I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the conversation happening in all the multi-media groups we have here in PP107. When I try and focus, I feel like I am wading thru all the extra people in these places and when I finally get to the place I think I need to be, I somehow got lost and can't remember why I went to where I am (did that make sense?). Right now, I'm using the Yahoo Group as my base point and posting what I think I should at this blog. (How many people have blogs? I only have addresses for Patrick, Michelle, and Vance's. Would love to know where the rest of you are...)
The yahoo group has 198 people; the Ning has close to 150... Maybe I'm feeling a bit old-fashion but I like the idea of a class of 8.
I kind of like the idea of setting up a listserve or a wiki or a YahooGroup for just our PP107_September 2010. Or maybe just a unique tag. Is #evomlit10 only for us?
Hi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I myself got a bit overwhelmed with keeping track of the places where people could converse on this course, especially when classes started this past week, so to come to grips with it I did something similar to what you and Patrick have in your sidebars in your blogs, a list of postings of the other 7 people in this course (including me). Mine is of course at http://vancestevens.com/papers/tesol/pp107/eportfolios10.htm
I take your point that the YGroup and Ning each have over 100 people in them, but as you have seen now, they have not been particularly interactive, except I think to pipe in at junctures that I felt were most welcome. In other words, perhaps you can see it now more in archaeological terms, that is there are many layers beneath, but it's the top layer that's keeping the course alive at the moment. And as we continue with the next group, you'll have the option of remaining connected, either as an active or passive participant, or of withdrawing as you like.
That cannot happen if the course is conducted entirely in D2L. I think you're suggesting that it be in another space, a group just for us. In order to preserve the PLN I opted to continue with previous communities, but I'll take your views on board for next time, maybe if not to start a dedicated community, at least to try to explain better why I've made the choices I did.
I guess the YGroup has become the defacto center for the course. In fact I might mention that when Ning went to a fee paid structure, I let all my other Nings lapse. It was only that this one had a US connection (TESOL) plus less than 150 members that filled two conditions for allowing me to request Pearson sponsorship of what it costs to keep the Ning going. As a result, you get to experience the Ning as a part of this course, but our Ning could easily have died with the others.
Accordingly, this is the first time we've had Grouply at http://multilit.grouply.com/, which is in effect our YGroup through a Ning-like portal. Understand that in this world of free and open, we're on a shifting playing field. The Ning almost died, I migrated that to Grouply, and we've never used that before. But how are we, all of us, going to learn how to function on that ground if we don't get out there and field a team on it.
So I agree that it would be more comfortable in the known and stable world of D2L, and this would work best for a teacher-directed course where the learning was laid out in advance. Perhaps that would be more more efficient as well.
But I'm glad as well that TESOL allows a course like this one to experiment. It's always a challenge to run such a course. It seems that it takes 4 weeks for participants in such a course to get it sometimes, and then the course suddenly ends. If that happened in D2L you'd want your money back. But in this course, it doesn't really end. As you've seen, Vanessa and Michael continue to mull the precepts over and rejoin us when something we do re-inspires them. Isn't that what we're all really trying to do? Create courses where the learning never really ends? The only way you'll ever know that happens is if the students come back :-)
I hope that in the end you feel your time with this course was well spent and that you come away with some ideas that, on reflection, you can use in your (not teaching) helping others to learn.
You know what, Vance... I just needed my mind to get used to it. Kind of "wrap my mind around this type of literacy." Once I got everything organized in my head, it's been easier to follow. Kind of like learning regular languages... my mouth needs to wrap around the accent... then I can start saying words.
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