Taking a twist on a traditional name introduction and using it to build community by making personal, family, and potentially cultural connections - what a great idea!
This got me thinking of how even if we don't feel particularly connected to our names, we often use them as the first (and sometimes only) way we introduce ourselves to others. Where is the community building in that?
I appreciate how you model the activity and share some of yourself before asking others to do the same - it makes you seem relatable, vulnerable, and approachable which sets a nice tone for the activity.
I'm curious if you thought about offering students a choice of completing two or three of the naming prompts. You may have participants who have trouble connecting to family to find out information or participants who, for various reasons, aren't comfortable sharing their name origins.
Padlet seems to be a great fit for this activity (maybe with some basic instructions or a "how-to" video link included in the activity description). I can see folks with a range of technical skills participating in various ways - some may include images, videos, audio, and gifs, and some may stick to text. I'm assuming all would be ok?
Colleen Grandy
Posts made by Colleen Grandy
Today is bursting with possibilities – because it is the proposed start of the Creation Phase!
Some folks have already rocketed through to sharing and feedback and others are saying “hello” for the first time. We’re all going at our own pace – the beauty of asynchronous learning - but are we building community? Feeling connected?
If you are joining in today, welcome! Consider situating yourself. If you are you in a different place than you were when you started the course, consider re-situating. As of this morning, “learner” is appearing largest in our communal tag cloud. Does this seem right to you?
Thoughts? Share anything, anytime in the Open forum.
Your facilitators,
Sylvia, Gina, and Colleen
I love these ideas - especially how easily they can be adapted for online, face-to-face, and blended classes.
I'm curious how you will you identify the top ten images, and how you'd do the voting in a fully online class. If it would be helpful to you, you are welcome to demo it with our group. :)
And... your #studyselfie inspired me to seed the social forum in my asynchronous, online class. We had our first snow of the season in Whitehorse today, so I've started a #firstsnowselfie feed - just for fun - I'll let you know how it goes.
Thanks for getting the ball rolling on the inspiration! 
Background
We chose to share Situated Introductions using the Glossary tool in Moodle as our community-building, introductory activity.
This activity did not emerge instantly. First, we discussed mapping out our connections and using a super-cool mapping tool to visualize it all. After putting in a few hours exploring tools, we realized we couldn’t find a tool that didn’t make the activity feel it was more about learning the cool tool than about building the community.
Then, after a good chat about “why do we build community in courses?” and “what are we really hoping happens?” and a conversation with a colleague,* we finally settled on trying situated introductions.
Why “situated”?
Indigenous authors Melanie Lefebvre and Alicia Elliott describe situating yourself as answering the questions: ‘Where are you from?’ or ‘Who claims you?’ These questions “acknowledge the importance of community. The answers situate each of us within the extensive kinship networks inside our communities – networks that provide support, ceremony, and tradition” (Lefebvre & Elliot, 2017, p. 8-9).
Situating yourself is also means “revealing our identity to others; who we are, where we come from, our experiences that have shaped those things, and our intentions for the work we plan to do” (Sinclair, 2003, p. 122) as well as “[o]pening yourself to the truth that you don’t have access to every experience” (Wunker, 2016, p. 30).
Yes. This is what we hoped to do!
Our intention
Our hope was to use the glossary as “quiet” place to situate ourselves. The glossary does not email notifications (like a discussion forum) and posts can be modified at any time. We hoped the comments under the glossary would become a space for quieter connections.
We added “tags” along with the situated stories to offer another way to make connections. The Moodle “Tag Block” provides a visual on the course main page that highlights points of intersection and separation (see “morning person” and “not a morning person”!). Our intention was to see if these points spark open conversations or quietly reveal community.
Questions and Challenges
How long is that tag cloud going to get?
How much should we facilitate conversation in the glossary?
Will people read each other’s glossary entries without being prompted by notifications? Will people go back to the glossary and re-situate and then will people return to read without being notified of changes? Does it matter if they don't?
Are the tags too “surface” to feel like people can build community through them?
How will we know if it’s working?
* Note: The conversation was with Polly Madsen at Yukon College. She pooled many of the resources about situating and she facilitates situated introductions beautifully in face-to-face gatherings. Thank you, Polly!