Session with Steve Wheeler today

Attending a session today with Steve Wheeler ... check out his blog. Will let you know in a few hours the insights I've gleaned from the session

Reflection: community and isolation

DimDim
We had a lesson faciliated in DimDim the other day, a free (mostly) synchronous web-based classroom tool. It was fun, and it was impressive to watch / hear the facilitators calmly dealing with some fairly significant technical problems. (When the facilitator transferred controls to the guest speaker we all lost sound / video contact. )

So, I decided that I should try it out, and set up a meeting with a friend in another city. She wanted to talk with me about the content of an assignment. DimDim worked well, I shared a document with her, and I talked, she listened and if there were questions she typed in the chat box. (This I think may take some getting used to... as the faciliator I wanted more feedback from my (single) participant, and a two-way voice (at least, and video preferably) interaction. And! as happened to our faciliators in the FO2010 course, when I gave her control the wheels fell off - more precisely, she lost connection and couldn't get back in). 

So, I say Yay! and I'm really glad to have had the opportunity to use DimDim with the class as a participant - and to then go off and use it myself; and what an amazing example of calm unruffled faciliators quietly working behind the scenes to sort the technical hitches. Very impressed! (because of calm faciliators we felt relaxed within ourselves to chat a bit while we waited - which was neat). (I guess that this is why products like Elluminate and WimbaLive are so expensive... they don't have quite the same vulnerability to bandwidth discrepancies... maybe?) [big happy face]

But Twitter [not very happy face]
For some reason a number of would-be participants were not able to take part in the #FO2010 stream. We spent the session watching what we could of the conversation, but missing such a significant portion that the summary at the end came as a complete surprise... I had no idea that the participants had discussed the content to the extent that a summary could be extracted from the stream. I think now that this must provide me with an inkling of what it must be like to be deaf... if I could ever have any idea... desperately trying to keep up with whatever one can glean from a conversation, and knowing that so much is missing, but not knowing what and not being able to ask, and the conversation swirls on around... it was horribly isolating. I know that the other participants would have included me if they could have... would have welcomed my participation... I felt stupid (an illogical gut response which I observe and then file in the "don't go there" basket).

So... still to decide the usefulness of Twitter for a conversation. I'll set up a conversation with someone and see how it works and let you know.

Break Out rooms

Last week we experiemented in our Faciliating Online course with using break-out rooms... these are folders within the interface that can be used to divide a larger class into smaller groups, meaning that interaction within that group is seen only by that group.

Really enjoy the idea of break-out rooms and that our facilitators for the day allowed us to try them. Thank you heaps... I appreciated their courage to use them, especially as I hadn't seen them used before. It was a valuable session.
Break-out rooms have obvious facility and application. They provide additional opportunity for students to contribute.

Thoughts for pondering before using a breakout room

1. Facilitating the group (turn-taking): We still found that we hesitated to start... not because we didn't know what to do, but more because ours was not the responsibility to direct other students. I personally am quite comfortable to take a semi-facilitating role in a group, but not over the top of someone else who may appreciate the opportunity. So, we all hesitated; finally someone stepped in and we moved forward. So, this leads to the next thought to ponder.
2. Solving a problem: We were asked to discuss an idea, which we did. (However, my ideal about how long is reasonable for one person to 'hog' the microphone may be different from classmates, and therefore I felt a slight sense of frustration when a speaker's thoughts were not so collected leading to  more time than what I considered was a fair share.) But that's beside the point.... this experience has taught me to think about instructions. In my break-out rooms, how directive and specific should I be? My instructions might look something like this: First: select a group facilitator (to guide turn-taking and help with keeping to the topic and summarising, Second: discuss the ... [task]... Thirdly, At [specify a time], use the whiteboard to summarise the discussion... etc. To finish: At [specify a time] return to the main class.
3. Bringing the class back together at the end of the session: Wow! it had never occurred to me that bringing everyone back together (especially once they've started) could be an issue. Using a timer was a good idea, I'll do that. But also... perhaps, could the facilitator visit each group individually (don't know what the Elluminate's facility for doing this is...) and gently break into the conversation, and get the group to begin feedback on the main whiteboard while he or she visits the next group until they have all joined the main class and everyone has made it back. (Would this be possible? or is the software a little limited for this?)

What I really appreciate about this process, and about the commitment of my peers in this course, is that without it and them (you!) I wouldn't have had the opportunity to reflect on using break-outs with an online class. Grateful!