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

Vance Stevens, Nellie Deutsch, Sandy Wagner, and Snea Thinsan at TESOL New Orleans, March 2011

Nellie Deutsch earned her doctorate from the University of Phoenix from the School of Advanced Studies in 2010. Her dissertation research (available on ProQuest) focused on instructor experiences with integrating technology in blended learning contexts in higher education around the world. 

• Nellie is the founder of Integrating Technology for Active Lifelong Learning (IT4ALL), a non-profit organization that provides free professional development workshops for groups around the world, generally in conjunction with different projects and initiatives.
• Dr. Deutsch is also founder and current coordinator of the annual Connecting Online for Instruction and Learning andMoodlemoot free online conferences, hosted online by IT4ALL.org and supported by WizIQ online learning platform.
• Dr. Deutsch has provided consultation on how to integrate Moodle and Elluminate learning environments for distance education at Open University and worked as a consultant at WikiEducator.org, supported by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), Otago Polytechnic (New Zealand), and Athabasca Open University (Canada) in developing online courses and facilitation.
• She is also an educational consultant, mentor, instructional course designer, and online facilitator on how to integrate technology into the face-to-face and online classroom using Moodle, WebQuests, Professional Electronic Portfolios(Mahara), web 2.0 tools, social networks, and wikis.
• In addition, she is an accredited PAIRS (Practical Application of Intimate Relationship Skills), conflict resolution, and Reiki practitioner, who practices and teaches Mindfulness Meditation and the Alexander Technique.
• Dr. Deutsch has written chapters on the use of technology and research (Sage) in textbooks and has peer reviewed articles and books.
• Dr. Deutsch also serves as chair for doctoral students.
• Finally, Dr. Deutsch has presented at conferences in the United States and in virtual classes around the world.
  

In her words:

It all started with the WebQuest: http://www.nelliemuller.com/WebQuestsbyNellieDeutsch.htm

I am preparing 2 online and 1 f2f/online events:

Math & Arts in Ithaca, NY. July 18-22 (Math Camp), 23/24 

Moodlemoot in August 17-21, 2011

London, International Leadership Association conference, Oct 26-29

Moodle for Teachers (M4T), Professional Electronic Portfolio (PEP) (Mahara, Moodle & Open), WebQuest (Moodle & Open) at Integrating Technology for Active Lifelong Learning (IT4ALL)

Moodle 2.0: http://www.integrating-technology.com

Connecting Online Ning

LEO4u.org

Book on Interviewing Online for a Qualitative Research (Blended Learning) Sage

Recording 

• http://tinyurl.com/l2g29may2011deutsch 
• https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2011-05-29.0608.M.7AE801FFB697DA460D4BF25AA8C21B.vcr&sid=75

Announcements

• http://taedtech.ning.com/events/learning2gether-discussion-1
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/message/27716

Download: https://learning2gether.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/684465-2011-05-22webheads-learningtimes-v-10-001-64k.mp3

Yurii Vedrashko and Sean Dowling discuss with participants the role and construction of a PLE.  Sean is Educational Technology Coordinator at HCT, in Sharja; while Yuri is a Foundations teacher and CMS (Moodle and BbVista enthusiast) at Fujairah Women’s College.  They have differing views on how such spaces should be configured. Roughly speaking, Yurii favors consolidating spaces accessible through a single login on a CMS / LMS, while Sean takes the ‘many pieces loosely joined approach’ by incorporating learning objects from many spaces in learning environments he creates online.

About Sean:

• blogs at http://seandowling68.wordpress.com/.
  Links to his various online spaces are in the “My teaching blogs” widget.
• Sean’s paper has sparked this discussion:
  http://seandowling68.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/digital_learning_spaces_sdowling.pdf

About Yurii:

• Yuri’s Moodle website http://shc-itecweb-01.hct.ac.ae/projects/moodle_yv/
• Join the Ning and comment on a discussion started by Yurii at:
  http://taedtech.ning.com/forum/topics/moodle-lessons-lets-get

Recording:

• https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback.jnlp?psid=2011-05-22.0418.M.7AE801FFB697DA460D4BF25AA8C21B.vcr&sid=75
• http://tinyurl.com/2011may22ple

Announcements

• http://taedtech.ning.com/events/learning2gether-with-yuri
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/message/27695

• listening to recording http://tinyurl.com/2011may22ple Sean Dowling &Yuri Vedrashko debate role of LMS/CMS in PLE #learning2gether #taedtech

  — Vance Stevens (@VanceS) May 22, 2011

Bessy (Yumei Wei) is an English teacher in China who likes to put her students in touch with native speakers online.  On this day she intended to hold one of her classes as a Learning2gether event.  Participants are welcome to join in and observe what she does, or offer suggestions in conducting her classes and setting up collaborations between her and her Chinese students. 

Bessy teaches students on a Registered Nursing course who need to learn English in hopes of getting placement in Singapore and Saudi Arabia.  In order to matriculate they need to pass exams in nursing and in English, but Bessy’s online courses are not directed only at the exam.  She uses a wide range of activities that develop the students’ proficiency and motivate them to engage  in the language.

She also considers herself more a learner than a teacher, and hopes to meet other friends around the world who will engage with her students.  One of these might be Ayat, who teaches in Egypt, and is promising to put on a Learning2gether session with Maria in Argentina, on how their classes have been collaborating online.  Perhaps tonight’s session will result in a triangle including Egypt, China, and Argentina.

Announcements:

• http://taedtech.ning.com/events/learning2gether-with-yumei-wei
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/message/27666

• Listening to Bessy (Yumei) explain her approach to teaching nursing English in China http://tinyurl.com/l2g2011may15bessy #learning2gether

  — Vance Stevens (@VanceS) May 15, 2011

Recording:

• https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2011-05-15.0628.M.7AE801FFB697DA460D4BF25AA8C21B.vcr&sid=75
• or: http://tinyurl.com/l2g2011may15bessy 

Abstract: This presentation explores how the latest technology and worldwide web can be used to support teachers and students particularly focusing on the presenter’s exploration of using the web in a social constructivist approach to knowledge building and language learning.

     The presentation explores the four interlinking and overlapping stages that learners experience whilst building their knowledge: knowledge-seeker, knowledge-discusser, knowledge-user and knowledge-provider and how these form an ever-growing knowledge cycle. As their knowledge develops, learners become more aware of other gaps in their knowledge and begin the cycle again. This cycle is driven by the continuous theorising of practical knowledge and practicalising of theoretical knowledge (Tsui 2003).
The paper uses practical examples of the presenter’s experience with a variety of web and video-conferencing medium and concludes with some practical advice that will hopefully help you make the most effective use of the web-based tools available to us all.

Announcements:

• http://taedtech.ning.com/events/learning2gether-weekly-webinar
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/message/27663

Recording:

• https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2011-05-08.0556.M.7AE801FFB697DA460D4BF25AA8C21B.vcr&sid=75
• http://tinyurl.com/l2g2011may8quirke

Learning2gether Episode 41

Sunday, May 1, 2011 –

(No MP3 recording available, but you can play FLV files at the links below)

Vance Stevens conducted round 2 of the BigMarker shakeout. Round 1 was where we tried out the service in meeting mode.  In this round, Vance will try to give an actual presentation in presentation mode on Connecting the Dots: Technogogy and the Aha! Moment:

http://www.slideshare.net/vances/connecting-the-dots-technogogy-and-the-aha-moment

Where:

• noon GMT, start gathering at http://tappedin.org for distance coordination and setup
• 13:00 GMT: http://www.bigmarker.com/vances/presentations

Announcements:

• http://taedtech.ning.com/events/learning2gether-connecting-the
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/message/27651

Recordings (Vance made two recordings in uTIPu, each at the 20 min max for the free version – the recordings recorded only the screencast and the mic, did not record what was said by others in BigMarker 😦

• 2011may01l2g-1.FLV
• 2011may01l2g-2.FLV

Connecting the dots: Technogogy and the AHA! moment. Fantastic! by @vances http://ow.ly/4KO60

— Carla Arena (@carlaarena) May 1, 2011

Learning2gether Episode 40

(There is no MP3 recording for this session; the Adobe Connect recording is available, below)

• For this session we’ll meet at Webheads HQ in Edunation (SLURLhttp://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation/49/179/23).  There we’ll be briefly introduced to
  •  the recent Virtual Round Table Conference, summarized here: http://www.virtual-round-table.com/page/summary-4th-virtual-round
  • the free SLanguages conference coming up
• Then we’ll move as a group via teleport to any sites that participants want to show us. If you want to be teleported, add me as a friend in Second Life: Webhead Link.
  • For this, we invite others who would like to show us their (favorite) places to teleport us there during this session.
  • We’ve done something like this before:  
    http://advanceducation.blogspot.com/2009/06/speedlifing.html
• Participants we think might attend
  • Gwen Gwasi (Heike)
  • Kalyan Chattopadhyay
  • LyseBrie (Ellen)
  • Osnacantab (Dennis)
  • Randall Renoir (Sadler)
  • Webhead Link (Vance)

More info on the Edunation islands http://edunation-islands.wikispaces.com

Where: 15:00 GMT (note, later time than usual, 7 pm in UAE);

• Location (SLURL): http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduNation/49/179/23 
  

Announcements:

• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/message/27639
• http://taedtech.ning.com/events/learning2gether-with-heike

Recording:

• http://lancelot.adobeconnect.com/p41074590/  (42min)
  Starts with Randall Sadler explaining how to improve visibility by increasing draw distance …

Learning2gether Episode 39

Kalyan Chattopadhyay’s presentation online at IATEFL Brighton – m-learning in TESOL, how far is it feasible in India? took place Monday, April 18 2011 | 3:30 PM (GMT Standard Time).

Recording:

• http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/520745-m-learning-in-tesol-how-far-is-it-feasible-in-india

Learning2gether Episode 38

Sunday, April 17. 2011 –

How do you close the screen shares you no longer want? We never did figure it out, but that’s what the lines are @#!?

BigMarker is free software running online that lets participants display voice and video, share screens, and of course text chat with one another. It has two modes, meeting space and presenter.  Today we try out a meeting space created for Webheads to hang out in. No password is required to join in, but please wear a headset (your mic will activate automatically).  I don’t think it has a recording mode; we may have to make a screencast. The room is available for common use by anybody at any time 24/7.  And anyone who can read a capcha can create his or her own room at http://bigmarker.com. Thanks and acknowledgement to Nik Peachey for the tip on this space, yet another illustration of how knowledge disseminates through a PLN.

When and where:

• noon GMT, start gathering at http://tappedin.org for distance coordination and setup
• 13:00 GMT, http://www.bigmarker.com/vances/wia

Announcements:

• http://taedtech.ning.com/events/today-we-test-drive-bigmarker
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/message/27622

Screenshots (we didn’t bother screencasting our fumbling about learning this new software 😉

• 
  View on screencast.com »

• 
  View on screencast.com »

 Saturday, April 16, 2011

Vance Stevens presents Transforming learning with creative technogogy: Achieving the aha! moment, live from Ras Al Khaimah, UAE with help from online colleagues in various regions of the UAE and with a possible live hookup from Brighton, where they will be getting ready for their first presentation of the day at the IATEFL Conference taking place there. http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2011/ TESOL Arabia is very active in the UAE, with chapters in various cities frequently putting on professional development events such as the one in the flyer at left. However, the UAE is a large country, with several hours driving time required between its major cities.  As a result it is often not possible for many teachers in the UAE to attend these fine events in regions not their own.

One purpose of this presentation is to suggest alternative means for teachers in the UAE to connect with one another via their chapter events.  This presentation will attempt to demonstrate how teachers in various parts of the UAE can present to one another online and not only that, but include participants from other parts of the world as well.  It is hoped to suggest by extrapolation that teachers familiar with tools making this possible could also use them to engage students in meaningful and authentic communication with peers elsewhere in the UAE and worldwide.

• The presentation will be an echo from my blog post here http://advanceducation.blogspot.com/2011/03/transforming-learning-with-creative.html, applying the concepts through engagement with an active PLN or personal learning network.
• Audience participation includes:
  • Broadcast of the presentation via Elluminate to a live audience who could interact with the one in RAK via my projected laptop with mic and speakers, or directly with on-site participants txting from workstations
    • Nik Peachey, Graham Stanley, Ayat from Egypt, and Anthony Gaughan have offered to join us from the IATEFL conference in Brighton (see http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2011/forum/welcomeintroductions); and we can also monitor their Twitter feeds and converse with them through #hashtags
    • Live interaction with other TA chapters (Jim Buckingham and Heather Baba have offered to join from distanct emirates)
    • Live interaction with others invited to tune in across various PLN’s of educators interested in using educational technology with language learners; e.g. Kalyan Chattopadhyay, IndiaCALL
  • As a result of exposure to this instance of transformative learning through creative technogogy I’m hoping that some might achieve that aha! moment. In that case they might be encouraged to learn more through participation in further connectivist professional development via http://taedtech.ning.com, http://webheads.info andhttp://learning2gether.pbworks.com

When? 07:00 GMT (11 am in UAE, 8 am in Brighton ), at this time:

• http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=PLN+in+UAE+teacher+professional+development&iso=20110416T11&p1=2&ah=1
• or http://tinyurl.com/2011apr16-7gmt

Where? in Elluminate 

• http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=273662
  
• or  http://tinyurl.com/y3eh

Announcements:

• http://aplanet-project.org/profiles/blogs/invitation-to-attend-a-virtual
• http://taedtech.ning.com/events/connecting-the-dots-connecting
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/message/27613

• Recording of latest event at http://learning2gether.pbworks.com is at http://tinyurl.com/2011rak16apr – thanks all who attended #taedtech

  — Vance Stevens (@VanceS) April 16, 2011

Forums:

• http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2011/forum/future-conferences#comment-7470
• http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2011/forum/welcomeintroductions

Recording:

• https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2011-04-16.0101.M.7AE801FFB697DA460D4BF25AA8C21B.vcr&sid=75
• http://tinyurl.com/2011rak16apr 

Slideshare:

http://www.slideshare.net/vances/connecting-the-dots-technogogy-and-the-aha-m…