Introductions
If you would like to be included in the next facilitated course starting 28 July 2008 please introduce yourself by replying to this thread (you will need to create an account on Wikieducator to be able to reply to threads). Please include an email address in your introduction, that can be added to an email forum for the course.
My name is Leigh Blackall and I will be facilitating this course from 28 July. I work for the Educational Development Centre at Otago Polytechnic and specialise in the use of the Internet for teaching and learning. My full profile can be viewed here. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone who wants to be a part of the next course in Facilitating online communities, and seeing where our journeys will take us. I hope you will contact me if you need any further information (email: leighblackallATgmailDOTcom), otherwise I'll see you back here in the week starting 28 July when I will collect up all contact details and create an email forum for the course.
My name is Minhaaj ur Rehman. I am an educator in Pakistan. I have been teaching for 5 years now. I am willing to participate and collaborate in Facilitating online communities. my email is minhaajATgmailDOTcom
Dear Leigh,
I would like to join in. I am new to providing online courses. I have created a platform on moodle and I think this course may help!
Thank you.
How could I possibly miss this opportunity? :-) My name is Sylvia Currie and I have been facilitating online communities for the past 10 years. A few months ago I started a new job as manager of online community services for BCcampus.ca, and more than ever I'm helping others to become comfortable in an online facilitation role. There's always so much to learn and I'm thrilled to be part of this course. I'm taking some mini holidays in July and August but hope to be active throughout the 10 (17? - even better!) weeks. Leigh, feel free to throw some jobs my way if you need any help!
I will be using my Webbed Feat blog for the course since it already is primarily related to online communities. As suggested I'm using the tag FOC08 for posts related to this course.
My name is Shane Roberts. I am a secondary teacher in Australia exploring as much "tech" teaching and learning as I can. In my school context I am a Health and Physical Education teacher, with an attraction to all things tech. The best way to describe myself is somewhere between jock and geek. Within my school I'm seen as an ICT innovator and leader, and I assume responsibility for developing the ICT integration skills of other teachers. Within our system, I've recently been appointed a Regional Facilitator for ICTs in Learning which sees me working in a small team of three to provide workshops throughout our region. I have recently started a blog, so will post items relevant to this course there using the agreed tag FOC08. The address is [1].
I'll apologise now for what may seem at times like a "lurking" presence. I am attempting to join this course around my work schedule which will result in my attention to it early in my mornings or late at my nights. I hope my contribution can be productive.
Hi all, my name is Chris Haller and I'm working as an eParticipation consultant. I've facilitated a couple of online dialogues while I was at Zebralog in Berlin, Germany and am looking forward to new insights. Great list of folks in this course! challer at eparticipation dot com
Dear Leigh,
Apologies for the late introduction (I thought I had already posted). I seem to have gotten this course confused with a course on wikis running also from wikieducator next week (which I am also enrolled on).
My name is Andrew Chambers. I work at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Austraia, in the area of elearning as a trainer of staff for Learning & Teaching @ UNSW (yes I work with Mike Bogle). I presently teach academic, support and admin staff the Blackboard Vista Learning Management System via a series of workshops.
I have been working in eLearning since 1995 and have now used learning management systems since 1997 (Working also at University of Waikato and Massey University in New Zealand).
I also teach elearning to pre-service high school teachers for the school of education here at UNSW. This has been a very valuable experience. The enthusiasm shown by the prospective high school teachers in applying technology to student activities has taught me a thing or two.
LMS systems are one thing but the range of new web 2 tools has re-excited me and I can see many opportunities for their introduction to the learning process...
BTW I have recently started using facebook, ning, delicious (atscatsc), twitter (atsc), skype (atscatsc), blogging ([1]) and a few other tools just to keep in touch with other professionals working in this area but don't as yet use them for the elearning course I teach (I used the "traditional" LMS.
I am interested in this course as I need to pick up new skills in the technologies and new ideas that I can pass on to staff and students.
I look forward to the course (assuming you will accept me!). I appreciate the efort you need to put in to organise us all!
With Regards, Andrew Chambers
Hello Andrew,
I found your blog to be http://elearningthoughts.wordpress.com/ (I think your link above left off the 's') - must be the rush you had getting in here :) I see though, with your experience, blog and connection with Mike, you (and he) should make a formidable team in this course. Looking forward to seeing your enthusiasm come through for the things we'll discuss and look at. I'll need your email address Andrew.. so I can add you to the course email forum: http://groups.google.com/group/facilitating-online-communities
Hi Leigh, My name is Lynn MacEachern and I have worked as a face to face facilitator for many years. I am excited to learn more about the opportunities and challenges of facilitating interactions via the internet. My e-mail is lynn@facilitate2yes.com. Thanks for letting me join the class at this late date. I just learned about it a few minutes ago.
Hello Lynn! I was hoping a professional facilitator would be joining us. Evidently this course attracts professional educators - mostly teachers, so it is good that we have at least one voice to offer prespectives on the differences between teaching and facilitating. I'm hoping some day that this course will attract journalists, talk back hosts, and more professional facilitators such as your self.
Hi Leigh,
This is ben. A development worker for the past 12 years with experience working with various donor and humanitarian organizations in the Island of Mindanao, Philippines. In most part I worked and stayed in the more culturally diverse, politically unstable conflicted affected areas of the island. While engaged in (independent) consultancy work to earn a living, at least during the last eight years, I was also involved in volunteer work, most specifically in helping develop the capacity of local-home grown NGOs and peoples organizations (POs) working with marginalized farmers, fisherfolks, IPs and Moro (local Muslim) communities in different parts of Mindanao.
This is a personal crusade that I intend to sustain, as I also intend to continue my journey and hand-holding with the organizations and communities I have been working with and working for in the past years. This volunteer work is mostly carried out through coaching and mentoring through leadership and membership development, setting up organizational systems and procedures, helping local organizations participate in local governance, project development, linking local organizations with regional and national service providers and to some extent assisting local organizations and communities mobilize resources.
“Facilitation of Online Communities” is a new concept to me. I still do not fully understand the concept and mechanics, but it seems (in may initial understanding) that this learning facility can help me provide and extend a more organized and programmatic capacity building interventions. While all of these NGOs and POs are in rural areas, most if not all have already access to the internet.
This is the social context and the situation that I am in – this is also the motivation why I intend to participate and avail of this course. I would appreciate receiving advice and guidance from you. THANK SO MUCH.
Hello Ben! Impressive, and you will bring a valuable perspective to this course relating to access and relavence to people in rural/regional, if not marginalised society. Here in NZ, connectivity is still a very big issue with as much as 67% of homes not connected to broadband Internet. 33% are not even connected to dial up Internet! My first response to your thinking about how this might be useful for the sort of work you do would be that an online community might be useful for other people that do the sorts of work you do. So less for the people you work for, but more for the people that do work like you. I wonder if you would benefit from being connected to an online community like this? We'll see hey :)
As Salaam-o-Alykum, Hi, Gutan Tag, Bonjour...
Hope You and family are fine.
I am Syed Tanvir Ali from Karachi Pakistan. I am working in the field of IT since 1989. My teaching experience is more then 10 years now. I want to learn from this course whatever I could and then use that information well in my teaching sessions.
Take care,
Warm regards,
Tanvir. tanvirlodiATyahooDOTcom
Hi everyone... I just found out about this course via Nancy White. A few years ago I participated in Etienne Wenger's "Foundations of Communities of Practice" online course and shortly after I facilitated an online community for service providers interested in health literacy. I'm very interested in the challenges and joys of the online experience.
I'm a librarian and have worked for the past 10 years as a program director in health and wellness for a cross-disability non-profit organization in Vancouver Canada. In addition I have a business and offer workshops and coaching on issues relating to change, creativity and resilience. My email address is shelley@shourstonandassociates.com. I look forward to meeting everyone.
Hi Shelly, I reckon Nancy's post might explain a lot of the sudden popularity of this course (Thanks Nancy :)
Shelly, I trust you will use your blog to journal this course? http://www.shourstonandassociates.com/blog/ That's a nice website you having rolling there.
I'm glad we have someone with experience in Etienne Wenger's thinking, as well as Nancy's work. These two are pretty much the foundation of our question over weeks 2 and 3, What is an online community. So I hope you will help us with that.
Welcome.
I cannot resist. I have tried, but the force is strong. I'll be on the road for 2.5 weeks of this workshop, so I'll be more a lurker than anything else, but hey, who can resist and facilitator's party?
My blog/site is http://www.fullcirc.com
Currently finishing up a book w/ Etienne Wenger and John Smith on Stewarding Technologies for Communities of Practice - and that means technology and social practices! ;-)
I'm addicted to figuring out how we make the most of this magical and often overwhelming "online world!"
(Plus for those of you in NZ, I arrive there on August 8 - 23rd! )
My name is emad ghaeni.there are a lot of e-learning courses in my country but unfortunatly none of the facilitators know how to manage an online community. i want to learn this skill and teach them. my email: emad.ghaeni [AT] yahoo [DOT] com
Hello Emad Ghaeni, actually I think the world is full of people who don't know how to manage online community... such a recent phanominon, I can safely say I am still learning myself. The thing about this course is, that I'm hoping to make an opportunity for us to share our insights and experiences around a certain range of topics that I think (from my experiences) are important to understand in terms of online communities. I hope we can all learn how to better participate in and develop better facilitation techniques along the way.
Hi Leigh, Randy and everyone in the community!
I am Greg Barcelon with postal address in Mission, BC, Canada but works as a Management Consultant and part-time Missionary in Asia. I am new to Wiki and have joined to learn how I can integrate this great technology into my activities.
Looking forward to learning, contributing and collaborating with all of you!
Cheers,
Greg B.
Hello Greg,
It sounds as if you might be confused between this course: Facilitating Online Communities, and the one Randy and I are facilitating: Learning4Content - in which a large number of people are learning how to edit Wikieducator.. ? If it IS this course you are interested in, I will need your email address :)
Hi everyone,
I'm Stephanie Razmjou, a freelance education consultant working in the UK. I have had some experience with online faciliatation over the last three years, both at a course level (Moodle based) and for a national programme for teachers which was an attempt to build an online community to help improve teaching and learning practice. But I'm by no means an expert and I I know I still have a lot to learn. I'm sure I'll do that here and hope I can contribute something too. :) email: razzATairtimeDOTcoDOTuk
Hi Leigh
My name is Bronwyn Collins and I work as an Educational Officer at TAFE NSW, Riverina Institute.
I would like to be part of this group. I have been working with eLearning since the start of this year (although I have been in TAFE in various roles for over 14 years). I am also involved in formal studies this year so hope that I have time to fit everything in.
My email address is: bronwynDOTcollinsATtafenswDOTeduDOTau
My blog [1] http://brononline.blogspot.com
Hello Leigh, I am Sue Wolff in Seattle, WA and learned of your course through Nancy White's blog. I consider myself primarily a researcher, but also an online community facilitator when the occasion presents itself.
My online facilitation experience has involved both secondary students in career and technical coursework and adults associating for a variety of organizational learning purposes. I'm very interested in the design of community learning environments, particularly how the interactive tools help and hinder, and how the participant interaction ebbs and flows in informal or formal contexts.
I want to always be improving my facilitation skills by learning from/with others. By putting ourselves in the very situations we espouse, we get a great feel for what people will experience. You have such an interesting mix planned, so this seems like a great opportunity.
The best email for this course will be suewolff at learning hubs (all one word) dot net.
Hi Leigh I'm Carole Hunter, an educational designer from Charles Sturt University in Bathurst. I work mainly with the academics in the School of Communications, though also work on other projects, mostly related to eportfolios at the moment. I've been involved in educational design for about 8 or so years now, both in Australia and Fiji. Looking forward to exploring some new strategies for effectively facilitiating online collaboration.
Carole
My name is Sean McKee and I am working as online trainer and community facility on a freelance basis. As I regularly find myself relocating among overseas locations, I am working on developing skills that can be more "portable" in nature. I believe this course would be valuable in this regard. Although I am replying on the start date of the course, I hope to be included in the roster of participants. My email is seanpmckeeATgmailDOTcom. UPDATE: I have set up a category for posts and trackbacks related to FOC08 at Sean McKee's blog.
Hi there, my name is Russell Thorp. I am academic manager and distance co-ordinator at a College in Auckland, New Zealand. I am foremost an educationalist who wants to use the facilities of web 2 to enhance learning for all students. I am a novice at the technical aspects of this subject and look forward to trying new things and learning togther with you all. My blog for this course (I couldn't think of a better name) is found at http://russtreflect.wordpress.com
Hi Leigh, Sorry I missed the meeting this morning but have just returned from leave. For the benefit of the other participants I am Vida Thompson and I work at Otago Polytechnic in the Community Learning Centre in Alexandra, Central Otago. We facilitate computing training and our students range in age from 16 to 80+, with a variety of skill levels. I am looking forward to participating in this course to improve my facilitating skills and to improve my knowledge of online resources which could be useful for both online and face-to-face facilitating. I have set up a blog:http//:VidaFOC.blogspot.com I am looking forward to exchanging ideas with everyone. Cheers, Vida
hi vida the blog address you gave http//:VidaFOC.blogspot.com diverts to a site called hypertext protocol. It works if you write it as http://VidaFOC.blogspot.com
bronh
Hi Leigh at all,
Sorry for late arrival, I only heard about this last night. (28th) Hope I can still be included.
I live in South Africa, where from time to time I faciltate a number of very different workshops.
One is a hands on introduction to Sacred Geometry where participants study patterns in nature and how these have been used over millenia in the construction of sacred sites and buildings. (My previous website used to promote this and promised a web course on it - but I never created it. Maybe now, with new skills, I will!)
Another is self-awareness through group work and examination of the games the mind plays - particularly in projecting our own issues onto others..
It's been a while since I did any of these as I've been struggling with Chronic Fatigue Syndrom, but
now I seem to have mastered that one (through candida diet and very careful eating from then on)
SO....now with renewed energy and a new focus (a podcast on positive thinking and ones relationship
with creating a positive world) ...I look forward to new facilitation skills to put into creative practice!
Thanks for putting this course together and sharing it freely....what a gift!
Rob H oneheartATimaginetDOTcoDOTza
Hi Rob,
Welcome, and glad you could make it....I hope that WE can help encourage you to share your thoughts and ideas on WikiEd, and perhaps even develop that web course, or even a module that you were thinking of...
Randy Fisher 21:11, 29 July 2008 (UTC)
Hi, My name is Cristina Costa and I am an EFL teacher and a learning technologies development officer. I used to involve students in ICT activities. Currently I am working at the University of Salford, helping academic staff in the efficient use of edu-technology. I believe in the power of learning technologies to involve learners in collaborative learning opportunities. CoPs has been on of my research areas and I see one's activie involvement in it as a relevant way to pursue lifelong learning....being my observation that participation in CoPs often bears more fruits than enrollment in official, formalized courses. I like interacting , learning and help others learning online. :-) More about me here: http://www.knowmansland.com
hello Leigh I have decided that although I am supposed to be on leave working on my thesis it would be intriguing to see how this iteration of the course goes now that it is truly open. I am having a hard time keeping my fingers off the keyboard and not participating - yeah cos distractions such as FOC will kill my study leave goals...to get a draft of the thesis finished.
I am absolutely intrigued by the numbers who have registered in the FOC08 course now it is openly advertised. Last year we ran the course for the first time using wikiEd, however students were given access via Blackboard and a formal enrolment process. This year we got the go ahead to have informal enrolments...wow it is proof of the open concept and evidence of the need for people to keep increasing their skills in facilitating online communities...so many experienced people.
So my way to manage having meager participation will be to check in on key blogs so I can get a sense of how it is all going...for the next time I get to facilitate the course. Also so I can keep the debate about teaching versus facilitation going with you Leigh. :)
my blog: http://bahtings.blogspot.com --bron 05:01, 3 August 2008 (UTC)
My name is Lily. I am a friend of Joy, who introduced me this course. I'd like to join and catch up with some modern technology.
Hi All,
I am a teacher out on Groote Eylandt, a small island in the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia. My learning journey is taking me towards investigating the use of social learning and CoPs to facilitate professional learning. I am also a facilitator of a Professional Learning Community of mathematics teachers, whose vision it is to enhance the competence and confidence of maths educators with the ultimate goal of improving student outcomes. I have taken up the challenge of creating an online community, and would love to discuss this venture with anyone who has an interest/expertise in this area. Participation may be sporadic as influenced by my work, coursework (completing a masters on the use of PLCs to promote PD); and being dad to a 3 year old and 1 week old (hence the late start here :-) ). My blog is here: [1]
Hello My name is Mireille said like (me-ray). I just noticed this wonderful opportunity. I look forward to contributing as much as I can
Mireille Toronto, Canada
Dear Leigh,
I have been facilitating online courses for a number of years via Moodle. I am also an online doctoral student at the University of Phoenix scheduled to complete the program and dissertation in August 2009. I don't have any formal accreditation for online facilitation, but I do for face-to-face instruction. I have been teaching English as a foreign and second language for 32 years. I have facilitated a 3 week session on e-learning in developing countries at SCoPE and Knowplace. I would love to join the course and/or co-moderate with you.
Thank you.
Nellie Deutsch
Blog (for this course): Blended Learning and Instuction .
email: nellie.muller.deutsch at gmail dot com
Hello Nellie, it is great to have you on board. Having experienced people like yourself is very important for the course in general because I think it helps keep the course authentic and relevant for people new to the topic. So I appreciate your involvement. I hope the course will take you into new territory too, as you can see we are boldly exploring a lot in a very short period. This is because it is impossible to generalise "online" these days, and so we are aiming to experience online-s :)
Thank you, Leigh. I appreciate your feedback and kind words.
Hi Leigh,
I'm going to join you as a more casual participant ( time willing ) and in doing so I'd like to think that what I'm entering here is an opportunity to model to others whom I work with, ways in which to engage in knowledge acquisition and learning beyond the confines of the almighty LMS.
As always my thoughts are primarily authored at my blog
Kia ora koutou My name is Naketa Ferguson. I am a Regional ICT Facilitator with a great passion for OLC's as a way of supporting teachers in professional learning. Looking forward to participating in a less formal capacity i.e. not assessments just yet. Although I have heard that once you start engaging in this course you kind of want to participate in the assessments.
Naku noa na, Naketa naketaferguson@gmail.com You can access my blog here[ http://blog.core-ed.net/naketa/]
Hi Leigh, We met each other at the Etienne Wenger workshop. I'd like to join the course as an informal learner (although like Naketa I may get more formal as we go!) I'm currently facilitating a wee on-line community for NZ media teachers through TKI.It can be found at: http://media-studies.tki.org.nz/ I'd like to learn more about the facilitation process. My address is deborah.thompson@auckland.ac.nz Cheers - Deb p.s a question!!! I'm reasonably au fait with the wiki editing system but I couldn't get the external links to work here - what am I doing wrong! D
thanks for the advice Leigh. time to try it out: My blog, where i'll be posting my course comments is mediateachspace blog I won't be able to make the conference this morning as I'm visiting a teacher, but Jan from Australia and I had a great chat yesterday when we got the time wrong! Will tune in when I get back to the office cheers deb
Hi Deb, nice to see follow up from conference meetings. Doesn't happen to me very often :) external links require a single square bracket around the link. Following the link (but inside the bracket) include a space and then the text you want to be clicked. [http://example.com example]
It will be interesting to explore the notion of online facilitation while at the same time many of the different platforms that make up vastly different online experience. Its going to be a doozy, but I'm sure we'll all be getting good stuff out of the experience together.
Hi Leigh, My name is Octavio Lima. I'm from Portugal. I've been teaching English as a foreign language for 33 years now. I've been blogging for 4 years on environmental issues (http://ondas3.blogs.sapo.pt/) and I made two tentative approaches with Moodle this school year (http://moodle.esec-dr-m-gomes-almeida.rcts.pt/course/view.php?id=51) and (http://moodle.esec-dr-m-gomes-almeida.rcts.pt/course/view.php?id=52). I'm going to join Facilitating Online Communities as a casual participant. I'm eager to learn a lot, participate and collaborate in everything you'll present and suggest. I'm posting all my notes, ideas and comments her, in this blog at Ning: http://education.ning.com/profile/OctavioLima
My email is otlima@gmail.com
Cheers,
Octavio Lima
Hi Leigh,
Bronwyn Stuckey http://www.bronwyn.ws here. I would love to join you on this course. Having scanned the schedule I think it will help me fill some possible gaps in my view of community and I hope that I will be able to contribute to the knowledge sharing with the findings of my doctoral research on factors in online community development. What the heck it looks like a very cool bunch of people are assembling to hang out with you ;-)
My email address is: bstuckey@intraceptives.com.au
My web site is: http://www.bronwyn.ws here
My personal blog is http://bronst.wordpress.com/
I am running a brand new blog-based project: http://communitycapers.wordpress.com/ The activities showcase case studies of Internet-mediated communities and this might be an additional resource of interest for participants of this course.
Thanks
Bron
Hi Leigh I would like to participate in the next course. I have been involved hosting and supporting on line learning activities using Blackboard and Moodle for the last 7 or 8 years. My experience is extremely varied ranging from students with intellectual disabilities, postgraduate students in education and teaching, and the support and hosting of a platform for the professional development and training for Nursing and Midwifery in a large Metropolitan Hospital in Adelaide, South Australia.
Cheers Greg Carey (greg.carey@gregcareyandassociates.com.au)
I'm in. derekdotchirnside<at>gmaildotcom Peripheral participation maybe. - --Derekc 05:02, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
My name is Mike Bogle. I work in the central Learning & Teaching department at the University of New South Wales as the eLearning Research Officer. Primarily this involves tracking and evaluating emerging technology and assessing ways they can be used to support learning and teaching. As such I've got a firm grasp on what new technologies exist or are just coming out, however there are significant gaps in what I know about facilitation and learning theory. I come primarily from a technical background and have reached the point where I really want to expand my understanding of pedagogy, learning theory, and the more practical aspects of organising courses and facilitating/supporting learning experiences.
This time around I'd like to participate in this course in an informal capacity initially (due to time constraints), but look forward to really getting my teeth into the resources and discussions that lay ahead.
My contact details are as follows:
- Email: michael.s.bogle@gmail.com
- Blog: http://techticker.net
- Skype: m.bogle
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/mbogle
- Seesmic: http://seesmic.com/mbogle
Cheers,
Mike Bogle
Hi Mike, I am really looking forward to the first week where we get a chance to meet through web conferencing and tease out the many perspective people like yourself are bringing to this course. I hope you can keep 6 hours a week open for the course, but we all understand if you can't. I expect many here will be in the same boat.. so as long as we have you some of the time and others for other times, we should be good all the way through :)
Howdy, my name is Pedro Markun, i'm the director of Jornal de Debates ( www.jornaldedebates.com.br ), which is a Brazilian online collaborative newspaper and online community with more than 10k members (well... barelly 2k active ones). Curiously, I'm currently in a small brazilian city called 'Cataguases' giving a four day workshop on how to facilitate online communities to 60 local cultural activists ;) Hope we can share some experiences regarding that.
my email pedromarkunATjornaldedebates.com.br
thx, Pedro Markun
Absolutely! With all these people joining the course, it is tempting to rewrite the schedule when we meet in the web conference for the first week. Pedro, I expect you will have valuable things to contribute to the debate on teaching vs facilitation in weeks 4 - 5. It sounds to me that you come to online facilitation less from a teaching background and more from a community group background. This is great! It is sometimes difficult to shift teachers into a space purely about facilitation, so the more people we can have who will balance the number of teachers will be helpful for us all.
Hi all! My name is Mike Taylor and I am a learning development consultant here in the US. (Ohio) My company is looking into some form or online learning communities and this seems like a perfect introduction. I'm very much looking forward to learning from and with everyone here. ( my email is tDOTmikeDOTtaylorATgooglemailDOTcom )
My blog for this course is located here: http://foc08.wordpress.com/
My Name is Sarah Stewart and I am a lecturer in midwifery at Otago Polytechnic. I did this course last year and found it to be a great learning experience. Have fun everyone. Leigh: if you want any support, give me a bell.
Thanks, Leigh. This is a great opportunity to work with you on an educational adventure. I teach online courses at a community college, and despite my best efforts, facilitation does not always workout the way I think it might. Need some serious learning, so the timing couldn't be better.
Valerie Taylor
Instructor, CIS 2 Computers and the Internet in Society
DeAnza College
taylorvalerie at deanza dot edu
Hi Valerie, I hope we can work out that problem together.. it plagues us from time to time too. Good facilitation is more often than not dependent on the group asking for facilitation. We have an excellent group with us this course, so I'm expecting it to be a pretty neat learning experience for us all!
Hello,
Hi My name is andoss Tausefoki and Iam from the SOLOMON ISLANDS .I really enjoy the WE . Please include me in ths taining. email.roots44@gmail.com
Hi,
My name is Greg Szczotka. I come from Poland. I've been teaching English online for 3 years. Earlier, I was a private teacher and a teacher in school. I study psychology. I work as a translator. I'm interested in CALL and CAL and (e-)learning (2.0) and all similiar fields. I want to participate in your course! My email is: greg606@gmail.com
With kindest regards, Greg
Hello Greg. CALL and CAL.. I'm not sure I know what that stands for? I wonder if the C stands for community, and if it is something I should know about if I'm to lead the charge into this course :) Oh well, we can't know everything, and all going well we will be happy learning from each other. Welcome to you from Poland :)
Thanks! :) What is CALL/CAL
Oh, First time I heard about CAL(e-)L. I'm also a language teacher so I already knew what CALL was. I'm already learning!
Dzien dobry, Greg and nice to meet you. We have lots of things in common. Although I was born in Brazil, I am of Polish origin (speak, understand and read...but unfortunately have not learnt how to write it). I have been teaching English as a Foreign Language at a secondary school and have been online developing and participating in collaborative projects with my students since 1997 and also organizing and facilitating CPD online for teachers. My mail is beeonline (at) gmail (dot) com
Hi Leigh, I would very much appreciate to participate in this course. It will be a completely new experience for me since I have never participated in a course like this before. I am an EFL and German teacher in Portugal and I have already had the chance to know Wikieducator during a wiki course here at Wikieducator. Can you please tell me how long the course is going to last?
Best wishes,
Joao
Email: j.alves46ATgmailDOTcom
Blog: http://joaocarlosalves.eu
Twitter: joaoa
Hello Joao, let me just check the course schedule... :) Officially, it lasts for 17 weeks, but its flexible. Some people might like to go through it quickly, others might like to take longer. As long as the assignments are done and you try to participate in as many of our meetings as possible, then you will be fine (in terms of assessment). Those of us who choose to go at our own pace will perhaps loose a little in terms of common communications with the rest of the participants, but it can work out quite well too. Those that go ahead can test out the new topic for the rest of us and feed back things to watch out for. Those that go slower obviously benefit from the majority of us having already been through the topic. Hopefully most of us will pace ourselves with the schedule, but we'll see :)
Hello my name is Wayne. I have been working in the field of instructional design for the past 6 years. I spent some time developing online courses at Intel Corporation and now develop eLearning courses in higher education. My email is weanders@gmail.com - I look forward to working with everyone on the lists. It appears like a unique and interesting group.
Hello, My name is Karolina and I work for SWPS e-learning centre in Warsaw. I have conducted several courses online but still feel I need to broaden my knowledge and experience. I would like to join this course since 10th of August as I won't be able to use the Internet during the next three weeks. My e-mail address is: kkrzywicka@swps.edu.pl
No problems Karolina, the first few weeks you will still be sent email.. just use them to catch up when you are back online.. you will be fine.. the schedule is a rough guide and people will inevitably go faster or slower at different points. The important thing is, that you are with us through weeks 12 and 13. At least I hope you can be.
Hi,
My name is Olaug (Ollie) Gardener and I am working as the Global Knowledge Manager for Nemko Group, based in Norway.
I have previoulsy studied "International Communication" in New Zealand and has "always" been interested in IT-assisted communication, learning and knowledge management.
In my current role, I am just about to start three pilot-groups testing the use of wiki, blog and chat for knowledge sharing between our offices in US, Europe and Asia.
The course is therefore higly timely and relevant for me right now!! ;) Ideally, I could combine what I need to do as coursework with the assistance and support I need to give the three pilot-projects.. I would also LOVE any support and guidance I could get from you and other participants as my project progresses.
Please include me in the maillist. My email is ollienorATmyfastmailDOTcom
Cheers,
Ollie
Excellent Ollie! In fact we could make your project a focus for some of the course. A case study and peer assist project. Look up peer assist as a concept.. you should find a nice little flash movie about it on Nancy White's blog. Perhaps you could run a peer assist session for the course mini conference in weeks 12 and 13? Just a suggestion. Good to have you with us.
Hello again,
Been trying to find the result of the discussion around where we should write what our blogs are.
I realize I am a little late off the mark, but my blog is now started on
http://olliegardener.blogspot.com/
Let me know if I need to add this to a list elsewhere :)
Warm regards,
Ollie
My name is Maria Pophristova, and I work for Warsaw School of Social Psychology, Poland as a distance learning specialist and a lecturer. I have just started doing my PhD in the field of virtual communities. So I hope that this course would help me further my thesis and deepen the knowledge. :) My e-mail is: mpophristova@swps.edu.pl My blog is available at: http://mimonche.blogspot.com/
Hello My nam is Brian Shmelonis and I would like to sign up for the Facilitating online communities course. I am looking to learn as much as I can about online communities and thought this was a good course to take :)
My email address is: brianshimelonis@yahoo.com
Brian Shimelonis
My Blog for this course: http://bcsfoc.blogspot.com
Greetings, My name is Terry Yelmene (online aka tyelmene). I develop information systems; one which is used by individuals to become extremely effective finding, communicating, and structuring information for themselves to solve problems and one that organizations use to improve their innovation practices. I have been a long time observer/participant in on-line communities and welcome this course as an opportunity to broaden my own knowledge and meet others who may broaden my thinking. You can reach me at: tyelmene@capabilitysystems.com
Hi, This is Tom Murray (tommurray.us@gmai.com). Heard about this course through the online facilitation listserve and am eager to pick up some hints. I have worked doing R&D in computer-based learning environments, and have a more recent interest in online communities and collaborative tools. More about me at http://www.tommurray.us and http://www.perspegrity.com. I am traveling through much of the next several weeks but will have internet access much of the time. Thanks for offering this Leigh!
Hi. My name is LaDonna Coy and I am very excited to find this course (Thank you Nancy). It is, I believe, a good fit. I am doing a lot of work these days with social media and prevention (social change), especially with state providers and communities. Increasingly I find myself engaged in networks and doing more web-based meetings, courses, and workshops - all involving facilitation. Long story short I am looking to improve my online facilitation skills given the new media and collaborative methods that are emerging (like this wiki) and happy to participate and make a contribution. Please email LaDonna Coy (coyenator at gmail dot com)
Hi, I'm Daryl. I run my own consulting business as a facilitator. Most of my work is face-to-face, but having come to this work from a technology background I'd like to learn more about online facilitation and try and blend the two. Also looking forward to reconnecting with a few familiar faces here :). Contact and blog details here.
Hi My name is Bernadette Harris. I live in Killcare on the Central Coast of NSW Australia. Despite our reputation for warm weather today it's bleak so staying inside rugged up warm is the way to go. My email address is bernadette[at]harrisbromly.com.au. I have a small training organsiation and we deliver some online programs so I'm really interested in learning more and especially learning from others' perspective. If you want to look at my website you can go to [1]. I'm looking forwrad to getting to know you all over the coming weeks. :o)
Hi all. I´m an spanish consultant and blogger about elearning, social learning, semantic web, social networks, etc.. ([El caparazón][[1]], also in english version) Communities are, in my opinion, the best way to learn. I´ve created and promoted different online communities from a collaborative blog based workshop, Taller de Blogs, that is still running. I believe that we could learn a lot through this experience. My email is dreig01@gmail.com
I´ve created a blog to follow the course in [El caparazón / The Shell][[2]]. And a published page on Netvibes, [Facilitating online communities][[3]] where you´ll can access all participants and reference wikis, blogs or whatever.
My presentation post is [on this link][[4]] See you later!
Hi All, This is Sumita Johnson from Chennai, India. I'm an instructional designer and have worked on numerous projects for several clients for whom I have created online courses. Would love to know more about online facilitation and how can it help me create better courses. Thanks once again. Would like to be a part of this workshop. Please count me in. Here is my e-mail id: sumi_js@yahoo.com Thanks! Hoping to see you all there.
Hello Dreig, by now you should have received a comment from me on your blog: http://www.dreig.eu/caparazon/eng
Welcome.
Hello Leigh et All! I am Mariana Syrotiak and I am a program manager and an educator in Brattleboro, Vermont. I have been and still am, both intrigued and suspicious of the cyber world. I jumped in with both feet however and I consider myself to be pretty active with on line communication. But there is so much to learn...Needless to say that I am very happy to have found out about this course (thank you Jan). I look forward to learn more both content and process wise. Warmly, Mariana mariana.syrotiak@gmail.com
Hello! My name is Bruna Ori and I work at a suburban high school north of Chicago as a technology integration specialist. I get to work with teachers and students using all types of technology within our curriculum. As you can imagine it is loads of fun. I also teach at one of our community colleges so my students range in age from 13 - 80s.
We've started using Moodle about two years ago and the students absolutely love it. I am looking forward to this course and working with all of you! (email: boriATdist113DOTorg) My blog is http://curlygrl.blogspot.com/
Hello everybody! My name is Gabriela Sellart, I'm a teacher of English as a Foreign language in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
I did a Learning4Content course here some months ago, and I have just realized that I need to brush up my editing skills.
At the moment I'm facilitating online Professional Development courses and I'm about to start a collaborative online project with a class in the USA. This last project has made me reflect on the role of an online community facilitator. So as soon as I got to know (via twitter) about this course I decided to join.
Thanks a lot Leigh for this opportunity.
gsellart@gmail.com
http://foc08.tumblr.com/ (in English) http://andamiada.blogspot.com/ (in Spanish)
(Posted on behalf of Olufemi)
Dear leighblackall,
I have tried unsuccessfully to reply to the discussion forum.
If you receive this mail I jhope it serves as my expression of interest to join the workshop
My Intro:
I am an international online tutor and instructional material designer for online environment. I am a faculty in the dental school University of Lagos Nigeria.
I have created some online courses material as you can see in this link:
http://www.elearningeuropa.info/files/media/media13219.pdf I am interested in this course and willing to make some contributions based on my experiences too.I am interested in taking a job in an academic environment an a facilitator and I hope I will be able to secure necessary link for this desire.
I look forwarding to commencing discussion in the forum on 28th of July 2008
Best regards, Olufemi Olubodun Olufemi J. [ CDT; RDT (Nig) M.Ed; Pg Dip. Ed; Pg Dip. E-Teaching & E-course Dev. (UNU/GVU)] University of Lagos, College of Medicine, School of Dental Sciences, P.M.B. 12003, Lagos Nigeria. Mobile:+2348066389422 Office: 23401-4802011 http://www.elearningeuropa.info/files/myprofile/curriculum/24747_cv.doc eFacilitator Dodo Village www.nabuur.com
Dear All,
My name is Jennifer Verschoor from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I hold degrees as English University Professor, Bachelor in Educational Management and English Public Translator. Currently I´m introducing New Technologies for the Teaching of English in various Leading Commercial and Educational Organizations and also coordinate Peer Coaching sponsored by Microsoft. I´m a Teacher Trainer and have been awarded with the Scholarship to attend WorldCALL 2008 Using Technologies for Language Learning, 3 rd International Conference in Fukuoka, Japan. I will be travelling on July 31st so I will miss the first 2 weeks. You can contact me via skype: jenverschoor My email is: jenverschoor@gmail.com My blog is: http://www.jenverschoor.wordpress.com
I couldn´t resist joining you and it´s also so nice to read many familiar names!!
Hello all. My name is Tim Davies - and I'm a consultant, developer and researcher mainly working around young people's (under 18s) participation in decision making - but also supporting social justice campaigners and activists to use online tools. I'm in the middle of my first experience of leading the facilitation of an online course/learning journey at the moment and just coming to the point of needing to reflect and really think about building my skills for future projects. So, seeing a post about this course on Nancy White's blog just as I was about to sit down and start on that thinking seemed suitably serendipitous. Looking forward to much learning. E-mail and Blog
Leigh Blackall, Thank you for posting on my behalf. I was able to make it at last. Grateful for the oportunity to join the forum. I have been teaching in a face to face environment fot over ten years but facilitating in an online environment is close to four years. I enjoy both experiences but look forward to doing it as a full time job in an online environment. I hope after this course such opportunity will arise.
Vishal, I hope you will like to tell us how you created a platform on moodle. I have used both Moodle and Fronter platforms but will like to know if anyone could tell me especially you who have created a platform on moodle the differences from the perspective of an IT professional not an edn user like me. As an online tutor I could create /adapt course materials for both platform. See a sample below. Sylvia Currie, I hope too that your wealth of experiences will bear on this forum. Cheers Olufemi
Good on you Olufemi. I think your quest to discuss Moodle might yield better responses in the email forum once I have set it up. From experience, it is difficult to sustain discussion here on this wiki talk page on account of the email alert not functioning :( The email forum should be set within an hour.. and it might be that we should add another topic to the schedule - one that looks at developing such a space as a Moodle install, and how to facilitate an online community through that.
This is a brilliant offer. Thanks so much, Leigh.
My name is Amy Lenzo <amy@beautydialogues.com> and if there was some way of talking about what I actually do I might say I'm an independent online communications designer/strategist. As part of that work, I'm the Community Tech Steward for the World Café, and one of the people facilitating online conversations for this international non-profit network. I also facilitate in a number of other online communities, and find that I am becoming more and more interested and involved in the art of facilitating learning spaces online, so this is perfect. Many thanks to Nancy White, for letting us know it was available.
My name is Cathy Deckers cdeck77@gmail.com and I am a nursing instructor in California. I am excited about this offering and am looking forward to seeing how I can incorporate these tools into my learning setting. I am also finishing my doctorate degree in Educational Technology. This seems like a perfect way to put things into practice for me - thanks for the offering.
Hi Leigh and everyone else here on this list I just discovered this course and it would be a pleasure for me to join.
My name's Illya Arnet-Clark and I live and work in Switzerland as an ESL teacher and teacher trainer for the pedagogical college in Lucerne. I am very interested in expanding my knowledge in online communities and hope this will at some point open opportunities to work more intensively in this area.
You will find my blog at: [1] and my e-mail is: illya.arnet@gmail.com I am also on twitter as illyac.
I'm looking forward to working together with you all!
By the look of the network that has already formed around this course Illya, there will be opportunities a plenty :)
Hello everyone! I heard about this course from Illya, and I am excited to join and learn more about online facilitation.
My name is Mary Hillis and I am an EFL teacher in Japan. I am really interested in using online tools for professional development, and I belong to a couple online communities of practice.
Throughout the course, I will be blogging at My FOC08 Blog http://maryhfoc08.tumblr.com/ and you can also find me on Twitter as mhillis.
Thanks!
Wow... class officially starts tomorrow... I am excited to join this course sans Moodle/Blackboard with the number of people in this course. I am an educator from Charlotte, NC. I am in the process of offering the use and establishing online communities with my students; and sharing this information with my colleagues. Looking forward to this learning experience with everyone here.
Malik Richardson
mrich1911ATgmailDOTcom email
malikrichardson skype
mrich1911 twitter
mrarrah.com web
Hello Malik, I'm a bit confused by what you mean with "I am excited to join this course sans Moodle/Blackboard with the number of people in this course.".. what is the Moodle and Blackboard you mention? No matter, I have added your email to the forum and everything will be clear soon
"...sans Moodle/Blackboard with the number of people in this course"
Hi Leigh!
What I meant that I have not taken an online course with out the instructor using Moodle or Blackboard. Especially with the high number of students enrolled. I was just thinking that managing this number of students would be overwhelming. Or just managing at most 20 students using Moodle/BB was tough. Kudos goes out to you for setting the bar!
Hi Leigh
My name is Deb Hosking and I am a lecturer at TAFESA in Australia. I facilitate a course that caters exclusively for external students. We have been working on developing ways of making the course more interactive and have been using Centra to facilitate sessions.
My email address is deb.hosking@tafesa.edu.au
I will be participating informally at this stage and there is a lot happening in my work world at the moment.
Looking forward to working with everyone.
Hi Leigh
My name is Concetta. I'm a primary school teacher and I also work with Education.au as a community builder.
Email: concetta.gotlieb at mac dot com Blog: [1] Me.Edu.Au profile: [2] Twitter: chetty
Let me know if you would like to create a me.edu.au community of interest around the topic. Here is short explanatory video. [3]
Hi Everyone
Late starter here...
My name is Robyn Honeman. I have been working with online communities of one variety or another for about 5 years. My present roles is with the Learning Technology Team at TAFE NSW Riverina Institute.
Our current spaces include branded wikispace, wordpress blogs and podcasting to come and setting up a Moodle server. Using Web 2.0 in lots of areas too, and we have had staff involved with learning how to use tools during the last few years as part of Learnscope.
I am really looking forward to learning with everyone, such a wealth of knowledge in the participants.
Here is my Blog Rob's Blog which I am constantly promising myself I will keep up to date.
Hello everyone
My name is Mary-Doug Wright and I live in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I am a consultant/information specialist working primarily in the area of health policy research. I participate in a number of online communities, for both professional purposes and for fun.
I am interested in learning more about social networking tools, and currently use a number: Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, Twitter, LibraryThing, del.icio.us. I am about to start working through SLA's (Special Libraries Association) 23Things, a self-directed learning program to get people up and running with a variety of Web2.0 tools. I'm interested in online collaboration environments and I think this course will be a good companion to the 23Things program. [Update August 3: I have set up my new blog at blogging at http://www.apexinformation.com/meldinme/.]
My email address is mdwright@apexinformation.com. I look forward to working with the rest of you in this course.
Wow! Glad to know so many people are intersted in this course ^_^ My name is Joy. I am a facilitator working in MIT, NZ. I am living in Auckland now and been in NZ for about 5 years (time always goes soooo fast ). Before our immigration to NZ I lived in China and worked as a tutor of IT for about 10 years. I am really interested in online teaching and facilitating. It's really a great challenge for me to explore and experience the facilitating online community skills. I am really excited to learn and experience more ^_*
my email: joy.alice@gmail.com
my blog: http://joyzw.blogspot.com
Joy
My name is Jeffrey Keefer, and I am an instructional designer in New York City who also teaches as an adjunct faculty member at New York University. I just found out about this course, and think it may be helpful as I am teaching an online class this Fall and want to integrate community of practice methods into my instruction. I am looking forward to meeting new colleagues here and learning from those who have done this work more than I have!
My email address is jeffrey (at) silenceandvoice (dot) com
My blog is Silence and Voice http://www.silenceandvoice.com - [1].
Greetings to all. My name is Lynne Gilliland and I faciliate in person events and am very excited about this course. My email address is lynne@gilliland.com and website is www.gillilandjud.com.
My name is Diane Holmes and I am looking forward to learning more about this subject as I have been given the job of facilitating a community website for our village: hogsback.ning.com for no other reason than that I have broadband (broadly speaking not very fast) and I enjoy virtual chatting to the face-to-face version. I also half suspect this is going to be high brow stuff and I'm hoping you will pitch the ball low every now and then for me to catch ;-) But thanks for this opportunity!!
My name is William Beasley, and I apologize for submitting this so late (on 28 July)... but I just became aware of the course and couldn't pass up the opportunity. I'm a professor at Cleveland State University in Ohio in the U.S.; I teach online courses, hybrid courses, interactive video courses, and traditional courses, and spend a lot of time helping other faculty deal with bringing technology to to their classes. A common area of difficulty is the concept of nurturing online community, so I'm very pleased to encounter this course on facilitating online community. I hope I can pass along some of what I learn here to other faculty. You can reach me at wDOTbeasleyATcsuohio.edu . I gather I'm supposed to have set up a blog for this class; you can find the blog at: http://onlinecommunitiescareandfeeding.blogspot.com/ . The RSS feed URL is: http://onlinecommunitiescareandfeeding.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
Hello, I hope I'm not too late!! My name is Tajalli Love and I'm in San Francisco, CA. I moderate an online community for parents in the US. The focuses are mainly educational and parenting issues. I'm new to the field and realize there is so much for me to learn. There have been times when my community was in dire need of a facilitator so I'm hoping I can apply what I learn here. tlove@greatschools.net
Hello Leigh and everyone! My name is Mario Gastaldi and I am based in Italy. I learned of this opportunity some minutes ago (reading Nancy's post). I hope I am not late as I would really love to take part.
I am a face to face facilitator mostly working with organizations facilitating participative change processes with a strong focus on employee engagement. I am also a trainer: I design and deliver workshops on topics such as (difficult) communication, conflict, leadership development. As I enjoy so much facilitating live events I would be enthusiastic to learn and share from/with all of you about on line facilitating.
Best wishes Mario
my e-mail: mario.gastaldi@braint.net blog: http://mariogastaldi.com website: http://braint.net skype: mariogas2007 facebook: http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=655241973 linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mariogastaldi
Hi Leigh
Mary Loftus here in Sligo, Ireland. I'm sorry for the late post. I just found out about the course - so I hope there is room for one more?
I work in IT training and software development where I find that facilitation skills are ever more crucial. For the past year, I have also been adjunct faculty on an online Masters programme - where online facilitation is one of the core challenges.
So, I hope I can share some of this experience, but mostly I would love to learn from the varied experiences of others.
Email address: loftus.mary@gmail.com
Cheers Mary
Hi Leigh! Hi everyone. I'm Marie Casas, CPA. I've been working on financial planning/financial literacy modules since 2006 and this course could be a really great help in moving this advocacy forward. I've recently affiliated with Sun Life and am in-charge of Marketing/Admin/Business/Finance for tech startup Pigmata Media. My partners and I are working as well on a very simple web-based VLE/PLE/learning/notes tool and Leigh's articles have been very insightful. marie[dot]casas[at]gmail[dot]com
I've posted my first entry on my blog over at vox. [This is my blog for this course: http://sxyshandy.vox.com]
The RSS Feed specifically for the FOC entries: http://sxyshandy.vox.com/library/posts/tags/foc08/atom.xml
Hi Leigh and all
I'm Nigel Robertson and have recently arrived on New Zealand's fair shores! I've been working in support roles with staff and students in UK tertiary education for the last 9 years and am now based in Hamilton at the University of Waikato. I have only just discovered this course and I think that it will be a wonderful opportunity to learn from such a diverse group of people. I hope that you can cope with me as a late arrival. Email = easegill at gmail dot com Blog = http://easegill.edublogs.org
Cheers Nigel
Hi there, Leigh!
My name is Diego Leal. I'm from Colombia (right now in Bogota, but moving in a couple of weeks back to Rio de Janeiro), and I first met you last year during an online workshop we had with Nancy White (organized by the Ministry of Education), in which you participated as a guest. I just knew about this course (I've been traveling the last few days so I was kinda disconnected) and I would like to be part of it. I'm sorry I'm a little late, but I think it makes sense to get involved because I already have most of the tasks of week one completed :D. I'm also glad to see a lot of familiar faces around, and I'm sure I'll get to learn a lot from all of you.
I'm quite interested in the idea of open/flexible courses (like CCO, which will start next month), so I think this will be a great opportunity to try and understand what's that about. I have to confess here's a chance that every now and then I might get into "lurker-mode", but I'll try and keep those moments as few as possible.
This is my contact info:
- E-mail: diego at diegoleal dot org
- Blog (English, I have another one in Spanish): http://www.diegoleal.org/social/blog/blogs/dotedu-dotco/
- RSS (Atom, in fact) feed
The remaining thing to do now is to listen to the Elluminate session. I already asked to join the GoogleGroups group.
I had a question, anyway: I suppose you are you collecting the different RSS fedds from the participants, right? Is there a chance for you to generate an OPML file, so it's easier for everyone else to add those feeds?
Congratulations on the course, and thanks for allowing me to join.
Best,
Diego Leal
I am Lynne Gilliland Garber. I am based on the East Coast of the US and my work is with international nongovernmental organizations on having excellent management and leadership skills. Makes all the difference in whether they meet their mission and purpose as to the quality of their managers and leaders. My email is lynne@gillilandjud.com. Blog is http://lynneonfacilitatingonlinecommunities.blogspot.com/
My background is in international development with years spent in Central and South America as well as West, Central and Southern Africa (some in INdia and Pakistan).
I look forward to creating online communities with everyone.
Lynne
Hi Leigh and everyone else,
I just found this course, today, a week after you all started. Well, I would love to participate, this sure sounds interesting. My name is Peter Efland, I am executive secretary at the Danish-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I have no experience running online communities, actually the nearest I get is to have studied a bit about community behavior at at my masters at Intercultural Management at Copenhagen University. Except from that, my experience with online communities is that I spend way too much time on twitter, friendfeed, socialmedian, identi.ca, Facebook etc etc. At the Chamber, which in a way is a offline community, we naturally make quite a few events offline, but I would love to get a chance to learn how to facilitate communities online as well - specifically, from a corporate point of view, I find it very curious why so many companies fail when they set-up communities as part of their marketing. I would think this is due to some cultural differences between off-line and on-line communities, but hopefully I will learn much more about that.
My Contacts are as follows:
email: phefland@gmail.com blog: http://phefland.wordpress.com/ skype: peter_efland twitter: phefland
I look forward to catching up with you guys.
Best Regards, Peter H. Efland
Hi all,
Like Peter, I am starting late here (many thanks Leigh for adding me to the list.) My name is Kylie Benton-Connell, and I work with Oxfam International Youth Partnerships, based in the Oxfam Australia Sydney office.
OIYP is a network of 300 young people working for social change in various ways in many different parts of the world. Over a period of three years, OIYP provides networking platforms, collaborative face to face learning, small grants and skills-building opportunities.
You can find our website here: http://www.oiyp.oxfam.org
Part of our skills program is a series of E-workshops, where reading materials are mailed to participants, and a structured online forum is facilitated by members of previous OIYP 3-year cycles.
I look forward to sharing experiences and knowledge over the coming weeks.
All the best, Kylie
Hello everyone,
I came across this page a few weeks ago, and was really wondering whether I should join or not. On the one hand, I have had a great experience with David Wiley's course last fall, which was conducted in a similar manner, and the topic is very interesting to me. On the other hand, I will be travelling in India and China for the next 30 days (exactly), and often not have very good or regular internet access. I am also starting a new MA in September (in international and comparative higher education - focusing on OER and open learning, so very relevant to this course), and I don't know how much time I will have.
But I have decided to at least try... all though I might not always be able to participate fully... (Which is an interesting problematics in itself - are these kind of courses dependent on everyone who joins being a full-time committed student, or is it ok for people to drift in an out? What does that do with the group dynamics?).
I will be blogging on http://reganmian.net, which is also my main blog (and if you go back in the archives, you can find everything I wrote during Wiley's course :) I hope someone will create an OPML file of all the people who have joined this course, once the dust settles, so that it will be easier to add you all to my feed reader.
Looking forward to learning from you all!
Stian
Hi Leigh, my name is Joe LaFitte, I use an online name of "Topsail_pirate". I am a high school teacher in Newfoundland, Canada. I am currently working towards my Masters in Education (IT). I stumbled across this course doing some research into online learning. I am interested in participating in the course and have subcribed to the e-mail feed. I am new to a lot of the Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, feeds, etc. but am anxious to learn and to discuss some of the issues you will be addressing in this course.
My email address is joelafitte AT hotmail DOT com my Blog, I am currently toying with Bloglines and Google reader... will be finalized soon.
Joe
Hi my name is Jan Hunter from South Australia. We ahve recently created a moodle for our students and I am keen to learn some other skills to support and improve our delivery. My email is jan@bjaustralia.com.au and my blog is http://janfoc08.blogspot.com/ . Thank you
Hi everyone, I'm Nancy Riffer from central upstate New York, USA. I'm a consultant in training and organizational development. Most of my work has been in mental health settings. I'm also a former college faculty member
I have experience facilitating a variety of f2f groups. I've done some facilitating, and a lot of participating, in online groups since 2001. I would like to add online facilitation of community to the skills I bring to my work.
You can reach me: nancyrifferAtyahooDotCom. My blog for this course is: [1]
My name is Elaine Dittert and I teach Tourism and Travel Consultancy at a tertiary institue in Palmerston North, New Zealand. I am studying towards the MIT Graduate Certificate in Applied eLearning and this is my 4th paper. All this is slightly overwhelming for me at the moment, I feel that I have been dropped into the middle of a paper not the beginning as everything seems to be going so very fast! Luckily there is another staff member here who I am buddying up with to help each other along. email: e.dittert@ucol.ac.nz
Hi Leigh My name is Trish Everett, and I would like to be included in this course. I was the principal of Parnngurr Community School where Awe started to explore online communities. I am no studying my Masters of Arts/Master of IT. This course looks amazing. I would enjoy doing it along side my other studies. My Email Address is trishusATsavvybabelDOTcom. My blog address is http://savvybabel.com/babel/
Hi, Leigh and all. I'm terribly late here, but as this workshop seems to be flexible, I hope I can still make it. I'm a Brazilian EFL educator and enthusiast of the possibilities the Web can offer us in the teaching/learning process. I'm actually living in Key West, FL, but am still working for my language school, a Binational Center in Brasilia, as an online instructor. I just love to connect and learn. I'm sure this will be an enriching experience with such a vast community of educators.
email: carlaarena-at-gmail.com twitter: carlaarena blog: http://explorations.bloxi.jp
Hi Leigh
I have finally had our HelpDesk sort out my computer as I was having difficulty setting up RSS feeds from the blogs and I didn't want to progress further until I could 'tick all on the list' for Week 1. My computer has now been upgraded to the latest version of WE (I usually use Firefox) and magically, the RSS icon appeared. Next task is to check I can enter the Elluminate session.
I have subscribed to the other students enrolled in the Grad Cert as well as a couple of others.
I can now safely say I have done all required from Week 1. I'm on my way ..... My blog address is http://906703fockaylewis.blogspot.com/
Hi everyone, I'm Kirsten and I lecture at MIT (New Zealand). I teach multimedia and web design, as well as a few other computing papers. I realise I am very late with my introduction and I have a lot of catching up to do! My blog address is: http://kirstenmarais.blogspot.com/ and my email address is kirsten.marais@manukau.ac.nz. Look forward to getting to know everyone.
Sorry for the late introduction but just found about the course recently. My name's Barbara Dieu (or Bee as people call me online) I’m a Brazilian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) educator and have been involved in international collaborative/ exchange projects since 1997. I am presently consulting, presenting and developing projects using social tools and international networking to advance language learning, multiliteracies and helping teachers online in their continued professional development. I am particularly interested in how participatory media in ELT can be implemented in the different learning contexts, what issues block innovation and what is needed for educators to open up to global participation, innovation, creativity and change in local contexts. My blog is at http://beespace.net and will be using the FOC08 tag for posts relating to this course.
