I'm Nick Noakes and I've been facilitating online since mid-1995 and took my first online course related to online facilitation in Jan of that year. My full-time job is leading a faculty development unit at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. My unpaid, part-time (?) job is collaborating online in the areas of new media and communities of practice with people all over the globe. Sound familiar?
In Jun last year, my involvement with the New Media Consortium, an edu non-profit, has taken me into the 3D Virtual World of Second Life (gotta one of the worst names chosen for a virtual world ever) and it almost feels like I've come full circle from text-based MOOs .. sort of Tapped In on steroids!
For the next three weeks, we will have a very simple structure to our conversations ... where have we been, where are we now, where are we headed! :-D
![Learning the Art of Online Facilitation Learning the Art of Online Facilitation](http://scope.lidc.sfu.ca/file.php/8/LearningArtOnFac.gif)
Btw, this is a new web-based mindmapping tool (still in beta) and I will try to give us all access to this so we can collaboratively build this map out together over the next three weeks.
Finally, following online facilitation traditional <big grin> - which probably goes back to days of the start of the WELL, and of course face--to-face facilitation before that - please post your hello's here and tell us briefly about yourselves. Try not to share your learning of online facilitation stories in this space! We'd like to keep these for the first part of our three-week exploration together and I'll set up another space for that in a minute.
I hope you're up for this ... to engage us with one of the edges of online facilitation in 2007, I have an offer for you all ....
..... would you be willing to join me for a welcome meeting around a campfire in the virtual world of Second Life this weekend? If yes, please post a note in the thread Virtual World Field Trip :-D
I have an island there called Boracay. If you'd like to find out a little bit more about it, please take a look here.
Look forward to hearing from you here in SCoPE and hopefully meeting you in the virtual world of Second Life too!