Your year in a sentence

It wasn’t an easy call to put a whole year into one sentence, but many of you rose to the call. For some it was a time to think about family, for others change was the main theme, but in all it seems like 2009 has been a satisfying and happy year.

So let’s say goodbye on a positive note. Thank you for all the lovely, hopeful and reflective sentences!

2009

Sara has managed more in a year than many manage in three. I bet she’s in for a busy 2010 too! Congratulations, Sara!!

in less than 12 months, i’ve managed to change grade levels, finish 3 grad classes, buy and fix up a house, move to said house, spend time with good friends, sweat less of the small stuff, eat lots of sushi, take good care of my husband and cats, and get knocked up – good times, 2009!

Janice sounds like she’s ready for a break too:

Where did 2009 go; no reflection time since too many unfinished things needed to be completed before the year ends.

Anne has had a lot to do too, but but seems to enjoy a challenge – congratulations on your projects!:

2009 was the year I took on too much in the face of uncertainty and as a consequence left too much undone but it was also the year I took on new challenges for example as a tutor with The Consultants-e and managed to bring a good project (VITAE) to a successful conclusion.

While Connie has been traveling the world:

Much traveling this year, a daughter in Barrage playing fiddle tunes around the world; a son visiting colleges; and me, traveling to Cambridge, San Francisco, and Washington, studying neuroscience and presenting talks on Problem-based learning… it’ll be great to just settle down together in Michigan for a much-needed break, doing and thinking not much at all!

Family is always an important part of life when you have kids as Kevin and dkzody and Nancy make clear :

My oldest son is now in the same grade that I teach (but in a different school) and that, to me, seems like some sort of transitional moment in time, if only I had the time to reflect upon it a bit more.

Happy new year!!
Kevin

dkzody

Two goals achieved: My darling granddaughter was born in May, and we leased an apartment in San Francisco in November.

Nancy and her family are growing in more ways than one!

This year has been all about growing– the baby grows into a toddler, our family prepares to grow into a family of 4, we work on personal growth and our love and happiness grows most of all.

And Jim reflects on how quickly time pases with kids:

january, july, and now december, where does the time, go, grandchildren, schoolchildren, growing up way to fast, what does the future hold?

Gail has been inspired:

Dropped by a classroom on Friday in one of the worst neighborhoods (high poverty/high crime) in my district and stood back in awe of one teacher’s ability to engage ALL his 5th grade students in a range of digital composing activities….amazing, just amazing.

And

and Eric is engaged in change (or not):

Looking for change by working with 10 year olds rather than 5 year olds- the same issues come to light, only furthur along.

While Ben is slowing down for change:

I have had to do some priority defragging, which caused me to put the professional side of teaching (blogging, PD, etc.) on the back burner for a while…or at least to turn the heat to low, but I’ll be back soon.

Learning has been another key topic of 2009

Cheryl is on cloud 9:

Moving to the Cloud and virtual computing, google domain for education, collaboration and sharing with my personal learning network, priceless.

And Tracy says it all!

Learning about what is important to me – lessons that never end!

Gail took a bold step in 2009, which turned out to be worth her while:

I stepped out into the cyber world a bit more boldly than in years past and learned more than I ever dreamed I would.

Cristina supplies some words for thought ( in more than just one sentence!) and a special New Years greeting:

Problems only become problematic if we don’t allow them to be converted into new opportunities

Jan 1 kicked off a change that had just been waiting to happen. That affected my mother tremendously, and consequently created a degree of unbalance in my life I had not envisaged. A year later I am pleased to see and say that a new balance is being created for both her and me, with new challenges ahead.
Sometimes we become incarcerated into our own drama, bound to expectations of a judgmental society (and generation) we were brought up in and are not able to look at ourselves from different angles opportunities, hence failing to see what lies ahead of now. Nothing is always good or bad… and we just need to make the best of situations ahead of us.

To you all have I wish a Mega 2010

And a couple of final statements to round up the year-

From Anne , who could write a book about 2009.

As a teacher, this as been an exciting, amazing and eventful year that has seen my classes from a geographically and culturally isolated rural area, connect, communicate, collaborate and create with classes and students across the globe.

And finally, thank you, Bonnie, for all your optimism!

2009! I’m thinking. A big reflection.

Even though I loved being a history major I think I am more a person in the present and future, so I’m looking forward to 2010 with optimism. I think we have braved the storms of 2009 and I want to see what will grow from the soil of 09.

And a HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gerlos/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

2009 in a Sentence

The never-ending path of life

Well, this year is almost over. The days are getting shorter in my part of the world and the fields are covered in white.  It’s a festive time, a time when people long for light in their lives and enjoy the celebrations which bring their friends and family closer.

Since the year is coming to an end, I’d like to invite you to share something about your year before we move on to 2010. All variations are also kindly welcome.

Just post your sentence as a comment and on Sunday they will be released for all to read.

Here is mine:

Overcome illness  and rejoined family have helped me to focus and redefine my priorities, making time for the little joys in life and appreciating what is often taken for granted.

I am glad to say that my mother-in-law is now cancer-free and my darling son has come back from a year abroad a young man.

Thanks, Kevin, for bringing so many people together through A Day in a Sentence!

The classroom blog

Blogging is pretty easy to do and setting up a personal blog should pose no great hinderence to even the most computer-clumsy, but how can it be used for teaching?

There are many ways to use them, you can get the students up and blogging on their own, mash them together and all sorts of fun stuff. You can set up a blog with tasks and information for your students to use. Or you can get them all on the same blog sharing and communicating.

I have chosen the last possibility with my class of adults, one reason being that blogs seem to pose a mental barrier that is not easy to cross for many. The other reason is that I want my class to use it for real communication, as opposed to language practice.

It has taken me several classes of trail and error before I felt happy with the results, and I still am on that path of trail and error, but for those readers interested in using blogging as a supplement to what is going on in class, I will share what has worked for me, so that you may be spared at least some of the particularly bumpy beginning of the road.

Give clear instructions on how to use the blog and then allow time for troubleshooting in the next lesson or so.
And then explain again, even better, get them on the computer and let them try it with you standing by to hold their hand. Many people need this sense of security and will give up at the slightest hint of a problem. And here you need to be diligent and patient.

Give the blog importance from the very beginning.
My first time round I made the mistake of downplaying the role of hte blog, stressing that it was an addition, and that noone had to post to it.
Well, that didn’t work AT ALL! I still don’t make posting obligatory, but I do stress that this is where they can really use the language and that they SHOULD do it. I also offer to add anything to the blog that they don’t feel they could but would like to.

Give students clear and personal tasks to fulfill on the blog.
No tasks, no writing on it, especially at the beginning. I have found that asking students to make a personal comment on a topic we have been dealing with works quite well. However, since it is not obligatory, I must also accept that some will not contribute even with a very gripping topic and task. The chances are a lot better though, that they will.

Comment on every post a student makes and encourage them to comment as well.
Everyone wants to be heard, so make sure they feel they are. To get the students commenting on each other you might want to set further tasks. And ask them how they feel when there are comments- or not- on their post.

Set a good example.
If you want the students to write stories, about personal experiences or feelings, then make sure you do it as well. This supplies them with a model, on the one hand, and the sharing is two-way, builing stronger bonds in the classroom as a very pleasant side-effect.

Let the students decide what is corrected and what isn’t.
I clearly tell my students that I will correct nothing unless they specifically ask me to and send me the text. I am very clear about my reasons for this as well, otherwise they most certainly wouldn’t be accepted by my class (this may be different in your own). I explain that correcting is what happens insid ethe classroom and that when communicating, mistakes will happen. It takes a bit of courage to just write, and then just send it out onto the blog. It also creates more dynamic writing, and more of it. It is what real communication is about.

Get a special guest onto the blog.
This can be extremely motivating to share with someone outside of the class, maybe even with another class. Someone will be reading with interest and responding (hopefully) with more information, questions, etc, and THIS can generate a whole lot of very significant communication!

I’m sure that if I wracked my brain, I’d come up with more, but I think the ones above are enough here. Perhaps you can add to my list.
And if you’re interested in what my classblog looks like, here it is!

Finding the balance

As one can easily see from the dating of this and the next most recent post, I’ve been taking a break from personal blogging. It’s been a chance to step back and reflect on how I spend my time and how much is dedicated to may family, as well as what kind of role model I am to my kids when I am at home. So instead of following this or that discussion or exploring the newest applications in social networking, I’ve been playing with my kids, discussing school, watch the telly with them and ksyping with my far-away son.

It’s also given me a chance to miss certain people, tools, discussions and mental challenges I had previously filled a lot of my time with. So now I’m slowly entering back into the social network of nings, twitter, blogs etc.

Interestingly enough, one of the first blog posts to hit my screen was Angela Maiers‘ post ‘Drowning in Social Media‘ (incedently picked up in twitter).

Angela presents a system called BREATHE which should help people regain footage, with its main rule in 3s: commit yourself to three friends, three tools, three actions.

This has given me food for thought, though I’m certainly not going to blindly follow her suggestions. Instead I’m going to take small steps back while trying to keep to a couple of other ground rules.

Sorry, I have no sexy acronym for what I plan on doing, but one idea is certainly taken from a site whose link is long lost to me.

Rule one: only check your e-mails 2 times a day.
This I find a real tough one, and in the original version you are only to check once a day. I’ll try for once in the morning and once in the evening – and immediately take care of any mails you have at this time, answering, deleting or filing away for future reference to the appropriate spot.

Rule 2: Work before play – no twitter, no nings, no distractions before the work has been done.

Rule 3: be selective. Now this really does go to where Angela is at. How many blogs can I really follow? Do I really care about the content/writer on them? Which groups am I truly profiting from or contributing to? Why am I in the group? How can I maintain quality?

Rule 4: set aside time to reflect and contribute – NOT when the family is around. When the family is around, I can’t concentrate and won’t contribute. I also don’t want them to only see me on the computer. I want them to close the laptop when they are talking to me, and I should give them the same respect.

Now that I’ve actually put done the rules, I do hope they will be easier to follow and that I can find my own balance between two worlds.

It’s good to be back!

FOC08 reflections

THis post comes rather late, but before beginning new things I want to wrap up what’s over.

I was quite disappointed that I couldn’t finish the course, although time-wise it looked deceptively easy to take my time to complete.  However, even though I only go through about half of it, it really encouraged me to think. I reflected on what exactly an on-line community is and why and how it would need facilitating.

This sounds like a rather straightforward question, but in fact, it wasn’t. Questions such as the following arose out of it:

When does a group of people who meet on-line become a community? What level of intimit knowledge of each other does this imply, if any?

How long does a group need to be together to become a community? Is a learning group also a community? Does it have to be a long-standing group?

Why would a group need facilitating as opposed to moderating – and what is the difference between the two?

Many posts were written in my head as I considered these questions but was unable to write them on the blog.

I think that by way of reflecting, I have opened myself to new paths, and am excited to see where they will take me, but more of that in the next post.

I was sad not to have been able to do the practical work for the course, nor follow what others were doing, but who knows. Maybe a seed has been set for something else in this direction.

Thank you, Leigh, for the short time I was able to follow. I was able to learn from your examples.

Time-outs and a cup of tea

My poor neglected blog. I have to admit, I’m a drop-out, sad as it sounds.

But I have a little story to tell.

I headed off for holidays at the beginning of October, full of good intentions to come back loaded with ideas and motivated to continue the course I’ve been doing.

However, life often trips one up, and I ended up with a huge pile of work, including working weekends and lots of time away from my family, both physically and mentally. The computer was on, but I ignored everything but the work at hand. I was feeling weak and so turned the flame way down. But I was ready to jump back into things at the next possible chance.

Then I had a short visit when Death knocked gently at our family’s door, asking for a chat and a cup of tea. I was reminded that D was in the neighborhood and just checking up on people. D  told me about Cancer, who sometimes got over active and took people like my mother-in-law away while friends and acquaintences weren’t looking. D subtly me that sudden and unexpected things do happen while loved-ones are far away. D told me to take some time out and enjoy my family. Then D thanked me for the tea, got up, and left with a wink, much like one I would associate with Santa Claus.

So instead of hanging around on the internet, I’ve been folowing D’s advice and taking time off for my family, if only to watch a show on TV on the couch next to my son instead of sitting at the table with my laptop and maybe half an eye for the show. I’ve been rolling dice with my youngest and counting up points instead of writing on my blog. I’ve been skyping with my boy in the US instead of reacting to the latest posts here and there.

And now that things are slowing down in my job and I feel like I’ve reconnected to my family; now that hopefully the worst is over in the cancer therapy of a further loved-one, it’s time to reconnect with another part of the world in cyber-space. This has become part of my life as well and I don’t want to give up the connections and friends I’ve made there. The trick is to find a balance – something I’m not too good at – and juggle it all together.

Here’s hoping for the best, and a long wait for the next unexpected knock at the door.

FOC weeks 4-5 roles of facilitator, moderator and teacher

Try to determine the role and behavior of these three roles:

• Facilitator
• Moderator
• Teacher

After quite a while of pondering and reading and fruitful conversations,  as well as a discarded post along the way, I now feel ready to tackle this task.

First, what are the roles of facilitator, moderator and teacher?  Defining what they are is perhaps a matter of culture and opinion, so I can only claim these differences to be from my own point of view.

The teacher seems the most clear cut to me. A teacher imparts knowledge. A teacher is an authority, although this role may be more or less authoritative. In my opinion, a teacher nurtures and coaches, and often takes on many other roles such as actor, drawer, writer, mother/father at times, brother/sister at other times. I see a ‘good’ teacher as NOT spoon feeding, but helping the learner acquire knowledge.

Children and adults may need or appreciate teachers, but the role of teacher changes depending on the age of the learner. Since adults are better able to find what they want to know, a moderator can often take over.

This leads me to the role that I found the most ellusive. The moderator guides the discussion and perhaps guides particpants to sources of knowledge. This seems to me to be less authoritative, if at all. It could be that the moderator is not an expert on the subject, which I would expect a teacher to be, but certainly have some knowledge of the topic.

The least intrusive of the three is the role of facilitator. This person, as mentioned earlier, has the job of making things easier for participants. This person may have helped to construct the concept being worked on, the course structure, or made decisions as to the applications that should bu used. I quote Bee Deux by describing the facilitator as the architect, paving the road, designing the building, or whatever other picture you have in mind.

Looking at these separate roles, it becomes clear to me that a person involved in running a course, group, community or any other entity should be clear about what hat he or she is wearing at any given time. The hat will have an influence on how the members, learners etc react to any input given.

1. When does the act of teaching compromise the role of a facilitator of an online community?

As I mentioned before, adults are different than children. They have the ability to find information and process it. What they might need is direction, support and feedback, depending on the situation. In short, they will join a community in order to have a framework or structure and someone to guide them.

If these are the expectations, then the reaction to a sudden change of roles from the facilitator to teacher may not be well taken. The facilitator is no longer helping in the background, but taking an active role as an authority. A possible result may be silence in the group or community. The expectations may also change from the particpants being active in finding, processing and sharing to them taking a passive role, waiting for the ‘teacher’ to run the show, to feed the hungry lot.

1. When does the act of moderating online discussion compromise the role of a facilitator of an online community?

To a lesser degree this may also happen when the facilitator takes the role of moderator.

1. When does the act of facilitation compromise the role of a teacher or moderator in an online community?

On the other hand, when a group expects a leader to keep the discussion going, or is expecting a teacher for knowledge, having someone who is in the background and only intervenes to offer easier or better possibilities for communication, but expects the group to take the intiative, the community or members of the community may revolt, requesting more structure, input or guidance.

1. When are these three roles appropriate in an online community?

The best role in any given situation very much depends on what is going on in the community, what the aims are at that moment and how close or far the community is or wants to be from the aims.

Here are a couple of examples which may require hat-changing:

Example 1

Certain online applications are being used to communicate, but not everyone understands why these are being used as opposed to others they already are acquainted with. Maybe some are struggling with the tools and using them, while others have logged on, but don’t see the advantage of this means of communication.

The tools were decided by the facilitator for certain reasons, but now there is need for a bit of trouble-shooting, and perhaps some individual teaching of how to use the tools is necessary. Because of the controversy going on, there is a need to discuss and bring in different opinions in order to decide what action, if at all, should be taken. Here a moderator is called for to guide and keep up the discussion until either most of the members are clear about the reasons of using the tools and more or less agree to them, or a joint consensus is made to abandon this particular too and opt for an alternative, decided on through the discussion.

The facilitator will either set up the alternative or another member of the community will volunteer to do this. If the role of teacher is too strongly present here, it will be expected of the teacher to do this.

Example 2

What if there are problems with the ideas being presented and processed?  The main role ‘the person in charge’ decides to take will determine how these problems are dealt with. If the facilitator puts on the teacher’s hat, then the members will expect this in later situations, thus forcing hte facilitator into the teaching role, whether or not this is perceived as desirable.

If the facilitator feels the need to make this a point of discussion (moderating), then this too sets standards. It may be that through the moderation, groups are formed to help those with problems.

If the facilitator makes the decision to remain in the background in such situations, then he or she marks that ownership of the community is with the community and it is up to the community to supply help.

Example 3

What if someone joins the community, not to contribute, but to disturb? Or if someone contributes, but appears by nature to be disruptive and rude? In a community where there is more facilitating than moderating or teaching, the members will probably take the matter into their own hands and inform this person that their behavious is inappropriate. If, within the community, there is more moderating or teaching evident, then the chances are greater that the moderator (or teacher) will approach this person behind the scenes and kindly request him or her to either stay within the parameters of the socially acceptable or to leave the community, maybe even to the point of blocking this person from the community.

Well, these are the conclusions I’ve come to within these past two weeks. They are not set in stone and it may well be that the cultural or even linguistic differences mentioned at the beginning of this post will mean that some will strongly disagree. In the end, call it what you want, in every title given to a person, there lies a multitude of jobs and hats.

FOC – one more definition

I read this and just couldn’t help myself.

In an online community, breaking the ice can be more difficult. Blogs are like puppies and gardens.

Wonderfully put, Shelley!

Facilitating-Online-Communities in short

Facilitating – from latin:  facilis – easy, ergo- to make it easier

see Greg’s blog post:

I believe we get caught in such a dilemma when we take Facilitating as an exclusive term. The dilemma is resolved once we go back to its basic definition as: “to make possible or easier” And this is where context plays a very important role, because in the context of ‘facilitating as making it possible or easier,” then we can be facilitating as Teachers when we make learning possible or easier, and we can be facilitating as Moderator when we make discussion or exchange of information possible/easier. In the same manner, we can facilitate as a Teacher when we make whatever we do (lectures, presentations, demonstrations, etc.) easier.

Online – common usage for using the internet, being connected through the internet.  Here connecting from computer to computer as opposed to face to face.

Community -from communis “common, public, general, shared by all or many,” (http://www.etymonline.com/)

Okay, time to move on.

What is a community? Reflections on weeks 2 and 3

After following the threads of the FOC course and reading through some of the blogs, my idea of what a community has started taking a different form.

In one of the threads Leigh reacts to a blog post from Minhaaj saying:

Minhaaj then goes on to point out something possibly overlooked in the consideration of communities online – the numerous instances where prejudices normal in face to face communities, are transcended online. This might be something unique about online communities – the idea that age, race, gender, religion, sexuality, while known about by the members, may not be a big consideration in their community.

I read this after I had been reflecting on the matter myself. I certainly be in a community with people Ukrain, Lebenon, India, Sudan, places in South America, or even New Zealand in a f2f community.And I agree with the different voices I’ve been following that there is an emotional investment in an online community just as one would expect in a f2f community.

It is the online aspect that brings people from all over the world together who might never otherwise exchange a single word. This I find exciting, and if all these people come together to form a community, then the world has become a lot smaller. In a f2f setting I’d like to think that issues of gender, age, appearance, etc would not influence my desire to join a community. But the chances of joining such a diverse community are rare in f2f life.

Which brings me back to the definition of a community.  Most of what I’ve been reading follows the same line of course, but I’d like to share a definition from Ken Allan (thanks, Ken!) in the form of a short article called Working with Online Learning Communities. I do this partly because I find it a great summary, and partly because I am overwhelmed by the shere task of requoting all the great comments, threads and posts I’ve read so far.

Reading through it, I’ve highlighted parts that struck me as particularly relevant or interesting and will reiterate them and other thoughts here:

Ken quotes Caleb Clark’s 3 guiding principles:

• online learning communities are grown, not built
• online learning communities need leaders
• personal narrative is vital to online learning communities.

So with reference to this course, does it only become a community if it is successful? If we don’t find ourselves building a community, has the course failed to be successful? Has the facilitator failed to facilitate or have we failed to share the personal narrative? (this is completely hypothetical as I see growing bonds and emotional investment between members of this (very large!) course) Here I would set the personal narrative parallel and in some cases equal to emotional investment, i.e. giving of oneself.

Ken continues to quote Clark with the traits a successful facilitator should have. One that catches my eye is ‘control the environment, not the group’.

Actually, nowhere is the word ‘facilitator’ mentioned. The word ‘leader’ is, and in many online learning communities you could also use the word ‘teacher’, though the role of a teacher may change in an online community. This has also got me thinking about the person in the role of the facilitator.

Leigh has apologized for joining in the conversation and claims that the facilitator should stand outside of it in order to observe and steer as necessary. I suppose this is one way, but if the facilitator is part of the community, I would say he or she has just as much validity in the conversation as anyone else, providing the aim is not to dominate or force anything onto the community, but to share, for isn’t this the essence of what a community is for?

A further question in my mind is how fixed the role of facilitator is. Couldn’t others take over this role in understanding of the responsibility that goes with it?  Must it be a formal role that is given like a title to ‘the person in charge’? I prefer the idea of a flexible facilitator who is also anxious to learn from the others without the urge to dominate the conversation , and is willing to let other members lead the way.

So what is the difference between a facilitator and a moderator? Does it lie in the institutional nature of the group? I would love some opinion here, as I wonder if maybe I’ve mixed the two up.

The final point that has come up in the threads of conversation quickly but not been expanded on is the role of those who do not actively participate, more commonly and less nicely known as lurkers.

Often the question comes up as to how to integrate these members. First, I’d like clarification as to when such a person is a member of a community and when he or she is an observer. In a course like the FOC I’d think that by way of signing up, one has committed oneself to the community. But there are many other communities out there, and the idea of 90 non-active to 10 active participants makes me think about what the 90 % are doing. Are they following what is going on and processing it? Or have they emotionally and physically disengaged from the community? The names may still be on the list, but that doesn’t mean that they are.

How do we find out?  And is it necessary to urge them out of complacency? Those who are still participating, albeit non-actively, may at some point have gained the confidence and knowledge to shout out and become active. And the others? Do we throw out those who have disengaged? Do they need nudging, a gentle reminder that the community is still there?  These are questions I’d like to find answers to in order to support the non-active members in a community.