politics discussion group

This is an open discussion group on US politics that anyone can join and where messages from new members are moderated.

I found it quite difficult to find open groups really- many that interest me seem to be closed. I wonder if the Blog is taking over from the open discussion group.

I do notice though that webpages such as the e-portfolio page will often have what amounts to a discussion for people who are trying technical things in the application.

Also the Communities in platforms such as the AkoAotearoa one must surely be discussion groups.

scratching or is it hunting?

you can look at Nan's Blog for several interchanges about teacher,facilitator,moderator. Is this one the hunter?

Goodday.

Some days just seem like this don't they? some of us wandering with heads out of view, some scratching around on the baseline. An ideal online day is one in which all the images match all the perceptions, or is it? Which of these creatuires is the teacher? which the facilitator? which the moderator?

community online?

Community carries for me notions of shared purpose, some reason for relating, some suitable level or frequency of contact. We have work communities, geographical communities,communities of interest, and in this instance a community of learning and possibly also a subgroup- the community of practice.

Online is simply a community- a group- that functions in the ether. (or doesn't as the case might be. I have just spent several minutes trying to establish a hyperlink to a 2007 presentation by Stephen Downes around access to personalised technology with no success at all, so here is the URL and you will have to find it for yourselves. http://www.downes.ca/post/42521 )

There is much discussion (often quite heated) around the use of technology to create or inhibit community and I found Michael Wesch's ethnography of YOU TUBE quite compelling. He uses (as you could expect an academic to do) his discipline to interpret the phenomenon of user driven and generated contirubtion, filtering and editing, distribution control. He points out that a significant portion of the material on You Tube is personal and targeted at a domestic or family audience. Issues of authenticity and identity get posed. I was interested in the "looking glass self" a concept from psychology www.allacademic.com/meta/p106150_index.html
being invoked as a way of looking at identity where context that we are used to collapses. I wonder if this both inhibits and encourages a sens of community to those who are comfortable inhabiting the ether.

I guess for me there is an professional imperative to learn to move in this environment as I have to relate at a distance to people I work with and will not meet f2f. chromatic writes in O'Reilly that online communities develop a sense of ownership of their space and develop a shared history and culture. I'm curious to observe this community and myself in it in this regard. (He? also remarks that the first visit needs to be successful to encourage return visits. How many times is the technology not what it promises on a first visit? OH my.)

Stay strong people.
Willie

memory lapse

I have forgotten how to edit a post.my saluatation shoudl read ka kiti ano.
it means be strong. (and don't we need to be!!!!:) )
Willie

facilitating online learning communities

Well folks.
I'm Willie Campbell, a staff member at the Otago Polytechnic's Centre for Assessment of Prior Learning.
WEll yes????? (there is usually several questions in there )
We work with people to explore and reflect on their experiential workplace and lifeplace learning. THEN to shape that into a presentation targeted to the profile of a qualification to a panel of assessors.
We work increasingly with folk away from Dunedin, so need to become skilled in working online. hence my prescence here.
You won't need to have done the mindreading course to know that I am fairly basic in the use of digital and online tools, so forgive any blunders.
I look forward to the presence of you all in my current life.
Kw kiti ano.
Willie

learning through experience

I have neglected this site shamefully, so apologies to both Sarah and Linda.
I kept faithfull to the connectivism and read many valuable papers. I'm still unclear that connectivism, through neural psychology, chaos theory and advanced constructivism is a new theory of learning.

I have been in Melbourne, Australia recently, connecting physically with colleagues in the vocational sector (TAFE) who have strategic government support for Recognition of Prior Learning through a Skills recognition programmes, the development of neighbourhood Skillstores, work allocation for RPL co-ordinators (who could be either adminstrators or academics) and training of assessors.
What is being acknowledge is that not all learning comes through formal accredited training programmes. (and this links with the connectivist notions around individual searches etc). However, the publicity is targeted at not only those who forward for this process but also their managers, on the grounds that it makes good business sense to have staff credentialed.
For the staff in TAFE it is allowing some interesting spin-offs.Those who have an interest in this way of recognising excepriential learning can have it included in their work load and they, through the number of completions, appear highly productive. It gives them time to develop resources and particularly online teaching materials. Also, the work satisfaction increases. What a thought.
Are there areas where this might be a siky practice? (I Australia, Nurses, electricians and plumbers believe it is so).