Monday, 13 October 2008
E-moderating really saves time for online teachers
A new e-moderating course for practising teachers and tutors in FE starts today and another (for academic staff in HE) is into its second week starting tomorrow. In both cases it is about experiencing e-learning as a student as well as developing practical skills for online teachers. I am always stunned and sometimes humbled by the many different and valuable perspectives and relevant skills that participants bring to the course.
The idea that the teacher is the only person who knows anything about the subject - in this case online tutoring - because they are teaching the course is so inaccurate. Its my job to facilitate discovery, sharing, learning - and, yes, to contribute facts where appropriate about learning technologies or the techniques of e-moderation.
Meanwhile my own writing course (Season of Inspiration) is into its second week - we have had a blistering week with a talented group of students - and it is so encouraging when the framework I teach others to use can be proved to be so effective in my own courses.
Well designed e-tivities in a careful course design facilitate the forming of a supportive group and provide students with a clear framework to develop their work. And for the tutors it means that with routine questions forestalled (or answered for one another by the students themselves) we don't waste time and can concentrate our e-moderating interventions on facilitating a supportive community to develop collaborative learning to everyone's benefit.
Labels: e-moderating, e-moderation, e-tivities, online course, online tutors, season of inspiration, time management, writing courses
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:59 AM
Monday, 21 April 2008
Analysing communities for the key participants
There are all sorts of reasons why one wants to analyse an online community - finding out who are the busiest and most informative posters is one possible requirement. I just spotted an old article from New Scientist (well, July 2007) that describes how researchers at Cornell University, New York, and Microsoft Research in Washington State have developed a way to analyse postings and the relationships between them to find out who are the movers and shakers in a community. Of course as they studied Usenet groups, it isn't exactly cutting edge research, but it reminds me that there are many methods for analysing interactions, and i really should bring more of them together in a blog post some day.
Research as far back as usenet analyses let alone more recently has shown that the activities of certain influential people are key to the success or otherwise of a community. Anyone who has lost a community due to a strong individual or group stifling or driving off others, knows it can work both ways. Any community manager worth their salt will have developed ways to deal with such people.Labels: communities of practice, e-moderating, e-moderation, emoderating, online communities, online community
posted by Helen Whitehead 5:18 PM
Saturday, 4 August 2007
E-books on online community
Useful resources, especially for beginners
Otis Online Tutoring e-Book
NCSL's e-learning facilitation toolkit and 70,000 heads are better than oneLabels: e-learning, e-moderating, e-moderation, e-moderator, ebook, elearning, emoderating, online communities, online community, online learning, online tutor, online tutoring
posted by Helen Whitehead 5:53 PM
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
What is online community?
Community is not the same as commonalityPeople at a bus stop are not a community. people who go online are not a community.
"A community is a group of people who form relationships over time by interacting regularly around shared experiences, which are of interest to all of them for varying individual reasons." Jake McKeeLabels: e-facilitation, e-learning, e-moderation, nlabwomen, nlabwomen07, online communities, online community
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:46 PM
