WEEK 1 - SUMMARY
Thank you everybody for your contributions so far! We have good news for you, it is Friday today. The WEEK 1 of "Anyone there????" session is almost concluded, at least the 'official' part. However, as we know that for many of you combing daily work with CALMet daily activities is hard, we encourage you to share your thoughts and reply to our 4 forum questions and 2 choices over the weekend or next week.
I apologise for a lenghty email, but it is because of YOU actually. You talk a lot. :)
What have we completed so far?
It was an intensive week. Following a very good hint from Bruce[...] I especially agree that reviewing what's been discussed or presented is a key activity that leads to greater understanding.[...], where he quoted the article by K.M Hoffman “What Good Teaching and Meetings Share” (http://www.uie.com/articles/teaching_and_meetings), I will recap here the things that happened in WEEK 1.
Starting last Friday, you were asked to declare whether you would like to participate in the "Anyone there????" session, using the mood poll. We are happy to see 23 dedicated contributors in mostly positive mood!
Then you were asked to discuss 4 different questions posted by Vesa and myself in the forum.
1. Technological problems - is that all ?
Technology sometimes fails. How can we prepare for it? What are the other challenges when using web-conferencing technologies?
You said...Backup everything! Or Reboot at least.
- Backup presenter “I always have a plan B: somebody to take over if the presenter gets thrown out.” (Vilma)
- Backup computer “Fortunately I had a standby computer on hand and after a few minutes I could logon.. but have a backup plan .Very important...” (Kathy-Ann)
- Reboot computer “To add to the list, at Vesa's request... reboot. The perennial suggestion by IT support, but also do it BEFORE a session.” (Pat)
- Backup technology for communication like email (or telephone?) “Should this occur, I think immediately send mass email to students, explaining the problem and presenting a solution or plan B.” (Monica); “Technical assistance can be given, most often, by email, but also through chat (Moodle, skype), telephone (?) and also within the online lesson itself with chat” (Alessandro)
- Record for who cannot attend “Don’t worry, we plan to put it also in youtube". And they DID that!” (Roro)
- Give the constant feedback to the presenter “I couldn't feel if I was still online or not during this silent time. Somehow moderator should show presenter that evrth is OK:)” (Izolda)
- Prepare, log in and test in advance “The presenter needs to have their head "in the right space" before an online session. They need to be focussed on the topic, comfortable, and have minimised any mental or physical distractions.” (Chris); Similar comments were made by Izolda, Pat and Heleen.
- Teach presenter and participants how to use the tool. “So good advice would be to log in to the meeting room, upload your agenda and play with all the features and possibilities of the running software” (Ivan); “I believe a technical facilitator, in addition to the lecturer, is essential to achieve this. He/she should spend lots of efforts in delivering technical tutorials to the online participants in advance to the lesson...” (Alessandro)
- Provide handouts or your full presentation in advance and agree how to proceed if presenter is offline. “Providing handouts or worksheets or tasks to students allows them to continue learning in case you are temporarily offline... Maybe there should be some agreed upon limitation for periods for unexpected downtime.” (Pat); “One way of migitating the risk of losing a connection during a synchronous event, is to have the entire presentation (usually a ppt) sent out to all beforehand.” (Eric)
You said...technology is not all, there are other problems too.
- Stop the flow of information transmission only, break the one-way stream and handle better the silence on the other side.
“Online learning is still very much information transmission. For learning you need to start emotions, and that is difficult from a distance of 5000 km.” (Jose)
“The secret is to interact frequently. If you are training, and not just presenting, asking questions can help you gauge your learners to see if they are keeping up, and you can change what you plan to present you if you need to.” (Pat)
“Most webinar software have tools to 'raise your hand' or indicate your mood. Asking folks to use those to let you know that all is well helps to gauge how things are going during those quiet activities.” (Bruce)
“Another good tool for activities where your users are asked to do something on their own, is a timer.” (Bruce)
- Coping with two types of audience, on-site and remote, can be very challenging. Should we avoid situations like that?
“Is it possible to have a single audience/group with such asymmetry? I tend to imagine two audiences when I work in this way, with slightly differing needs and ways if engaging. there is also the situation where the presenter is online and the is a group listening in a room - and that group may have a discussion in their room that others do not participate in.”(Mark)
2. Technology works - what's next?
We succeeded with the usage of technology. What can we do to keep the participants engaged? What you as a participant would keep engaged?
You said...use well designed visuals, ask questions and give participants something to do.
“You will have to wake me up with something interesting, something catchy...” (Heleen)
“Yes, I would expect the trainer to be engaging, asking me questions frequently, giving me exercises to do, and telling me things that he has convinced me will be useful to learn. If he uses well designed visuals, and not so much text to accompany the talk, and talks to ME and the other learners rather than his expert colleagues, then my attention will stay at a high level.” (Pat)
“interactions that engage the learners with the content; a personal attachment to the content (regardless of the quality of the instruction)” (Bruce)
You said...voice and presenter’s attitude matters
“It helps when the speaker draws people in with their voice, and manner. When they ask question does it sound like they are interested in hearing what is said or if they want to judge if i am right or wrong.” (Mark)
“A very engaged and enthusiastic speaker” (Bruce)
You said...do we have to be always engaged? No, if different levels of participations are allowed.
“Conference presentations are one thing, and we can't be upset if learners only pay half attention...” (Pat)
“Sometimes I have a presentation on in the background as I am slightly interested in the topic and it is like having the radio on with an interesting program.” (Mark)
3. Technology works – why don’t we use it?
Most of us have the web-conferencing tools available. What are the conditions that prevents us from using them? We asked if you would like to meet the group online in a synchronous session.
Most of you said...NO, because of language skills, it wouldn't involve more people, time zones differences, collaboration on the guidelines wouldn't be more efficient, focus would be more on facilitators' and not participants’ input.
But Ivan said.. YES, because of his personal preference “for direct contact (verbal) then texting and posting.”
4. Technology works - when to use it?
Most of you wouldn't advice to have a synchronous session with us now. When would you suggest it then?
You still didn't say...You can be the first one to reply.. The floor is yours! Don’t disappoint Vesa as he posted this question, and would like to keep the high rate of replies as for the first one. :)
There were lots of interesting comments and it is impossible to highlight them all. Nothing is lost. We will use your input in the wikis!
What will happen next?
On Monday, you will be notified by our post in the forum that 3 new activities are open for subscription. You can participate and be a co-author of one or all of them.
The pace of activity in the forum will slow down a little, but please expect some communication from us. It will be mostly related to the interesting resource, we want to share and discuss with you.
Have a good weekend everybody!
Maja