MicroSCoPE newsletter

I just posted the May issue of MicroSCoPE. It's a little late in the month, but we had to reschedule the May seminar, Humanizing the Online Experience, because of a family emergency. I'm copying the full issue here this time because it's chock full of resources and professional development opportunities.

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MicroSCoPE: A Close Look at What's Happening in the SCoPE Community
May, 2009
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In This Issue
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1. SCoPE Seminar: Humanizing the Online Experience
2. Mark Your Calendars
3. Activity Recap
4. Special Interest Groups
5. PeriSCoPE
6. About SCoPE
7. About MicroSCoPE

1. SCoPE Seminar: Humanizing the Online Experience
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May 25 - June 7, 2009
Facilitator: Jesai Jayhmes
How do you come across in the online classroom? What are some strategies for making real-time sessions engaging and interactive? Jesai combines his background in acting, teaching, voice coaching, and video production to help us understand the changes we need to make to be effective online facilitators. This 2 week seminar is combined with weekly live sessions in Adobe Connect:
* May 26, 10:00 PDT (other time zones)
* June 2, 10:00 PDT (other time zones)

2. Mark Your Calendars
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* TiddlyWiki for Beginners, facilitated by Lynda Williams, May 27, 2009 11:00 PDT (other time zones) in Elluminate
* The Art of Teaching, facilitated by Nancy Randall and Neil Smith, June 15 - July 3, 2009
* Strategies for Facilitating Networks of Communities, facilitated by Diego Leal, July 6 - 24, 2009
* WikiEducator: An International Community for Open Education, facilitated by Nellie Deutsch and Gladys Gahona, August, 2009
* Re-Thinking E-Learning Research, facilitated by Norm Friesen, October 5 - 25, 2009

Check upcoming seminars for any changes to the seminar schedule. The Learn Together Collaboratory has a full list of events of interest to educators.

3. Activity Recap
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* Gathering of Online Community Enthusiasts
On May 1, 2009 a group of online community enthusiasts gathered together in downtown Vancouver to become acquainted, to share challenges and solutions related to our communities and projects, and to explore next steps for advancing our work together. Nancy White led us through an unforgettable mad tea party, drawing exercise, and open space discussion. At the end of the day what did we decide? That we need to have meet ups more often! Also, a "virtual community field trip" series is in the works in partnership with CPSquare.org.

* SCoPE Seminar: Evaluation Practices for Informal/Self-Paced Adult Learning
April 13 - May 1, 2009
Facilitators: Caren Levine and William Owen
This 3-week seminar combined with an Elluminate session as we approached the final days of the discussion proved to be an interesting format. It is also a very challenging topic! The wiki provides a quick glimpse of who participated and the questions, themes, and resources that emerged.

* Check the archives of live sessions organized through BCcampus Online Communities.

4. Special Interest Groups
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* Marginalia is an open space for experimenting with and providing feedback on Marginalia, an open source web annotation tool.

* First Nations Pedagogy Online is for everyone interested in First Nations and aboriginal learning to share questions, insights, practices, ideas, and resources.

At SCoPE we welcome requests to host education-related Special Interest Groups.

5. PeriSCoPE
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* CIDER Sessions are targeted at distance education researchers, graduate students, and practitioners. Each session features an active researcher talking about their project, methodologies used, and their results. If you are interested in presenting your research in a future CIDER session, please contact Lynn Anderson: lynnlo@cogeco.ca. The June session is Adaptation of Online Courses for New Educational Contexts with Dr. Jamie Rossiter.

* Copyright: A plain language guide to copyright in the 21st century by Julien Hofman, published by the Commonwealth of Learning, explains copyright protection and what it means for copyright holders and copyright users. It also introduces readers to contemporary topics such as digital rights management, open licences, software patents, and copyright protection for works of traditional knowledge. The book is freely available from COL’s website. Participate in the virtual book launch in COL's new Second Life space Tuesday, May 26 at 9:00 PDT (other time zones). An audio-only option for the book launch will be available via Elluminate.

* The Canadian e-Learning Conference takes place at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, June 17-19, 2009.

* The Open Education Conference will be held at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, August 12-14, 2009.

* Join the SCoPE group at Linkedin to connect with others who are interested in employment in education or in connecting professionally on projects, follow SCoPE on Twitter and check out the SCoPE Facebook group and member networking as a way to keep in the loop.

* Check what SCoPE members are blogging about and subscribe to our SCoPE Bloggers feed. Do you have a blog? Add it to our SCoPE member blogs database.

* Have you added your name and location to our Frappr Map?

* Leave a message on the SCoPE Voicethread

6. About SCoPE
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SCoPE brings together individuals who share an interest in education research and practice, and offers opportunities for dialogue across disciplines, geographical borders, professions, levels of expertise, and education sectors. Membership is free and open to everyone.

SCoPE forms collaborating partnerships with many organizations to implement and promote community activities and products. This is a mutual exchange of support and services.

Self-register at http://scope.bccampus.ca

Past SCoPE seminar discussions are always available for reading and afterthoughts.

7. About MicroSCoPE
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SCoPE members receive MicroSCoPE issues automatically. If you prefer to read MicroSCoPE on the website or via RSS, manage your subscription here:
http://scope.bccampus.ca/mod/forum/view.php?f=5

MicroSCoPE is prepared by Sylvia Currie, Community Coordinator (scurrie@bccampus.ca).

Please spread the word about SCoPE activities. Distribute this newsletter!