On using various web technologies to follow ALT-C 2009

This week I've been enjoying following the ALT-C 2009 conference in Manchester from the comfort of my home in Adelaide using a range of web technologies. I watched some of the keynotes using Elluminate such as the ones by Michael Wesch and Martin Bean, with the one by Terry Anderson still on my 'to do' list. These sessions and others were recorded and made available for free viewing within minutes of them concluding.

Another interesting experience was to follow the various feeds on Twitter using the TweetDeck client - probably the official '#altc2009' hashtag was the most useful means of doing this. The Twitter postings gave me an interesting perspective on what participants at the conference and those observing it remotely were thinking about the various presentations. It was a very interesting and challenging experience to simultaneously follow the Keynote by Michael Wesch live on Elluminate as well as monitor the 'backchannel' commentary on Twitter! Challenging because the amount of comment via Twitter was quite high volume, so I was constantly flicking between the two applications, but somehow I managed to keep up. I think this kind of backchannel comment adds a very interesting dimension to the traditional model of a presenter conveying their ideas to an audience because the flow of information is no longer simply from the presenter to the audience but involves more of a sense of a collective discussion amongst those who also are following the presentation via this channel.

Following ALT-C 2009 on Twitter has also led me to increase the number of people that I am following using this service from what might loosely be called 'the elearning community'. The Twitter posts also included a lot of useful links to more detailed blog postings by some of the conference participants. A particular highlight I think a lot of people will enjoy watching is the 'VLE is dead' session recorded on video by James Clay and now uploaded on his blog. It was also interesting to see how the Cloudworks website was used to aggregrate relevant material on various topics discussed at ALT-C such as the VLE is dead debate. The use of these technologies has enabled me to access a range of ideas and opinions that would otherwise have not been possible. In this sense my experience lends support to the arguments in the recent posting by Martin Weller relating to the 'Technology isn't important' argument. Without utilising these various technologies, I would not have been able to interact and learn in the way that I was able to over the past few days. Actually attending the conference would no doubt have led to a different set of learning experiences, but the ability to get a sense of some of the ideas that were in circulation at this conference as well as expand my social network was very valuable as well as inspiring.

Making judgement calls as part of effective online facilitation

A fascinating issue has been raised in a short online course that I am currently facilitating. The course is to do with the effective facilitation of online discussions. The issue concerns how should facilitators respond when participants in an online course interpret a learning activity in a different way from what was originally intended? My response would be that it partly depends on the stakes involved. If it is a "high stakes" assessment-related activity, then I would agree that there is a reason for steering participants back to the expected track; particularly if the track they are heading down will impact negatively on their marks. However, if it is a low stakes activity, then I think there is scope for facilitators to exercise some flexibility and judgement, particularly if the discussion activity that is happening is consistent with the intended learning outcomes. A further issue is if students are interpreting the activity differently from the instructions, then perhaps this indicates the need for a possible redesign of the activity or the instructions given to students for future offerings. No simple answers here, but certainly these are issues worth pondering if course designers and facilitators want to avoid being Lost in translation (see previous posting).

eSlick review on YouTube

Thanks to my brother Dave for emailing me this link to this great video review of the eSlick on YouTube. I actually have one of these devices, and they are very handy for reading PDFs. I still think there is scope for improving and refining this technology, but I like the idea of ebooks and the 'reflow' functionality is fantastic. The eSlick is great for travelling and it has reduced the amount of paper I need to lug around with me. It has also reduced the amount of printing that I am doing - so maybe my carbon footprint is smaller.