May 18 2009

Twitter = On demand learning and support

Published by maggiev at 2:48 pm under My posts, Twitter, Virtual classrooms, Workshops and tagged: , , ,

I am busy putting the finishing touches to my chapter on how social media tools help us to not to only communicate but become lifelong learners, when I was passed (via my twitter network) a link to a new platform that allows you to create blog communities called blog.mu. I went to investigate it as I am planning to start another one of my blogging drives for teachers. I also immediately bookmarked my “find”  for future reference using my  Diigo button, which also passed it on to my twitter network.

After a quick investigation (after all I have to finish my chapter by Wednesday) I discovered that it was run using a Wordpress engine and it reminded me a lot of my Edublog system (A blogging platform for teachers). I twittered this as I thought that it would give people more info on my “find”. As always, my network is listening in the background, and Sue Waters, who has always supported me on Edublogs, asked me if she could give me a live walkthrough (tutorial) on the spot, using Elluminate. Now how is that for on demand learning?

So using Twitter, we quickly organised a time and a place (6 hours time difference) to have an impromptu online workshop about blogging, and the difference between Edublogs Campus and the new tool Blog.mu. So basically, learning has become boundary-less and instantaneous on a global scale in a flat world! And then people still say that Twitter is a silly little hyped tool….Eaash!

So everybody is invited! Sue will be running it in Elluminate on thursday at 2pm South African time (8pm her time: GMT+8)  Mark your calenders and remember to tune in. If you will be joining us from your school, remember to check that you have access and that Elluminate is not blocked by school firewalls.

Here is a quick walk through on how to get in:

  • Go to http://bit.ly/Wpwe6
  • Enter your name and click on Login
  • Tick “Open with Java…”  –> OK
  • It will download and install the Elluminate application (Make sure that your school tech support is on standby or test it before the time)
  • A security message will ask you if you want to run the application- choose RUN
  • A little window will come up asking you about your connection speed
  • Thee meeting room will apear with a little helpscreen on how to use the meeting room. But we will be there to guide and help you as well!!!
  • You are welcome to log in before the time to give it a spin.

So see you there!!! And spread the news. Don’t forget to twitter it to your networks as well.

5 responses so far


Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)

5 Responses to “Twitter = On demand learning and support”

  1.   Sue Waterson 18 May 2009 at 3:27 pm

    Twitter definitely isn’t a silly little hyped tool however the hype in the media is annoying even me.

    Besides coordinating this session tonight, thanks to your recommendation of tweeting the request for a person from Madagascar to visit the student blog we now have comments from people from Madagascar.

    Last weekend people on twitter wrote my title and promo for a presentation while another group organised a badge for a competition. Twitter is an excellent tool for getting things done.

    Regarding the online session, for full disclosure, it is important for me to say in your comment that I work for both Edublogs and Blogs.mu as their community facilitator (although I do have the cool title of Chief Chocolate Expert at blogs.mu).

    [Reply]

  2.   maggievon 18 May 2009 at 3:45 pm

    Please do not mention chocolates. I am desperate trying to diet….

    I just want to add your blurp for the workshop here:

    Sue will do an overview of blogging in terms of how it can connect your students to a global audience and how this engages them plus changes the way they learn. She will include how the student blogging challenge is helping create connections and show an example of the growth a student’s blog can go through. Then she will show us the inside of Edublogs, Edublogs Campus and Blogs.mu – for a comparison and talk about how you choose each based on the level of control you want.

    [Reply]

  3.   Gaylinon 21 May 2009 at 10:03 am

    Hi Maggie,
    Really looking forward to this. With the Elluminate sessions, if you can’t make it live, can you access it and watch/ go through the session?
    Gaylin

    [Reply]

  4.   maggievon 21 May 2009 at 10:47 am

    @SUe: Looking forward to it!

    @Gaylin: AS far as I know the presenter can choose if the session is archived. So I will ask Sue to do that.

    [Reply]

  5. [...] great support service for many. (Updated 24 May: I missed this – it seems there was an online blogging seminar last [...]

Trackback URI | Comments RSS

Leave a Reply

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture.
Anti-Spam Image