Looking forward to reading these especially the third one.
Frances Bell
Posts made by Frances Bell
School, unfortunately, is not yet out in Salford so this will be a 'short story'.
First thanks for sharing the Tale of the Pretty Good Teacher, and for being kind enough to give CABWEB a mention
Stumbling across Moodle was the best thing that happened to us on the CAB project. We were able to do a lot more collaborating across borders than we would have without Moodle. We are also feeling much more confident about being sustainable past the end of our project funding (that ran out in November 2005).
I did wonder if our HELP network would keep going but we are currently running our fourth discussion event (on LAMS) since January this year, when we only had three discussion events during 2005. The events have sparked deep and interesting discussion covering topics like feral learning, the need for schools, student peer review, and inter-cultural dialogue and collaboration - thanks to Art Lader, Lesli Smith and many others).
On a personal note, my involvement with Moodle has helped me to:
In England, when someone announces such a fact, they are usually greeted by the ironic response "Ehhh you get less than that for murder!"" (just joking )
First thanks for sharing the Tale of the Pretty Good Teacher, and for being kind enough to give CABWEB a mention
Stumbling across Moodle was the best thing that happened to us on the CAB project. We were able to do a lot more collaborating across borders than we would have without Moodle. We are also feeling much more confident about being sustainable past the end of our project funding (that ran out in November 2005).
I did wonder if our HELP network would keep going but we are currently running our fourth discussion event (on LAMS) since January this year, when we only had three discussion events during 2005. The events have sparked deep and interesting discussion covering topics like feral learning, the need for schools, student peer review, and inter-cultural dialogue and collaboration - thanks to Art Lader, Lesli Smith and many others).
On a personal note, my involvement with Moodle has helped me to:
- re-develop a Masters module at Salford (with a colleague) called Open Source System Integration, where students will work in groups on practical and strategic aspects of 'choosing and using' (+ maybe a little development) OSS, including Moodle
- think and write about bricolage and its role in community and system development, along with implications for strategy
- learn the benefits of 'networks of networks' in community building and knowledge sharing, in our case Moodle.org, facultyroom.org, ALT, lamscommunity.org all linking to CABWEB, specifically HELP and JILID communities
- contribute to a research project on health promotion for older people in a deprived area (and we just got our first journal paper from the project accepted today
)
- meet lots of interesting people online, some of whom I have also met face to face at Moodle Moot UK and elsewhere
- etc., etc.
In England, when someone announces such a fact, they are usually greeted by the ironic response "Ehhh you get less than that for murder!"" (just joking
As a woman who was born in Scotland, I am not what you would call an England supporter (unlike my husband and two sons). However, I do hope that Germany win, as I have drawn them in the office sweepstake.
Context:
HELP network at CABWEB - " for tutors and learning technologists who are interested in international student online collaboration". We have membership of approx 200 with people leaving and joining regularly. We hold regular 2-3 week discussion events (each on a different forum) that attract a healthy number of postings. Each of these discussions is likely to appeal to a (different) subset of the HELP members. When a discussion is forthcoming we mail HELP members and other appropriate lists. We do not usually force subscription but recently did use (for one event) the opt out setting of Initial subscription forced then allowing individuals to unsubscribe. We have conducted a detailed analysis of this event, and we have noticed that we had more "learners by onlooking" at that event where people did not post neither did they unsubscribe. We have also observed that some visitors who apparently visit in response to an invitation then never seem to find the actual discussion. Clearly, this is, in part, a broader design issue
Question:
What experience do others have in building open learning communities of using the forum subscribe option to enable member to opt in and out easily of discussion?
I am particularly interested in use of "Yes, initially" option.
HELP network at CABWEB - " for tutors and learning technologists who are interested in international student online collaboration". We have membership of approx 200 with people leaving and joining regularly. We hold regular 2-3 week discussion events (each on a different forum) that attract a healthy number of postings. Each of these discussions is likely to appeal to a (different) subset of the HELP members. When a discussion is forthcoming we mail HELP members and other appropriate lists. We do not usually force subscription but recently did use (for one event) the opt out setting of Initial subscription forced then allowing individuals to unsubscribe. We have conducted a detailed analysis of this event, and we have noticed that we had more "learners by onlooking" at that event where people did not post neither did they unsubscribe. We have also observed that some visitors who apparently visit in response to an invitation then never seem to find the actual discussion. Clearly, this is, in part, a broader design issue
Question:
What experience do others have in building open learning communities of using the forum subscribe option to enable member to opt in and out easily of discussion?
I am particularly interested in use of "Yes, initially" option.