Another opportunity to learn

One of last year's FO2010 participants, CoachCarole has offered us the opportunity to attend a live session talking about online facilitation. Here is the information she passed on:

eFacilitate – let’s talk about facilitation online

by CoachCarole

I facilitate online and so do many of my colleagues around the world. eFacilitation is an important skill for the organised and elearning savvy teachers and coordinators in our educational and corporate environments. This is a new series of webinars being introduced to budding eFacilitators everywhere.

Monday March 14th at 5 pm Sydney time (GMT +11)

Know your tools, work with people

Facilitating is about working with people, whether it is online or face to face. Every facilitator needs to be able to use the tools for the job: the learning platform (Moodle); the web conferencing system (Elluminate); and other communication tools such as email, skype or messaging.

The tools though, are secondary.

Please join us to Identify good facilitation practice! and discuss the question:

Why do we need facilitators for online courses?

Join us at: http://tinyurl.com/29tyznz

Great second week lined up for the FO2010 mini conference

The first week of the mini conference is done and we're about to launch into the second week. There were two great sessions this week: Gillian and Malcolm did a fantastic job which got us thinking about networking in a large organisation, and Sebastian introduced us to the brilliant work being done in education in India.

Next week things are really hotting up with more sessions with a range of topics.

• Building a Successful Blog
• Which lollies in this on-line facilitation lolly jar
• Cultural Competency in the online environment
• Creating an online prescence
• Pulling It All Together: Wrapping it Up and Reflecting on FO2010 with Karen, Mark and Tracy

Please check out the wiki for full details.

Please do all you can to come along and support each other.


Image: 'Plone Conference 2009 Group Photo'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/77941960@N00/4074083883

Mini conference starts next week

We have now come to my favourite part of FO2010....the mini conference. Make sure you check out the schedule so you know exactly what is happening, where and when. Please can I encourage you to attend and participate in as many events as you can in order to support the people facilitating the events :)

Here is the recording of the meeting we had this week in which we discussed last minute details about the mini conference: click here for recording. Several issues cropped up that I would ask you to consider if you are organising an event for the mini conference.

Blog
Use your blog for getting organised - not just for letting us know what's happening, but also to work through any issues. Use us...your blogging network...to help you sort out problems and clarify details. Have a look at this post by Lynn in which she shares some ideas and uses her readers to frame up her event.

Information for participants
Make sure you have very clear details about your event on the wiki. Remember that complete strangers will be looking at this page and may be joining your event. So it is imperative that you make every step very clear.

• Make sure you have linked to information about how to use the technology eg Elluminate
• Make it very clear how to get to your event eg if you are using the Elluminate room, please put the link to the room.
• Put details about your back-up plan. What will you do if your primary technology fails? For example, if you plan to use Skype as back-up, how will you organise this?

Marketing your event
Please make sure you inform everyone about your event in plenty of time. At the very least, put the details of your event on:

• the course wiki
• your blog
• the course email group

You are extremely welcome to invite people outside FO2010...the more the merrier. After all, you will not have a job as an online facilitator if you cannot drum up an audience. I will also be marketing the mini conference to my networks so be prepared to have people turn up who you do not know...and remember...these people may not be familiar with the technology you are using.

All the best to everyone, both facilitators and attendees. Have fun :) :) Sarah

Image: 'Free Pretty Pink & Purple Party Balloons+Creative+Commons'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40645538@N00/3724943003

Count down to the mini conference

We are starting our count down to the mini conference. You will see that people are putting information about their event on the wiki page, so keep an eye on what's being planned. I have also put together a Google calender and am feeding in dates/times which may make it easier to see when there are free time slots. I have also posted in my availability or lack there of.

Here's the recording to last week's discussion about the mini conference - I think we sorted out a few issues that had arisen:
http://elluminate.tekotago.ac.nz/play_recording.html?recordingId=1260253889796_1287469338304

We will have one last Elluminate meeting to answer any remaining questions on Thursday 28th October 09.00 hours (World Clock). However, if you cannot make that meeting and you have questions or comments, please feel free to contact me. Sarah

Needing help to set up a calendar

I have been trying to set up a Google Calendar which I can embed into this blog, which will help us organise ourselves better for the mini conference. But as yet...I have had terrible trouble with one thing and another. So...can anyone help me and show me...or set up a calendar...it doesn't have to be a Google Calendar if there is a good alternative. Sarah

October 18th Preparing for the course mini conference

In these two weeks you will focus on the event that you are facilitating as part of the course mini conference. The idea is for you to organise something for the conference, such as a guest speaker or a discussion panel through webconference; a discussion forum on a social networking platform; or assisting with the preparation and promotion of the mini conference generally. This will be your chance to facilitate real events online, and to experience the dimensions to facilitation online.

• Identify a topic of interest expressed by participants in this course.
  • Create a title for the event.
  • Develop an aim for the event.
• Arrange for a guest speaker, panel or other online activity.
• Negotiate with the guest speaker/s, arrange times and locations.
• Coordinate your session with the course facilitator and other students in the course wiki.
• Promote the event in your blog, on the course wiki and with your online and face-to-face contacts and networks
  • Develop a contact list
  • Create a flier
• Describe what technical support services you will need to make use of
• Develop a contingency plan for technical problems, poor or over attendance, and other disruptions
• Indicate whether recording will be done and where it will be made available after the event
• Indicate how you are going to evaluate your event

Webconference
Join the virtual class meeting in Elluminate to discuss last minute details and queries about the mini conference on Tuesday 19th October 19.30 hours New Zealand (World Clock). This session will be facilitated by Karen Wilson.

Activity
1. Add your event name and details to the course course mini conference page.
2. Start a discussion thread for your event in the course mini conference discussion page, and monitor discussion.
3. Post your plan details to your blog.


Image: 'reflections for the day'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26720971@N02/3971887734

How to paste a website url into Wikieducator

Here is a video to show you how to paste a website url into Wikieducator, using Tinyurl.com. It is especially important to follow this process when you use the world clock website.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrX_2TLOeT0

How to work out times throughout the world

When you are planning your online event for the FO2010 mini conference, it is important you let others know the time of your meeting - it is especially helpful if you are able to tell people what time the meeting is in their own time zone. To do that, I recommend you use the website: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock

Here is a video that will show you how to convert your time zone into international time zones.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O_lml2FSjY

Summary: Week of the 11th October 2010

This week was the last theory week, which means things start to get really exciting as we start to prepare our online events for the mini conference in November. People are starting to plan their events, so check out the mini conference wiki page to see what ideas people are playing with. Don't forget to add to the discussions that are behind that wiki page where people are asking for ideas and support, as well as sharing tips and advice.

DON'T FORGET to check with me first about date/time, to make sure I am free to attend your event (especially the formal students and the informal students who are aiming to collect a certificate of participation/completion) before you advertise your event.

Next Elluminate meeting
We will be having an Elluminate meeting next week on Tuesday 19th October at 7.30pm (World Clock) to discuss the mini conference, so if you have any questions, please feel free to come to this meeting.

How to...
This week I was asked how to work out times across international time zones - here is a video that shows you how to use the world clock website and here is another video that shows you how to link to the world clock in Wikieducator.

A few ideas
In the meantime, people have been playing with ideas for the mini conference. Lyn is interested in thinking more about how to facilitate online using Facebook. Jane is planning on a panel debate and would like volunteers to help her. Carole has been summing up what she knows about reflective practice and has concluded that she will use Voicethread to facilitate a discussion about ePortfolios, and tie this in with the work she is doing with the ePortfolio community.

My last plea...
is that when you are thinking about your event and the mini conference, try not to focus too much on tools. Yes...we need the tools to be able to hold online conversations. But online facilitation is as much, if not more, about processes...how we communicate online...what is good practice...how we're are sustainable and culturally competent...how we build online networks and communities...how we engage people... and so on. So I hope some of you will look at expanding our knowledge on these issues, as well as the tools we can use.

Wiziq
We had a fabulous meeting this week, talking to Nellie Deutsch about how we evaluate our work as online facilitators - the recording can be found here. Kim did a brilliant job of facilitating the meeting in Wiziq and gave us a very good feel for how this particular free web conferencing tool works - have a read of her reflection because she has given full details about what and what not to do. Tracy really enjoyed this session and felt the quality of Wiziq was very good.

What some of the others have been up to
Karen has been thinking about cultural competence in the online environment. She asks "How do we create ways of being together [online] that create authenticity and freedom?" I would be interested to see your thoughts about this on her blog post. Matt is very excited because his experiment of doing FO2010 on his mobile phone has been made easier by a new application - you'll have to go to his blog to find out what it is!

Hope you all have a great weekend. Looks like I am going to be making the most of the lovely weather here in Dunedin and getting on with some gardening. Sarah :)

October 11th Evaluating and reflecting on an event

An important element of online facilitation is the evaluation of your event, project, meeting or learning activity both in terms of the outcomes of the event and your own performance. There is usually two parts to this process: self-assessment and reflection, and evaluation by participants. The results of your reflections and evaluation will act as a foundation for your planning of future activities. Questions you may wish to ask.

• What went well, and what did not go so well?
• What did the participants and the facilitator learn?
• How was the event organised and promoted?
• How adequate and relevant was the information about the event/activity?
• Was technical support provided, and how adequate was it?
• How relevant the meeting/activity/event for the audience and participants?
• How was the event managed? How effective was the handling of disruptions?
• Did all participants know where they were supposed to be and when?
• How was the facilitation?
  • How was the stage set and participants welcomed, introductions made, aims explained?
  • Did the facilitator remain neutral and how did he deal with conflict or cultural differences?
  • How was the event concluded and outcomes summarised? What recordings and follow up materials were provided?
• How should things be done in the future?

Webconference

Join the virtual class meeting in WiziQ - Tuesday 12th October 9am New Zealand time (World Clock). Dr Nellie Deutsch will be joining us to talk about evaluation strategies. Nellie is an expert in facilitating and designing online workshops on WikiEducator on how to use the wiki and collaborate, on IT4ALL Moodle on WebQuests, Moodle for Teachers (M4T), and Professional Electronic Portfolios (PEP), and in Blended Learning. She researched instructor experiences in implementing technology in blended learning courses in higher education. Nellie is also an expert user of WiziQ and will be passing on some tips on how to use it effectively. This session will be facilitated by Kim McLean.

• WiziQ is another free tool you may be interested in if you are a business or non-profit organisation. Information about how to use WiziQ can be found here.

Activity

1. Bronwyn Hegarty has developed a framework that supports personal reflection. Read about the Hegarty Reflective Framework and Template and listen to the recording of an Elluminate presentation Bronwyn gave about how to use this reflective framework for evaluating your online facilitation. This recording is also available as a mp3.
2. Read this guide to survey design by SurveyMonkey: Smart Survey Design.
3. You may wish to reflect on your experience of using WiziQ in your blog, and compare it with all the web conferencing tools you have used over the last few weeks.

• What worked well?
• What did not go so well?
• What skills or resources do you need to network and facilitate meetings using WiziQ?
• How do you see yourself using WiziQ in the future, if at all, for online facilitation?
• How does WiziQ compare with DimDim, Skype and Elluminate? What will your preferred web conference tool be in the future and why?

Image: 'espejo'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59309871@N00/3207185886

What we've been up to over the last two weeks

I wasn't going to write a summary post for the last two weeks because to be honest, I was quite enjoying our little break. But a few people have been taking advantage of the break and catching up with things, such as Karen who has been fighting computer gremlins but looks like she's winning :)

DimDim
A few of us had another play with the free version of DimDim. I was very impressed with how supportive the support team has been - I have had a couple of telephone chats with Noor in India. However, I am disappointed to see that DimDim's functions appear to have changed from the last time I used it - it appears that only the meeting organiser can use the audio function which means you can only have a one-way conversation. Nevertheless, Karen has a suggestion about how that problem can be overcome.

Second Life
A small group of us also had a little look around Second Life. Tracy really enjoyed her visit and found it to be much more fun than when she looked around SL by herself.

Footnote: It is free to have a SL avatar and go into SL, but you have to pay for land. Linden Lab, the company who owns SL has just announced they are putting up their prices for educators and non-profits. This may have the effect of driving communities to other virtual worlds such as OpenSim. So, if you are interested in using virtual worlds for online facilitation, it may be worth your while having a look at other options to Second Life.

Catching up
Karen Wilson has been reflecting on how much more difficult it is to be culturally competent online compared to face-to-face when you have visual cues to guide you. Sharon is getting her head around Twitter and found an excellent resource to guide your thinking about online communication tools. Willie has been thinking about Web 3.0. Jean has been exploring ideas about online learning. Sebastion has been catching up with recordings of sessions and reflecting on what it means to be an online facilitator. Katherine has been hanging out with Steve Wheeler, who is one of my 'heros'...so I am feeling pretty jealous of her. At the same time, I was intrigued by her reaction to the session that Steve ran at a conference she attended.

Mini conference
Mark has been thinking about the mini conference and has written some great reflective questions you might want to use to help you with your planning. Tania has a VoiceThread conversation on her blog - please go along and contribute for two reasons. Firstly, it will add to the learning of the young student who has put this VoiceThread together. Secondly, it will give you an idea about a communication tool you may wish to use for your event...especially if you are thinking about facilitating an asynchronous event.

Look forward to catching up with you all next week as we enter the final section of FO2010 and start preparing for the mini conference. Sarah :)

Chances to practice facilitating online meetings in Elluminate

Here are a couple of opportunities to practice your online facilitation skills in Elluminate. If you're nervous about doing it on your own, let me know and I'll "support" you. Sarah

World OT Day
The World OT Day is 24 hours of sessions on the 27th October. This event runs around the 24 hour world clock so there should be a time zone that suits you where ever you are in the world. Please contact Merrolee Penman for more details:

• Email: Merrolee.Penman(at)op.ac.nz
• Twitter: @merrolee

Open access week
The other opportunity is Open Access Week which runs from the 18th - 22nd October. The sessions are at lunch time, New Zealand time. Please contact Wayne Mackintosh if you'd like to volunteer to facilitate one of these sessions:

• Email: wayne(at)oerfoundation.org
• Twitter: mackiwg
  

Road trip into Second Life

I will be hosting a road trip to Second Life on Thursday 7th October 17.00 hours NZ time (World Clock). If you are interested in joining me, please set up your avatar and download Second Life onto your computer - more information can be found here.

Once you have your avatar name, please let me know what it is. My SL name is: Petal Stransky.

Please go to the Virtual Birth Unit in SL to meet me: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kowhai/82/213/35/

If you don't think you can manage that, please accept my offer to be your friend, then I'll be able to teleport you to my location. If that all fails, keep in touch with me on Skype and I'll talk you through what you have to do. Hope to see you on Thursday Sarah :)

How to get started in Second Life

In order to access Second Life, you need to do two things.

The first thing is to set up an account and develop your avatar. There are heaps of videos on YouTube that will help you work your way through this process such as this one.

The next thing you need to do is download Second Life onto your computer. Second Life is a complex platform that uses a lot of internet band width and specific computer hardware, so it is worth checking first that you have a computer that will support SL.

Here is a guidebook that will help you learn the basics about SL. Another place that is full of fantastic information about Second Life is the Jokaydia wiki.

I think the key to finding your way in SL is to network with people who use it a lot. Here are a few SL communities - please let me know if you across others.

• VLENZ - educators in New Zealand who are interested in virtual world, facilitated by Clare Atkins.
• JoKaydia - a community of practice facilitated by Jo Kay, who is based in Australia.
  
• Virtual Worlds Best Practice Conference, next due March 2011.
• Gronstedt Group’s “Train for Success” - a weekly trip in SL to a place of interest, across all spectrums and interests in SL.
• Second Life for Healthcare Support and Education - email group for people interested in SL and healthcare.
  

Summary of the week of the 20th September

I'm rather late with my summary of last week. I've been off to a conference enjoying myself, and talking about you guys :) I would like to welcome Sebastian Panakal - he is working his way through the course so drop along to his blog and say 'hello'.

Technology
Jane is setting up her consultancy business and thinking a lot about how she can develop online networks; what online communities to access, and how to leverage technology....a lot of things for her to consider over the next few weeks. Carole has written a very detailed description of how she is facilitating the ePortfolio community she has set up along with the tools she is using. Jean has been reflecting on how she has engaged with Twitter. Folke is just relived he has got rid of the chipmunk in his system. Meantime, Willie is questioning the value of technology, feeling that it drives or restrains what we do rather than the other way around.

Cultural competency
Jillian has started thinking about cultural competency and looking for resources that will help her identify what she needs to know ie dealing with the feeling that she doesn't know what she doesn't know. Matt has come up with a practical list of things to consider when working online with people of other cultures. Kim has been talking about her experience of cultural differences between two apparently culturally similar countries, New Zealand and Australia. On the other hand, Malcolm is feeling pessimistic about the whole issue believing that being "aware of your own assumptions" is a lot easier said than done.

I am thinking that cultural competency in the online environment would be a good topic to explore in the mini conference. So if you're interested in thinking about this, let me know...I have a couple of people who I can recommend as speakers for this topic.

Assignments
Last week we had a great discussion about your assignments, and spent some time looking at what is required for the mini conference. The recording of the discussion can be found here. The key points were:

• your event can be synchronous or asynchronous;
  
• your role in your event is to facilitate, not to be the speaker. So if you planning on facilitating a synchronous event, you'll need to arrange a speaker or speakers;
• the topic must be of interest to participants and relevance to the topics we have been exploring in the course.

Please let me know on the email group or here on this blog if you have any queries.

Second Life
We also had a great meeting with KerryJ learning about how to use Second Life for facilitating online - recording here. Kerry has kindly offered to take any one who is interested on a road trip into Second Life. I am thinking of scheduling this for early next week. Please let me know if you're interested in coming with us. If you do want to come, you will need to set up an account and download Second Life onto your computer. Sarah

Two weeks break

You'll all be pleased to know that after this week, we have two weeks holiday. This will give you time to catch up and start to think about what you want to facilitate in the mini conference.

Planning for the mini conference
I will be talking about the mini conference in this week's Elluminate meeting at 16.30 hours New Zealand on Wednesday 22nd September World Clock. If you miss the meeting, you can listen to the recording. If there are a number of you who missed the meeting, I am happy to repeat the session again.

Questions
If you have any questions about the mini conference, please email them to the FO2010 group or leave a question on this blog - that way everyone will get to see the answer and it will save me from having to reply many times to the same questions :)

Reminder
Those of you who are informal students are extremely welcome to join the mini conference, and plan and facilitate your own event....the more the merrier! However, the only events I can guarantee that I will attend and give feedback about are the events that are facilitated by the formally enrolled students.

If you are an informal student and you want guaranteed feedback about your event, please may I suggest that you arrange this with another student.

Last chances to practice live facilitation skills
I am still looking for a volunteer who would like to work with Kim to facilitate the WiziQ session on Tuesday 12th October 9am NZ. And as I have said before, the Elluminate room is always open, so you are very welcome to go there and have a play. You will need to let me know, however, so I can meet you there and make you a 'staff member'.

Email group
In the next few weeks I am sure we'll see a lot more emails as we start to plan the mini conference. But please be careful about how you use the group. Please send personal messages to the individual person...not the whole group. Lets make sure we don't bog down the group with comments that could have been individually emailed. Also, edit messages that you reply to. Only include parts of previous messages that are necessary to the ongoing conversation. Thank you :) Sarah

Reflecting on the week of September the 13th 2010

This week I had the chance to facilitate a Twitter meeting. This is the first time I have done this and I was struck by three things.

1. You can have some fabulous conversations and share resources even within the constraints of 140 characters.
2. As a facilitator, it can quickly become over-whelming...so you need more than one person to monitor the conversation if there are a lot of people talking.
3. It is very alienating for those who cannot join the conversation, especially if the hashtag does not work properly. So as a facilitator you have to manage that...any suggestions on how to do that?
   

Successes and failures
Kim joined the first Twitter meeting and took out of it the message that "to develop a successful online network you need to..."engage personally, contribute meaningfully, pay attention, listen a lot, be consistent". Matt enjoyed the meeting because it worked well from his mobile phone. Folke also enjoyed how easy Twitter was to use. But Katherine had a very different experience. She did not enjoy her experience of Twitter because for some reason she was unable to join the #FO2010 stream we were using. This had the effect of isolating her and making her feel "stupid". Please read her post and then think about what you can do as an online facilitator to make sure this does not happen to the people you work with. Gilly had an equally frustrating and isolating experience. Gilly questions whether she has the time or the reason to develop the technical competence to do more online than she is currently doing.

Twitter conversations
In the meantime, Malcolm has been following other Twitter conversations and got to hang out with occupational therapists the other day. I have to say that this is one of the things I love about Twitter...I get the chance to meet all sorts of people in different professions...that I normally would never interact with. Tara and Tania have been experimenting with a Twitter platform called Twitterific - if you want to know more about it, pop across to their blogs and ask them how they are getting on with it.

Networking
Some people were thinking about the value of social networking. Carole wrote a great summary about how she networks online and what tools she uses to do it. Jillian is finding that online networking has opened up all sorts of possibilities for her personal learning. Trish has reviewed the tools she has been using for networking and wonders how she can use them to "have students move their thinking, reading and writing skills from the surface to a deeper level and hopefully eventually thinking critically" - there is a nice conversation developing in the comments so do join in with your thoughts.

Technology
There have been a few different opinions about the technology we have been trying out. Sharon was not very impressed with DimDim but is willing to give it another go. I am just trying to get someone from DimDim to meet us and give us a thorough demonstration. Karen has been using her online connections to solve her problems with Elluminate. And finally, Tracey and I discovered this week that you can share your computer desktop in Skype...how cool is that :) Sarah

Recording - break out rooms

I must apologise to the team who facilitated the Elluminate meeting last week for not organising this recording earlier...I thought I had, but obviously, I had not.

Here is the recording of the meeting that was so wonderfully facilitated by Willie, Karen and Jane. What is of interest is how we managed the concept of break-out rooms.

http://elluminate.tekotago.ac.nz/play_recording.html?recordingId=1260253889796_1283396302388

Summary of the week 8...working together

This week was highlighted by concern for the participants who live in Christchurch and experienced the earthquake at the weekend, so it was a relief to hear that Michael and Derek are well.

Live meeting
The live meeting this week had mixed success. We could not get DimDim to work properly but Malcolm and Claire did a wonderful job of facilitating us into Elluminate. What interested me was how the group coped with the technical difficulties...a month ago everyone would have been in a mad panic. But this week, people were calm and took everything in their stride....I think that goes to show how far we have come over the last few weeks. Meanwhile, Mireille reflected on what it takes to be 'professional' in the online environment as modeled by Malcolm and Claire.


Wikis
Once we sorted out technology problems, we were able to enjoy a wonderful presentation about wikis and Wikieducator by Dr Wayne Mackintosh. Susan thought Wikieducator would be a great platform for her students. Kim has been looking at how she can become more skilled with using Wikieducator.

Breaking out
A number of people have been talking about the previous week's live meeting in which we played with the Elluminate break-out rooms. Tracey felt a little disconnected because her audio didn't work very well. Willie felt it would be good to have a kaitiaki in each room to take care of people. Katherine gave a very detailed account of what she learned which is a great resource for anyone wanting to use this facility in Elluminate.

Social networking
Several of you have been exploring social networking platforms and thinking about how they can be used for online facilitation. Sharon had a look at LinkedIn. Jane has been hosting an interesting discussion about the connection between social networking and a candy shop. Jean reflected on her use of various sites such as Facebook.

Who's still with us?
Mirielle asked an interesting question the other day...who is still blogging? It has been my observation that whilst people may not be actively blogging, they are still following the course...for example, we had 17 participants at our last live meeting. Rachel is still following the course but has been too swamped by work to blog regularly. Jo would like some advice to how to keep up with what and where things are happening. Matt is continuing his quest to follow the course with his iPhone but has had problems at times. Floyd is struggling to get motivated following his big holiday in the USA....I wish I had that problem!!

This week's star student is Jillian who is forging on ahead with her plans for the mini conference - she would like to hear any suggestions of people she can ask to take part in a discussion about developing online communities.

Recordings - Wayne Mackintosh talking about wikis

Here are the recordings of the session today in which Wayne Macintosh talked about online facilitation with wikis. A big thank you to Claire and Malcolm for facilitating the session. Unfortunately, we could not make DimDim work properly, so ended up back in Elluminate.

Elluminate recording: http://elluminate.tekotago.ac.nz/play_recording.html?recordingId=1260253889796_1284074866281

Audio recording: http://blip.tv/file/4103657

Video recording: http://blip.tv/file/4103679