Vance Stevens delivered “Learning2gether to achieve the aha! moment”, the plenary given at ELTAI in Vellore, India, on Friday, June 17, 2011, before a live online audience:

• Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/vances/learning2gether-to-achieve-the-aha-moment
• Abstract: This talk introduces Learning2Gether (http://learning2gether.pbworks.com) and explains how it came about, and how it draws on and expands its participants’ personal learning networks so that knowledge is transferred informally and peer to peer. A crucial aspect of the learning that takes place there is where teachers model to one another how to use Web 2.0 tools to leverage learning through networking, and to apply these to classroom and other professional development opportunities. This talk is couched it in the perspective of how teachers achieve the aha! Moment, where they ‘get’ how technology can become a critical enabler of what they ordinarily try to do pedagogically in their classrooms. In this presentation I will try to provoke an aha! moment by illustrating how a PLN works to enhance such learning by getting people from other virtual spaces to join us in real time, live and online.

The session was recorded in India; however whereas the live show was clearly audible, the recording mic had shorted so whereas there is video, there is no sound in the recording, which you can view here:

http://www.wiziq.com/class/info.aspx?5mA7G8fKaxkH75ANyzpaLVstvMQM1okLE9P2u1V5ptHharf19GVSOfNYTUlBIf2nt7WYnWPUU4W4XO5FHWQKG1cj7tnvIwvv0TcYVNnAH5U%3d

If you visit the WiZiQ recording you will find images of Vance gesticulating and you can read in the chat that there was indeed a sound problem.  So we’ll reconstruct it aurally on June 26

Recording

• Eluminate https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2011-06-26.0631.M.7AE801FFB697DA460D4BF25AA8C21B.vcr&sid=75
• and the TinyURL is: http://tinyurl.com/2011jun26vance 
• Vance’s GeekSpeek podcast link: http://vance_stevens.podomatic.com/entry/2011-06-27T09_05_50-07_00
• Direct link to mp3 recording: http://vance_stevens.podomatic.com/enclosure/2011-06-27T09_05_50-07_00.mp3
  

Announcements:

• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/message/27835
• http://taedtech.ning.com/events/learning2gether-with-vance

Meanwhile, this from

Our scheduled presenter didn’t appear, but I started recording anyway when those present started talking about how networks work to promote learning any time, any year, via a robust PLN. Ali Boumousa, one of the original Webheads from 2002, got us discussing the nature of informal learning environments which are always there, always-on, and always available to participants as needed.  This led us to discuss the media aspects of social media, how all media and such networks have in common that they are a continual firehose of information which we need to learn to sip from.  When Ali raised the issue of techniques for filtering efficiently from our multiple streams of information overflow, we mentioned Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows http://www.theshallowsbook.com/ and then got to talking about MOOCs, which I had mentioned as a curriculum model in slide 13 in the plenary address I recently delivered at the ELTAI conference in Vellore,http://www.slideshare.net/vances/learning2gether-to-achieve-the-aha-moment

http://goodbyegutenberg.pbworks.com/w/page/33070273/Week2EVO2011

Meanwhile, multitasking, I was trying to locate our scheduled presenter on Skype.  I saw that Dave Cormier, whose work I’d referenced here, was online. So on a whim I Skyped him, interrupting his guitar practice Sunday morning in Prince Edward Island, Canada, but he agreed to pop in and join us in Elluminate for a stimulating conversation.  The result was an enlightened, spontaneous, recorded discussion, and the event itself serves to illustrate how a PLN works.

Announcement:

• Cameo appearance by @davecormier livens conversation on MOOCs and eportfolios at #learning2gether rec’d: http://tinyurl.com/2011jun19cormier

  — Vance Stevens (@VanceS) June 19, 2011

Recording:

• https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2011-06-19.0601.M.7AE801FFB697DA460D4BF25AA8C21B.vcr&sid=75
• Tiny URL version: http://tinyurl.com/2011jun19cormier

Ayat Al-Tawel (from Egypt) and Maria Bossa (from Argentina) are two EFL teachers who would like to share their international collaboration project. They have both worked with their students so they can interact with each other, not only to practise their English, but also to go beyond the walls of the traditional classroom to meet other cultures, customs, traditions and likes. This Sunday they’ll tell us about their students’ collaborations between Egypt and Argentina; e.g.http://photopeach.com/album/17qcpq4?ref=fb

Recording:

• Eluminate http://tinyurl.com/2011jun12l2g 
• and the full URL is: https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2011-06-12.0657.M.7AE801FFB697DA460D4BF25AA8C21B.vcr&sid=75

Announcements

• http://taedtech.ning.com/events/learning2gether-with-ayat
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/message/27764

• delightful presentation by Ayat Tawel and Maria Bossa in Elluminate http://tinyurl.com/y3eh happening now #taedtech #learning2gether

  — Vance Stevens (@VanceS) June 12, 2011

• Collaboration twixt Ayat Tawel and Maria Bossa wows Webheads- #learning2gether Eluminate recording http://tinyurl.com/2011jun12l2g #taedtech

  — Vance Stevens (@VanceS) June 12, 2011

View on screencast.com »

View on screencast.com »

Jim Buckingham and Vance Stevens follow up on this conversation:

Vance:  ever used Google Cloud Connect? http://tools.google.com/dlpage/cloudconnect

James:  no.. not familiar with it..

Vance:  Nellie was raving about it last night http://learning2gether.pbworks.com/2011spring

James:  .. strange that I haven’t seen it..

Vance:  sounds similar to One Note

James:  is it in Beta ..

Vance: not sure, but you can google for the blog with the info http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2011/02/google-cloud-connect-for-microsoft.html

James:  ok… shall do..

just found Jane Hart’s new course on Social Media.. that is starting today

its on her new concept learning platform.. http://shareandlearn.co.uk/

thought that if you hadn’t caught wind of it.. that you’d want to know about it.

http://c4lpt.co.uk/handbook/index.html

Vance:  I was just googling for those links

Vance:  yeah, ok, got them

James:  another key link

http://c4lpt.co.uk/workingsmarter/index.html

Vance:  I don’t see the … ah that one has the link to the course http://c4lpt.co.uk/shareandlearn/register/

James:  yeah.. it was the only link that I found to access the course..

interesting concept..

Share&Learn is a social and collaboration platform that
supports and enables informal and social learning
but which can also be used to track formal learning (i.e. courses) where required.

Vance:  wouldn’t Moodle or Bb (properly implemented) do that?

James:  hmmm… not sure what Jane Hart would say to that..

am curious to know why its catching the eye of others

Vance:  depends on what her platform is actually like

James:  check out http://niclaycock.blogspot.com/2011/05/tipping-point-in-learning-share-and.html

Vance:  You’re full of good links today

James:  happy to do so..

it’s my quota for May.. have to use it up quick.. 

Vance:  this last link harks to Jay Cross’s Internet Time Alliance http://internettimealliance.com/wp/ and to Harold Jarche, whom I actually connected with at a PI earth day mashup event, right here at the PI, 2 years backhttp://advanceducation.blogspot.com/2009/04/learntrends-in-global-learn-day-april.html

James:  cool..

Vance:  and Leigh Blackall is writing interesting takes on ubiquitous learning; e.g.http://leighblackall.blogspot.com/2011/03/who-owns-schools-ubiquitous-learning.html andhttp://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Ubiquitous_Learning_-_a_critique  and threatening to regale us with them on L2gether

James:  I sense that its providing a tool rich environment for people to connect with first, socialize, share common interests.. and then design what they want to learn..

Vance:  now you’ve just described second life

James:  now you’ve got me curious .. need to check’em all out..

Vance:  I think what would be interesting would be to have all these areas linked together so students could pursue the modality they prefer

hey why don’t we get together this sunday and discuss this topic

James:  yeah.. its starting to feel like a buffet .. where one is spoiled for choice

ok…. then there we go..

have registered to join Jane’s site.. to take in the Social Media course..

Vance: this will give me some incentive to check out this course and report back on Sunday

James:  supposed to start today..

Vance:  yeah, we report back on Sunday

James:  that’ll make two of us..

gotta get back to my real job ..

Vance: ok, thanks for the chat

we’ll meet on Sunday

signing up for the course now …

Recording:

• http://tinyurl.com/2011june5jimb
• or:  https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2011-06-05.0548.M.7AE801FFB697DA460D4BF25AA8C21B.vcr&sid=75

Announcements:

• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/message/27753
• http://taedtech.ning.com/events/june-5-learning2gether-vance