The Virtual International Day of the Midwife is an annual 24 hour free online conference facilitated by Sarah Stewart and Deborah Davis, who are midwives and midwifery educators on May 5th May.The aim of the event is to share information and resources with the international midwifery community; introduce midwives to online communication and collaboration technology; introduce midwives to concept of open access and Creative Commons; support midwives' professional development, especially those in rural and remote locations.
Communication tools
Here is the wiki that is used to organise the conference, disseminate recordings, provide information for participants and collect feedback:
The VIDM Facebook fan page is used to disseminate information to midwives and facilitate Q&A, as well as discussion:
Twitter is also used to disseminate information:
VIDM evaluation
Here is an evaluation of the 2009 event and the 2010 conference so you can see how the event has evolved. Accompanying these evaluations are some comments about how to organise a virtual event using social media.
Organising an online event
Here is a video of Deborah and Sarah talking about how to facilitate an online event - it may take a little time to download. An audio-only recording can be found here.
7 comments:
Great site Sarah!
The thing I love about a wiki is that it can be the cheapest, and most versatile form of Learning Content Management System there is.
Materials can be linked to and updated on the fly to help with the organic nature of the participants requirements at any one time. Also there is a real opportunity for community to form, due to the fact that everyone can contribute, comment and consume.
Thanks MattyBee
The only thing I have found about this wiki and Wikieducator is that people do not often edit it...I have done much of the editing. I do wonder if it is because most people do not understand how wikis work...what do you think?
F02010 participants could probably do with some directions on editing the wiki. We could add resources we have found, stimulated by the course.
You're right, Malcolm. I haven't put a huge number of directions because Wikieducator is a tad complicated and I have taken a 'copy and paste' approach. Any resources that you can come up with are gratefully received :)
Great site. I have been able to step through the steps and can see immediate applications for other events. The way of the future? there are lots of discussions about wikis in the stuff but no idea how to edit anything. It would be worth thinking about as an option.
Thanks Gillian for bringing up one of the frustrations of being an online facilitator.
I'll be the first to admit I need to add more resources around wikieducator which I'll do before we start planning our mini conference in wikieducator. But as for the VIDM wiki, if you look at the various tabs on the side of the wiki, you'll see I have supplied a whole page on how to edit the VIDM wiki.
What I find on a consistent level (and I must admit I used to be as bad at this as any one) is that people do not take time to really look at the resources you have provided. There is an immediate reaction to think 'I don't know how to do this so I will not engage with it' instead of taking time to look and take note.
I think one of the greatest challenges of working online and improving people's digital literacy is moving people from 'tell me what to do, preferably F2F' to 'I'm going to be more confident and try to work things out for myself - if I can't, I'll ask for help'.
Any idea about how we do that? :)
@Gillian and Malcolm Lewis
You may register for a training on Wiki Editing skills at
http://wikieducator.org/Learning4Content/Workshops/eL4C50/Register
If you need mentoring support, please do not hesitate to contact me. I am a Wiki Ambassador and am only too happy to help.
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