Discussions started by Nancy Riffer

I've been reviewing our introductions and our comments in this seminar. It seems to me that we fell into having much of our conversation with you, Curt, and rarely talked with or responded to anyone else. Curt's comments are usually followed by comments from the person he commented on. Others don't seem to jump in.

I'm wondering whether there are activities we could have done early on to increase our interactions with a range of others. Drawing on activities in the book, a couple of ideas occurred to me, e.g., interview each other in pairs and share results, or work with an example of a situation someone is facing with particulars described.

What do you think we might have done to make this group more interactive? Are there Learning Activities we could have used to get ourselves more involved?


I think Brenda's problem about bandwidth will be an interesting challenge for all of us to consider as we discuss specifics. How could (or, could) each thing we discuss be adapted for low bandwidth?

If we want to encourage high bandwidth students to work with people who do not have high bandwidth e.g., in rural areas in less developed countries, what options are available and how do we work around the limitations?

If I remember correctly when I was on dial-up, an asynchronous conversation like this one was possible. I have also participated in online conferences that were global that had an option for people to receive text-only. (I don't remember whether that was a setting on the individual computer or if it was part of the conference setup.)

Marsha, this issue must have come up when you were first teaching at VHS. What were you able to do? (Marsha was my first online teacher back when I was on dial-up.)

Is anybody else limited in the work you do by dial-up connections? How do you work around this problem?

Do you have experiences to share about effective ways of using the computer for Web2.0 type activities that you use or remember using?

(Edited by Sylvia Currie - original submission Wednesday, 23 July 2008, 04:57 AM. Moved post to a new discussion thread and linked back to Brenda Hallowes introductory post where she mentions bandwidth)

It is our custom to begin each seminar with introductions. It helps us to know who is here. We ask even those who may not intend to say anything to initially let us know you are here.

I'll suggest a general question for starters: Why are you participating in this seminar?

Feel free to add questions and answer as you like.

P.S. I am a seminar participant and am taking a little initiative.