Communicating - #BYOD4L

Day 2 of #BYOD4L is all about communicating. Specifically, thinking about how we communicate in our professional and private lives, the methods and tools we use.

Rather than just write a list, I found this neat website to create Venn diagrams - because I was sure there would be an overlap - and there is. When I sat down to think about it, there are very few tools that I use exclusively for professional or private use, with most sitting in a blur in the middle. Some, like Facebook, started as a purely social tool, but as more and more businesses and professional bodies create pages I find it an increasingly useful way to be informed and to raise questions.

I then considered which of these tools I use of choice and which I have to use because they are work based, or because that is where to find others with whom I want to communicate. Google tools fit in this latter category with a lot of MOOCs using google as the preferred platform. I'm getting used to it, but it's not my preferred choice.

The day 2 scenarios are interesting and I relate to the educator in the second, as I often hear similar comments from our trainers and assessors: "I'm all alone", "I can't get to that PD session because I'm teaching", "My colleagues are so far away" (At CDU we have over 22,000 students across 4 campuses and 4 training centres). 

To them, and to our man in the video, I would say, "I hear what you're saying. My colleagues are 1,500 km away too. I've been able to explore using technology to help us communicate better. Let's see what might work for you." And then begins a journey of exploration ...

So for me, where to next? I've just returned from long service leave where I spent time in Nepal facilitating training in MS Word and PowerPoint with groups of community development workers in remote regions (Read about that on my other blog), and also introducing them to Twitter and Padlet and blogs. It was exciting to see their enthusiasm. I'm continuing to work with some of them individually, slowly introducing tools and apps they can use on their limited bandwidth. In my day job, I'll be continuing to explore (through courses like this) tools and apps that I can share with our trainers and assessors to help them further develop their skills and give their training sessions some "bling". Exciting times!

Learning on the move - #Fail! #BYOD4L is next.

So I didn't get to participate in #HumanMOOC. Changing locations, dodgy wifi and time zone differences all got too challenging. And then Christmas came along - and time with family was waaay more important. Hopefully #HumanMOOC will come round again.

So now back home and trying to get back into "normal" routines and I'm picking up on #BYOD4L. I lurked a bit here previously and got to share in what one of my colleagues was learning. It's a wild ride of a new topic each day for 5 days using The 5C Framework combined with Twitterchats. We're talking about Connecting, Communicating, Curating, Collaborating and Creating.

Check out the website from the image caption.

BYOD4L

Hello to HumanMOOCers

Hi from Pokhara, Nepal.
I think I've finally worked out a way to post my intro video - working round wifi access, power outages and device incompatibility is a challenge, but hopefully this link will work.
Greetings everyone!

Online learning on the move

Currently in Nepal and eager to start with #HumanMOOC. I'm hoping our travel over the next few weeks won't be too much of a barrier to my participation.

Keeping up with PD in Nepal

While we've been here in Nepal I've been surprised by how easy it has been to keep up with my professional development through a variety of online activities.

During our first week here I was able to join two sessions through Blackboard Collaborate facilitated from my own workplace, Charles Darwin University, as part of our annual Learning and Teaching Week.

I've also enjoyed participating in some of the Sunday evening #AussieED chats on Twitter and have enjoyed following the conversations around digital writing on #DigiWriMo.

Participating in Collaborate session from Pokhara 

Training in Nepal

Several months have passed since I last posted here.

We are now in Nepal and spending a few days in several remote communities, providing IT training for staff of International NepalFellowship (INF). Last week we spent a few days in Jumla and we are now in Gamgadhi with a group of staff who are keen and interested to learn about blogging. This post is to demonstrate to the group how to update a blog.

Our first view of snow from the top of the pass - heading to Gamgadhi

Jumla

Training INF Staff in Gamgadhi

This group also learnt how to use Padlet:

Planning for Mobile Learning

So I've just thrown myself into another MOOC!
This one is titled "Instructional Design for Mobile Learning" #ID4ML. I'm hoping it may give me some tips and ideas to trial during our time in Nepal.
Watch this space 😃