A Match made in Cyberspace?

Across my desktop today this article ….

http://www.edutopia.org/whats-next-2008-online-mentoring 

“The newest generations of teachers, like their students, have always connected digitally. As tech-savvy learners and communicators, they look online for inspiration and support. In the not-so-distant future, educators will seek and find personal and professional support through online portals where mentors will offer time, energy, and advice to their less seasoned colleagues.

These online mentors, functioning as colleagues and friends, will help weave another web of relationships to keep new teachers in the profession.”

Now this is food for thought! I believe that there will be a surge of online mentors joining the ranks in 2009/2010 as we begin to support more and more of the mainstream adopters into e-learning land. The art of mentoring is going to reach new heights, and I’m so glad that I’m already in that field of fascination.

Another great little quote, see below, made me think about my own mentoring methods. I like the idea of sharing stories of experience as a way of guiding and I often use my motto to demonstrate how I mentor online: ‘lead, follow and get out of the way’. It is really important to take the lead initially especially if your group is new to e-learning but collaborate with them as much as possible to check on what works for them. The middle part is perhaps the most important for the individuals, follow what they are doing and give them feedback and comments for improvement; share your knowledge and your networking with them in as many different ways as you can. Finally the end bit – look for the champions among them and give them the reigns – then politely and professionally, get out of their way.

“This virtual environment allows teachers to explore their fears and learn from mistakes without being judged by the teachers they work with every day at their school. Statistics show that new teachers are at risk for leaving the profession. These online exchanges can give guidance to such teachers, keeping them in the field. They can also rejuvenate experienced teachers who are looking for some motivation. “

Two down and two to go!

The CSTP course has exceeeded my expectations and I am having a great deal of fun in the mix. Jonathan has set us some ‘fun work’ to do between each live session. Focussing these tasks on something that we need to prepare for our projects and to ‘Elluminate’ it has been a really great idea. So far I’ve produced a set of Elluminate Live Calistenics activites (useful for giving participants a physical break in a long session online) and two web research activities for groups who are focussed on eportfolios.

I really like the way that Jonathan enables each participant to take part fully online and to blend their ideas into the content of the lesson. There is obviously a great deal of care and attention to the work we’ve submitted in the Ideas Drop Box before each session and this has encouraged others to think that their contributions might be highlighted at the next one.

The complete Ideas Drop Box is now full of fantastic ideas, with instructions for using them yourself, in our own Elluminate teaching or presenting events. What a terrific way to build a repository of ‘Elluminated learning objects’ that can be shared.

I wonder what Jonathan has in store for us in the next two live sessions in Elluminate! I know I’ll be surprised, amazed and engaged.

Let’s see if my animated exercise cartoons work in here?

calisthenics

I plan to come back to report on the final sessions in my next blog post.

Qantum Leap Forward

Next week I will leap into:

learning times certified

CSTP Level 1 program “Leading Effective Live Online Events” with Jonathan Finkelstein. We are scheduled to participate in 4 online events starting on August 11th for 1.5 hours each to learn teh following:

Workshop Description: In this four-part live online workshop — taking place over a two week period — participants learn and practice effective, practical and creative strategies and techniques for the live online environment. Concrete approaches for synchronous facilitation abound, as do ideas for the design of real-time activities that take learning and collaborating online to a whole new level. In addition to basic instructional design skills CSTP 203 will explore:

• Effective live event moderation and facilitation
• Fostering interactivity
• Activity and content design
• Game-based activities, live online
• Exceptional use of virtual whiteboards
• Shared web browsing
• Creating interactive exercises
• Application sharing
• Audio and video options
• Ensuring learning and meeting objectives are met

My goal in this experience is to soak up the word of wisdom from JF and to ensure that I can provide equally exciting and engaging professional development in the use of Elluminate Live for teachers who I am mentoring this year.

After this course I will plan to enrol in the next one:

CSTP Certification Level II
CSTP 405:
“Producing Professional Live Online Programs”
This workshop delivers a practical experience, taking students through every aspect of producing a successful interactive webcast for up to 250 participants, and culminating with an actual live event. Advanced techniques include: event preparation and management; development of a script and detailed “treatment”; enlistment and training of online guests and presenters; advanced content design, production and implementation; interactivity planning and facilitation; marketing and registration; and event follow-up and integration of live programming into an online community, web site, intranet and other online and venue-based activities.

This will ‘top up’ my own professional development and provide me with additional relevant credibility in this field for building that part of my elearning consultancy in the future.

CSTP certificate sample

Today I set aside some time to plan how to ‘capture’ some of the learning in a meaningful way and to store and display these in shared web spaces and, of course, my blog.