Multimembership Welcome and Introductions

Re: Multimembership Welcome and Introductions

by Karen Baker -
Number of replies: 7
Greetings from Texas, USA.  I am Karen Parrish Baker, 3rd year lurker and occasional poster on SCoPE.  As an associate professor, I teach at Morehead State University in an adult and higher education administration master degree program completely online.  However, because of our family's relocation to Texas this fall, I will be on the job market after the first of the year.  I belong to a number of online social networks, but as Heather aluded to, I do not participate on most in any substantial way due to time constraints.  However, as an African-American professor teaching at a predominately white university, the online social networks that I do participate in are invaluable to me feeling connected in a way that is not possible on my campus located in rural eastern Kentucky.  Yet, I know that I am not getting the most out of them which is why I am interested in this topic.  I want to learn how maximize the impact of my involvement in multiple online social networks in the most time and cost-efficient way.  Specific strategies would be appreciated greatly.
In reply to Karen Baker

Re: Multimembership Welcome and Introductions

by Jo Ann Hammond-Meiers -
Hi Karen,
I live in Edmonton, Alberta and work in Private Practice -- but also am working on a graduate diploma in distance education and technology. I think that collegial exchanges are so important and when Scope members contribute one or two ideas -- it really adds up. I'm just really getting into what works and doesn not work for me -- but blogs and nings -- where there are specific interests -- are something I will make more time for over the next ten years. I only have the one class left in my GDDET at Athabasca University -- and I want to stay involved with lifelong learners with somewhat common interests. On the other hand one of the things I find is having one main goal at a time and completing one at a time-- but sometimes having interruptions and also keeping the pulse of connection to other people and other goals simultaneously. It is kind of like being aware of the other Venn Diagram Ovals -- but focusing most of my dots of time on a central one. Or put another way -- deciding my priority at the time (and bringing it front and center), but having a lesser focus and a varied flexibility with blogs and e-mails, but cutting down on unhelpful distractions. Cheers, Jo Ann
In reply to Jo Ann Hammond-Meiers

List person

by Valerie Taylor -
Thanks Jo Ann

I like the idea of the Venn Diagram. I'm a list person so I keep an evolving list of links to groups and topics. The group of links for the topic at the top of the list is pretty specific and detailed. Items lower on the list are links to broader topics or collections. I guess that is another representation that is more or less visual. (VARK Read-Write rather than Visual)

Hi everyone

I live in the San Francisco Bay area. I teach online courses at DeAnza College about 50 miles away. I completed my Masters in Education online in 2001 and loved the experience and I have never looked back. As I only get to campus a couple of times a month, I really depend upon my online communities for inspiration and professional companionship. I miss the face-to-face collegiality so I attend events whenever possible. I have been enjoying attending live @ONE webinars - not the same as f2f but there is a personal connection there.

A friend working at Stanford University showed me the web in the spring of 1994. It was clear that there were amazing possibilities for education, learning and communities of practice like never before. While the development of resources has been phenomenal, many of the "obvious" benefits have yet to be realized. I'm hopeful that the "facilitating" and "managing" aspects of this and other FOC08 mini-conferences will help address some of the randomness of development and adoption of OERs that will lead to extending education and learning opportunities globally.
In reply to Valerie Taylor

Re: List person

by Jo Ann Hammond-Meiers -
Hi Valerie,
Great to hear about the @ONEwebinars and how they work for you.

After I graduate from the Athabasca Graduate Diploma in Distance Education and Technology in December (hopefully), I will want to join and participate more in some webinars.

One of the things that helps with multimemberships is that I hope to develop some short word documents -- and store them -- so that when someone has a question in another membership group -- I have some things already prepared -- that I can insert into a brief personal note either as copy and past or available by e-mail if they are interested in it. Because I am in many community professional memberships who don't use the internet advantages as much as the DE community, I think I need to help myself if I want to manage a leadership role. Organizations have their own readiness. I want to move ahead, but also give bact to others. Have a good day. Jo Ann
In reply to Karen Baker

Re: Multimembership Welcome and Introductions

by Sue Wolff -
Welcome Karen! I like that you identified yourself as a "3rd year lurker".

You bring up a very interesting point regarding motivation and engagement in social networks - the access and connection to diverse and valued perspectives. Jo Ann mentioned appreciation of interdisciplinary conversations, and Jeffrey has more friends he socializes with online than off. We might be uncovering some themes here already about why, but we want to get to the hows too, and we will.

Would you please start a new thread titled, "How do we manage? Precisely..." or "Maximizing involvement". Invite people to list their advice, and maybe we will start to get a list of 'drastic strategies', as Jeffrey put it.
In reply to Sue Wolff

Re: Multimembership Welcome and Introductions

by Karen Baker -
I like the idea of the Venn Diagram Ovals that Jo Ann mentioned as a strategy for managing multiple social networks in a time constrained world but am not sure how to go about doing it? As I ponder that notion, I probably have done what Jo Ann suggested by prioritizing which ones are most important, usually job-related, to the exclusion of ones just for personal reasons. Yet, I feel I am missing out. I'd like to hear more about how that works in real world practice.

And I also am asking the question to the group: what advice or strategies do you have or use to maximize your involvement in multiple online social networks in the most time and cost-efficient way?
In reply to Karen Baker

Re: Multimembership Welcome and Introductions

by Jo Ann Hammond-Meiers -
Dear Karen and others,
I got this idea recently -- under the influence of a comment Dr. Terry Anderson made about using Venn Diagrams in another context -- and thought, since I am visual it might be a visual way of me tracking quickly the changes I make -- adding circles -- making some smaller. One can save them in a calender to track perceived and noted changes over time. I've never read about using Venn Diagrams for varied memberships -- it came up spontaneously from the idea of Venn Diagrams being so useful in other contexts -- cross applications can be helpful cross-pollinated into diverse membership contexts.Cheers Jo Ann
In reply to Jo Ann Hammond-Meiers

Re: Multimembership Welcome and Introductions

by Sue Wolff -
Jo Ann, by any chance, do you have a visual you could share of one of your diagrams?