Sylvia Currie

I hope everyone can join our opening webinar tomorrow where Janet will provide an overview of e-interview research. 

What: Introduction to E-Interview Research

When: Tuesday, February 21, 12pm Pacific (see your time zone)

Where: SCoPE Blackboard Collaborate room

This is an open invitation so please spread the word!

We had a productive "e-book sprint" chat earlier today, mainly around the logistics of how to move forward with this project. Thanks for dropping in Hilda, Diana, Richard, Don, and Jo Ann. 

We started out by pointing out that we already have so much good material here in the SCoPE discussion, and there's no doubt we have a lot more to contribute. And we want this process to be as straightforward as possible and end up with something useful. Can we do that? Of course we can!

Then Richard highlighted some useful ways to think about this project and we had a good discussion around that. 

1. It is an evergreen e-pub.
   This is very much in alignment with SCoPE activities -- the last thing we ever want is to feel like we're finished exploring a topic! So what we hope to achieve over the next 5 days is the first wave of a resource that we will return to again and again to edit and update. 
2. We are engaging in a participatory writing exercise. 
   Participatory: This means we're all working in the same space. Everyone should feel comfortable making changes, adding new chapters, correcting errors, fine-tuning someone else's phrasing. Don't hesitate! We will always have the history to refer back to.  
   Writing: We are writing an e-book, but remember that ALL types of media are encouraged. Writing now takes on a whole new meaning; it doesn't have to be just text! 

Next Steps

We talked about tools to support this project and quickly came to the conclusion that Google Docs would be best way to get started, mainly because the majority of us are already familiar with that platform, but also there is little administrative overhead for managing accounts, etc. You just show up and start writing.

Hilda and Diana have taken on the task of curating, organizing, and formatting, and have already taken major steps in getting us off the ground! To get started Hilda used an interesting strategy:

1. Over the past 10 days she has been annotating forum posts using Marginalia (installed here in SCoPE). Through this process she was able to identify emerging themes that could translate into chapter headings. 
2. Then she brought it all into a Google Doc, and used a table to copy quotes, authors, links to media, etc.

In addition, Bev Ferrell has shared quite a gift -- an outline and fruits of her research so far. 

The work completed JUST TODAY is very impressive! 

So here are the places where this work will be taking shape:

Google Docs

1. Rough, messy, but still organized 
   https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vQNAeXlhzMr7RwJInHQfywwizgzlJjWRAB6omcor5rM/edit
   This Google Doc is to organize chapters, pull relevant quotes from the SCoPE discussion, add links to media, keep track of authors, etc
2. Clean, readable, and always a work in progress
   https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AZohACfMGf7V4EL8jjVppCBdUDGtKndwGhsozJQsstQ/edit

Note that a great feature in Google Docs is that you can comment on specific sections of a document, and also have an ongoing conversation using the comment stream. Use the comments button to also adjust notifications if you would like to receive comments by email. 

SCoPE

This seminar continues until Tuesday, February 14 but that doesn't mean we need to stop talking! :-) Of course you're always welcome to post updates and afterthoughts in the seminar after the scheduled end date. Also, we'll see how the comment tools in Google Docs serve us. We can always set up a special interest group in SCoPE -- more of a project space to carry on the discussion and organize our work. 

I'm sure I left out important bits of information so ask questions and fill in the blanks. By the end of this process we'll have developed an "e-book sprint methodology" to add to the mix!

I hope you can all join the web conference tomorrow (or whatever that means in your time zone). Scott Leslie, who has been doing heaps of research on open textbooks, will be walking us through some ebook authoring strategies and platforms. There will be lots of time for Q&A as well. 

What: eBook Authoring Strategies and Platforms with Scott Leslie. Moderator: Randy LaBonte

When: Tuesday, February 7 at 13:30 PT (see your time zone) 

Where: eCampusAlberta Elluminate room

This session is part of the monthly eCampusAlberta Online Professional Learning Series. Bonus! Following this 1-hour session there will be a course showcase from Keyano College. 

Welcome to the next topic in our seminar series for 2012: Writing an e-book about e-books for fun and no profit. This event is organized in partnership with eCampus Alberta Professional Learning.

Seminar description

This seminar is all about sharing our experiences in writing e-books and e-publications, and, as the title suggests, turning it into an e-book. Sound like an adventure? You bet!

We will combine this 2-week asynchronous discussion with a 1-hour web conference on e-book authoring strategies and platforms, Tuesday, February 7 (see your time zone)... and with anything else that comes up! 

About our facilitators, presenters, and other people who are making this possible

Richard Schwier is Professor, Educational Technology and Design at University of Saskatchewan. Many of us are familiar with, and grateful for, Richard's research on communities of practice, and will also remember the excellent seminar he facilitated awhile back: Building a Virtual Museum on the History of Educational Technology. Well this time he is back, not to talk about the content of his ebook on Virtual Learning Communities (although I highly recommend you read it!), but to focus in on the process of writing an e-book.

Scott Leslie has a fancy title for his role at BCcampus, but I prefer the description from his popular blog Edtechpost: "educational technologist, hacker, researcher and open content/open network activist". During this seminar Scott will be helping us to understand the strategies and technologies around e-book authoring. 

Hida Angraenni and Diana Chan are two amazing co-op students from Simon Fraser University who are changing our lives at BCcampus! Their official title during this seminar is "researcher/curator" but they will be doing a whole lot more; with their help we will be turning this discussion into an e-book. 

Randy LaBonte, Community Access Coordinator for eCampusAlberta Professional Learning, helped to plan this event and will moderate Tuesday's web conference. 

Participating in SCoPE seminars 

SCoPE seminars are free and open to the public, and registration is not required. You are welcome to come and go according to your schedule and interests. To contribute you will need to create an account on the SCoPE site -- a quick process. Are you new to SCoPE or wondering how to manage your participation? Check this resource.

If you have any questions about participating in SCoPE don't hesitate to ask here in the forum, or get in touch with me directly.

Sylvia Currie
scurrie@bccampus.ca
skype:webbedfeat +1 250-318-2907

Welcome to our first seminar of 2012! Use of Video in Education.

Seminar description

As video gets easier to record and publish, it’s valuable to step back and ask ourselves a few questions:

• Why use video? What purpose does it serve, and what problems does it solve in the online classroom?
• How much video is enough? How long should clips be, and how many is too many?
• What accompanies video? What do we add or create to increase viewer engagement?
• When is security important? How do we balance accessibility and privacy?
• What questions do we ask of ourselves and our colleagues when choosing what to film, how to edit it, how to frame it and how to share it?

Bring your questions, your ideas, and what you’ve read to the discussion. We won’t find any definitive answers, but certainly some new scenarios and resources, and new questions to jump start discussions in our respective workplaces.

About our facilitator

Amy Severson is Manager of Training at Autism Community Training (ACT) and prior to that was an Educational Consultant at Simon Fraser University. Her work over the years has involved communities of practice development, instructional design, teaching portfolio development, and working with faculty to integrate technology into the classroom.

Participating in SCoPE seminars

SCoPE seminars are free and open to the public, and registration is not required. You are welcome to come and go according to your schedule and interests. To contribute you will need to create an account on the SCoPE site -- a quick process. Are you new to SCoPE or wondering how to manage your participation? Check this resource.

If you're a Diigo or Delicious user we can round up our resources pertaining to this seminar topic by using the tags 'scopeseminar' and 'video'. In Diigo you may choose to share to the SCoPE group.

If you have any questions about participating in SCoPE don't hesitate to ask here in the forum, or get in touch with me directly.

Sylvia Currie
scurrie@bccampus.ca
skype:webbedfeat +1 250-318-2907