Reading the Daily today I was intrigued with this posting from Alan Levine with this title: Nomads or Nomadic?

So I posted my reply!

Are we to encourage our e-leaders and e-learners to be nomadic within a large walled garden? Will that help them to transition to self-directed learning? My answer is yes, seems to me that this description fits well with how #change11 is progressing.

This gave rise to other thoughts about ‘how’ we should be giving instructions for e-leaders and e-learners. The notion of ‘plain English’ and

When we ask a learner to complete a task we need to remember to give them enough instructional support to allow them to complete or at the very least attempt the task. It’s the what (you want the learner to do) and the how (they can do it) that needs to be made clear to the learner.

was also prompted by reading the above in Rowan Peter’s blog- I love reading Rowan’s ‘work’ in amidoinitrite.

Now I am forming a clear picture in my mind of how we can encourage others to me nomadic and rhizomatic in their meanderings in e-learning. We need to show them the terrain and explain clearly why we are journeying there and how best to do that without fear.

 Here’s an old image revamped recently for a group of ‘nomads’ in the Hume region of Victoria that I think fits into my thinking about how to do this.

We began with an introduction to their e-champion and some descriptions of what might be found in the e-learning forest and asked them to choose some to focus on.

We then enticed them to the sea of Skpe to discuss their needs and goals.

Many expressed an interest in visiting the caves of Moodle, so we set up a suite of webinars in the Blackboard Collaborate zone to provide them with insights.

All of this was done prior to inviting them to join us at Bootcamp to plan their e-elearning mini projects.

So far all good – this process has lead them to working in a self-directed manner in teams to create and publish selected e-learning resources in their Moodle cave. In this way we are introducing them to Moodle by Stealth.

The next part of the journey has been loosely mapped and here’s where we think we are now heading:

E-leaders are forming small teams and are working with the e-mentor to help with their navigation towards the Gateway to understanding.

We’ll be heading over to the RPL falls to help them collect their reflections on their journey.

Next year they’ll be ‘ready’ for immersion into learning about Moodle for delivery, as teachers, after being a learner.

We’ll help them co-create their own e-learning libraries in the cloud for sharing in their region and beyond.

A final port of call will be the Temple of Reflection where they will begin to collect, select and present their learning artefacts.

And so to Mt Presentation where they can comfortably survey their entire journey and present to their own e-followers their experiences, their achievements and their challenges.

Finally we think they have the key to enter the gates of e-capability Kingdom!