expertise in the area of hospitality, but also that he has become adept at tapping in to the vast array of information which is available on the web. Ken is also using Google Sites as a teaching and learning tool and Google Groups as a collaborative tool. So Ken is already immersed in the world of Web2. What then, I wonder is he gaining from this program? I'm going to ask him!

Liz is new to the world of Web2. She teaches a Crash Course in English Grammar and worked with Ken to develop a resource library for her students. She decided on Google Sites as her tool of choice. Her idea is to link her students to existing drills and other grammar exercises already available online - rather than reinventing the wheel - brilliant! Her students will have the option of working independently through those exercises which are relevant for them between classes. She is also keen to incorporate some collaboration through Google Groups in the future. Liz reported that it took her about an hour to set up the first incarnation of her online space which again, is brilliant and also encouraging for others who are taking their first steps.

Last night we had webcam functionality enabled in the room for the first time. In this room only the current speaker is visible. Participants seemed to like it and I like it as well. I think that a real-time visual image of the speaker adds another dimension to virtual conferencing. It humanizes the experience and adds that bit of body language, a smile or a nod for example, which is likely to minimise any misunderstandings.

Both presenters seemed confident and comfortable in the virtual conference room. Both used web touring to share their work and both used informal discussion to engage their audience. The group as a whole are now texting easily in the room and seem to enjoy asking their questions in this way. Some are speaking very confidently as well. There were many questions for our presenters which demonstrates an interest in their topics and a willingness to learn from each other. The collaboration between Ken and Liz was very pleasing as I have felt that collaboration was missing in this project. It now seems to be emerging in small ways as the paired facilitation work begins and as they ask questions of each other.

There is a feeling, (and I can't describe it any other way), that in this group, the group dynamics are changing. This group are working independently. Apart from the paired facilitation activities, they rarely connect outside of our weekly meetings - which is the same as most of the face to face programs we offer at the college. However, yesterday I observed subtle differences in the way that people enter the room and greet each other. They know each other better now, they ask direct questions of each other. In the context of Tuckman's forming, storming, norming and performing theory they seem to have moved into the Norming stage without going through the Storming stage. I have observed no jockeying for position - in fact quite the reverse. Those who are more confident have tended to hang back to give those who are less experienced the opportunity to participate. I have seen this before in online groups and I wonder if online group dynamics develop in a different way. Comments on this would be most welcome. I'm looking forward to watching what happens over the coming weeks.

Week 4: Asynchronous E-Learning

This week we were joined by Mo Kader who delivers a range of e-learning courses using asynchronous text-based strategies. He believes that this method provides great flexibility for students who can log on and collect their next assignment or ask questions when it suits them. This delivery style seems well suited to the busy lifestyles we seem to have adopted on mass in the 21st century! Thanks Mo, we appreciate your time.

That said, our asynchronous forum has been very quiet this week. For this group it seems to be an additional burden - just another thing to do - and something which so far has not been of great value to participants. My thoughts are that our regular weekly meetings in the virtual conference room may provide sufficient contact and that people are busy thinking about the multitude of technologies to which they have been exposed. Maybe the forum is overkill.

For the facilitator (me), this is problematic because I don't actually know whether people are happily engaging or whether they need help. I have to confess to doing a ring-around earlier in the week after which I was greatly relieved to find that there is a whole lot of activity going on out there! It's also possible that including the expert speakers early in our program has accentuated the lack of feedback as these sessions left very little time for us to chat about what people have been doing in their projects. This is something I may re-think next time.

So that brings me to my learning for the week which is about creating appropriate conditions for e-learning. They are:

Trust - to post or blog for the first time is a big step. Participants have to feel they are in a safe environment and that anything they share will be well received. It takes time and requires confidence to build this kind of trust.

Freedom to explore and engage with tools of relevance.

A structure in which to engage and explore which incorporates multiple methods for regular feedback.

To set realistic goals.

A high level of support is necessary along the way.

The space to reflect.

The ability and willingness to learn independently.

Week 3: Guest Speaker

This week we were lucky enough to have an e-learning expert chat to us in our virtual conference session. The focus of the session was how she became interested in e-learning and where it has led her. She talked about training the TAA online for students in the Northern Territories and facilitating professional development in the NSW Ace Sector. She also spent some time showing us how to use whiteboard tools in the virtual conference. Thanks Deb - very generous of you to give up your time!

Week 2 Retrospective

As participants become more confident with the technology I am starting see a few more blogs and a lot more sharing of information in the forums which is fantastic to see. Some of our new resources are:

"The Media report on ABC radio national had an episode on blogs - you can listen to it online, downoad it as a podcast ro read a transcript...

This URL below is for a site that reports on blogging and has lists of popular blogs, stuff on trends etc

Also, this is a site for blogging by email - very simple, by the looks!"


"I found this great set of free downloadable e-learning modules at the Australian flexible learning framework"

"I even came across a free teleprompter which rolls your text along the screen - great if you are making a speech, or recoding a podcast (something I'd like to get into). It's at: http://www.freeprompter.com/"

"Here's a link to my blog"
(Lots of great links in here).

One participant has written a piece on how to make your blog more interesting "

"I've found this great free online course on Web 2.0 Tools - Work Literacy."

"One of my favorite Web 2.0 tools at the moment is Glogster. This is an interactive poster mash up tool."

A recommendation to read Seth Godin"



As well people are sharing tips and tricks such as:

"Tags are used to great an index for your blog. It so others can find a post on a particular subject eg. Lets say you wrote a post on marketing and tag it about a year ago and had added some other posts on marketing recently also. The readers of your blog then just have to click on the marketing tag to bring up all the posts on marketing through your blog even the one you did a year ago."


I have to confess to an "aha" moment this week. My understanding of connectivism moved from an academic understanding of the concept, to a 'lived' understanding - an understanding that comes from experiencing what it means to observe and participate in the collective generation of knowledge. I have been saying for a while now that no one will ever know about all the online tools but I now realise that if I stay connected I will at least know what's out there to choose from.


This week participants will be synthesising their ideas and making decisions about their focus in the program.

Week 2: Virtual Conference Orientation

This week was not without it's challenges!

During the week I anticipated that participants would explore Web2 tools, discuss their discoveries in the forum and start a blog to record their learning. To facilitate this I created a wiki page called Useful Links. I sub-divided the page into categories, e.g. blogs, wikis, podcasts, etc. Within each sub-division was an explanation of of the tool (often a link to Commoncraft video) and a series of links to the tools within each category e.g. Blogger, Wordpress, Edublog, etc.

What happened?

Lots of independent exploration, a little forum sharing and a couple of blogs. Not bad!!!

The conference session

We had more than our fair share of technical issues: some people too loud; some too soft; one couldn't get in at all; one person's browser functionality didn't work (so no web tours for her!); a couple of people couldn't use the whiteboard; and the private text messaging seemed to work for some and not for others. The result was that we started about twenty minutes late. Of course, this impacted on the session and unfortunately not everyone was able to contribute to the discussion. I also felt we ended rather abruptly as, naturally, people had to leave on time.

During the session we looked at the various ways of communicating in the room, we used the whiteboard a little and went for quick web tour. The highlight of the session was that each participant gave a short account of their e-learning adventures during the preceding week. Below is a list of the tools which were investigated by the group, the reason they might be useful and any other comments which were made:

- Blogs as a learning journal
- Google Docs for document sharing
- Teacher Tube to access lesson plan videos
- e-Portfolios to store resumes, to document personal goals or as a place for students to plan their learning
- Edna virtual conferencing
- Ning - a dummy course was set up with a view to creating a Digital Photography course. The hope was to upload photos and create slide shows. The downside of Ning was thought to be the advertisements.
- Moodle (our LMS). The comments were that Moodle is too complex/sophisticated for beginners (i.e. teachers) and has too many layers - but is probably easier than Ning for students to navigate.
- Studios - another LMS which has free hosting.
- Discovere (our virtual conference room) - could used for non-English speaking background students to practice speaking and listening or for mindmapping
- Moodle, The Well and Edna forums - to see what the conversations look like. One participant joined a forum another commented that they seemed user-friendly.
- LinkedIn for professional exposure.

That's quite a list in just one week!

What would I do differently next time?

1. I have never experienced such a high number of technical issues. Next time I might make a time to meet with each individual to resolve any issues before the first online meeting. It's off-putting for people to see that level of technical difficulty. The thought is likely to be 'how could I deal with that?'

2. Those issues resolved I would start on time and introduce participant presentations earlier so that everyone could speak. If we still ran over time the web tour or the whiteboard activity could be conducted in a later session.

3. My concept for this program was to give people the freedom to choose what to explore. Now I am beginning to think that perhaps I have provided too much information. A couple of people have commented on feeling overwhelmed. (Actually, I'm still overwhelmed myself - but I think I'm just used to that feeling!) However a better strategy may have been to spend more time with individuals at the EOI stage and establish what individual needs may be and then allocate a tool or two to each person. Time will tell and I plan to check on this in the review process.

4. I also uploaded a series of documents containing guidelines and instructions which may be helpful throughout the program. Possibly too much too soon.

So, on we go. This week's tasks are to contribute to the forum and complete the setting of up a blog. Next week in our virtual conference session we look forward to a guest presenter who will tell us her online story and demonstrate using the whiteboard.

Week 1: Face to Face

Last night we had our initial face to face meeting. As expected there was a range of experience in the room. Some people are blogging, podcasting, contributing to forums and the like, while others are taking their first steps in the world of e-learning.

I came away feeling really enthusiastic and excited at what is to come as well as a little apprehensive - what if it all goes horribly wrong!!!!!:) I could see that some participants were also apprehensive and we discussed the idea of introducing an e-learning element into an existing course rather than creating a whole program - maybe a resources library or a forum which might extend beyond the course. Small steps seemed to be the way to go for this group.

During the evening we covered the program outline and objectives, individual learning objectives, had a tour round Moodle (our LMS)and lots of talk about Web2 tools. We will have eight virtual conferencing sessions of which five will be participant led and eight weeks of forum chat of which five weeks will also be participant led. During this time participants will be exploring Web2 tools with a view to integrating at least one e-learning strategy and/or tool into their own college programs.

This week's forum chat will be about two things: what people discover about Web2 tools, and what it feels like to set up a blog for the first time. Our first virtual conference session will be an orientation to the environment.