Summary of week 7

I know I have only just back from Pakistan, but today I am off again time on holiday...where there is no Internet access. So think of me over the next days as I go through extreme withdrawal! I will be back on September 15th. In the meantime, Bronwyn Hegarty will be keeping an eye on things - don't hesitate to contact her if you have any queries.

Next week's summary
I will not be around to do the usual summary next week, so if anyone would like to do it...please do. Write the summary on your blog and then post the link to the FO2010 email group.

Next week's meeting
Your meeting next week is being facilitated by Malcolm and Claire, and overseen by Bronwyn. They are hoping to use DimDim. This may be a challenge, so please give them all your support and keep an eye out for instructions on what to do.

Break-out rooms
My key learning this week was how to use the break-out rooms in Elluminate. Willie, Jane and Karen did a brilliant job of introducing us to them. This was a first for me - I have never used them before because I have been a tad scared to do so. here were the key points for me.

• Have someone in each room ready to start the conversation or activities.
  
• Use the timer so that people know how much time they have for their activities, and to warn them when they will be taken back to the main room.
• Ask someone from each room to feed back to the whole group what they had talked about.
• Summarise the main points from the whole session at the end to bring everything together.

Here is the recording for you to see how things worked.

This week
Here are a few thoughts from FO2010 participants this week.

Folke sees social networking as a way to show his students that he is an authentic person. Susan has been trying to get her head around twitter, whilst Sharon has a better understanding about how blogging and comments work. Karen H wonders if her career as online facilitator has ended before it has even got going. Jillian has been having a laugh, and Willie has been cooking up a storm in her microwave.

Mark is thinking about how he can engage people in deeper critical thinking. Malcolm has found an interesting example of eLearning in the field of health promotion. Jean has been looking at how we learn using games. Lyn has found it useful to remind herself about the role of the online facilitator, and Karen believes one of the things we can do to engage people online is to make the 'place' they came to as attractive as possible.

Behave yourselves while I am away, and enjoy your experience with DimDim. Sarah