Harriet – we ended up going with Bob the builder voting – hands on heads etc Have a look at the photo (http://luke-hodges.blogspot.com/2007/09/blog-post.html ) looks like fun. It really helped that they were taking photos during the session.

Simon – what can I say? Just that I can not tell you how much I appreciate all the help and advice you have given for both presentations. Thanks so much for working with me to fine tune these presentations. Anytime, anywhere — in my books that means I owe you.

Michele — thanks for telling me about how you are using Ning. I have been telling others how well it has been working and how you used it with these students. What can I say? Well I survived the sessions. More importantly there are individuals in the etools community that are trying to teach themselves new skills — which is fantastic because my wish of it being more than just a 1 hr presentation has been achieved.

Michael – well Jyothi says that it was 61 LOL… either way that is a massive number of people to manage in an virtual classroom session.

Carole – thanks for your feedback. Yes –I decided to go out with both the sessions but in different ways. Long term the video in elearning will have more impact because it is living beyond the presentation and making an impact on some people. Not sure if I will ever feel comfortable using virtual classrooms — but that happens.

Sue

Its always a brave thing to do to ask what the participants hope to get out a session and then to ensure that there is the WIFM for everyone. Well done on your strategies.

You certainly did ‘go all out with this one’ – I loved the Ning site and will be considering as a repository for my digital stories, among other things. So you did provide an answer for my request – thanks for that.

Good luck for the Friday event and relax with it – slow pace is good sometimes and then provide some faster pacing. Vary your voice, show them the passion and keep up the good work.

Cheers from Coach Carole

One thing that I’m realizing is how rich a learning opportunity this is offering. I’ll give you an example. They’re uploading photos that don’t necessarily present them in the best light professionally. They aren’t bad–they just aren’t professional. I’ve set it up so that I approve any photo or video before it goes up, so I have all of them in a holding pattern for now. What we’re going to do is start a discussion on how to decide what photos should go on the site–how do they want to present themselves. The beauty is that because we’re using Ning, I can invite business people from the community to weigh in on these conversations and offer their own perspectives. This just wouldn’t be possible if we weren’t using Ning.

In the US, a lot of schools say they want to involve the community in education, but when people have to go to a school, it just doesn’t work. With social media tools, though, it’s a lot easier to engage people in the process because they can sit at their desk and comment, etc. without having to plan a trip to the location.

It’s very exciting and I think offers so much more opportunity than we’ve had in the past.

Good luck with your session–I know you’ll be great!

Why?
Social networks build community of practice among learners and educators (removing barriers) encourage digital literacy (interaction between learners) and engage teachers in Web 2.0 technology