Edublogs Serendipity webinar overview – eLearning thoughts for 2011

Introduction

Firstly an apology, well actually two apologies! the first one is because I was a bit slow at starting the recording so the actual choosing of a topic wasn’t recorded. Secondly I have been extremely slow at doing this overview post! There is even a third – I have not updated the Edublogs and LearnCentral calendars yet, I hope to do so in the next few days. My conclusion from the above is that I really shouldn’t have holidays as I seem to be incapable of getting myself back into gear. It may be something to do with the fact that I don’t re-start at work for another two weeks & I am still behind on all the other things I planned to do during the holiday!

The topic chosen was what are we “hoping to use for 2011 in the way of elearning”. Despite my messy start we do have a  recording and the session was terrific with much sharing through audio and text so the recording is well worth catching.

The Session

Once we had decided on the topic we started with a whiteboard, which in fact we continued to use throughout, for our initial thoughts on what we hope to use this year.

WbdresizeThis whiteboard was added to throughout ending up as above. So the whiteboard formed the focus around which we used text and audio to share and discuss our experiences and hoped for experiences with some of these tools.  This session provided great opportunities to share possible tools for specific purposes and I think we could have carried on for much longer if time had allowed.

Conclusion

This was a great session, as I have said before every time we have Serendipity sessions that touch on Web2.0 tools I meet new tools that I need to explore. I hope/feel that this might be the case for other participants also. Just that feeling of adding another potential “tool” to my “teacher toolbox” is always exciting.

Our Next Session

FineFocusSmallOur next Webinar is an Edublogs “Fine Focus” session. This week in “Pay for software – you have to be joking!” Phil Hart will give us an overview of some of the free and open source software that we could try instead of the sometimes costly applications we often use.  Join us on Thursday Jan 13th at 23:00 GMT/UTC (6pm USA EST, Midnight CET) or Friday Jan 14th 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.

Overview Edublogs Serendipity webinar – Web2.0 tools for activities

Edublogs Awards!

NominatedBestEdWebinarSeriesWell voting time for Edublogs Awards is nearly up! I have just felt so pleased and honoured that the Edublogs Live webinars were shortlisted in the “Best Educational Webinar Series” category. To check out the nominations and then perhaps vote for our Edublogs Live webinars then follow the link. Thank you so much to those who nominated and to those who may already have voted! We aim to be a friendly place for educators from around the globe to learn together; find out more about using the interactive potential of Elluminate; and have an opportunity to present a Fine Focus session.

Introduction

We had three topics to choose from, two of these were from the wallwisher. The final consensus was to look at learning activities & Web2.0 tools, but also to have a “play” with some of the moderator tools in Elluminate. This was a great recorded Serendipity unconference webinar. The main topic “designing learning activities to leverage available Web2.0 tools” came from our Wallwisher and so didn’t have a “sponser” in the session. These are always interesting as the person posting the topic is not present to ask for an expansion of their thoughts. Instead we started with our interpretation and worked from there. In the session we also had a brief look at moderating Elluminate sessions – giving everyone moderator privileges and a chance to “play”

The Session

Once we had decided on the topic we started with a quick whiteboarding of what we understood it to mean.

ToolsForActivitiesResize

There was also audio and text chat discussion around this with a feeling that those of us present would start with a learning activity and then choose a tool to suit the activity rather than choose a tool and then make an activity that used it. We moved on to consider some activities and tools, again using the whiteboard. This time we split the board into two columns – we put activities on one side, tools on the other and linked them with lines. Of course many tools are usable for more than one kind of activity and vice versa so we ended up with a tangled web of lines – a great representation of the “real” world of Web2.0!

We then moved on the a look at some of the Elluminate moderator tools giving people an opportunity to load presentations to the whiteboard and also taking a look at the potential of the multimedia library, and the possible pitfalls. Using videos has improved immensly since I first used Elluminate some years ago. The main issues are around file size and format – as is the case with any use of video in any online context. Whatever you use you need to remember that the participants need sufficient bandwidth and an appropriate player or the video won’t work for them!

Conclusion

This session was fun! Every time we have Serendipity sessions that touch on Web2.0 toolsI meet new tools that I need to explore. Often I just dip in and may not actually take up the tool, but it gives me more potential “tools” in my “teacher toolbox” that I am aware of and that may one day be just the “right” tool for a particular student, group of students or topic. I also enjoy “playing” with Elluminate & love giving people moderator status so that they can investigate the extra tools available to moderators.

Our Next Session

FineFocusSmallOur next Webinar is an Edublogs “Fine Focus” session. This week we have the usual End Of Year/Christmas Party. So bring along virtual goodies to share and please get your thinking caps on and devise an Elluminate Party Game for us to play.  If you have an idea but aren’t sure how to make it work in Elluminate then put a comment on this post or catch me on Twitter (@JoHart). Join us on Thursday Dec 16th at 23:00 GMT/UTC (6pm USA EST, Midnight CET) or Friday Dec 17th 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.