#RSCON3 – A finger on the pulse of my PLN!

Introduction

Now that my  mental dust has settled it’s time to write about the Reform Symposium. This is the first of what I hope will be three posts and is an overview of the session I presented on iGoogle – “Keep a finger on the pulse of your PLN” – with some reflection included. The session was recorded as were all of them here is the link to “Keep a finger on the pulse of your PLN” other sessions can be accessed via the Reform Symposium Conference Spreadsheet.

I seem to have been talking about iGoogle a lot over the last year and will be continuing to do so as I am delivering a Professional Development session on it for colleagues in a few weeks. The ever increasing flow of information across our desktops generates a need for some way of handling and drawing together the threads.

The Session

This was a great session for me and hopefully also for those participating. After  a bit of scene setting we started with a poll on how familiar participants were with iGoogle and then a whiteboard for sharing ideas about what exactly it is! I also asked for people to share on a whiteboard the five main strands of their PLN so that I could get a feel for the gadgets needed by the majority – these were fior  Twitter, Facebook and Google Reader  all of which I already had on my iGoogle page.

Then it was time to tell the story of how I came to use iGoogle as my PLE hub to bring together the strands of my PLN. This introduced the main part of the session which was a “show and tell” using Application Share to share my iGoogle page and talk about:

  • how I have set up the tabs (individual pages) and organised the content
  • discuss the gadgets available and how to access them
  • look at how I draw in those threads that don’t have a specific gadget available
  • how the page can be customised (I use a different theme for each of my tabs)

I found this really exciting because as I was sharing people were opening and exploring – sometimes “dusting off” their own iGoogle (or in some cases starting their own iGoogle ac). This made the session very participative as there were practical questions coming through text chat – including as always at least one I couldn’t answer about making tabs public.

We finished with “take-aways” these are always fascinating for me because they are so varied and illustrate so well how different we all are in our perceptions and understandings. This time (very pleasing for me)  there were many intending to experiment with iGoogle as a possible hub for their own PLN.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed doing this session for several reasons.

  1. The Reform Symposium (#RSCON) events always have such a buzz about them so just being part of it is exciting.
  2. I love it when I go away with homework from my “class”. It just confirms to me again that one of the best ways of learning and embedding understanding of something is to “teach” others about it!
  3. It is another fantastic way of connecting with my PLN around the globe – these events always feel to me as though I already know most of my audience.
  4. Having a global audience has an incredible feel all of its own and I find it quite awe inspiring that people from so many different places have chosen to come and listen to me.

I’m already looking forward to the next event and would like to finish this post with some thanks! Firstly many thanks to Denise (@mrsdkrebbs)  for being a fantastic Moderator for my session. Secondly a huge THANK YOU to ALL the organisers for their tremendous contributions to the smooth running of the event – in many cases behind the scenes. Thirdly very special thanks to Shelly Terrell (@ShellTerrell) (she who needs no sleep) and Clive Elsmore (@CliveSir) (master of timezones) for their stamina and overwhelming  committment to making #RSCON3 such a success.

 

 

Reform Symposium presenter training – overview

Introduction

Wow! In the last 24 hours I have facilitated three exciting training sessions for presenters at  “The Reform Symposium (#RSCON3)” If the enthusiasm and committment of those attending is anything to go by this will be a fantastic conference. Despite covering mostly the same ground (we did this three times to try and accommodate as many timezones as possible) the three sessions were very different from one another.

The Sessions

Here are the recording links for the three sessions (all were held in the Edublogs/Elluminate community patrneship Elluminate room). Times are in GMT/UTC if you are not sure which one you attended then (check your timezone here):

First session Saturday 16th July at 04:00 GMT/UTC

Second session Saturday 16th July at 10:00 GMT/UTC

Third session Saturday 16th July at 22:00 GMT/UTC

These sessions were great fun for me as the facilitator although very demanding trying to keep up with all the questions and ensure that everyone was able to take away what they wanted. On the whole I think they were very successful. I have checked through as much as I can to see if any questions were not addressed and haven’t found any obvious ones. If you have one and I missed it then please ask through a comment on this post so that everyone will be able to see the answer.

Anyone who wants to use my map is very welcome. You can access it from Item 4 on my Bits and Pieces page. It is saved as .wbd (to keep the moveable symbols) so you will need to right click and save rather than open it directly.

The powerpoint that I uploaded to the whiteboards is now on slideshare and I have added a couple of slides to expand the info on application share and to explain webtours.

Some Thoughts!

These sorts of sessions are always awesome to facilitate – the thirst for knowledge is just so exciting, and so also is the appreciation and mutual sharing that happens! I always agonise afterwards about whether I “got it right”.

Did I talk too much? Yes almost certainly! Trying to pack everything in to a short time and make sure all questions are addressed is always hard – having text chat is such a help for that as I can pick up questions and try to weave the answers into what I am saying and also anyone else who knows can chip in with the answer.

Were there enough opportunities for people to try things? Almost certainly not! Especially in the last session where we had over 40 people plus a very unhelpful participant who disrupted the session considerably – eventually we removed him.

Did I deal with the disruptive participant in the last session adequately? I don’t think I did, too much benefit of the doubt given! I should have acted to remove him sooner, and this is a lesson learned for me, and one I will always find difficult. I know I am too soft about disruptive presences in face-to-face classes also.

Please leave a comment if you have any thoughts on the sessions or any questions

Conclusion

Training sessions like these are fantastic for me as they keep me thinking and learning the whole time. Stretching me to use all the Elluminate skills and knowledge that I don’t really use every day.

Our Next Regular Webinar

SerendipitybsmallOur next session is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session on Thursday July 21st at 23:00 GMT/UTC (Afternoon/Evening USA) or Friday July 22nd 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.

Edublogs webinar overview – “Can I also do that virtually?”

Introduction

Another exciting session with a number of those presenting at  “The Reform Symposium (#RSCON3)”  joining us for Elluminate learning and practise. Again we focussed on using Elluminate with a similar “roller coaster ride” to our last FineFocus through some of the tools and features from the moderator perspective. There was a lot of stress  as BlackboardCollaborate is rolling out its Elluminate replacement and people were concerned they would need to suddenly learn a completely different interface!

The Session

As for the last two weeks this was a fast moving and very interactive session with a high level of participation particularly through text. I felt I was talking, answering text questions and demonstrating /illustrating constantly. This always leaves me with the resulting concern of talking too much!  The session overview can really only give a feel for what we did. Access the  recording for a complete look at this buzzy session.

As with the FineFocus two weeks ago and with last week’s Serendipity This was very much a participant led session in terms of direction. We had an initial whiteboard for participants to suggest what they needed from the session and I had “How to” slides and examples available for a variety of Elluminate tools and strategies in case they were needed. We started with a whiteboard for people to indicate what they wanted from the session. One of the questions was a very big ask!

“Can you give us a step by step list of things to do in order to use Elluminate successfully in our #rscon3 session”

While I started replying and demonstrating/explaining some answers to other questions @philhart put together a fantastic quick list of steps!

Phil12stepsResize

As with our last session of this type the whiteboard of requests and the questions asked throughout the session determined the entire direction of the session including which slides I actually used. Sometimes it was quicker/easier just to demo “off the top of my head”

Early in the session we made everyone moderators so that they could see all the tools and also explore their functions. Activity was rapid and we looked quickly at uploading slides, the pros and cons of video images, using multimedia, application share and webtours with opportunities for “playing” throughout.

We finished as usual with  feedback polls (which were very positive about the session) and a best “takeaways” whiteboard.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed this session it is always exciting to have people wanting to find out about Elluminate , and I feel that these sorts of sessions are really good for me also. They keep me on my toes and stop me getting complacent about my own Elluminate skills and knowledge.

Next Webinar

SerendipitybsmallOur next session is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session on Thursday July 21st at 23:00 GMT/UTC (Afternoon/Evening USA) or Friday July 22nd 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.

Edublogs Serendipity webinar overview – Using Elluminate as presenter

Introduction

This session was exciting! For me it also felt very strange as I had to leave half-way through so Phil (@philhart) was the main facilitator from the start, and I caught up with the second half of the session from the recording which is well worth a watch and listen. The reason for needing to leave early was an interview at work for a advanced standing as a lecturer – what is known in Western Australia as  “Advanced Skills Lecturer”. For those of you who were in the session when I mentioned this – I was successful!

The Session

We had several people who are due to present at “The Reform Symposium (#RSCON3)” who were keen to learn more about using Elluminate from the presenter’s perspective so this was the chosen topic at polling time.

We started with a whiteboard for people to add anything specific they wanted to know about and this informed the entire session. We made everyone moderators so that they could easily access the extra tools they will see as presenters. The session was terrific with masses of interaction, discussion and sharing – truly Serendipitous with everyone sharing their own Elluminate knowledge and with instant learning going on through experimentation. Takeaways were very positive.

TakeawaysResizeIn answer to a couple of the questions raised that were not fully clarified due to lack of time.

1. It is possible to use a YouTube video – there are at least three possible ways: a) WebTour which will just take everyone to the link via their own browser (usually but not always starts immediately); b) do it by putting the link into the multimedia library (in my experience this doesn’t always work); c) put the link on whiteboard or in chat for people to access (it is good practice to make the link available in chat/whiteboard anyway.

2. Using Prezi – not ideal it can be application shared but app share is not generally very good with anything that frequently updates or is “swoopy” and also not good for anyone with a slow connection.

3. Links can be shared on whiteboard or in chat. On the whiteboard you need to use the “A” tool the text edit one is not consistently clickable. Also the link needs to be “on top” ie if you circle it then it won’t be clickable

Conclusion

This was a fantastic session and Phil did a great job especially as he was “thrown in the deep end” with respect to the chosen topic. He is a very experienced and brilliant Elluminate facilitator but a little less familiar with all the tools and capabilities than myself.  If you are about to, or might in the future be presenting/facilitating and Elluminate session then this is definitely one to catch!

Our Next Session

FineFocusSmallOur next Webinar is an Edublogs “Fine Focus” session. Again this week (by request) we will be taking a further look at using Elluminate from the presenter’s pont of view in ” Oh and can I also do this virtually?”  Join us on Thursday July 14th 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

Edublogs webinar overview – “Can I really do that virtually?”

Introduction

This session was really exciting! With “The Reform Symposium (#RSCON3)” coming up in a few weeks we were joined by several of the presenters looking to increase their Elluminate experience before the conference. The session was one of our semi-regular ones that focus on using Elluminate and on this occasion we took a “roller coaster ride” through some of the tools and features from the moderator perspective.

The Session

This was a fast moving, highly interactive and participative session. The overview can really only give a taste of events!  Catch the recording for the full flavour of this lively session.

This was very much a participant led session in terms of direction. I had “How to” slides and examples available for a wide variety of Elluminate tools and strategies in case they were needed. We started with a whiteboard for people to indicate what they wanted from the session. This and the questions throughout the session determined what slides were used and what we did!

Initially we took a quick look at setting up your screen to suit you, the importance of doing an audio check especially if you are going to be presenting or speaking at all, and at the most used of all the Elluminate features – the whiteboard.

The next part of the session was to make everyone moderators so that they could see all the moderator tools. After this the questions and activities came thick and fast. During the rest of the session we briefly explored (giving opportunities to “play” where feasible) many of the features of Elluminate that make it such a great webinar platform. Time just flew by so that we over-ran our usual end time.

WordleTakeawaysResize

We finished with some quick feedback polls which were entirely positive about the sessions and finally as usual a whiteboard for our best “takeaways” from the session.

Conclusion

This was a fantastic session! I really love these sorts of sessions where I am having to “think on my feet” to try and keep up with the pace of the action, answer everyone’s questions and step through tools on request. As always this was a terrific learning experience for me – I have my own “takeaway” which I didn’t put on the board at the end because I was answering questions. This is an improved understanding of how the whiteboard works with live links – for which many thanks to Rodney (@techyturner)!

Next Webinar

SerendipitybsmallOur next session is an Edublogs “Serendipity” session on Thursday July 7th at 23:00 GMT/UTC (Afternoon/Evening USA) or Friday July 8th 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.