Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Free online event: Blastoff - Taking Education into OERbit

You are invited to participate in this free online event!

December 7, 20:30 - 22:00 GMT
Facilitator: Paul Stacey

Join Paul Stacey on the Starship BCcampus in this journey through the universe of Open Educational Resources (OER). Learn how OER are opening up a new education frontier. Visit OER colonies throughout education space and see for yourself what an OER is and how they are being used to create credentials. Find out how you can use OER in your own teaching and learning practice. Discover how the future of OER is being shaped by Foundations, public government Ministries, and everyday educators who simply choose to become OER space cadets. Buckle up as Paul takes you into OERbit! This session is part of the Professional Learning Series organized by BCcampus, eCampusAlberta, and Alberta North.

Access the details in the Professional Learning Series group at SCoPE.

Free online event: Blastoff - Taking Education into OERbit

You are invited to participate in this free online event!

December 7, 20:30 - 22:00 GMT
Facilitator: Paul Stacey

Join Paul Stacey on the Starship BCcampus in this journey through the universe of Open Educational Resources (OER). Learn how OER are opening up a new education frontier. Visit OER colonies throughout education space and see for yourself what an OER is and how they are being used to create credentials. Find out how you can use OER in your own teaching and learning practice. Discover how the future of OER is being shaped by Foundations, public government Ministries, and everyday educators who simply choose to become OER space cadets. Buckle up as Paul takes you into OERbit! This session is part of the Professional Learning Series organized by BCcampus, eCampusAlberta, and Alberta North.

Access the details in the Professional Learning Series group at SCoPE.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

What is our experience with blogging?

Glenn Groulx launched the SCoPE seminar: Blogging in Professional Networks with the question: What is our experience with blogging?

He provided some guiding questions, and an option to post responses on our blogs rather than in the forum. Nice idea! It makes sense to use blogs in a seminar about blogging.

What are a couple main reasons for why you blog? 
I'll try to keep this response to "a couple" :-) One reason is to keep track of my work life, although I confess that I don't do a very good job of this. If I present at a conference, or participate in a workshop, I like to document and reflect on the experience on my blog. Which brings me to the next reason -- reflection. I find taking the time to write causes me to pause and think about what I do. It's a fast life, and it's very easy to just jump from one event to the next without thinking about how you are benefiting, or what you would do differently next time.

I contribute to several other blogs in addition to this one, related to work as well as home life.

What roles does the blog play?
Hopefully, the blog is a glimpse on my professional life, mainly my involvement in online communities. Also, in my role as community steward I use my blog to help promote events the people who are involved. I've also used my blog to participate in online courses, like the 2008 Facilitating Online Communities course facilitated by Leigh Blackall.


What other bloggers do you follow? Why?

I follow MANY bloggers, mostly because I learn so much from people who are involved in similar work. I also follow bloggers that just plain have interesting things to say. Dave Pollard's how to save the world was the first blog I ever subscribed to, and is still one I look forward to reading.

As a community steward I also subscribe to members' blogs as a service back to the community. For example, for the Educational Technology Users Group I use the RSS feed from Google Reader to display the latest blog posts on the community site. I also send a quick note out on twitter to draw attention to new posts by ETUG members.

What is your preferred style of writing?
I'm not sure how to describe my style. Informal for sure.

How frequently do you post?
I have bad blogging habits. I tend to write way more than I post. Usually it's because I plan to return to the draft to refine it, and that just doesn't happen. Right now I have 44 draft blog posts.

Has your blogging changed over time?
Hmmm, maybe it has. For sure I don't blog as frequently because it's difficult to find the time. Also, twitter has taken my attention away from reading and posting to blogs.

What are your experiences with blogging? Join the discussion at SCoPE!

30 Web Tools in 30 Minutes

Dean Shareski from Prairie South School District in Saskatchewan prepared this slide show of 30 Web Tools in 30 Minutes for an IT meeting. There are some great recommendations here! 30 for 30

Monday, November 8, 2010

Spotlight on SCoPE

Last week at the ETUG Fall Workshop I was interviewed by Glenn Groulx, researcher from Athabasca University and faculty member at Northwest Community College. I've been following Glenn's work for a long time, and have been waiting to meet him in person. Of course when he asked for an interview I said absolutely! From (one of) Glenn's blogs:
In this podcast, Sylvia and I sat down during the ETUG workshop to talk about the SCoPE community, an international voluntary organization of educators interested in colloborating and exchanging ideas about the use of technologies in education. We talk about the nature of SCoPE, its early beginnings, how its participants have (or have not) changed, and methods for effective stewarding.
Talking with Glenn about the early days of SCoPE brought back a lot of memories, and now listening to this podcast I realize that I neglected to mention how grateful I am to the many members who have contributed to SCoPE over the years, and to SFU and then BCcampus for providing support for this online community.

Glenn  is facilitating a seminar at SCoPE for the next 3 weeks: Blogging in Professional Networks. I hope you'll join us!

SCoPE Seminar: Blogging in Professional Networks



Facilitator: Glenn Groulx
November 8-26, 2010

Description:
This 3-week seminar will cover blogging strategies for participating effectively within professional networks. Topics will include strategies for gathering information from various online sources, organizing these sources within blog posts, and connecting with experts and peers by engaging in way-making activities to explore, find and connect with others.

SCoPE seminars are free and open to the public, and are facilitated by volunteers in the community. There is no need to register. Just show up! To contribute to forum discussions you will need to create an account on the SCoPE site -- a quick process.

Direct link to Blogging in Professional Networks seminar:
http://urls.bccampus.ca/ssproblog

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

"Getting Organized in the Google Era"

In “Getting Organized in the Google Era” author Douglas C. Merrill, former CIO for Google, gives us some good tips for optimizing how we manage the information we deal with daily and improve our retention and learning. He provides a good rationale for why we should better use the power of “search”, labels and filters on our email, and share our work in the "cloud". In addition, he outlines how he combines both digital and paper-based techniques for information management. Particularly helpful are the chapter book summaries which he entitles “Encode This”. The final chapter is an annotated list of the authors' favorite software tools, browsers, apps, and gadgets. While the book strongly favours Google applications (no surprise here), Merrill is quick to admit his bias and offers alternate tools we can use. "Getting Organized in the Google Era" is a great primer and particularly helpful for those looking for practical suggestions on how to be more organized, less stressed and integrate work and home life.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

How to Be an Excellent Online Instructor

How to Be an Excellent Instructor is a podcast with Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt about good online instruction and faculty training. These topics are the subject of their forthcoming book, The Excellent Online Instructor.

Palloff and Pratt, authors of several excellent books on online teaching and learning, will be presenting at the 2010 Online Teaching and Learning Conference (OTL2010), October 19-21, 2010.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

7 Fantastic Free Social Media Tools for Teachers

Today from Mashable, 7 Fantastic Free Social Media Tools for Teachers.
The possibilities for social media tools in the classroom are vast. In the hands of the right teacher, they can be used to engage students in creative ways, encourage collaboration and inspire discussion among even soft-spoken students. But we’ve already made our case for why teachers should consider using social media in their classrooms. What about the how?
What fantastic tools are you using?

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Sign Up Genius

Last week John Goldsmith posted about Sign Up Genius, a free online tool for creating and managing group sign up lists. This is one of those tools that you don't know you need until it exists! As someone who is always has projects on the go that involve organizing volunteers and planning events -- from sporting events to conferences -- these sign up templates will certainly come in handy.  And what a perfect way for students to manage the details of group projects!

This Habitat for Humanity sign up sheet nicely illustrates how it works:

Sunday, September 12, 2010

MicroSCoPE: September 2010 Issue

 (This is cross-posted in the SCoPE community )
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MicroSCoPE: A Close Look at What's Happening in the SCoPE Community
August, 2010
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In This Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Starts tomorrow! Humanizing the Online Experience 2
2. Professional Learning Series
3. Mark Your Calendars
4. Activity Recap
5. Collaborating Partnerships
6. PeriSCoPE
7. About SCoPE
8. About MicroSCoPE

1. Starts tomorrow! Humanizing the Online Experience 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 13 - 30, 2010
Video Conferences each Monday: September 13, 20, 27 at 18:00 GMT
Facilitator: Jesai Jayhmes
Expect to roll up your sleeves in this seminar as we explore the use of video to make our courses engaging and interactive. We kick off the week tomorrow with a CoroCall high-quality video conference. Thanks to the great folks at Coroware.com for making that possible!

2. eCampusAlberta Online Curriculum Development: Course Overview & Directions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 14, 20:30 GMT
Facilitator: Randy LaBonte
Join us online via Elluminate for a profile of upcoming courses funded under eCampusAlberta’s Online Curriculum Development Fund. Learn what new courses will be available, development plans of the successful recipients, and join in a discussion about design principles and quality in online learning. This session is part of the Professional Learning Series organized by BCcampus, eCampusAlberta, and Alberta North.

3. Mark Your Calendars
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Educational Uses of iPads, facilitated by Brent Lee: October 18 - 29, 2010
Check upcoming seminars for updates to the seminar schedule.

4. Activity Recap
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* For the August Quarterly Field Trip, organized in partnership with CPSquare, Jonny Morris took us on a tour of Healthy Minds / Healthy Campuses, a community of practice to promote campus mental health in British Columbia.
* We launched the academic year with our annual Reflections and Next Steps gathering for SCoPE members to reflect and plan for the future. As usual, SCoPE members have a lot of great ideas for enhancing the community!

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

5. Collaborating Partnerships
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SCoPE forms collaborating partnerships with many organizations to implement and promote community activities and products. This month CoroWare is offering their video conferencing services for the Humanizing the Online Experience seminar.

6. PeriSCoPE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* The Personal Learning Environments course begins this week! This open course is a joint venture between the National Research Council of Canada, The Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute at Athabasca University and the University of Prince Edward Island.

* Glenn Groulx is offering a 3-part series on EduBlogging. The first in the series is scheduled for September 23, 2010, 19:00 GMT

* The deadline for the Call for Proposals for the Electronic Village Online 2011 is September 25, 2010

* Taking OER beyond the OER Community is a free, online seminar series to raise awareness and promote informed discussion and debate.
23 – 29 September Taking OER beyond the OER Community: Policy and Capacity
20 - 26 October What works, what does not and under what conditions?
10 - 16 November Copyright and the development and re-use of OER

* Several SCoPE members have published chapters in the Athabasca University Press publication: Emerging Technologies in Distance Education, edited by George Veletsianos

* The next 3 themes for Transformative Dialogues are listed on the Call for Submission page. A variety of digital formats are encouraged.

* In Education a peer-reviewed, open access journal, is looking for quality papers for consideration for the Spring 2011 issue.

* The next CIDER Session is Implementing Digital Story Telling in a Computers in Education Course, October 7, 2010. 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.

7. About SCoPE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SCoPE brings together individuals who share an interest in educational research and practice, and offers opportunities for dialogue across disciplines, geographical borders, professions, levels of expertise, and education sectors. Our activities are facilitated by volunteers in the community, and 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

* 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 page to keep in the loop.

* We gather our seminar resources in Diigo.

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

MicroSCoPE is prepared by Sylvia Currie (scurrie@bccampus.ca).
Please spread the word about SCoPE activities. Distribute this newsletter!

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Educating for Internationalization: A Web Tour

I was invited to speak at the Douglas College Symposium on Teaching and Learning. The theme was internationalization so I took them on a web tour to showcase all the local work we are doing.

Educating for Internationalization: A Web Tour
Douglas College Symposium on Teaching and Learning
August 31, 2010

The path of the Culturally Diverse Learners project

  1. BCcampus Online Program Development Fund (OPDF)
  2. Shareable Online Learning Resources (SOL*R)
  3. Creative Commons License
  4. OPEN search (direct link)
  5. SCoPE Seminar
  6. Sample thread
  7. View the videos
  8. Example online (D.I.E.) activity: Tell me something about this picture

SCoPE participation

Activities to showcase and understand international work

Activities designed to gain international perspective on local work

Find and Share Resources

Develop Online Courses/Resources + Professional Development Resources

Shared Experiences by BC Educators

Research at BC Institutions

Find People by Shared Interest

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

MicroSCoPE: August 2010 Issue

(This is cross-posted in the SCoPE community )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MicroSCoPE: A Close Look at What's Happening in the SCoPE Community
August, 2010
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In This Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Quarterly Field Trip: Visiting Healthy Minds / Healthy Campuses
2. Reflections and Next Steps
3. Humanizing the Online Experience - Part 2
4. Mark Your Calendars
5. Activity Recap
6. Recent Publications by SCoPE Facilitators
7. Collaborating Partnerships
8. PeriSCoPE
9. About SCoPE
10. About MicroSCoPE

1. Quarterly Field Trip: Visiting Healthy Minds / Healthy Campuses
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Web conference August 18, 2010 11 - 12:00 PDT, 18:00 GMT
This quarterly excursion will be to the Healthy Minds / Healthy Campuses, a community of practice to promote campus mental health in British Columbia. Host and community steward Jonny Morris will guide through the community environment and we'll leave plenty of times to talk about successes and challenges. Field Trips - visits to living communities - are organized in collaboration with CPSquare, the community of practice on communities of practice.

2. Reflections and Next Steps
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 23 - 31, 2010
Facilitator: Sylvia Currie

We'll launch the academic year with our annual gathering for SCoPE members to reflect and plan for the future. Your input is important!

3. Humanizing the Online Experience Part 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 13 - 30, 2010
Web Conferences each Monday: September 13, 20, 27 at 18:00 GMT
Facilitator: Jesai Jayhmes

During Part 1 of the Humanizing the Online Experience series we explored a variety of synchronous communication platforms and strategies for making real-time sessions engaging and interactive. We also tried our hand at creating videos and practiced speaking to the camera. Expect to roll up your sleeves during Part 2 in this series as we continue the exploration!

4. Mark Your Calendars
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Educational Uses of iPads, facilitated by Brent Lee: October 18 - 29, 2010
Check upcoming seminars for updates to the seminar schedule.

5. Activity Recap
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* In our May/June ePortfolio seminar Catherine Paul and Roselynn Verwoord introduced us to University of British Columbia's Portfolio Community of Practice and encouraged seminar participants to share their experiences with portfolio projects of all types. Resources were gathered into a wiki.
* In the June/July Shared Thinking seminar Nicholas Bowskill challenged us with the question: How can we make group thinking visible, and what is the value for learning, reflection, and community participation? We were also introduced to the Shared Thinking research and development work through University of Glasgow.

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

6. Recent Publications by SCoPE Facilitators
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Michael Griffith, facilitator of the 2007 SCoPE seminar Blogging to Enhance Learning Experiences, co-authored a chapter Empowering Adult Learners through Blog: An Australian Case Study for the 2010 book Adult Learning in the Digital Age: Perspectives on Online Technologies and Outcomes.
* Janet Salmon's book "Online Interviews in Real Time" was reviewed in the latest edition of eLearn Magazine. Janet's 2010 SCoPE seminar featuring this book was Guiding the E-Researcher.
* Alvaro Galvis, case presenter for the 2009 seminar Exploring Networks of Communities, published Establishing a PLACE for Teaching Technologies.
* John Smith, facilitator of Exploring Networks of Communities and the Quarterly Field Trips, and Nancy White, facilitator of Informal Learning, co-authored Digital Habitats, Stewarding Technology for Communities with Etienne Wenger

7. Collaborating Partnerships
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SCoPE forms collaborating partnerships with many organizations to implement and promote community activities and products. Our latest partnerships include CoroWare and Integrating Technology for Active Lifelong Learning.

8. PeriSCoPE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* A SCoPE case study focusing on community enablers by Barbara Berry is featured in the University of Birmingham resource: Communities of Practice in Higher Education, along with a video where Sylvia Currie talks about how the community has developed since that case study.

*The latest issue of Transformative Dialogues is a special issue dedicated to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
* The CPsquare Seeding 2.0 conference begins this week. To participate simply become a community member.
* The next WikiEducator Learning4Content workshop begins August 25, 2010
* In Education a peer-reviewed, open access journal, is looking for quality papers for consideration for the Spring 2011 issue.
* The next CIDER Session is Learning Issues for Online Graduate Students, September 8, 2010. 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.

9. About SCoPE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SCoPE brings together individuals who share an interest in educational research and practice, and offers opportunities for dialogue across disciplines, geographical borders, professions, levels of expertise, and education sectors. Our activities are facilitated by volunteers in the community, and 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
* 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 page to keep in the loop.

* We gather our seminar resources in Diigo.

10. About MicroSCoPE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SCoPE members receive MicroSCoPE issues automatically. If you prefer to read MicroSCoPE on the website or via RSS, login to SCoPE and manage your subscription here:
http://scope.bccampus.ca/mod/forum/view.php?f=5
MicroSCoPE is prepared by Sylvia Currie (scurrie@bccampus.ca).
Please spread the word about SCoPE activities. Distribute this newsletter!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Screenjelly - What's on your screen?

Stephen Downes mentioned Screenjelly on his blog this week. It's a quick and easy way to share what's on your screen. The recording is limited to 3 minutes which forces you to be concise -- not a bad thing! :-) There are many obvious educational uses for this tool.
Screenjelly records your screen activity with your voice so you can spread it via Twitter or email. Use it to quickly share cool apps or software tips, report a bug, or just show stuff you like. To start recording, click on the red button. No need to install or download anything!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Ediscio

Wendy McElroy from Camosun College gave a shout out about this tool via Twitter as one of the fun Web 2.0 tools she wants to try. Ediscio is a free service for creating and sharing flashcards online. Ediscio is useful for individuals and for studying in groups. You can also share your cardboxes with others. Here is a list of main features:
  • Create and share flashcards online
  • Work collaboratively on flashcard sets
  • Enrich flashcards by images (upload), videos, and LaTeX-based math formulas, and many text formatting possibilities (Word-like interface)
  • Automatic, customizable learning schedule according to Leitner system
  • Query modes which help focusing on weak spots
  • Query options include swapping of question and answer, and an automatic comparison mode
  • Learning statistics as tag-cloud, based on keywords which are assigned to flashcards
  • Visualization of learning progress as a diagram
  • Long-term statistics and after each learning session
  • Rights management for each cardbox
  • Catalog of all cardboxes which are configured for public access
  • Import, export, (XLS, CSV, Html) and print flashcards
  • Social network features like making friends, mail; and automatically finding experts for specific keywords among friends
  • Classroom features which help a teacher to assign cardboxes to a whole class
  • Newsfeed about activities in cardboxes of class
  • Learning statistics which relate to a whole class

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Shared Thinking


Shared Thinking: June 23-July 2, 2010
Facilitator: Nicholas Bowskill


How can we make group thinking visible? What is the value for learning, reflection, and community participation? During this 10-day seminar we will be introduced to the research and development work on the Shared Thinking project through University of Glasgow.

Access the SCoPE seminar discussion directly:
http://scope.bccampus.ca/mod/forum/view.php?id=8341

Thursday, June 10, 2010

A.nnotate.com

John Goldsmith aka @detools brought our attention this morning to a new service called A.nnotate.
A.nnotate is an online annotation, collaboration and indexing system for documents and images, supporting PDF and MS Office formats. Instead of emailing different versions of a document back and forth you can now all comment on a single read-only copy online. Unlike online word processors, the document is displayed in high quality with fonts and layout just like the printed version. It is easy to use and runs in all common web browsers, with no software or plugins to install.
This tool has a number of uses from individual knowledge management (what you write in the margins as you read) to collaborative projects.

Monday, May 31, 2010

MicroSCoPE: May 2010 Issue

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MicroSCoPE: A Close Look at What's Happening in the SCoPE Community
May, 2010
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In This Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Starts Today! ePortfolios
2. Quarterly Field Trip: Visiting the Global Talent Network
3. Professional Learning Series: BYOVLC
4. Learn Together Collaboratory
5. Activity Recap
6. Collaborating Partnerships
7. PeriSCoPE
8. About SCoPE
9. About MicroSCoPE

1. Starts Today! ePortfolios
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 31 - June 13, 2010
Web conference June 1 at 13:00 PDT, 20:00 GMT
Facilitators: Catherine Paul and Roselynn Verwoord
During this 2-week seminar Catherine and Roselynn will introduce us to University of British Columbia's Portfolio Community of Practice. They have invited members of the CoP to share their teaching and course eportfolios and encourage all seminar participants to discuss their experiences with portfolio projects. This seminar will be of interest to those involved in or curious about portfolio projects, as well as to those interested in building and facilitating faculty communities of practice.

2. Quarterly Field Trip: Visiting the Global Talent Network
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 1, 2010 - 10:00 PDT, 17:00 GMT
It's time for our next Quarterly Field Trip! This excursion will be to the Global Talent Network community with host Lauren Klein. Field Trips - visits to living communities - are organized in collaboration with CPSquare, the community of practice on communities of practice.

3. Professional Learning Series: BYOVLC
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 1, 2010 - 13:30 PDT, 20:30 GMT
eCampusAlberta, ABNorth, and BCCampus invite you to attend the last joint professional development web conference of the 2009/10 academic year. BYOVLC (bring your own virtual lawn chair!) and join us to discuss the year's highlights and topics and speakers for next year's professional development series. This will be an informal wind up of the year's activities and a chance to say goodbye for the summer to others in our online community.

4. Learn Together Collaboratory
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We're making progress on the Learn Together Collaboratory! The goal is to use this site to centralise information about people, events, opportunities, and quality teaching and learning resources in higher education. It's simple; the more you contribute the more we all benefit.

5. Activity Recap
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* The 2nd annual Gathering of Online Community Enthusiasts, facilitated by Nancy White and Alice MacGillivray, took place in Vancouver on May 6, 2010. We're gradually collecting our notes and artefacts.
* In anticipation of the upcoming book Education for a Digital World - Edition 2.0, we held a webinar series with chapter authors
* All videos and session archives for the April Culturally Diverse Learners seminar are available
* Our summary for the March seminar: Tools for Collaborating Online is a collection of images

Past SCoPE seminar discussions are always available for reading and afterthoughts.
6. Collaborating Partnerships
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SCoPE forms collaborating partnerships with many organizations to implement and promote community activities and products. This is a mutual exchange of support and services. We're happy to be working with CoroWare to host events and showcase products to the educational community. Coroware delivers HiDef videoconferencing solutions, including its CoroCall monthly subscription service, desktop audio and video conferencing equipment, and affordable videoconferencing room systems from Vidyo.
7. PeriSCoPE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Social Media: Trends and Implications for Learning is a free monthly discussion, hosted by AACE and facilitated by George Siemens and David Cormier. The next session is June 17, 2010.
* In Education is looking for quality papers for consideration for the Autumn 2010 issue.
* The next CIDER Session is Exploring Distance Education Research, June 2, 2010. 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.
The Canadian Institute of Distance Education Research (CIDER) is seeking presenters for the fall series of online CIDER Sessions. These sessions are targeted at distance education researchers, graduate students, and practitioners. Each session features an active researcher talking about their project, including methodology, observations, results and research implications. You are invited to share your research related work with our community in one of our upcoming CIDER sessions. If you have a current study that you are willing to present, please submit a brief proposal of your presentation to Lynn Anderson atlynnlo@cogeco.ca

8. About SCoPE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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. Our activities are facilitated by volunteers in the community and 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
* 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 page to keep in the loop.

* Do you blog? Add it to our SCoPE member blogs database.
* We gather our seminar resources in Diigo.

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

MicroSCoPE is prepared by Sylvia Currie, Community Steward (scurrie@bccampus.ca).
Please spread the word about SCoPE activities. Distribute this newsletter!

Friday, May 28, 2010

Effective Practices: Twitter

I often come across communication practices that grab my attention. This tweet from Alice MacGillivray was directed at me and others, but is certainly something I would have noticed in any case. Alice is taking a moment to thank individuals for recent engagement. It's not automated -- just a thoughtful way to show appreciation and perhaps draw attention to individuals in your network who may be of interest. Simple and effective!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Read It Later

Looking for ways to manage your work flow better? Kathreen Riel suggests Read It Later, a tool for creating a list of items you come across on the web but need to defer reading until later.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

List of web 2.0 tools for instruction

This article and list of tools comes via Tony Bates' blog: Do you have experience using these tools in teaching?
Lloyd, M. (2010) 18 Web 2.0 tools for instruction Campus Technology, April 28
This very useful article asks two experts, Sarah Robbins (aka Intellagirl), of the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University-Bloomington, and Mark Frydenberg of Bentley University, to pick their favourite web 2.0 tools for instruction. Here’s their choices (read the article to find out why, and how they’ve used them):
Sara:
Mark

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Book chapter and presentation

Earlier this month Patricia Delich, Paul Stacey, and I presented our chapter for the upcoming book Education for a Digital World - Edition 2.0. (more details in earlier post) The presentation itself was a bit of a challenge -- an overview of a chapter in 30 minutes, giving enough of a context so it made sense to people who haven't read the chapter, and allowing enough time for questions. This is where collaboration really shines. Patricia was ACE at managing the preliminary planning for this. She prepared the presentation, offered several options for how to structure it, and guided us about how much time we should spend on each portion and what to emphasize. Best of all, she started EARLY with the whole process. Paul is the ultimate web conference facilitator, but he stepped back so that I could get some practice. Like Patricia, Paul emphasizes the importance of planning ahead. That involves writing a script, rehearsing, identifying roles, and arriving early to upload files, test audio, and so on. There's a lot more to this than people realize! I've learned so much from participating in live sessions with Paul, but I have a long way to go!

For our session we introduced ourselves, each talked briefly about our communities, then highlighted some recommendations based on our experiences with each community. Then we zoned in on common themes that emerged for us in the final analysis of our case studies. In keeping with the 30-minute time frame we held off on responding to questions until the end, but encouraged participants to post questions in the text chat as they came to mind.

Here is the latest draft of our chapter: Cultivating communities of practice: Analysis of 3 cases studies using the 7 principles and the Elluminate recording of our presentation.

As a side note, at CPSquare we've started a practice of rehearsals as a way to get feedback from community members on upcoming presentations. A nice idea, and it's proving to be very worthwhile!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Online Communities: Indicators of Success

In my role as community steward and moderator for SCoPE I'm always looking for indicators of success. I do the usual routine checks, like how many people are creating accounts, logging in, contributing to discussions, accessing resources, and so on. (I say "and so on" realizing that I don't do enough in this area, and I have a lot to learn about what that "and so on" should include.)

I also keep an eye out for blog posts that mention SCoPE. Some bloggers help to spread the word about SCoPE events, and others link back to SCoPE discussions, such as this recent post by Clint Lalonde on his reflections during the Tools for Collaborating Online seminar.

But sometimes these indicators jump out at me in twitter, like Nancy White letting me know she mentioned SCoPE during her keynote presentation at the eLearning 2010 in Forth Worth, Texas (slides are here, and it's also available to watch online).


Nancy also added a couple links to contributions by SCoPE members on her History and Future of Online Facilitation wiki page.

Other times positive feedback from SCoPE members will land right in my inbox.  This is a recent post by Colby Stuart, a member since 2007.
Through my decades of collaboration in everything from the creative industry through to academic scientific communities and into the WWW or social networking, I have found SCoPE to be a place where the sheer joy of sharing, participation and playful encounter comes alive. In this space we share ideas, demonstrate tools, take each other into experiences with tools, platforms and spaces.

SCoPE has captured the essence of what creates a safe collaboration space. No one is left behind. There is room for each person to contribute and ask questions and never feel like they fall short in doing so. Even if we have no time, we still can follow and join in when time permits. It's our choice.

The platform and tools in SCoPE have grown as the people and group have communicated what they needs to grow. In other words, SCoPE services the continual growth of communication and collaboration by listening with resonance. Through that, SCoPE has serviced us all - so that we can focus and continue to share and learn from one another - on all levels.

SCoPE "is" a fine example of collaboration and the value that comes from that.
Thank you, Sylvia and everyone for that. We appreciate how much we enjoy this space to share, learn, contribute.
 And a few others in the last month or so:

Theresa Weel, in a forum post:
Scope is a great source for learning about collaborative tools, particularly because we roll up our collective sleeves and use them.
And in the same forum, a post by Deirdre Bonnycastle:
I agree even though my time is really minimal, I try to read something from SCoPE once a day.
So THANK YOU SCoPE members. These are all great examples of indicators of success in an online community! This type of feedback sure perks me up.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Some solutions for your community, anyone?

There is a lot of chatter today about the announcement by NING that they will no longer offer a free hosting option. In fact, if you do a twitter search on 'ning' you'll see many, MANY new updates waiting for a page refresh within a fraction of a second of accessing the page. Aside from sympathy for the employees at NING who were laid off, and also for those who have invested a lot of energy into their NING communities without realizing that they can't move their content elsewhere, I'm feeling indifferent about this move. I've never warmed up to NING as a platform, and got a little bored checking out all the new communities popping up that sounded interesting, but alas, fizzled very quickly. Perhaps a fee-based service will help to reduce the number of inactive spaces.

In any case, the real reason for this blog post is to point to something fantastic that is happening RIGHT NOW as a result of this announcement from NING. Alec Couros fired up an Alternative to Ning Google Doc that took off like wild fire. He posted this to Twitter:

There was such a rush to collaborate on this project that many people were getting error messages when trying to access the document. I fired up Jing to record the the first few minutes of editing in progress. It's cool to watch! I also added a snippet about SCoPE, since we'll gladly offer Moodle SIG space for educational practitioners and researchers.

This project could develop into quite the useful toolkit for community stewards!

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Culturally Diverse Learners

We're gearing up for a SCoPE seminar on a topic that should be of interest to all educators: Culturally Diverse Learners, facilitated by Emma Bourassa, Kyra Garson, and Wesley Eccleston from Thompson Rivers University. The seminar is anchored on a series of filmed scenarios aimed to enhance intercultural competencies by providing a spring board for dialogue and reflection on best practices for intercultural learning environments. There are eight videos altogether -- in addition to the scenarios there are four "extras" that include interviews and a couple segments on the making of the series.

The seminar kicks off with a live session April 12 at 12:00 PST, 19:00 GMT in Elluminate.

As with all SCoPE seminars, this event is free and open to the public and designed for busy professionals. You can participate according to your own time and interests. All seminars are moderated by volunteers in our community and are archived for future reference. We welcome newcomers and latecomers, and reading along is VERY acceptable.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Education for a Digital World - Edition 2.0 Webinar Series

The Education for a Digital World - Edition 2.0 webinar series is based on the soon-to-be-released book Education for a Digital World - Edition 2.0, edited by Sandy Hirtz and Kevin Kelly. The series is organized in partnership with Steve Hargadon, manager of Learn Central. Book chapter authors are invited to give an overview of their chapter, followed by Q&A from the live audience. These 30-minute sessions will be recorded.

The collaboratively authored book, and its predecessor Education for a Digital World, represent a shift in how educators are sharing their research, experiences and best practices in online teaching and learning. Facilitated completely through virtual interactions, this new model of authoring went beyond writing and editing to become an international effort in community building and professional growth.

book cover design by June Kaminski

Education for a Digital World - Edition 2.0 Webinar Series

This webinar series starts today and the details will be updated as they become available at SCoPE. Patricia Delich, Paul Stacey, and I are first up to talk about our book chapter. I've copied that section here:

book cover

This webinar series is based on the soon-to-be-released book Education for a Digital World - Edition 2.0, edited by Sandy Hirtz and Kevin Kelly. The series is organized in partnership with Steve Hargadon, manager of Learn Central. Book chapter authors are invited to give an overview of their chapter, followed by Q&A from the live audience. These 30-minute sessions will be recorded.

The collaboratively authored book, and its predecessor Education for a Digital World, represent a shift in how educators are sharing their research, experiences and best practices in online teaching and learning. Facilitated completely through virtual interactions, this new model of authoring went beyond writing and editing to become an international effort in community building and professional growth.

This schedule is still evolving so be sure to check back often!


Wednesday, March 31
12:00pm PDT, Elluminate: http://tr.im/edw20

Cultivating communities of practice: Analysis of 3 case studies using the 7 principles

Facilitators: Sylvia Currie, Patricia Delich, and Paul Stacey
curriedelichstacey

In this session we will describe 3 case studies using Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder's (2002) 7 Principles for Cultivating Communities of Practice. This framework provides a close look at how our decisions about community design and technologies to support community activities were made and revised, as well as a consistent and rich view to help those involved in online and hybrid communities learn from our experiences.

About our facilitators:

Sylvia Currie is Manager, Client Services - Online Communities at BCcampus where she works with educational professionals who are interested in creating online communities of practice to support learning. She is a community steward and moderator for two online communities: SCoPE, an award winning international online community for individuals interested in educational research and practice, and the BC Educational Technology Users Group. Sylvia also coordinates and promotes professional development opportunities and services related to teaching and learning. Sylvia has been involved in online education since 1995 in many different roles. Her master's degree from Simon Fraser University focused on online communities of practice.

Dr. Patricia Delich has been guiding teachers in the use of online educational technologies for more than 15 years working with hundreds of educators throughout California and the U.S., and around the world. Dr. Delich was instrumental in developing City College of San Francisco’s successful distance education program and obtained recognition for faculty by acquiring 2 national and 11 statewide awards for exemplary online courses. As an eLearning consultant, Dr. Delich extends her expertise to colleges and universities to assist them in their online learning initiatives. Dr. Delich holds a doctorate degree in educational technology from Pepperdine University and focused her study on online course design, development, and teaching.

Paul Stacey is the Director, Communications, Stakeholder and Academic Relations at BCcampus, a collaborative online learning agency that supports British Columbia’s public post-secondary institutions in meeting their students’ learning needs. Paul leads initiatives to forward shareable online learning resources, online communities, and professional development for educators in all of BC’s public post-secondary institutions. Paul has three undergraduate degrees, and at the age of 50 completed a 100 percent online graduate program in Adult Learning and Global Change with a cohort of learners from around the world. He also serves as Associate Faculty member at Royal Roads University where he co-developed and taught an online International and Global Distance Education course for the Master of Arts in Learning and Technology program. He is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences, a webcast and workshop facilitator, and an award winner for his innovative work with educational technology.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Wellcome Collection

The Wellcome Collection, "200 years of human culture", has very interesting images that are freely available for download for personal, academic teaching or study use, under one of two Creative Commons licences.

L0024012  
Credit: Wellcome Library, London  
MANUSCRIPTS: WIHM Western MS 4268
ROSSI Bernardino, a notebook of surgical lectures, 

Naples 1738.
Illustration of dental instruments.
Collection: Archives & Manuscripts
Library reference no.: WMS and MS 4268

Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons by-nc 2.0 UK: England & Wales

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Teaching and Learning in Networks

This online event is open to everyone!

eCampusAlberta, Alberta-North, and BCcampus invite you to a 90-minute web conference as part of the Best Practice in Upgrading Online Conference organized by Bow Valley College and NorQuest College.

When: March 24, 2010 @ 13:00 pm PDT (your time zone)
Presenter: - George Siemens
Where: Elluminate Live (see details)

Moderator:
Randy LaBonte, PD Coordinator, Alberta-North

Presenter:
George Siemens, Social Media Strategist, Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute (TEKRI), Athabasca University.

Session Description
Social media and networked technologies have become prominent in society. In response, educators have started to actively research how social and technological networks impact the role of the teacher. Decentralized learning content and distributed learner interactions call into question many of the activities teachers perform in traditional courses and classrooms. This presentation will explore participatory pedagogy and highlight practical activities teachers can utilize to increase learner involvement in networks.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Nine Tools for Collaboratively Creating Mind Maps

This is an excellent overview of tools for collaboratively creating mind maps from the Free Technology for Teachers blog.
Mind maps or graphic organizers can be invaluable tools for visual thinkers and visual learners. The process of creating a mind map can help students gain an overview perspective on complex, multifaceted concepts. Mind maps can also help students outline an essay or story they're planning to write. The following list contains nine tools that can be used by students to create mind maps independently or collaboratively.
This list is of particular interest in light of the current Tools for Collaborating Online seminar discussion at SCoPE. There is a discussion on mind maps underway now. (Newcomers and latecomers are always welcomed in SCoPE discussions.) 

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Screencasts with Screenr

Screenr is VERY easy to use! Click record and off you go creating a screencast up to 5 minutes in length. There is nothing to download and it is free.

Here is an example created by Amanda Coolidge, Communication Chair for the BC Educational Technology Users Group, to highlight upcoming activities. Through the Screenr site Amanda published a link to her screencast directly to Twitter.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Virtual Field Trip

CPsquare, the community of practice on communities of practice, and SCoPE are working together to organize virtual Quarterly Field Trips. The practice of visiting communities has a long history in and around CPsquare, and during the 2009 Online Community Enthusiast event in Vancouver, British Columbia we decided to organize these field trips as a way to provide opportunities for a mutual exchange among community leaders and enthusiasts. Tourists (enthusiasts) can get ideas and insights from seeing other communities, and the tour guides (leaders) can benefit from the expertise of the enthusiasts.

Our third field trip is scheduled for February 22, 2010 at 20:00 GMT. This excursion, outlined in the CPSquare Wiki, will be to the Wikisourcing Sustainable Enterprises (WSE) community. Host Jenny Ambrozek will show us the WSE community as it is today using this informal community comparison framework adapted from the C4P model for our quarterly field trips:
  • Content: What explicit knowledge objects such as documents or video clips are created or shared in this community?
  • Connections: What interpersonal contacts between community members (e.g., that facilitate relationship-building between community members) can you observe?
  • Conversation: What face-to-face or online conversations are going on?
  • Context: What context gives meaning to the content, connections and conversations in this community?
  • Purpose: What is the reason for which the members come together in this community?
When: Monday, February 22, 2010 at 12:00 PST,  20:00 GMT (your time zone)  
Where: SCoPE Community Enthusiasts Elluminate Room

I will be co-moderating this session with John Smith. It's open to everyone so please spread the word!

Friday, February 12, 2010

MicroSCoPE: February 2010 Issue

This newsletter is cross-posted in the SCoPE online community.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MicroSCoPE: A Close Look at What's Happening in the SCoPE Community
February, 2010
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In This Issue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Starts Today! Pimp Your Post
2. Quarterly Field Trip: Visiting Wikisourcing Sustainability Enterprises
3. SCoPE Seminar: Collaborating Online
4. Online Courses and Workshops
5. Mark Your Calendars
6. Activity Recap
7. PeriSCoPE
8. About SCoPE
9. About MicroSCoPE

1. Starts Today! Pimp Your Post
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 12 - 19, 2010
Web conference February 12 at 19:30 GMT
Facilitators: Tracy Roberts and Gina Bennett
During this combined 1-hour web conference and 8-day 'sandboxing' discussion we will explore (easy, fun, and free) ways to go beyond plain text to jazz up introductory posts in online courses. This event is organized by the British Columbia Educational Technology Users Group.

2. Quarterly Field Trip: Visiting Wikisourcing Sustainability Enterprises
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 22, 2010 12:00 PST, 20:00 GMT
It's time for our next Quarterly Field Trip! This excursion will be to the Wikisourcing Sustainability Enterprises community with host Jenny Ambrozek. Field Trips - visits to living communities - are organized in collaboration with CPSquare, the community of practice on communities of practice.

3. SCoPE Seminar: Collaborating Online
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
March 1 - 19, 2010
Facilitator: Emma Duke-Williams
Collaboration is a term that is used quite loosely. What do we mean when we say we are collaborating? What are the key characteristics that differentiate collaboration from cooperation and working independently? What tools support the collaborative process online? During this 3-week seminar we will use Google Wave to explore its potential for supporting online collaboration while addressing these and other questions.

4. Online Courses and Workshops
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Instructional Skills Workshop Online
May 3 - 28, 2010
Royal Roads University
This course is designed to help new and experienced instructors achieve success in facilitating learning in an online environment.

At SCoPE we will be featuring free and fee-based online courses and workshops offered by British Columbia post-secondary institutions.

5. Mark Your Calendars
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Best Practices in Upgrading Online -- online conference March 24-26, 2010
* Culturally Diverse Learners: April 12 - 30, 2010. This seminar will showcase a video series produced by Thompson Rivers University.
Check upcoming seminars for updates to the seminar schedule. The Learn Together Collaboratory has a list of events of interest to educators. Please contribute to the list!

6. Activity Recap
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Guiding the E-Researcher, facilitated by Janet Salmons, explored key e-research steps needed to use synchronous tools for scholarly interviews. The seminar was part of our Professional Reading Group Series, and built on Janet's new book: Online Interviews in Real Time.

* We kicked off the 2010 Professional Learning Series in January with an interactive session on authentic assessment. In February our Course Showcase featured 'Communicating Effectively' from Lakeland College and Royal Roads Univesity's online 'Instructional Skill Workshop Online' (ISWO). Recordings are available for all of these events organized by collaboratively by BCcampus, eCampusAlberta, and Alberta North.

* We had a lively gathering for the December 21st World is Open Q&A session with Curtis Bonk. The recording and text chat transcript are available.

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

7. PeriSCoPE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Social Media: Trends and Implications for Learning is a free monthly discussion, hosted by AACE and facilitated by George Siemens and David Cormier.

* Moodle for Teachers is a free online workshop facilitated by Gladys Gahona and Nellie Deutsch, March 2-31, 2010

* The next CIDER Session is Moving Online: taking teaching and learning beyond four walls, March 3, 2010. 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.

* The call for proposals is open until Feburary 22 for the upcoming online conference hosted by Knowplace: 21st Century Learning & Sharing: Engaging for Success April 22-24, 2010.

8. About SCoPE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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. Our activities are facilitated by volunteers in the community and 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

* 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 page to keep in the loop.

* Do you blog? Add it to our SCoPE member blogs database.

* Leave a message on the SCoPE Voicethread

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

MicroSCoPE is prepared by Sylvia Currie, Community Steward (scurrie@bccampus.ca).
Please spread the word about SCoPE activities. Distribute this newsletter!