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I see it as a a rich space where I am responsible for my own learning and knowing.  But I am also responsible for those who are with me.  I worry that I don't get more of a sense of who has skin in the game and who doesn't.  I am trying to use these tools in my own connected courses, I am trying to connect with students here and in those classes.  How do I make connecting as routine as a syllabus AND how do I make it as valued as a syllabus.  I want to know more about how I can navigate the existing sharky waters of hied. How have others used aikido moves to enable connected values and principles in what amount to mostly unconvivial sharing tools.  

My only wonder/concern is that other than you, Howard (and Alan, to some degree, earlier), facilitators seem to be absent from the online conversations, other than the scheduled video hangouts.  It can feel a bit ... like the classrooms that Connected Courses is trying to remix, where the knowledgeable person in the front of the room (or in the hangout on my screen), talks and shares expertise, but then is not all that active in the ancillary conversations going on outside of the classroom (hangout).  Tell me I am missing those conversations, and I will be happy/content in that knowledge.  When I bounce around the blogs, I am most often likely to see you (Howard), Terry, Mariana, and a few others in the comment sections. Maybe more plans for projects like #WhyIteach are in the mix (hope so) and ways to get folks to make content (a shared ethos of open learning? A collaborative letter to a Dean about the need for more connective learning? etc) connect deeper will emerge (doubly-hope-so).

You just reminded me: I see nothing in the course design that helps people who are TEACHING students and involving them in #ccourses to help those students interact with each other. I am mostly seeing other educators here...

Agreeing with Kevin here. There are a couple of other facilitators active in some spaces. Helen on twitter and blogs (did not realize she was a facilitator at first, though); Mia Zamora (she's a facilitator, right?) and Jonathan on Google+ and Mimi is starting to respond on Twitter now. But in general, I would have expected the facilitators to be active throughout and across. The only ones who are really doing that are Howard and Alan. As in, they were there from the very beginning (pre-pre-course) and everywhere in all spaces, "listening" & responding. Not every facilitator can read/listen to everything (though Alan/Howard almost seem like they do! don't know how!) but given the sheer number of facilitators their responsive presence has potential to be so much stronger.

I am agreeing with Kevin and Maha.

I hear you and we're working on it. Give it a few days and you'll see some action.

You guys are the greatest.  Really proud to be working with you.

I realize, too, my comment goes against the grain of Connected Learning. While I appreciate all the facilitators, I shouldn't sit around and wait for them. As Howard notes, "What it is, is up to us."

I don't think its going against the grain, exactly, Kevin. It's a kind of speaking out. And it's also the case that some learners need more direction, or more support or explicit permission in knowing they can take their own direction... If that makes sense?

Just for the sake of crazy recursion here is the comment I mad about commenting here: I have begun adding group annotations to this blog post.  Here is the group page for those who might want to join our Diigo group and comment along with us: https://groups.diigo.com/group/ccourses I think annotating this way is superior to commenting.  I suppose it is commenting, but carefully targeted to responding to a specific sentence or as fine-grained as the choice of a word.  Downside? While it is a public group it does call for an investment in learning how to annotate with Diigo.  My experience is that that investment pays back royally. Positive and negative?  It is messy, especially when you get tons of annotstors in the group. I love the annotated link tool that allows you to send a cached link to anyone to view even if they are not a Diigo user: https://diigo.com/04j3l2. I love how you can scrape all the comments and highlights out and then repurpose them.  It would be so much fun to try a project where each of us would do group annotations, turn them into a blog post and then create a zine or storify or use WP Anthologize to create an epub with all the posts and then commentary at the end. Ok, sorry Maha.  This has become some sort of recursive monster of a comment about comments within a comment. With no real comments about what you wrote in your comments box.  Technically, I think this might be a Klein bottle or s moebius comment.  

I love the recursive monster.  Great idea about the fun project.  :)

I never bought into this guilt free deal.  Shame free, but I think guilt might also be a byproduct of not reciprocating.  It is one's conscience at work.  I feel guilty that my papers are not marking themselves.  I feel guilty that my markings are si imperfect and often futile.  I feel that guilty is like friction: you had better have some if you want navigate a twisty track with others. 

Hmmmmmmm.....I still wish more people were being reciprocal.  A little guilt is sometimes a good motivator.  I agree.