Looking for volunteers

[Sarah Stewart]

There isn't much to report in terms of blog postings this week. We're still waiting for several participants to add their blogs to the course wiki, so if this is you, please don't forget to do that. It is really important that we all know who you are so we can contribute to the conversation on your blog.

We are a small group of people this year which means we need to participate regularly and interact with each other. If we don't, we'll miss the unspoken nuances of online communication. We must be able to communicate and work together online before we can move on to being online facilitators.

Who are the participants of this course?
To find out who is taking part in the course have a look at the course wiki, at the "Participants" page. You will see the contact details of 24 people. Some of them are not participating regularly, so the challenge for you will be to connect with those who are blogging about the course and are people who you can network with. And don't forget the students of iFacilitate who will also be keen to hear from you.

Another reason to checking out the course wiki is because there are informal students listed who are working through the course with us. I do not include them in my weekly summary however, I know they are blogging regularly and have some very valuable things to add to our conversation. If you do not check out the wiki, you will not know who they are and miss out on making valuable connections :)

And don't forget - those of you who are formal students - that having a blog is a major requirement for the course assessment - Assignment One is due on April 15th 17.00 hours New Zealand.

Recording
This week we had a fabulous live meeting with Terry Neal who talked about facilitating online teams. She gave some very practical advice about facilitating the phases of teamwork: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. We discussed how to overcome negative attitudes to online communication; how to work with newbies, and how to break the ice when you are working with teams who have never met each other face-to-face.

• Here is the Elluminate recording.

I have promised to turn the recordings into mp3 files so you can listen to them on iPods etc, but to be honest, I forgot to do that this week - I will get onto it first thing next week.

Looking for volunteers
One of the aims of this course is to provide 'practice' experience of online facilitation as we go along. It is an opportunity to 'have a go' in a safe environment, where you will be well supported by the rest of us.

If you are a facilitated or formal student, please feel free to volunteer to facilitate our next live session on Wednesday 30th 13.00 hours New Zealand. As the facilitator, you will be responsible for liaising with the speaker, managing the meeting room, reminding the course participants about the meeting, facilitating the meeting and sorting out any technical problems. I will support you to do this. If you think next Wednesday is too soon, let me know and I'll pencil you in for another week.

The Virtual International Day of the Midwife
I will also be looking for volunteer facilitators to help out on the Virtual International Day of the Midwife on May 5th 12pm - May 6th 12pm. You do not need to know anything about midwifery or childbirth, but you do need to be fairly comfortable with using Elluminate - here is more information about what is expected from facilitators.

Have a great week, and please get in touch with me if you have any queries about blogging, or any other aspect of the course. Sarah

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Posted By Sarah Stewart to Facilitating Online 2011 at 3/26/2011 06:31:00 AM

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Sarah Stewart
EdD Student and Consultant
http://sarah-stewart.blogspot.com
Skype: sarah.m.stewart
Twitter: SarahStewart
Second Life: Petal Stransky
+64 27 7379998

[Coach Carole]

Hello Sarah, and OF participants,

You may wish to take a peek at my latest blog postings (I am an OF participant from 2010) and an infrequent blogger. My work related blog is http://coachcarole.wordpress.com and I also contribute to our Australia Series blog at: http://australiaseries.wordpress.com and my family history blog stories are here at: http://celticfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/

As you can imagine writing in several blogs can keep one fairly busy, but I tend to keep each to a minimum so that my workload is manageable. I organise an RSS feed from each of these directly into my iGoogle page as reminders - as my browser opens immediately to this dashboard.

Sarah, I would love to help out as a moderator for the Day of the Midwife online events on May 5 - 6. Keeping in mind that I am in AEST would you like to add me to two or three of the Elluminate sessions scheduled for May 5. For instance I could do:
May 5
Student Midwives Learning in the Online World 16:00 NZ 14:00 AU
Midwife-Blogger 17:00 NZ 15:00 AU

A reminder for our Australian eFacilitate session on Monday March 28 at 17:00 GMT+11 World Time Clock - details here:
http://australiaseries.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/efacilitate-what-does-an-efacilitator-do/

Regards
Coach Carole

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Carole McCulloch
Facilitator, Eportfolio Community of Practice, Australia
http://epcop.net.au
Learning Technologist
http://coachcarole.wordpress.com  
Technology Steward
http://www.theaustraliaseries.com

Ph: 0260208337
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T. coach_carole
S. coach.carole

[Sarah Stewart]

Carole: Thanks so much for volunteering to help out on VIDM 2011 - I'll take you up on that offer.

I was thinking...we must be more organised next year and make sure we coordinate FO live sessions with the Australia Series like FO2011 is combining with iFacilitate.

Sarah