Reflections as a Facilitator of #BYOD4L

Connecting

After a pretty much sleepless Sunday night I began the day a little nervous about what might present itself. Juggling multi tasks at work would I be able to keep up with the emerging conversations. As a facilitator I felt a huge responsibility to be there for everyone. Unlike a traditional classroom or workspace where you meet at a given time and talk to those present, online we have a number of spaces. For BYOD4L I wanted to connect with those people already engaging in Twitter, Facebook and Google+. I wanted to ensure anyone new was made to feel welcome. 


What is reflection

Moon defines reflective practice as “a set of abilities and skills, to indicate the taking of a critical stance, an orientation to problem solving or state of mind” (1999: 63). Taking this on board and looking more closely at what I was tring to achieve, was actually impossible. But what was wonderful was the realisation that I didn't have to be there for everyone. A community was emerging and along with the other wonderful BYOD4L facilitators and the participants, new connections were being made.

How to reflect

As facilitators and participants, the value of our learning journeys will be so much more valuable if shared. This blog is one of the spaces I will be doing this. 

I've just been reading one of Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano's (known as Langwitches) blog posts on reflection. She talked about how she was trying to encourage teachers to let their students reflect using a variety of mediums beyond text. This is not to say that text is still not valuable but to widen the options so that individuals can try different ways in which to express themselves. I will look to enrichen my reflections and hope that you will do too. The Haiku poem in the image at the head of this blog is my starting contribution.

This is the diagram Silvia used to share just some of the different ways we can reflect.   

I personally very much resonate with images as a memory trigger. Looking back on my own writing I can pinpoint a moment far more easily where there is an image. This image may be a digital photo within a blog post or it may be a doodle within my own paper notebook. Recording thoughts using video or audio and then playing them back, helps you reflect upon your reflection as you hear yourself speak.

Reflection can is often seen as a personal and private activity, however when shared can open up opportunities for dialogue and clearer understanding. Sharing can be with a peer, a tutor or perhaps a somewhat brave approach to whoever reads it. 


Reflections as a facilitator on BYOD4L

As facilitators of this new open course: Bring your own devices for learning we will be encouraging participants to reflect upon their learning, capturing their thoughts in whatever medium they wish to. We hope they will share these by posting a link in our Facebook group, Google+ community orTwitter along with the course hashtag #BYOD4L. I know this will present rich opportunities for us to all to learn from and with each other.

As facilitators we also want to capture our own reflections about what our experience being involved with this exciting new open course has been like. How has it felt to be involved with a team volunteering their own time to work behind the scenes? What preparation has been going on? How has this collaboration opened our minds to new possibilities in relation to learning and teaching?  

This story will be continued!


Reference

Moon, J. (1999) Reflection in Learning and Professional Development: Theory and Practice

Day 1: BYOD for Learning and Connecting #BYOD4L

The first topic for our new BYOD4L open course is connecting.


Social Learning Spaces

To encourage participants to connect we have created three social spaces to direct people to discuss and share ideas about the connecting scenarios which include video perspectives from students and teachers. These spaces are:

1. Twitter - Follow @melsiguk and #BYOD4L. In addition there is also #BYOD4Lchat and #BYOD4Lhelp. 
2. The BYOD4L Google + Community
3. The BYOD4L Facebook Group

I am fascinated about what draws people to one space over another. Twitter has been busy for some time prior to the course starting as people starting sharing this new opportunity. From yesterday morning we started to see introductions and some conversations emerging. Of course it takes a bit more digging to follow the interactions in this space if you are not there at the moment. The Facebook Group and Google+ Community allows you to see the threads of any conversation grouped together, so for anyone coming in after the immediate moment, it is easier to catch up with a conversation.  

That said we hosted our first Twitter chat between 8-9pm UK time which myself and Neil Withnell facilitated. I was blown away with how many participated and what a rich conversation took place. A Tweet Chat is fast and furious lasting an hour with continuous exchanges taking place. I was so pleased to see and hear that people new to this forum were not only dipping their toes in but also enjoying this new experience. We will be collating the tweets as a story using the Storify tool. 

Through all these forums it was clear to see that people had begun to share blog posts and in reaction to these, interactions were taking place and connections been made. As this new and evolving learning community evolves it may not be possible to get to know everyone but it is already evident that as soon as someone asks a question or is found to be struggling, responses to such tweets are being made not just by the facilitators but the wider BYOD4L community. 
  
Visualisations

Martin Hawksey has done an amazing job creating a visual map of those who are tweeting the course hashtag #BYOD4L and created a second map for the TweetChat #BYOD4L. Below you can see where in the world people were participating from. Amazing! 

A6 find your #byod4l neighbour ;) #byod4lchat. http://t.co/enDIzQJn6k pic.twitter.com/WNxkUzwGci
— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) January 27, 2014

Connecting

I look forward to connecting with more people as the week goes on. I am @suebecks on Twitter. Do reach out to me and say hello. Post a link to your own blog or other artefact that shares how you are finding this new learning experience. It is through sharing that we will go on to learn so much more!

My Edshelf collection of tools for CONNECTING

BETT Technology in Higher Education Summit

On Friday I attended BETT for the first time. BETT or the BETT Show was formally known as the British Educational Training and Technology Show. It is held at the huge Excel in London and is targeted at anyone interested in using technology for learning. The programme you are given on arrival is like an A5 version of Yellow Pages, crammed with information about the wide variety of sessions and exhibitors present at the event.

A jam-packed Arena programme, 3 bespoke CPD accredited Summits, 6 Learn Live theatres and a whole host of networking and fringe activity, Bett is the must-attend event for education and learning professionals.

Speaking invitation

I was invited to speak at BETT for the Technology in Higher Education Summit alongside Helen Keegan and Stuart Miller. It seems we were picked for our use of social media and asked to be part of panel discussion on 'Incorporating social media into the learning place'. The panel was chaired by Juliet Morris, Journalist and Broadcaster. The session was billed as: 

A group of educators will discuss how content creation from different social platforms has impacted on student learning. Looking at how these institutions have exploited social media to enhance collaboration between students and other universities.

Our introductions prior to the event started via email and we quickly aligned our thoughts on the topic. However what was most enjoyable was the opportunity to meet up at the event in the Speakers Lounge. This gave us a chance to discuss the key areas we felt would be useful to share in our panel discussion but what was most enjoyable was simply sharing our teaching experiences and ideas. 

It made me think about how scarce these opportunities are when we are actually at work. Gone are the days when there was actually a staff room you could meet up in; a space to share ideas and ask questions. This for the most part now happens by chance as you pass in the corridor. Granted there are opportunities to attend staff development events at my own university and whilst a big advocate of these I tend to see the same people there. Attending external events widens the possibility of meeting others outside of your own institution. Indeed because we were speakers, Helen, Stuart and myself were in the speakers lounge. As I sipped my coffee and browsed the programme I said out loud to Helen "John Traxler is speaking. I'd like to go to this session. I've never met him but know of his work" - just at that moment John having just come into the room looked over to us! John knew Helen and came over to talk to us. We had a fascinating conversation and later went to hear his talk about the impact of integrating mobile phones into the learning environment.

If you have ever been to Excel you will know it is a huge place. The chances of bumping into people who may share your interests are therefore much reduced. It tends to be during sessions that you get chatting to whoever is sat close by. However because we now have Twitter there was an opportunity to reach out to others by following the conference hashtag. For this event it was #bett2014. You can also look through the programme and reach out via Twitter to speakers you'd like to meet. One of these was Doug Belshaw (who I have known for some years now but you get the point) A couple of tweets later and Doug came and found us and in turn John had the opportunity to catch up with him too. 

The event

I was only there for the day sadly, but I did get chance to also take in Doug Belshaw's session: A Masterclass on improving digital literacy among staff and students. 

Our panel session was the last of the day. We'd anticipated quite a low attendance but was surprised by how many had stayed on. Graham Attwell was one of these and it was great to finally meet him in person, having connected via Twitter for some time. I learnt about an exciting new community project he is leading using QR codes. 

All in all it was a great day and well worth getting up at 5:30am to make the journey down from Sheffield. It was a privilege being on a panel with Helen and great to meet Stuart and hear about his innovative approaches to teaching too. It was a reminder though that it is the people that make a difference and it was though the many conversations I had that made the day so special. I came away inspired.

In life it is not where you go 

but who you travel with 

An open magical box: BYOD for Learning #BYOD4L

Back in November at the Staff and Educational Development Association Conference I caught up with Chrissi Nerantzi. Having not seen her for some time we had plenty to catch up on despite us having regular interactions on line mostly though Twitter but also Skype. 

Last year I contributed a webinar presentation on collaborative learning and communities to Chrissi's online Flexible Distance and Online course. We began  to talk about the possibility of developing some of Chrissi's very creative ideas into a new learning opportunity. 

An idea...

Our conversations continued in earnest as we sat waiting for our trains following the conference. What could an open online course look like if we focussed on bringing your own devices for learning - mobile smart devices? We wanted to align this to work of the Media Enhanced learning SIG (MELSIG). How could we help others learn about new ways to interact using the very devices they carry out with them every day? 

By the very next day we had taken our initial ideas and began building what was going to become the Bring Your Own Devices for Learning open online course (BYOD4L for short). Using Google Drive we sketched out thoughts, communicated via Twitter DMs and started to create a space on Wordpress as a platform where we could share this new opportunity for open learning. 

A magical open box

The idea was simple in nature. Create a space where anyone (teachers and students) could use their smart devices for learning as an individual or within a group. A space where everyone can learn together; reflect upon what they have learnt; and as a community share they ideas. Chrissi refers to the concept as a magical open box - a space from which anyone can take out but also contribute to.

To complement the course site (where we have used Wordpress) we have also now set up a Google+ community and a Facebook group. To embrace a fully open and inclusive approach the course does not require registration.

BYOD for learning focusses on five topics as a starting point. We welcome other ideas and hope these will emerge in the conversations that will take place. 

Topics:

1. Connecting
2. Communicating
3. Curating
4. Collaborating
5. Curating 

Finding out more

So how will we let people know about this new learning opportunity? Twitter has been our main communication tool and we have adopted #BYOD4L as the course hashtag. By searching for this hashtag you will see all the Tweets we make. You may also want to follow MELSIG on Twitter too. You can find out more about the volunteer facilitators who will be helping to make this learning experience possible. 

Using Explee (cloud-based presentation software that allows you to create animated videos) I created a short animation which you can see below. 



The course in its first iteration will run for 5 days between 27-31 January. I do hope you will join us.

Top e-Learning Movers and Shakers in 2013

Listly is a space to make lists - from baby lists to bucket lists and everything in between. It is described as a tool which bloggers, content creators and publishers use to increase user engagement, get found, and distribute their content to a wider audience. Shared lists invite viewers to vote up items or people on the list. 

In recent months I have seen increased use of Listly in the education field, where people have been listed. Two examples are:

The Edublog Awards

The World's most influential (e-)Learning Professionals

I was thrilled to be added to both of these Listly lists.

It has made me ponder upon how this tool could be used to create other useful educational lists. My first thoughts are curating my own personal lists of useful apps, educational websites, blogs etc. Very much along the lines of the Edublog collection of list categories, but containing my own choices.

Defining 'Personal Learning Networks'

Image credit: mkhmarketing

I was inspired by a blog post written by Eric Sheninger (who tweets as 
@NMHS_Principal) where he defines what a personal learning network means to him:

"A PLN provides leaders with resources, knowledge, feedback, advice, support, friendships, and is a catalyst for self-directed learning.  The ability and ease to now engage in conversations with like-minded practitioners and world-renowned experts provides a meaningful and differentiated model for growth to improve professional practice.  For me, I love being able to ask a question on Twitter and then return hours later with an array of responses from all over the world. I also love being able to filter content based on my interests from a variety of information sources to one convenient location." 

I too have developed a wonderfully rich personal learning network; connecting with educators from all over the world. For me Twitter is the place to go to learn, providing links to a huge array of interesting topics as well as a space to engage in interesting conversations. Very often these lead to opportunities to collaborate and communicate face to face or via Skype or Google Hangouts. I also get great value from reading the blog posts of other educators. Discussions follow by using the comments section, providing the chance to question or indeed challenge viewpoints. Below are just a few I would recommend you take a look at:

• Technology Enhanced Learning - @hopkinsdavid
• Learning with 'e's - @timbuckteeth
• TeachThought - @TeachThought
• Edudemic - @Edudemic
• Getting Smart - @Getting_Smart
• Free Technology for Teachers - @rmbyrne
• Educational Technology and Mobile Learning - @medkh9

The next most useful tool I would say is LinkedIn. I often hear people say that whilst they have a profile they don't bother updating this or look at the updates of others as they are not looking for a new job. LinkedIn is far more than a 'job site'. At the very least it is your very own 'rolodex' of professional connections.

Image source: Wikipedia

LinkedIn allows you to connect with individuals, join groups and follow companies. It is an excellent way to find and engage with topics that interest you. Equally it is another forum you can share with other your own work and research. Each time I present at a conference I upload my slides to Slideshare and then add the link to my LinkedIn profile. I also have a blog about Getting Started with Social Media and add a link to my latest post as an update on LinkedIn. For each of these, readers may and do leave comments, providing me with feedback.

Facebook also provides me with opportunities to learn. Whilst my personal space is somewhere I interact with family and close friends; the use of groups and pages has opened up many new channels I am constantly learning from. 

The social media tools (of which there are many) are wonderful spaces we can connect with others and share information and conversations. The very fact that this can be done both synchronously (real time) and asynchronously has broken down previous barriers of time and distance. The openness allows us to listen and learn from each other. The sophisticated search facilities each provide, enable you to discover so many interesting things you may never have had the opportunity to happen upon otherwise.

What are you favourite tools that connect you with your personal learning network?      

Edublog Awards 2013

I was thrilled to be nominated this year as a Finalist in the annual Edublogs Awards for the Best Individual Tweeter category. Forty educators were selected and then voted upon by the community. I'm pleased to say I made it to 2nd place! Huge thanks to all those who took the time to vote for me.   

The Edublog Awards is a community based incentive started in 2004 in response to community concerns relating to how schools, districts and educational institutions were blocking access of learner and teacher blog sites for educational purposes. Going forward the use of other social media has also been constrained.

The purpose of the Edublog awards is to promote and demonstrate the educational values of these social media. A key feature is that it provides a rich resource for educators providing ideas on how social media can be used in different contexts, with a wide range of different learners. For me personally, I have been introduced to many new educators and sites who I may not have come across otherwise. If you've not yet had a chance to take a look, I recommend you do.

Here are all the categories:

• Best individual blog
• Best group blog
• Best new blog
• Best class blog
• Best student blog
• Best ed tech / resource sharing blog
• Best teacher blog
• Best library / librarian blog
• Best administrator blog
• Most influential blog post of the year
• Best individual tweeter
• Best twitter hashtag
• Best free web tool
• Best podcasts or google hangouts
• Best Use of Videos and Media in Education
• Best educational wiki
• Best open PD / unconference / webinar series
• Best educational use of a social network
• Best mobile app
• Lifetime achievement