Friday, September 29, 2006

SUGGESTION BOX Blogs/Web2.0 Online Prof. Dev. Workshops TLT Group

Welcome your suggestions, etc.

Pls click on "comments" or "post a comment" just below this posting to leave your suggestions for the TLT Group's Online Professional Development Workshops about educational uses of blogs, wikis, feeds, .... Web 2.0 + Social Networking
See more detail than you probably want or need about how to ensure we receive your comment/suggestion at the very end of this posting in italics.


Review related Writely planning document.
http://www.writely.com/View.aspx?docid=ajbkv7nhdrt8_22hrqq8c

I welcome your ideas - leave your name, contact info so we can respond, thank you... or leave your comments anonymously. You can:

  • Tell us what would be most helpful - topics, dates, times, media...
  • Request to become a "Collaborator" for that document so that you can add items directly yourself.
  • Ask questions
  • Suggest something else we haven't even thought of
Thanks,
Steve Gilbert
NOTE: MORE DETAIL THAN YOU PROBABLY WANT OR NEED
To be sure we receive your comment, click on one of the options below the box in which you entered your comment. Then type in the letters that you see in the weird script in the most obvious place - the "word verification" box. THEN CLICK ON "LOG IN AND PUBLISH" - DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE "LOG-IN" PART. You do NOT need to have a Blogger account to leave a comment.
If you wish to comment anonymously, click in the circle to the left of that option. If you want to avoid getting a Blogger account, but want to indicate who you are, add your name and contact info WITHIN your "comment" and then choose the "anonymous" option.

SUGGESTION BOX Favorite Online Tools/Resources

Pls click on "comments" or "post a comment" just below this posting to leave your suggestions for FridayLive!
See more detail than you probably want or need about how to ensure we receive your comment/suggestion at the very end of this posting in italics.


Review Steve Gilbert's Favorite Online Tools/Resources in a Writely document.
http://www.writely.com/View.aspx?
docid=ajbkv7nhdrt8_bdd8mntj5zx7t


I welcome your ideas - leave your name, contact info so we can respond, thank you... or leave your comments anonymously. You can:

  • List your own favorite online tools/resources to be added to the Writely document indicated above.
  • Request to become a "Collaborator" for that document so that you can add items directly yourself.
  • Ask questions
  • Suggest something else we haven't even thought of
Thanks,
Steve Gilbert
NOTE: MORE DETAIL THAN YOU PROBABLY WANT OR NEED
To be sure we receive your comment, click on one of the options below the box in which you entered your comment. Then type in the letters that you see in the weird script in the most obvious place - the "word verification" box. THEN CLICK ON "LOG IN AND PUBLISH" - DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE "LOG-IN" PART. You do NOT need to have a Blogger account to leave a comment.
If you wish to comment anonymously, click in the circle to the left of that option. If you want to avoid getting a Blogger account, but want to indicate who you are, add your name and contact info WITHIN your "comment" and then choose the "anonymous" option.

SUGGESTION BOX FridayLive!

Pls click on "comments" or "post a comment" just below this posting to leave your suggestions for FridayLive!
See more detail than you probably want or need about how to ensure we receive your comment/suggestion at the very end of this posting in italics.


I moderate/lead the free, interactive, Internet-accessible, multimedia, weekly 2pm Eastern FridayLive! series.
For more info, free registration, schedule, etc., for FridayLive, visit:
http://www.tltgroup.org/tlt-swg/Friday.html
You can register as late as 1 hour prior to the event, although we prefer that you do so earlier if you can.
You will receive the URL for the FridayLive session via email shortly after you register.

I welcome your ideas - leave your name, contact info so we can respond, thank you... or leave your comments anonymously. You can:

  • Ask questions
  • Suggest future topics, interviewees, etc....
  • Volunteer to show/tell something yourself on a future FridayLive! session; e.g., resource, project, strategy, ...
  • Host a campus visit/workshop from which we can run FridayLive!
  • Suggest something else we haven't even thought of
Thanks,
Steve Gilbert
NOTE: MORE DETAIL THAN YOU PROBABLY WANT OR NEED
To be sure we receive your comment, click on one of the options below the box in which you entered your comment. Then type in the letters that you see in the weird script in the most obvious place - the "word verification" box. THEN CLICK ON "LOG IN AND PUBLISH" - DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE "LOG-IN" PART. You do NOT need to have a Blogger account to leave a comment.
If you wish to comment anonymously, click in the circle to the left of that option. If you want to avoid getting a Blogger account, but want to indicate who you are, add your name and contact info WITHIN your "comment" and then choose the "anonymous" option.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Blogs Too Trendy for Higher Ed? Policy Issues!

Are blogs too trendy for higher education? How do blogs and other Web 2.0 technologies challenge traditional values of colleges and universities? How can an institution provide adequate oversight and support of blog activity, especially for the use of blogs that do not rely on institutionally controlled technology? Are the potential educational benefits of using blogs worth the trouble?

SINGLE SPECIAL ONLINE EVENT IN CONJUNCTION WITH EDUCAUSE CONFERENCE IN DALLAS 10/10/2006

Policy Issues for Blogs, Wikis, Newsfeeds & Aggregators
October 10, 2006 2:00 - 3:00 pm EDT


Writely Planning/Resource Document for this event:
http://www.writely.com/View.aspx?docid=ah77rrpjptk2_7nw59g9


Blogs are among the best known educationally useful "Web 2.0" resources --- a loosely defined set of rapidly changing and easily accessible options for 1) controlling the content and appearance of a Web page, 2) enabling self-selected groups to exchange information in varied formats, and 3) permitting "authors" to automatically notify interested "readers" of new information in varied ways.

Monday, September 25, 2006

"ExcuseClub" - No New AV - Voice for Instruction

We make great strides toward AI - Artificial Intelligence, but cannot imagine AV - Artificial Voice. Keep this in mind when someone proposes "scalable" instruction that eliminates human voices. No one even seems to expect to develop recording and playing equipment that reproduces voice or music undetectably different from listening to a "live" performance in the same room. Finally, I'm told that several studies have shown that the quality of the audio is one of the most significant factors in determining learners' satisfaction with forms of online or distance education. I believe it.

This posting was prompted by the "ExcuseClub" an almost-throwaway idea in "I, Robot" a futuristic science fiction short story by Cory Doctorow. In the story, a highly powerful - beyond current Internet - service links those who need audio-delivered, authentic-sounding excuses with those who can imitate voices. This idea is probably scariest to people with teenage children. Fortunately, mine are older. However, I found it especially intriguing in this view of a technologically advanced future that the author could not imagine "Artificial Voice" to go along with Artificial Intelligence. See excerpts below.

I think Doctorow may be right. In highly successful popular movies created by computer animation, well-known actors provide the voices. No one has yet found the need for a vocal version of the Turing test to see if people can tell the difference between computer-generated voice and remotely delivered or recorded voice.

Excerpts:

"Welcome to ExcuseClub! There are 43 members on the network this morning. You have five excuses to your credit. Press one to redeem an excuse —" She toned one. "Press one if you need an adult —" Tone. "Press one if you need a woman; press two if you need a man —" Tone. "Press one if your excuse should be delivered by your doctor; press two for your spiritual representative; press three for your case-worker; press four for your psycho-health specialist; press five for your son; press six for your father —" Tone. "You have selected to have your excuse delivered by your father. Press one if this excuse is intended for your case-worker; press two for your psycho-health specialist; press three for your principal —" Tone. "Please dictate your excuse at the sound of the beep. When you have finished, press the pound key."

"She's good at doing grown-up voices. She was a good part of the network. When someone needed a mom or a social worker to call in an excuse, she was always one of the best. Talented. She goes to school with my kid sister and I met them one day at the Peanut Plaza and she was doing this impression of her teachers and I knew I had to get her on the network."

Excerpts from "I, Robot," by Cory Doctorow, online at "Infinite Matrix,"
http://www.infinitematrix.net/stories/
shorts/i-robot.html

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Password Fatigue - More TMI/TMO!

TMI/TMO: Too Much Information/ Too Many Options!

"... Password fatigue has created a rich environment for identity exploitation, said Robert Douglas, an information security consultant. "

Read more excerpts below about passwords, identity, and related services; follow link for full text. Anyone want to recommend one of these password management services? Or would doing so be too much like challenging hackers to break them? Steve Gilbert

"...the abundance of frequently changing passwords -- and the confusing jumble of permutations and combinations most computer users create -- are not only inconvenient, they often undermine the very security goal they were meant to achieve."

"...Dozens of companies such as Siber Systems Inc. in Fairfax make software that consolidate various passwords under a single master password. Siber Systems, for example, has a program called Roboform that automatically unlocks all the sites users visit, by consolidating all log-in information into one master password. (Even password management has its limitations. If users forget the master password, they're simply out of luck and must re-register.)

"Sites like Bugmenot.com have surfaced in response to the frustration of having to register for an account just to read a news story, for example. That site lists generic usernames and passwords that anyone can use to gain access, as well as a system that allows users to note whether the name and password worked or not, keeping the list fresh."

FROM: "Access Denied," by Yuki Noguchi, Washington Post, Washington Post Staff Writer, Saturday, September 23, 2006; D01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content
/article/2006/09/22/AR2006092201612_pf.html


If you have time - and you don't - visit the Overloaditorium to commiserate with the vast majority of us who cannot keep up.

TMI/TMO and TKO: Too much, too many, too fast!

TMI/TMO = Too Much Information/ Too Many Options
That's my description of what we're living with in higher education, especially with respect to ways of improving teaching and learning. Read the excerpt below for an explanation of TKO - a recent campus-based tour that is both indication and demonstration of the accelerating pace at which many undergraduate students explore, try, reject or integrate new tech options into their lives. If you have time - and you don't - visit the Overloaditorium to commiserate with the vast majority of us who cannot keep up. If you have more time - and you don't - read the description of how his younger sisters are surpassing his own tech/geek expertise in the remainder of Betancourt's article excerpted below.

Excerpt written by 26-year-old Washington Post Staff Writer:

TKO -- that's the techie-style acronym for TechKnowOverload -- tour has been working its way through college campuses, including George Washington University last week.

The tour is a joint effort of the Consumer Electronics Association and Mr. Youth, a Massachusetts-based niche marketing firm that specializes in reaching consumers between the ages of 12 and 24. (I guess I am old, after all.)

The campuses are filled with demonstrations and interactive trials of products -- from laptop computers and video games to car stereo equipment. What's clear is that the vendors who join the tour aren't there to sell something. They're there to give college students a chance to play -- which, of course, could lead them to buy.

Even more important is the feedback: These companies want to know if they have a potential winner or a loser. If these students are going to bash their products, they'd rather know it now instead of reading it on a blog or a MySpace page later.

After all, no one -- from the students to the companies -- wants to feel out of the loop when it comes to tech.

I know how they feel. Two of my three younger sisters have zoomed past me, technologically, in a way I would never have imagined. And that makes me feel old.

From: "Counting the Years, One Device at a Time," by David Betancourt, Washington Post, Sunday, September 24, 2006; F07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/
2006/09/23/AR2006092300511_pf.html

New Student Activities: Facebook?

If you haven't noticed Facebook yet, you should. Yet the latest of the ever-more-rapidly-spreading student uses of technlogy, Facebook first seems to be a significant distraction from academic work. Could it be used in some ways to encourage, support, or extend teaching, learning, scholarship, reserach, civil constructive communication and collaboration?

"Facebook is the popular college-based social network Web site. Like MySpace, people can post profiles with pictures, blogs and so forth and let friends within their networks have access to the material. Unlike MySpace, it is something of a closed community, limited to college campuses, high schools, workplaces and geographic regions."

From: "New-Media Richcraft Invites Priceless Comparisons," By Frank Ahrens, Washington Post, Sunday, September 24, 2006; F07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content
/article/2006/09/23/AR2006092300031_pf.html


Also see "7 Things You Should Know About Facebook " (ID: ELI7017), in the Educause Resource Center at: http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7017.pdf

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Film as Communal, Collaborative

The reductionists are wrong. There is something about being in a group - face-to-face - different from any other way of experiencing something together. Perhaps not always better, but always different. And creating a movie is something that - at it's best, at it's luckiest - is a collaboration that achieves a kind of synergistic greatness that cannot ever be predicted or often be designed.

"The communal experience of watching a film-one in which cinema can be presented as a collaborative art form in all of its richness and diversity, and where the best possible viewing circumstances are achieved-is a core value of AFI."
From: "AFI On Screen" homepage of website at: http://www.afi.com/onscreen/ 9-23-2006

TV vs. Movies - Symbiosis or Death Battle?

I wish I could say that I had predicted the growing symbiosis of television and movies. The best I can claim about my own predictions on this "clash" of these technologies is that I never made one. That's a lot better than most media/tech gurus who enjoyed the attention they could get by making the usual dire forecasts of the imminent demise of an old media at the ruthless testosterone-flushed hands of a radical young new one. And, as is most often the case, several years later they are wrong. Oh, by the way, it's amusing to notice that each of these media was supposed to kill of the other. First, TV would ruin the movie business. Now, movies are supposed to be undermining TV.

“Thursday is considered the most lucrative night in the television business, primarily because movie companies want to advertise right before the weekend.”

“’Grey's Anatomy’ had 25.4 million viewers for its season premiere, compared with 22.6 million for "CSI" in the same 9 p.m. Thursday time slot, according to Nielsen Media Research.”

From: “The Doctors Are In: 'Grey's Anatomy' Beats 'CSI'; 'ER' Edges Series Premieres” from the Associated Press, Saturday, September 23, 2006; C08, Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com
/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/22/AR2006092201580_pf.html

Friday, September 22, 2006

Invitation to NSU workshop participants 9-22-2006

I've enjoyed working with you. If you have time, please add a comment to this posting. In that comment, please include the address (URL) of your new blog, or any blog you would like me and your other colleagues to visit. I will try to visit and leave a comment on every blog that gets listed. You can also add other info to your comments here; for example:

  • A question or request we didn't have time to answer or discuss
  • An idea you want to share
  • A suggestion for how we could improve this workshop
  • What you liked or found especially useful about this workshop
  • Your name and title and email address if you wish to get a response sent to you
  • DON'T FORGET TO INCLUDE THE URL OF YOUR BLOG!
Thanks for your participation.
Steve Gilbert

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

When Bad Things Happen to Good [Online] Teachers [TLT-SWG-28]

Online classes cannot entirely avoid technical disruptions.

How can we develop realistic expectations, and prepare contingency activities - both for students and teachers?

Context
When the online connection breaks, if you're alone in a room with a computer, you're REALLY disconnected. When teaching or learning online, we're using highly complex systems that are unpredictably - but often - subject to changes that no one can fully anticipate or control. More…

Problem
Most experienced teachers have ways of adjusting when they sense a face-to-face class veering off track, but the same repertoires don't work the same ways online. We need new ways of detecting and preparing for technical disruptions, new ways of negotiating realistic expectations, and new ways to remain calm and patient when online problems happen. Most of us haven't much experience with the kind of sudden isolation caused by breakdowns in online systems, and we don't like that abrupt, disorienting transition.

Conflicting Views
- Online sessions aren't worth the trouble until "they" can eliminate those breakdowns!
- Online students shouldn't complain about technical interruptions.

Solution? Questions!

Attitudes: How can we develop realistic expectations and lower everyone's stress when technical interruptions happen?

Activities: What kinds of constructive alternatives - both for teachers and students -? can be prepared? By whom? For which kinds of interruptions?

Triage: What kinds of interruptions can be safely ignored? What kinds deserve alternative plans? What kinds require rescheduling the session?
More… [Leave a comment with your suggestions!]

Monday, September 18, 2006

When Bad Things Happen to Good Online Teachers [Context for TLT-SWG #28]

Ray’s sound went out suddenly in the middle of the 1st session of our online workshop [CATs Online] last week. Even though he’s the most technically skillful of our teaching team, we lost him for 5 minutes – a long time during a live, synchronous session – especially when he was the one running the slides.

Later that week, as I was preparing to send a message to participants in our introductory Blogs workshop, all my Blogger blog feeds suddenly began misbehaving. Since I had recently changed some settings for my browser and some Web-based tools, I wasn’t sure what was causing the trouble. It took me two days of exploration, asking for help, etc., to finally get around to the “obvious” solution. I went into my Blogger settings for TLT-SWG and changed the site feed options. These settings hadn't been changed for months, but changing them might have reset something. [Digital equivalent of clearing the throat?] Within a few minutes the problems began to disappear and have not returned. But I didn’t REALLY know if it was my action or some other event that solved the problem. All I know is I was delayed a couple days in my plans for the workshop and I lost several hours of work time.

These two examples are not very unusual.

I’m both reassured and worried every time a NASA launch is scrubbed or postponed due to mechanical or computer problems. The reassuring part is that even NASA with so many highly intelligent highly committed people still has equipment interruptions.

Each of us now has a uniquely complex configuration of software, connections, and settings on our own computers. Like the space launches, we’re using highly complex systems that are unpredictably – but often – subject to changes that no one can fully anticipate or control. New upgrades and updates. New settings. New uses. Etc.

So, those of us who believe there are good reasons for using new options to extend education – including professional development – must learn to live with some risk of temporary technical failure.

Most of us who have taught for more than a year or two have learned some ways of detecting when a course is not working well and some ways of making adjustments to get back on track. But we still have a lot to figure out about how to recognize and deal with technical and other problems that can arise in online and hybrid courses. We can’t rely on exactly the same repertoires.

NOTE: The online workshop I mentioned above is about adapting CATs – techniques originally designed for quickly getting constructive feedback in a traditional classroom – to online activities.

“Don’t trust anyone over 30” vs. “They’re delightful once they’re 30”

Transition: From “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” to “They’re delightful once they’re 30.”

When I was under 30, some of my generation said we couldn’t trust anyone older.

About 15 years ago, when I was over 30 and had 3 kids, I was returning from keynoting a conference and got a ride to the airport from a retired faculty couple. They were on their way to “the city” for a special evening. I was worrying about one of my children and asked for advice. They chuckled, and then assured me: “Once they’re 30, they’re delightful.”

I’ve passed along that advice often since then. Of course, one’s own children are always wonderful in their own uniquely challenging ways. But from ages 10-25 they are also unpredictably difficult.

PS: I just spent a prematurely delightful weekend with my 26-year old son and his wife in Chicago.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

When Bad Things Happen to Good Online Teachers [Solutions? Questions!]

Attitudes: How can we develop realistic expectations and lower everyone’s stress when technical interruptions happen during online sessions?

Activities: What kinds of constructive alternatives – both for teachers and students – can be prepared? By whom? For which kinds of interruptions?

Triage: What kinds of interruptions can be safely ignored? What kinds deserve alternative plans? What kinds require rescheduling the session?

How can we develop good answers to these questions:

1. When is the risk of technical interruptions during live synchronous online sessions worth the trouble?
2. What can be done to minimize that risk?
3. What should be done to prepare for those breakdowns?
4. How does/doesn't it help when we use team activities or CATs [Classroom Assessment Techniques] in the TLT Group’s online professional development workshops? Can we effectively exemplify what we are advocating? Does that help our workshop registrants use these options in their own online and hybrid courses? [Both in synchronous and asynchronous online sessions.]


These questions emerged from the frustrating, brief, technical difficulties we had in our 9/12 online workshop session about "CATS Online." Our workshop leaders proved themselves thoughtful, effective, resourceful and highly flexible in coping with the technical interruptions. I’ve invited them to consider these questions and share their thinking with us here and in our next workshop session.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Welcome to CATs Online Workshop [Begins 9-12-2006]

Welcome!
Please leave a comment introducing yourself. If you like, add a question or suggestion for this workshop. Best of all, suggest some additional resources - esp. an example of a CAT that has been used online - that your colleagues in this workshop might find interesting and useful.

Visit the home page for this workshop at:
http://planning.tltgroup.org/CATsFall2006/workshop.htm


We look forward to communicating with you during the next 2+ weeks!
Steve Gilbert

Welcome to TLTG OLI Blog/Intro Workshop [begins 9-12]

Welcome!
Please leave a comment introducing yourself and giving the URL for a new Blogger blog you've created for mutual use in this workshop! If you like, add a question or suggestion for this workshop. Best of all, suggest some additional resources that your colleagues in this workshop might find interesting and useful.

Visit the home page for this workshop at:
http://planning.tltgroup.org/blogswikisworkshopfall2006/workshop.htm


We look forward to communicating with you during the next 2+ weeks!
Steve Gilbert

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Boudreaux on Undergrad Athletics [1 minute audio]

David Boudreaux's view of undergraduate athletics in a 1-minute recording. Not an example of Cajun Academic Humor!

David E. Boudreaux, native and resident of Thibodaux La., is Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Nicholls State University. We appreciate the warmth, good nature, and underlying care for humanity that often emerge from his unique "Cajun Academic Humor." Boudreaux's stories provide welcome breaks in our ever-busier, ever more fragmented lives, and help us regain a broader, healthier perspective.

And, for more Boudreaux stories - Cajun Academic Humor - go to:

http://www.tltgroup.org/listserv/tlt-swg.html
I hope you enjoy them!

Steve Gilbert

PS: You can also click here for MP3 file access!

Friday, September 08, 2006

Students Active Engagement - Successful use of IT [TLT-SWG-27]

Pres. of student govt. at Nicholls State U. used athlete-generated PowerPoint in impressive presentation to La. Board of Regents. Student success story described in 5 minute interview with David Boudreaux (VP Inst. Adv. and source of Cajun Academic Humor - david.boudreaux@nicholls.edu). I'm looking for more stories about STUDENTS ACTIVELY, CONSTRUCTIVELY ENGAGED through successful combinations of academic/human/tech activities within colleges, universities.

Can you provide an MP3 recording and some text? Or could I interview you via phone or Internet? Best if recording/interview includes at least one student who can describe his/her own experience of ACTIVE, CONSTRUCTIVE ENGAGEMENT through a successful combination of academic/human/tech activities within a college or university.

We also welcome your suggestions about ways to involve students in our live online professional development sessions. Those invited will receive complimentary registrations. Click here for VERY BRIEF online form for recommending students, topics, and roles - for either interviews or participation in online sessions. Or leave a comment at the end of this blog posting.

David E. Boudreaux, native and resident of Thibodaux, La., is Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Nicholls State University. We appreciate the warmth, good nature, and underlying care for humanity that often emerge from his unique "Cajun Academic Humor." Boudreaux's stories provide welcome breaks in our ever-busier, ever more fragmented lives, and help us regain a broader, healthier perspective.

And, for more Boudreaux stories - Cajun Academic Humor - go to:

http://www.tltgroup.org/listserv/tlt-swg.html
I hope you enjoy them!

Steve Gilbert

Friday, September 01, 2006

Students Online: Cocktails or Symposia? [TLT-SWG-26]

Prologue to “Cocktail Parties and Symposia”

We're just beginning to figure out how to include undergraduate and graduate students more “visibly” and more often in our online professional development sessions. In my first conversations about this goal I’ve found some interesting backlash: faculty and other academic support professionals who are worried that students will not participate well in this environment, may not behave as intended, may not prepare adequately, or may express opinions that are more personal than thoughtful.

For those worried that students will not be treated respectfully or behave respectfully and contribute thoughtfully, I often suggest to people who are beginning to think about online education – and to worry about things getting out of hand and wasting time in that environment which is still so new to so many – that they consider the differences between a cocktail party and a symposium. Please see more about this comparison below.

I have no doubt that we should include students. I don’t want to be one of those who advocate various forms of “learner centered-ness” and claim to know what students want and need – without asking the students, without giving students opportunities to be heard, without really listening to students. Whenever I visit campuses, I always ask for an opportunity to chat with some students, and I always learn something useful about that institution (often something quite positive that my hosts may not have noticed or thought to mention; occasionally something negative that is being ignored and that could be easily remedied).

But I have more enthusiasm and questions than answers about HOW to include students. So we welcome your suggestions about ways to involve students in our live online sessions likely to enhance the events (and avoid embarrassment) for everyone involved. And we also seek nominations of specific students for specific sessions. Those invited will receive complimentary registrations. Click here for an online form for recommending students, topics, and roles. Or to respond more publicly, leave a comment by scrolling to the very bottom of this TLT-SWG blog posting.

Cocktail Parties and Symposia

I often suggest to people who are beginning to think about online education – and to worry about things getting out of hand and wasting time in that environment which is still so new to so many – that they consider the differences between a cocktail party and a symposium.

What these events have in common is the effort to bring together an interesting mixture of people who are likely to enjoy each other and benefit from interacting. The success of both venues relies on the verbal contributions of those invited, and to some extent on their improvisational skills.

These events differ in the devices and skills used to facilitate interaction among the participants. Many cocktail parties go flat because the combination of people and booze cannot be relied upon to produce something meaningful or even pleasant. It is much more likely that symposia participants might prepare to offer useful or interesting observations on the topic known to all in advance. The cocktail party host/hostess might attempt to encourage one or two individuals, to introduce a few newcomers to some others. However, it is much more likely that the leader would feel responsible and authorized to redirect the entire flow of conversation in a symposium than in a cocktail party.

Symposia can fail too, but when they succeed it is usually because a leader thoughtfully designs the activities and TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR GUIDING AND INTERVENING.

So, too, with online courses and workshops. Just as teachers in traditional courses are responsible for guiding and shaping the way in which their students prepare for and participate when face-to-face, those who lead online sessions are responsible for students’ preparation and behavior as well. And, many students are still much more likely to be uncertain about the boundaries of appropriate behavior when participating in an online event than when in a more conventional classroom.

I'm happy to take or share responsibility for guiding and intervening in future TLT Group online sessions that involve students.

Fortunately, we've already found some colleagues willing to help us find students and develop and experiment with different roles for them. These colleagues have worked with many students in a variety of unusually constructive and successful activities involving technology: technology assistance, adult literacy training partnerships, first year experience advising, teaching/learning center support, service learning, ….

Please help the TLT Group involve students actively and effectively in our live online sessions in ways likely to enhance the events (and avoid embarrassment) for everyone involved. We also seek nominations of specific students for specific sessions. Those invited will receive complimentary registrations.

How should we prepare the students? Should we give the students access in advance to the description of the workshop and/or specific questions on the topic? In what ways can we realistically expect students to prepare for these live, synchronous, online, multi-way audio sessions? [Should we pre-record the students instead of having them with us live? Only if necessary!]

What roles should we offer to students in our online sessions?

Why should/shouldn’t we include more than one student per session?

Again, you may click here for an online form for recommending students, topics, and roles. Or to respond more publicly, leave a comment by scrolling to the very bottom of this TLT-SWG blog posting.