Group items tagged

Although from 2006, this is an interesting take on preparing students to really engage in online discussion. The faculty, Edward J. Gallagher, creates scaffolds for student engagement principles and practice, has students read the course constitution, and structures the course around the discussion vs. content.

something to think about to scaffold discussion groups

Post in WP discussion forum on how unhelpful so-called help discussion forums really are. Excerpt: "I signed up for WP AT Godaddy,com and have the same question, so I have to come here and do whatever I can understand of what i'm told. my universal experience with forums like this - here at WP and at the forums which serve as the ONLY assistance for non-paying users of third party design businesses -is that genuinely inexperienced people are not-so-subtly encourage to self-select out. people who need help make it very clear that they are really inexperienced, beg for step-by-step directions and get responses they cannot decipher or use. And if they have the temerity to say so, well, here's the first forum i clicked under this topic: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/email-set-up-on-wordpress-site?replies=3 the forum was simply shut down. lol? I don't understand why experienced users who know how to do things bother to make such replies. Is there some club somewhere where such things are on display for the amusement of our betters? Because unintentionally or not, it seems gratuitously mean. "

Very good list of 9 ways to improve group discussion, September 30, 2015, Maryellen Weimer, Faculty Focus

very nice infographic on netiquette in discussions

This paper written by George Siemens in 2008 on Learning in Networks raises issues very similar to those we are raising in our discussion at CPSquare. This paper also has implications for how the Women's Learning Studio is launched into practice in its discussion of teacher as learning atelier, concierge, etc. Google Scholar, Scopus, and open access journals offer increased access to academic resources; an extension to more informal approaches such as regular internet search and Wikipedia. Social software (blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, instant messaging, Skype, Ning) provide opportunities for learners to create, dialogue about, and disseminate information. But what becomes of the teacher? How do the practices of the educator change in networked environments, where information is readily accessible? How do we design learning when learners may adopt multiple paths and approaches to content and curriculum? How can we achieve centralized learning aims in decentralized environments? This paper will explore the shifting role of educators in networked learning, with particular emphasis on curatorial, atelier, concierge, and networked roles of educators, in order to assist learners in forming diverse personal learning networks for deep understanding of complex fields.

Is this what we need to do on a regular basis with WLStudio? #EdChat http://www.facebook.com/EdchatPLN This is a different type of group - #Edchat is Twitter based. In their own words, "#Edchat is a hashtag discussion among educators from all over the world on education related topics. It happens every Tuesday at Noon EDT and 7PM EDT. To join us simply follow the #Edchat hashtag on Twitter!" The Facebook Page keeps users up on discussion topics, and provides additional resources.

Article on web 2.0 marketing to millennials by Strategic Enrollment Management February 2009. "Although we are not going to dedicate our article to a recap of millennial marketing, we do want to reinforce the importance of understanding the millennial mindset before you begin to build your Web 2.0 plan. Consider that 64 percent of your audience (teens 12 to 17 years old) are reported to engage in at least one type of online content creation, up from 57 percent just four years ago. Understanding what they are doing online allows our plans to be more comprehensive and effective and fully integrated into a successful enrollment plan. There is even an emerging classification of teenagers using a host of technology options for dealing with family and friends, including traditional landline phones, cell phones, texting, social network sites, instant messaging and e-mail. These "super communicators" represent about 28 percent of the entire teen population (Guess 2008). And possibly the most interesting statistic to watch comes out of Noel-Levitz's "E-Expectations: The Class of 2007" report, which claims that 43 percent of high school juniors have a profile page designed for use in researching colleges (Lenhart & Madden 2007). This all means that if you are not already participating in an active use of online marketing you are overlooking a large group of your audience. Frankly, they are keenly aware of marketing, and as marketers we need to understand their mindset to build effective plans to reach and educate them. We cannot expect that they will conform to marketing as it has been done in a traditional way. Tools of the Trade: Components to Consider The goal of any Web 2.0 is to inform and connect. Simply stated, the tools you choose should work to reinforce that goal and integrate with the other tools of the trade you are using. Enrollment managers who know their audience understand the need to consider a variety of marketing options, from traditional adve

Great blog post on drawing small targets for your business by Sean Smith, Copyblogger, Excerpt: Are you struggling to get traction? Are you dissatisfied with your progress attracting visitors to your blog, subscribers to your newsletter, followers on Facebook and Twitter, or whatever else it may be? Your target isn't small enough … so make your target smaller. Tighten your scope, find your tight-knit group. And reach more in the long run. Want to discuss? Reach out to me on Twitter or join the discussion on Google-Plus.

article by Martin Dewhurst and Paul Willmott, September 2014 on new leadership skills required in age of new information technologies Machines force executives and senior leaders to: 1. open up their companies through crowdsourcing and social platforms within and across organizational boundaries 2. create data sets worthy of the most intelligent machines 3. "let go" in ways that run counter to a century of OD 4. executives...able to make the biggest difference through the human touch. ...questions they frame, their vigor in attaching exceptional circumstances highlighted by increasingly intelligent algorithms ... tolerating ambiguity and focusing on the "softer" side of management to engage the organization and build its capacity for self-renewal. 5. turbocharged data-analytics strategy, a new top-team mind-set, fresh talent approaches, and a concerted effort to break down information silos...transcend number crunching..."weak signals" from social media and other sources also contain powerful insights and should be part of the data-creation process. 6. ...early movers will probably gain insights of unstructured data, such as email discussions between representatives or discussion threads in social media. 7. ...dashboards don't create themselves. Senior executives must find and set the software parameters needed to determine, for instance, which data gets prioritized and which gets flagged for escalation. 8. ...odds of sinking under the weight of even quite valuable insights grow as well. Answer: democratizing it: encouraging and expecting the organization to manage itself without bringing decisions upward. ...business units and functions will be able to make more and better decisions on their own. 9. 8 will happen even as the CEO begins to morph into a "chief experimentation officer," who draws from acute observance of early signals to bolster a company's ability to experiment at scale. 10. need to "let go" will be more significant and the discomfort of s

ASAE's page on Collaborate Welcome with explanation of how to get started and how members "easily interact and communicate online and via email to exchange ideas, experience, knowledge and wisdom of your peers." Join our discussion groups to spark or contribute to a conversation. The benefits are endless!" Overview of how to get started "1. customize your profile and preferences... 2. adjust your subscription settings... 3. start a conversation in the discussion groups... 4. start networking--find a member and connect... 5. Volunteer Town Square--here you will find short-term opportunities as well as ASAE's one-year term council and committee appointment groups. We encourage you to volunteer for projects that fit your interests, expertise, and schedule!"

Continuous acquisition and application of knowledge, skills, and beliefs by individuals, teams, and the whole enterprise is an essential aspect of high performance organizations. However, barriers to this learning are common in organizations. These barriers must be overcome in order for organizations to have long term success. Stephen Gill has identified 12 common barriers to learning in organizations: Program focus; Limited resources; work-learning dichotomy; passive leadership; non-learning culture; resistance to change; not discussing the un-discussable; need for control; focus on short-term, simple solutions; skilled incompetence; blame-not gain language; selective attention.

Brian Anderson discusses continuous improvement using a Kata process (understand the direction or challenge; grasp the current condition; establish the next target condition; iterate toward the target condition). He discusses single and double-loop learning to achieve the Kata model. Good graphics of KATA as well as single and double-loop learning.

Patrick Allan from Lifehacker proposes this simple journal template to reflect each day. In the Challenge course with Jane Hart, we are using this at the end of our day as a daily reflection, and then will report via our discussion group about our learning, and respond to others. It is a nice ritual to practice. Part of the exercise at the end of the week is to discuss how we will continue the practice after the 15 weeks are over.

article by Abigail Walthausen on value of lectures such as Ted Talks that enable independent, deeper thought especially for introverted types than being thrust into a group discussion; The Atlantic, November 21, 2013 

article by Daniel de Vise, Washington Post, February 15, 2015, on how colleges are eliminating or reducing or redesigning lectures in class to make them available online outside of class hours, mixing them with interactive questions and discussion, and making them shorter.

article by Daniel de Vise, Washington Post, February 15, 2015, on how colleges are eliminating or reducing or redesigning lectures in class to make them available online outside of class hours, mixing them with interactive questions and discussion, and making them shorter. 

Professor at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen asserts that lectures for information transfer are not as effective by itself and needs small group discussion

Professor at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen asserts that lectures for information transfer are not as effective by itself and needs small group discussion

Good article on why decisions may or even should not be made in meetings. "Further advantages of turning agenda items into questions include: Clarifying expected outcomes and thus avoiding discussions that run on because there is no defined end; Keeping participants alert during presentations because they're expected to respond; Helping presenters focus on what is essential and leave out unnecessary detail that waste everyone's time; Ensuring a given topic is necessary. "

Really good articles that comes down to offering choice and balance to keep both introverts and extraverts learning and growing. Nicki Monahan, Faculty Focus, October 28th, 2013

Reflection blog post by Nancy White on 1.9.13 on her Project Community course that she co-taught at the Hague. Offers many insights including this jewel below on what the learning design must bring together: "The other aspect of the design was to bring three elements together: sense making discussions about the subject matter (synchronously in class and asynchronously on the class website), insights from weekly "guests" shared via 5-10 minute videos (to bring a variety of voices), and action learning through small group experiences and team projects. I know there are strong feelings about team projects, but building collaboration skills was part of the course learning objectives, so this was a "must do." And we spent time talking about the how - -and reflecting on what was and wasn't working as a vector for learning these skills."

blog post by Donston-Miller, June 4, 2012 on how social changes how we work 1. website home pages (home pages less of a destination, Facebook timeline becoming more important) 2. Email--with built-in IM systems on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, email less important. Google+ users get tight integration on communication tools 3. Help desk call centers--moving to discussion forms on social networking platforms 4. Resumes-- "Now, social networks are basically living resumes. Or, looked at another way, you are your resume; what you post, how you interact, what you share, who your friends and followers are, and more all combine to demonstrate your value to a company." 5. PBXes--enterprise wide phone systems are affected by Skype and online chat and messaging features