This is not MY case story, but rather a case story of a group of people who showed interest to stick together as researchers of TEL after one week of face to face of seminars and workshops, and probably more important, unofficial learning sessions during coffee breaks and after dinner get-togethers.

This simple story is my contribution to the Eduserv Digital Identity Event

Situation

Describe the context in detail

Last June I participated in a Doctoral School in the field of Technologies Enhanced Learning (TEL) which took place in Macedonia. I had the opportunity to meet many interesting people from many countries in Europe and even beyond. As in any other similar situation in which you come together with a group of people who have similar interests, you usually create more empathy with some of the participants who belong to the group. It’s a natural thing: be it because of the psychological traits they display, the specific interests they have, etc you always end up getting closer to a restricted number of individuals inside the group. And indeed, throughout the week I was able to develop closer bonds with some of the participants, while taking part in the different TEL activities planned by the summer school, and especially in the informal gatherings which happened in between seminars and also after official learning timetables. Unbelievably, or not, we spent most of our spare time discussing ideas, asking questions, sharing experiences, exploring tools, etc about the topics that brought us together in the first place.
After that week of rich experiences it was clear to some of us that we wanted to stay in touch. And so we did…

Task

What was the problem you were trying to solve

Most of us, as young researchers in the field of TEL, were still trying to understand the process of research, and saw the Doctoral School as a great learning opportunity to get together with like-minded people, working in similar research sub-fields. This Doctoral School was also composed by a group of people who had little support from their institution to carry out their research (be in in terms of academic writing support, research methods training, absence of local learning communities, or even support from other fellow researchers. Most of the Summer School participants I interacted with suffered from the same malady: working and learning in isolation, even within their research institutes. After one week of meaningful interactions, and rich learning opportunities, it would be hard to go back to our own reality, and carry on doing our research without the support of those with whom we had so fondly learned many new, diverse and interesting things during in the space of a week. Something had to be done. We needed to keep the channels of communication and collaboration open, but we also wanted to create an environment in which we would feel comfortable to ask our ‘silly’ questions, share our thoughts and develop new ideas together, while helping one another progress in their research. As busy people, we would also like something that was easy to access and that wouldn’t require a lot of effort or time to check what other members were doing and also provide our support.

Action

What did you do to solve it

It was then decided we would start a skype written chat which people could easily be added to and also access the logs of the ongoing discussions any time they came online or chose to visit their bookmarked skype chat. The group chat is composed by some of the members of the Doctoral School (including one of the senior researchers who belonged to the teaching staff of the Summer School) and also by a small group of people who did not attend the Doctoral School, but who kindly accepted to join the group to share their perspectives and participate in the joint discussions.  The skype bookmarked chat is a fairly easy system which seems to work for most of those who belong to it, since skype is already a tool they use on a daily basis.

Result

What happened? Did you succeed? Did you adjust?

I don’t think I succeeded or failed. This is not an individual activity, but the result of what a small group of people wished to do as part of their professional development: to keep connected ( as to break the circles of isolation in which they were working) and to continue sharing ideas and experiences online as a follow-up of the interactions that had started face to face.

Reflection

What did you learn?

I cannot speak for the rest of the group, which now also counts with a few people who didn’t attend the Doctoral school, but for me this has been a great experience in terms to talking about and listening to questions and answers related with the issues that concern our research. It has also been an interesting initiative in terms of supporting individuals in a rather personalized way. From this interactions I feel the bonds I had started to develop with some of them have been intensified and many other activities have developed from these interactions. Personally I can say I have co-written several articles and co-presented in TEL conferences. This wouldn’t probably have happened if we hadn’t achieved true communication and found meaning in our learning interactions.

The informal activity in a semi-private group (joining is limited by invitation/request),  has somehow also helped developing our digital self in relation to one another. We have grown more confident to ask our questions. I have also noticed that the spontaneity with which people share events, contribute with their opinions and provide feedback is meaningful to the participants. Besides that, there is also a lot of chatter going on, which also makes ownders when we are a little bit down - ‘hearing’ a friendly voice is always a great thing!

As in any network, there are peaks of activity and periods of silence. It all has to do with the workload of the members as well as with their need to connect and seek peer’s advice / support. Above all all matters is that we know that if we need to ask something, there is always someone there to give us a helping hand with the answer…often more than one comes forward…

…probably not, but have been tagged by Steve Wheeler and decided to answer the challenge. I am supposed  to reveal l 7 things about me and pass on the challenge to other seven people.

So as the rules say, you will need to:

* Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.

* Share seven facts about yourself in the post - some random, some weird.

* Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.

Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

1. The first thing that comes to mind and which amazes people big time is that I don’t drink alcohol. There is no ideological or religious reason  for it. It is just that I do not like the taste of it and therefore I don’t force myself to ingest something I don’t like. However, I have got nothing against who enjoys a drink. So do not be surprised if you find me in a pub drinking tea while having a great chat with some of my friends.
2. When I was 12 years old I was run over by a car just outside my parents’ house. It was the last day of the Easter break and I decided to quickly visit the supermarket to buy chocolate donuts, but never make it to the supermarket. I didn’t look before crossing the road and apparently I was the one who ran the car over. The result was 3 more weeks at home, a broken collarbone, a fractured knee and a head injury. I am still bad at crossing the road… and I have never felt like eating chocolate donuts again!
3. I never thought I would go into education.Actually that was the last thing on my mind and at the end of the 4th year of university when we had to decide which post-graduation specialty we had to do, I opted for translation while most of my colleagues went for the educational area. After completing one year of translation studies in Heidelberg, during which I had great fun learning the language in the pubs of the city and feeling rather bored in the classroom, I decided I needed something more active. I applied to join the Navy just for fun. When I got a letter to go the navy headquarters and take tests my mom almost fainted. I thought I would never get in. Still, I decided to go just to see how it works inside a military organization. It would probably be the first and last time I would get a chance to visit one. It turned out I spent the next 5 years there… teaching! I thought I would be doing translations for NATO, they decided to put me in the School of naval Technologies instead,  and I had to ‘desenrascar-me’ (=Portuguese state of mind - try to find a way to carry out the tasks you have been commissioned to the best possible way, despite the lack of resources…. The resources in this case were the educational background which I didn’t have. I started looking for resources online, reading stuff, asking people online and f2f for help…you must have guessed by now where this adventure has taken me! )
4. As a kid and a teenager I was the quietest and the shiest person on earth. I could enter and leave a room unnoticed. During that phase I learned how to observe people, analyze some of their expressions, gestures, etc in a rather silent way….Today I am a bit different … when I start talking it’s hard to keep me quiet…
5. At the age of five, while at a birthday party, my brother’s godmother started asking all the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up. She got the expected answers (fireman, doctor, vet, policeman, teacher, etc)  until I was up to provide mine. I told her I wanted to be rich!! It caused a good laugh and this is always mentioned during our annual summer gatherings. Today I think differently. I am not attached to money in any way (I only need enough to pay my bills and help some people  care about), I don’t care about any material stuff, as I will explain next.
6. There were several different reasons why I decided to leave the Navy….my contract would expire in a year time…meanwhile some events happened which I considered unjust and when I am not pleased with something I need to move on. And that is what I did. Hence, I decided to start looking for a new job… I wanted to go into academia. I thought it could be fun. In Portugal the possibilities were scarce, so I started looking for jobs outside…  I never really gave much thought about what I would do if I ever got a job abroad.The truth, however, is that shortly after I started sending my application I got two interviews. I went to the first one, but didn’t get it. I wasn’t even told what the reason had been, but I decided to carry on with my purpose. After that I got another interview which took me to Manchester for a couple of hours. I arrived in time for my interview and rushed off to the airport after being interviewed. I didn’t even know what to expect, because all I could think of was that I could not miss that plane! The next day I got a call from my current line manager telling me he would like to offer me the job, but he would understand if I needed some time to think it over. I immediately said I would take it! And so I did. I left my recently bought apartment in the outskirts of Lisbon, gave my mom my car, permanently lent my new desktop to one of my friends, distributed part of my CDs and books amongst friends and cousins, and off I went.  Some people were stun by my attitude. But I really needed to move on. The only thing I miss in Portugal is some people I physically left  behind, but whom I still keep in close touch with. I have also learned who my true friends are.
7. I have no sense of direction whatsoever, and if you trust me with a map it is most likely we are not going to find the right place at the first attempt. It can be a real adventure! The good thing is that I don’t mind asking people for directions and/or help.

For this meme I am tagging Graham Attwell, Nergiz Kern, Carla Arena, Nellie Deutsch, Maria Perif , Alev Elci and Anne Fox.

Can’t wait for your posts guys!

Will 2009 be the year…. ? Will 2009 mark the change we have been talking about for almost a decade now?

Click here if you can’t see the video.

I know there are awesome examples out there, but I think we need more. And the examples we need to look at are not so much dependent on the technology, but on how our current society, which is inevitably growing digital and more connected, is pursing this technological change forward, by demanding more collaboration and close contact amongst their workers. It’s unrealistic to work in/for educational systems which choose to ignore the demands of the contemporaneous society.
Formal education, as it stands today, is less and less being regarded as a passport to the job market as in most cases it misses to prepare its ‘customers’ to ‘real life’. Hence, school has grown unpopular and in many cases regarded as dull, meaningless or even as a pointless interlude to the real thing. I don’t think education is a waste of time, but I agree it has ceased to inspire or being regarded as something interesting one would consider taking part in as a volunteer. It happens, mainly because, as individuals, we have been granted more autonomy in what and how we do things. In a way, we have grown more independent and also more responsible for our actions. We have (a bit more) power over what we do. We have also grown in a society which ‘tells’ us we have a willing and a saying in everything that concerns our existence. This does not comply with the educational systems which still rely on a top-down [I say - you listen to] philosophy, and leave no scope for learners to decide upon their learning.
Young kids are no longer content with plain answers which are ’spit out’ to convey unquestionable truths. Memorizing definitions and/or reading uncontextualized experts’ texts are not regarded as irrefutable resources for the questioning minds. These days, learners have questions and more than that they are not hesitant to demand answers. They have grown in social environments where people debate their point of views and share a diversity of backgrounds which enriches their experiences as individuals, as community members, as citizens…

How to engage learners is really the challenge of this century rather than the way information is acquired or knowledge developed… that’s just the ultimate result of the continuous task of helping the individual to feel he/she belongs to a given learning community. That calls for a participatory approach, for dedication to the individual, and a lot of listening to from all parties involved. That is exactly what the current teaching methodology still doesn’t regard as key of the teaching/learning activity. And that is also exactly what technology has helped create: a platform for conversation where questions are welcomed, where the search for answers becomes the natural learning exercise…where the individual gains a voice and the community’s value increases based on individual participation. Learning is a collaborative effort which relies simultaneously on individuals’ and group’s contribution(s).

The technology doesn’t come to replace anyone in the current educational structure, but it can help people do what they do better… probably in a different way.
Good and bad teaching has always existed. Good and bad learning experiences have always been reported. The technology per se will not solve any of this old problems, but it can raise awareness of what good teaching / learning is and how we all can be contribute to a better, more effective and pleasant relationship between learners and schools / educators, etc.
That is for me the real question: how the practice that happens in the real world can prompt  the ‘educational institutional world’ to establish direct connections with that same world. I don’t think the role of the trainer/ teacher (educator) will stop to cease (they have a vital role in mentoring and guiding the learning path), nor will the role of institutions as an accreditation body fade away… provided they keep up with the pace of such a competitive society as it is ours these days…

Nevertheless, things have to change, and he most important aspect is the way teaching practice is conducted… that of course will involve a major change in strategy and policy, in educators and learners’ roles, in learning spaces (both face to face and online), in learning paces and times, and in the relationships established between institutions-individuals-society.
I look forward to your ideas concerning this matter.

A Merry, Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!

Blog you in 2009!

The web is not just about providing information.

Is there any news here? No, indeed there isn’t. We have been arguing that the web as it stands today is about enabling the individual to create and collaborate, to construct and to publish. It is also about participating and being included. And again this is also nothing that new, but what happened last week on Online Educa Berlin 08 surely was.

Sounds of the Bazaar were there and that definitely made a difference in the way these events run. It was practically the only open chance people were offered to join Online Educa online. Sounds of the Bazaar featured two special shows from Berlin (1 and 2) , and that was really one of the highlights of this conference, as far as I am concerned. Sounds of the Bazaar attempted, and succeeded, to bridge between the physical venue and a virtual audience who was as interested in taking part in it as the ones who were lucky enough to be able to be there face to face. And in an event that focus especially on Online Education, it starts to be hard to understand why is it organized solely for a face to face audience.

One of the other interesting aspects I observed while in Berlin, is that twitter, and microblogging in general, is becoming more and more relevant in conferences, as a fast way to feedback one’s experiences and perspectives. It has also proved to be one of the most efficient unofficial channels of communication and blended networking, as it allowed a wider audience to have a peek at what was going on during those tow days. Of course, this does not happen out of the blue. It rather happens as the result of team effort, and community engagement. And that’s true magic.

As a last remark, I would just like to refer to my experience at the plenary session. It was my first time at Online Educa Berlin, and also the biggest conference I have ever taken part in. I am aware it’s difficult to accommodate so many people to attend keynote presentations. ‘The best way’ seems to be to seat people in rows, get the speaker a good microphone and provide high quality speakers, so everyone can listen to the person presenting. Hopefully attendants will concentrate…well, at least, it will keep them quiet. And if we get a room big enough to squeeze a huge number of conference delegates, than there’s nothing like using a bit more of technology and broadcast a video inside the room, so the rows at the back can, at least, see the speaker…on the screen. Well, this solution is not bad, but I am not sure how different it was from the keynote videos I access on YouTube. And indeed, I had already seen Michael Wesch in youtube before. And why wasn’t this broadcast live to a wider audience? Wouldn’t that been a good idea?

I sure would like to see people sharing their thoughts and experiences about participatory and social media while applying the same philosophy they are preaching, that is, to make their sessions more interactive and hence reaching out to their audience in a more personal way. In this sense, I think Sounds of Bazaar fully achieved its purpose. We broadcast two shows, we approached the people on the physical venue – they had a main participatory role in the show – and we also welcomed contributions from the ‘outside’, by simultaneously hosting a chat room, in which people were welcome to interact with other listeners and also share their thoughts and questions. Long are the days where of simple webcasts. This is the age of participation and distributed presence of the self independently of where we are. Technology makes it possible. But more importantly are the people. They have to want to create and keep the channels of communication and participation wide open.

This post was also posted here.

…her views on Informal Learning and her experiences in the Webheads. Buth also speaks about her involvement as a peace activist and the Peace global event she is organizing, and which will also be online.

Please take a moment, relax and allow yourself to be inspired by this brave women.

You can access the iPeace project here.

Talks about her new SL project while we tour the Christmas Market in Berlin!

I hope you enjoy it.

After interviewing Dave White, I met Jef Staes, who kindly agreed to give me an interview about his work on Informal learning in Organizations. He also provides his views on the event.
And I also got his latest book!



…speaks  about his ideas of residents and visitors in Virtual World environments, as a follow up of his interview in Sounds of the Bazaar. It’s worth listening to!

You can find more about Dave White’s work on his blog, or follow him on twitter.

The reason why it took me longer to upload the short videos I recorded during Online Educa Berlin 2008 has to do with the fact that I had planned to do some post-editing on the video. Well, that naturally didn’t happen, as I haven’t been able to come up with anything decent. The sound quality is not the best (the background noise is quite disturbing, and I wasn’t able to get rid of it). It will teach me to find a better place to interview people from!!!! On the other hand, it conveys quite well the atmosphere of one of the major events in Online Education in Europe. It’s a busy environment, it radiates activity, it sets the scene for enthusiastic conversations, and it definitely the place for networking! So the videos that follow are representative of this big feast which brought people from over 90 countries together to discuss about several topics related with online education.

The main purpose of these videos was to convey a tiny, little bit of that atmosphere, and also share some of the ideas we discussed during these two days with some of the brilliant minds I met there.

I am writing this text, and thinking that this might have been a kind of apologies for my lack of technical skills, but it is not just that. It is more of a reflection about how I am using these communication tools, and addressing some of the technical issues. I am an educator, not a technician. My main purpose is to convey the message, and above all to establish channels of communication, and keep those open as part of learning opportunities. Other people might choose to join and contribute to it by engaging in this collective, open discussion. And that’s my main goal. I am using technology to reach to a wider world.; to broaden my horizons too. Participatory media, the made-easier technology has allowed people like me to also take part in a more technical side. We are using it on our own!! Not so much from a professional/technical perspective, but grabbing any opportunity for spontaneously learn and create instance where others can learn too. And in part, that’s the reason why the material is rough…, but also genuine. The quality is not super, and could have been improved, had I had the time and the skills, but the fact is that I can still publish my amateur ‘production’ for others to see. And even though it’s not top quality, people will get something out of it… I hope!

With this I am not saying we should all do what I am doing here – I believe we reach a point when we are already so used to the technology that we need to seek new challenges – and that will include improving our rough content with more professional-like post-production work. I obviously haven’t yet reached that level, when it comes to video editing. However, it hasn’t stopped me from creating and publishing my material. If you are going to like it or find any added-value in it, it’s another story…But that only you can say. And I will also learn from your comments!

So, the first video, is a small interview Graham Attwell recording with my brief views on online Educa Berlin 2008 (you might want to skip this one )