Edublogs webinar overview – 24/7 global connectedness – blessing or curse?

Preface

If you access the link to the recording it would be great if you could either tweet me (@JoHart) or leave a short comment on this post to let me know. I would really like to know if it is useful to people when I post the overviews & recording links

Introduction

This was a facilitated discussion session. It is always a bit difficult to plan these because if there isn’t a structure they end up like Serendipity sessions and I do try to make a clear distinction between the two. However I always worry that I have structured it too much and am not giving people enough opportunities to talk and to participate generally. As always I would welcome feedback both from live participants and from anyone who has watched the recording. The topic arose because in the last 2-3 weeks I have several times seen Tweets about, or heard people speak of, the disadvantages of global connectedness. This made me start to reflect on the pros and cons and it seemed a good topic for discussion by a group of highly connected people.

The Session

This recorded session was very interactive with lots of chat and audio as well as whiteboard brainstorming. We began in the usual way by asking what participants wanted to take-away from the session. The next step was taking a look at how 24/7 connnected we are, including a poll on how connected we perceive ourselves to be and whether we like the idea of 24/7 global connection.

We moved on to explore those aspects that we see as negative. This was done initially using the whiteboard, followed by audio and textchat discussion.

NegativeResize

Naturally, we then considered the positive aspects in a similar whiteboard that you can see if you access the recording. When compared it seems that we felt that the positive and negative aspects were about evenly balanced.

We returned to the negatives to consider how we can manage them to reduce their impacts. Suggestions were mainly around taking “time out” in some form and checking information before disseminating it further.

The overall consensus was that being 24/7 globally connected is both a blessing and a curse!

Finally a challenge! For anyone who reads this post, was in the session, or catches the recording.

Do one thing this week to either:

  • Reduce the impact of a negative
  • Increase the impact of a positive

aspect of 24/7 global connectedness

Then tell us about it either on Twitter with the hashtag #SerendipEd or with a comment on this post.

Conclusion

This session was great fun for me and hopefully for the other participants also. I do so much enjoy the discussions as I always go away with so many new insights and hearing lots of different perspectives on the impacts of being connected was particularly exciting. My main take-away was to keep myself  aware of the negative aspects and work to manage them. I so love the opportunities for getting a global perspective and having someone to talk to in the small hours when I can’t sleep that I sometimes forget that there are negatives!

Next Webinar

SerendipitybsmallOur next session is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session on Thursday March 31st at 23:00 GMT/UTC (Afternoon/Evening USA) or Friday April 1st at 7am West Aus, mid morning Eastern States Aus depending on your timezone (check yours here) – in the usual Elluminate room. This is one of our fortnightly unconference sessions where we invite you to bring along your “hot topics” and “burning issues” for our poll on the topic of the day. If you want to propose a topic in advance then visit the Serendipity Wallwisher and add your topic.

In the Future

If you are a regular visitor to our webinars you will know that we alternate “Fine Focus” sessions on specific topics with “Serendipity” the unconference sessions where we choose a topic by poll at the start of the session. Sometimes the very fact of being asked for “hot topics” or other ideas for discussion or learning tends to make our minds blank. This has prompted me to start a Serendipity Wallwisher for topic suggestions. Please visit the wall and add your ideas for Serendipity topics so that we have more choices to consider. Some of these ideas might also form the basis for future “Fine Focus” sessions.

Edublogs Serendipity webinar overview – Mind-mapping

Preface

If you access the link to the recording it would be great if you would just Tweet me (@JoHart) or leave a short comment on this post to let me know. I would really like to know if it is useful to people when I post the overviews & recording links

Introduction

In this session, recorded as usual, the topic we chose by poll at the start – from a combination of suggestions by participants and some taken from the Wallwisher – was Mind-mapping. The way we approched this was very different from the fantastic Fine Focus webinar on Graphic Organizers that Shelly Terrell presented for us back in January. So even if you were in Shelly’s session it’s still well worth checking out the recording for this one!

The Session

The chosen topic of mind-mapping was one of those I had taken from the Wallwisher and to my great delight the “owner” of that topic was with us! I feel that sessions are better when the original “owner” of the chosen topic is present.

We began with a quick poll to find out how many of us use mindmapping tools of some sort. The outcome was unanimous – everyone present uses mind mapping in some form. All of us use, or have used, mind mapping software as well as the more traditional pen/pencil & paper approach.

Next we use the whiteboard and shared some of the different applications/tools we currently use for mind-mapping, and in some cases links to mind maps. We moved on to hear from participants through audio (and some through text chat) about  the tools they use.

Then we decided to have a “play” with bubbl.us which is the most recent mind mapping tool that I have used (to plan the content and structure for a “Welcome disc” to help my online literacy students get to grips with e-learning). I like this one for its simplicity and ease of use. I was able to application share and we could easily collaborate/brainstorm with individuals taking control of my desktop to add ideas and organise the content. Our topic – suggested by someone in the group was “Surviving Easter without gaining weight” – the resulting mindmap looks like this:

olpfsvx_Easterresize

If anyone would like some “homework” I would love a brainstormed mindmap about how we can improve the Serendipity/Fine Focus webinars and encourage more people to attend.

Conclusion

This was a great session with a variety of tools and ideas shared, and we got to “play” as well – giving me a great graphic to include in this post. My takeaways are more mind map tools to try!

Our Next Session

FineFocusSmallOur next Webinar is an Edublogs “Fine Focus” session.  This week’s session “24/7 global connectedness – a blessing or a curse?” will be  a facilitated discussion on some of the impacts both postive and negative of  our ever increasing worldwide connectivity. Join us on Thursday March 24th at 23:00 GMT/UTC the time for you will vary depending on your timezone (check yours here) Thursday afternoon/evening in the USA, late night Thursday in Europe, and Friday morning in Australia – in the usual Elluminate room

In the Future

If you are a regular visitor to our webinars you will know that we alternate “Fine Focus” sessions on specific topics with “Serendipity” the unconference sessions where we choose a topic by poll at the start of the session. Sometimes the very fact of being asked for “hot topics” or other ideas for discussion or learning tends to make our minds blank. This has prompted me to start a Serendipity Wallwisher for topic suggestions. Please visit the wall and add your ideas for Serendipity topics so that we have more choices to consider. Some of these ideas might also form the basis for future “Fine Focus” sessions.

Edublogs webinar overview – using ToonDoo

Preface

If you access the link to the recording it would be great if you could either tweet me (@JoHart) or leave a short comment on this post to let me know. I would really like to know if it is useful to people when I post the overviews & recording links

Introduction

The purpose of this session was to take a look at one of my favourite online tools, the cartoon making site ToonDoo. I use this a lot both for learning resources and to engage my students in developing texts.

The Session

As usual the webinar was recorded and we began with a look at what people would like to gain from the session and finding out who was familar with Toondoo. This led smoothly into an opportunity to share links for other cartooning websites.

We moved on to look at a couple of the ways I use ToonDoo both for learning resources and for students to create their own visual texts. Then came the really fun bit, using Application Share to share the Toondoo website and to jointly make a cartoon. I asked for volunteers to build a cartoon and gave control to several people in turn. The resulting cartoon is here:

WebinarToonResizeFollowing the successful use of “homework” last week when we went away to make Vokis. I thought maybe a similar homework this week would be fun. So we invite anyone who was at the session (or in fact anyone who reads this post/watches the recording) to make a ToonDoo and either Tweet the link or put it in a comment to this post. Then we can all enjoy. 🙂 We already have one person @jofrei who has completed the homework with her ‘toon entitled Webinar Toon

UnforseenResize

 

I was rather hoping I would not be expected to do any homework this week but decided that it is always fun to make cartoons so here is mine. I have cheated a bit in that this is one is one I needed to make for the Induction disc I am developing for my online literacy students. I’m trying to underscore the information on digital safety and digital identity with cartoons.

 

Conclusion

I enjoyed presenting this session very much. Partly because it felt very interactive with lots of particiption and partly because I like “playing” with ToonDoo. I also think that these sort of combined “techie how to” and “teaching strategy” webinars are a good combination. This is because sometimes learning about a great tool is not enough in itself – ideas on how it can be used/applied in a learning context are really helpful.

Next Webinar

SerendipitybsmallOur next session is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session on Thursday March 17th at 23:00 GMT/UTC (6pm USA EST, Midnight BST) or Friday March 18th at 1am CEST, 7am West Aus, 10am NSW, depending on your timezone (check yours here) – in the usual Elluminate room. This is one of our fortnightly unconference sessions where we invite you to bring along your “hot topics” and “burning issues” for our poll on the topic of the day. If you want to propose a topic in advance then visit the Serendipity Wallwisher and add your topic.

In the Future

If you are a regular visitor to our webinars you will know that we alternate “Fine Focus” sessions on specific topics with “Serendipity” the unconference sessions where we choose a topic by poll at the start of the session. Sometimes the very fact of being asked for “hot topics” or other ideas for discussion or learning tends to make our minds blank. This has prompted me to start a Serendipity Wallwisher for topic suggestions. Please visit the wall and add your ideas for Serendipity topics so that we have more choices to consider. Some of these ideas might also form the basis for future “Fine Focus” sessions.

Edublogs Serendipity webinar overview – avatars and Vokis

Preface

If you access the link to the recording it would be great if you would just leave a short comment on this post to let me know. I would really like to know if it is useful to people when I post the overviews & recording links

Introduction

In this recorded session the topic we chose by poll at the start – from suggestions by those participating – was avatars and Vokis.

The Session

Most of our discussion was around using Vokis. We all use standard avatars in a range of situations, but most of us were not so familiar with Vokis and their potential. Luckily we had some participants who had either experimented a little with them or who had used them with students. These people were a tremendous asset to the discussion, providing us with the link to the Voki site, great information about the practicality of making Vokis, and brilliant ideas for using them with students.

In this session we did something a bit different – we gave ourselves some homework! This was to make a Voki, post it and let other participants know where to find it. I’ve been lazy and posted mine in this overview as my image for the post. However to compensate for the laziness I did two Vokis!

Conclusion

This session was great fun apart from me talking too much! We had several participants without microphones so lots of the discussion was through text chat. When this happens I often talk too much as I have discovered that if silences are too long in Elluminate participants often assume their audio has failed. For me this was an extremely useful session that has finally pushed me into trying out a Voki. Something I have been intending to do for ages. I also now have a lot of ideas for using them with my students as a different kind of visual text in addition to ToonDoo which I already use.

Our Next Session

FineFocusSmallOur next Webinar is an Edublogs “Fine Focus” session.  This week’s session “Easy ‘tooning with ToonDoo” will be about one of my favourite “toys”. We will look at how to use ToonDoo (online cartoon making website) to make cartoons. And also at some ways that it can be used both for learning resources and to engage students in creating visual texts.  Join us on Thursday March 10th at 23:00 GMT/UTC (6pm USA EST, Midnight CET) or Friday March 11th at 7am West Aus, 10am NSW, depending on your timezone – in the usual Elluminate room

In the Future

If you are a regular visitor to our webinars you will know that we alternate “Fine Focus” sessions on specific topics with “Serendipity” the unconference sessions where we choose a topic by poll at the start of the session. Sometimes the very fact of being asked for “hot topics” or other ideas for discussion or learning tends to make our minds blank. This has prompted me to start a Serendipity Wallwisher for topic suggestions. Please visit the wall and add your ideas for Serendipity topics so that we have more choices to consider. Some of these ideas might also form the basis for future “Fine Focus” sessions.