Conferencing with Skype

It was really lovely to be contacted by Karen (in Canada) who invited Jean (in NZ) and me (also in NZ) to conference with her using Skype. Thank you so much Karen and Jean, really enjoyed getting to know you better. Because of you I was able to feel smugly that I had achieved the homework for the week, whereas in fact you had done all the work for me and I only had to talk - how easy is that - thank you guys.

Pros:
It is that little bit more special to hear the voices of those with whom we are studying. As a faciliator I can definitely see an application for conferencing with a small group, perhaps to talk with them about an assignment or a group assignment, or to plan something with course participants. As faciliators of online courses we have some responsibility with the social aspects of being in a learning community so geographically widespread and skype conferencing has a role to play here. We didn't use video, and my peers on this occasion didn't have photos uploaded, and that's fine, just hearing their voices was lovely.

Cons:
We don't have the best of bandwidth 'down under' and I found that at times I lost too much of the sound to be able to follow the thread of the conversation. We then resorted to text chat to finish our conference, with which I am quite comfortable... being a touch typist, but I could imagine that for some this might slow the process to unsustainable.

So, it was fun and valuable and I would encourage my learners to be in contact with each other using skype (hmm - what precedent would I use to get them talking? - must think on this more). The paradox is however, that, because of limitations to infrasructure that still exist, (even in a supposedly Western country like NZ) it could not be a compulsory exercise, and this would have the potential to defeat the purpose.
Still, it's a great technology; another to add to one's suite of technologies to be pressed into pedagogical service.

Turn-taking:
What I noticed (and I have this problem also with the Elluminate sessions) is that I really don't know what I should be doing in terms of 'turn-taking protocols'. Without the visual cues that I use for assessing turn-taking in day-to-day interactions there's a tendancy for one to be 'unheard' (and I must confess to this being a problem in day-to-day interactions for me too, which is why I take to asynchronous options like blogs). It seems that only those not as concerned about turn-taking get to speak. In the context of this course I'm not bothered by this at all, but it has caused me to pause and reflect on what strategies I might use to help my learners understand expectations... containing overly enthusiastic contributors while encouraging 'not-so-vocal' participants.  (Elluminate has a button to indicate a raised hand; that's good and seems to work, but I don't put my hand up... I need to practice putting my hand up, and maybe I need to give my learners time to practice putting their hands up. Possibly too, I might include some pauses during the class for questions and feedback. Our facilitators and guests have done this, providing time to write on the whiteboard as a group (except someone wrote over the top of my text box!), a pause to draw pictures, and of course, we chat away in the chat window while the speaker is delivering content - it's a lot of fun).

A successful activity. Well done, Sarah, for setting it for us!