Sarah Haavind

Hi everybody! Great topic, thank you Michael, Sylvia and Scope.

And thank you Heather, for sharing some models. I hope others will share additional models -- I know I can really learn from them, and I assume others will find them helpful as well.

I have struggled with the contrast between the use of threaded discussions, which are generally private and protected behind passwords, for "half-baked ideas" and emergent thinking. Blogs, on the other hand, seem not only public  but to have a life of their own beyond the control of the blogger him or herself. That can be fine, I understand, but I wonder about setting my students up to be represented by the half-baked ideas they might have in the course of learning challenging material. I'd be curious to hear from those of you who work in higher education and have considered this issue.

Sarah

I'm intrigued with Brian's mention here of "math podcasts" and wonder if Brian, or anyone who might have one or two to recommend, would be willing to share with us a math podcast for math learners (or for those suffering from math anxiety?). Any level would be interesting. You have piqued my curiosity there.
Thanks,
Sarah

Hi everyone,
I greet you from the middle of Massachusetts, on the east coast of the US. I am on the faculty at Lesley University, teaching online courses for elementary (ages 6-11) school science teachers earning their masters' degree in inquiry-based science education. Our courses are delivered in an exclusively asynchronous environment. I do not yet have a lot of experience using podcasts, nor any strong opinions formed so far...but I am listening with interest to your conversation.
Sarah

Hi all,
Perhaps I'm a bit late, but I am interested in this dialogue. Thank you for hosting it, Richard and Sylvia!

Salvor, I tried to view your elgg screencast (screencast?) and all I got on my iBook G4 with tiger was a flash-looking, moving screen saying "screencast loading." I could hear your voice (that was neat) but with neither the Icelandic nor the images...any idea why I never saw the "interface" (or was that it?).

Nancy asks,


Christie uses ?guerilla marketing? to convince the decision-makers upstairs. But she also says ?IF you truly do listen and respond to the learners.?

So how do you show that you are listening ? how do you respond in a way that, as Nancy hopes, will sell?

?how do you give them her ?quick win,? or ?lightbulb? moment?

For online participants, here are a few things I do:

• I make sure social community is established and people feel welcome and then
  
• I ?sit on my hands? in the public forum (so as not to interrupt the participants? choices of direction) and
  
• instead offer effusive praise and specific private feedback to participants who have made particularly rich contributions to the learning and growth of the community as a whole.
  

(In my world, the term isn?t ?community of interest? as Christie mentions (though I like that one!), but ?community of inquiry in which students listen to one another with respect, build on one another?s ideas, challenge one another to supply reasons for otherwise unsupported opinions, assist each other in drawing inferences from what has been said and seek to identify one another?s assumptions? (Lipman, M. (2003). Thinking in Education. New York: Cambridge University Press).

• When I sense dialogue might wither without intervention, I post an intervention that is comprised largely of material drawn from participant postings, woven together in such a way as to highlight an intriguing tension between ideas, mirror insight in a way that might spark new insight, or triage argumentative comments toward more constructive directions.

• I moderate as much as possible by not interrupting, but rather
  
• by supporting, scaffolding and nurturing the ideas of others.
  
• I do not address individuals publicly.
  
• Instead, I raise their ideas up for group consideration with community language (speaking to the group) rather than personal language (addressing only one or a few members).
  

These strategies I find work well for ensuring that participants feel heard and therefore remain invested ? invested, that is, in continuing to push their own thinking and share it publicly with the group.

Answers to Nancy?s question are my passion, and I?d love to hear from others who have discovered moves that are particularly successful online. What do you do?
Sarah