Rayna - Facilitating Online

Week 5 - Review

2010-08-22T00:50:00.000-07:00

What a roller-coaster this course is proving to be - so many opportunities abound and I find myself being drawn in many exciting directions.
Still to do:
Look at Google docs!!!
Hook up to Skype!!!
Find out about discussion boards!!!
Contact Nancy White with a question!!!

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to facilitate Friday's Elluminate session with my colleague from Otago Polytechnic-Jane Field. This provided the best learning around being FLEXIBLE and thinking and acting on the spot - the letting go that Nancy White introduced us to last week.

Jane and I realised the day before when we hooked up to practice in Elluminate, that the speaker was 4 hours out with his expected time to arrive in the virtual classroom - he had misread the world clock. At least we had prior warning of a possible no-show!

A panicky email brought the response (on the morning of the scheduled session) that he was double booked and the question - could we reschedule the session? After a bit of back and forwards he managed to free himself at the right time and joined us just as we got underway. Fortunately we had loaded the power-point presentation just in case.

So our back up plan on our back up plan went out the window and we actually went ahead with the original plan! Now I really understand what is meant by 'flexible delivery'!

So some quick responses to Sarah's reflective questions before we move into the second phase of this course:

What is online facilitation?
Facilitating learning in an online environment using different tools and media than in a face to face situation. The tools should be appropriate for the intended outcomes of the learning experience.

What skills do you need as an online facilitator?
Technological competence in the media being used; ability to recognise and respond appropriately to various cues from the learners (eg silence); ability to think on one's feet, ability to be flexible and adaptive as the situation demands.....

How does a facilitator build an online community or network?
By connecting things across people, time and place!!! By asking good questions and by pointing the way.....

What are the key things to remember when facilitating an event, meeting or education course, especially when working with people who are new to online technology?
Relax! Allow for low participation and take-up at first. Persevere to try and help people engage in a way that is meaningful for them. Give clear guidelines in more than one format and repeat these frequently to get people used to the idea/s. Show people what might be the personal benefits to them. Expect technological problems and down-play them. Have a back-up plan and a back-up on the back-up plan!

What is the difference between teaching and facilitation?
Facilitation - the 'making easy' of whatever is the intended outcome.

In my current work as an APL (Assessment of Prior Learning) facilitator, my role is to make it easier (than it would be alone) for the candidate to reflect on their experience, draw out their knowledge and understandings embedded in this experience and construct this into a schema that enables them to present it for assessment against a qualification.

How is this different from teaching a student? Surely a good teacher is responsible for creating learning opportunities for their student/s - which in order to be most useful, also needs to draw upon what the student already knows and help them integrate this with new learning.

Both these roles - teaching and facilitation demand the use of a multitude of different skills and tools depending on what is needed at the time to move the learner towards the expected outcome/s. I am not convinced that the terms cannot be used synonymously.

Facilitator or teacher - the creator and enabler of learning opportunities!

What is netiquette?
Common sense! Although what is 'common' (sense) appears to be an ever- changing feast in our ever-changing technological world. Old norms are moving over for new norms.

There is so much more I could be saying but it is late and I am tired and I would like to have a quick peek at what's ahead for this week. Thanks for any comments on my blogs - I do enjoy getting feedback. I am trying to do the same but have been a bit lax this past two weeks.

Week 4: Connections, community, chaos and control.

2010-08-13T20:13:00.000-07:00

These are the things going around in my head this week.....time to put them down and see what sense I can begin to make.

Thinking about George Siemens - Connectivism. In my work as a facilitator I am conscious of helping learners to make connections and build their knowledge base from these. That's why I love using mind-maps so much and find the visual cues useful for making connections between things. For constructing knowledge in front of us!

This course continues to highlight for me that where the learning actually occurs is not always where the learner or the facilitator might have expected. I am curious about what was going on in Nancy's head this morning when she opened up the session to a free-for-all play around on the whiteboard. I wonder whether she expected us to take what we did from that experience?

It would have been useful to do a quick exercise on the whiteboard at the end to identify what each of us took away from the session and to talk about her expectations as a facilitator. I expect these would have been quite varied. Make myself a note to try and do this in the next Elluminate session in which I am co-facilitating as a complete newbie.

I have been thinking about community this week and Nancy's explanation of the difference between community and network was really helpful. Working together for a common purpose being predominant in a community, whereas a network shares a common interest. I now understand the subtle difference here and this distinction throws some light on what I have been feeling a little resistant to in this course - the expectation that people will naturally form communities of practice.

I too am like Sharon, I am not sure that I am wanting to participate in a community of practice through this course - I am enjoying the dialogue occurring across the network and the 'serendipitousness' to it. I subscribe to about 20 blogs which I keep an eye on and respond as I am able, but I also keep an eye on the wider network. That way connections are made for me often when I least expect it and this is what helps me build up my knowledge and skill base. Am I missing out on something here?

It really makes me think about what constitutes knowledge - back to George Siemens again - seems to me that the pathways already exist in my brain and my body and learning occurs when connections are made - the light goes on or the door is opened. This is different from information which just is! And the switch or handle or stimulus for learning can be anything that appears at the right time - when I am ready for it. The value in a course like this is the smorgasbord of options (a deli-bar as described by Jane) that are provided and learners starting from where they are, potentially get what they need to make the connections at the time that is right for them.

Interestingly my resistance to building an online community reflects also my resistance to building an online identity. Not sure what this is about. Guess I am still trying to figure out what this identity is - compared to my 'off-line' identity??? I have been thinking a lot this week about the pull that being online has and how all-consuming it can become. I have to make sure that my off-line communities don't suffer from my lack of attention. I have been conscious of this pull and thinking about the potential danger that boundarylessness in the smorgasboard of options might present. Its all so tempting but.....

Chaos theory - don't know much about it! Note to myself to follow-up. But I know that the word chaos was used a lot this morning in relation to the Elluminate session where there was a some perceived chaoticness in the playtime. As opposed to control - in which I guess, learning is dictated and managed. Makes me think again about facilitation being about starting where the learner is and enabling them to make their own connections by providing a smorgasbord of options and the place of chaos in this! Definitely a challenge for me but one I face constantly in my current work. Nancy suggested that learning to let go and face the uncertainty was something to do with being 52!

The skill of the facilitator is in knowing how to use the platform, teaching others to use it, manage the communication and help learners to make the connections they are ready for. I experienced all these things happening this morning with Nancy White. I would really like to know what she was conscious about in her facilitation. Would love you to comment Nancy!

Looking forward to what the next week brings - an opportunity to try my hand (and mind) at online facilitation at our next Elluminate session. Lots of practice between now and then !

End of week 3.....musings and practice

2010-08-07T16:07:00.000-07:00

Week 3 and I am finding the opportunities afforded to me through this course are unexpected and challenging. So many doors seem to be opening and unlocking things in my brain! I'm making connections in ways that I couldn't have imagined and feel drawn to read George Siemens again.

My key musings from this week have been (in no particular order) :

Blogging doesn't have to be onerous - can be a serendipitous - dipping in and out of threads of reflections and conversations - choosing when to engage and when to not! While an asynchronous form of communication, discussions can develop quite quickly and there is value in following blogs and comments regularly.

Writing my own blog - not yet a spontaneous activity! I sometimes feel like I don't have anything profound enough to say, as I am learning so much from a lot of the blogs I am following. I remind myself that I am here to learn from whatever is on offer. So my blog is developing as a repository (and record) of my thoughts and reflections from participating in this course (sure beats lots of bits of paper) and in a place that can be easily shared with others - serving a wider purpose than just my own reflections.

What makes a prolific blogger? I was really interested in the discussion in yesterdays Elluminate session, especially the relationship between blogging styles and face to face styles/personalities and I suspect, learning styles too. I had an interesting conversation recently with one of my learners about the challenge he faces when he needs to commit to paper his thoughts that he can articulate so clearly verbally. His complaint is that once he has articulated the thought/idea/concept, it is lost to him. It seems to me that blogging (and other online tools) may be able to help to bridge this gap for so many learners. Pondering this........................

Pondering this further (another leap in my brain...) - A blog can potentially provide a medium not only for catching learners 'pearls of wisdom' but perhaps for assessing them too. I can imagine for example a learners blog being structured in a particular way that could provide sufficient evidence of knowledge and understanding, critical reflection and evaluation etc. Has anyone out there had experience using them in this way or is this now getting into the domain of e-portfolios (another door........)?

Synchronous learning via Elluminate - I have also become somewhat besotted with the scope provided by Elluminate to work with groups of people (or even one other) in simultaneous work. Connections for me - when working with several people who are at different stages of their journey in the assessment of their prior learning - a 'space' like an Elluminate classroom could enable us to come together regularly for a discussion forum - for questions and answers, discussing process, critiquing each others written work, discussing and giving feedback on ideas and previewing presentations using power-point and other visuals. Would also love to find out how we might mind-map discussions together...........anyone had any experience of this?

Yesterdays session - Second Life - second chance! I have to confess that I was so occupied with the process of 'facilitation online', the content was almost lost to me - and I wasn't even facilitating the session. This reinforces that the learning is not always where we might expect and that being online always allow for a second chance (links, recordings, readings, discussion afterwards)- maybe when the learner is actually ready.

Practice, practice, practice - this course is about new skills and having the opportunity to practice these as I have the need and am ready - so learner centred again! So before I sign off, I want to practice putting in links (although I think it is in the comments sections that I really need to practice this).

So here goes - the three blogs that I have enjoyed the most this week are:
Jillian's reflections on facilitating her first Elluminate session
Willies connections to what she has been thinking about
Therese's focus

Hope these links work OK !

Can't make Mondays session but looking forward to Nancy White on Saturday.

Another question.....

2010-07-27T00:41:00.001-07:00

Another question - is it possible to put links eg websites, other blogs etc in 'comments' or is it only possible in 'posts'??

Week 2.......over the first hurdle

2010-07-26T03:35:00.000-07:00

Wow, the experience in the virtual classroom last week was great. As a complete novice to this form of online communication, I was blown away with how the facilitators 'managed' 23 participants 'live' to take us through the agenda without any mishaps. I found this experience invaluable and it has boosted my confidence in the potential of coming to grips with online facilitation.

I did wonder about how challenging it must be to make the transition from face to face to online facilitation - needing to learn about and rely upon different cues and responses in communication. And also how tiring facilitating a live discussion online must be.

For me, this course is all about about learning a completely new language that feels a bit overwhelming at present. I like Sarah's advice to focus on one thing at a time and that is what I am trying to do. I am trying to get a feel for Blogging at the moment - how the feeds etc work and how one actually engages in this form of interactive dialogue. For example - whats the difference to following and subscribing??

My goals for this course are quite simple:
1. Demystify the technology and learn the language.
2. Develop confidence in using a range of simple online tools eg Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Virtual Classrooms such as Eluminate, for a start!
3. Explore the use of these tools for online facilitation with individuals - giving feedback on work, synchronous discussion and interactive development of ideas online.
4. Practice facilitating at least one online group discussion - perhaps in Blogger or Eluminate.
5. Make a commitment to use at least one online facilitation tool regularly in my work.

Watch this space...............

Getting started...

2010-07-20T04:44:00.000-07:00

Well I've finally got myself started on this adventure of finding out a bit more about facilitating online. Blogging is just the beginning I expect - at the moment it seems like a whole new way of thinking and communicating. Am interested to see what this course brings.....