Mid-Semester Blog

Sunday, 26 October 2008

Throughout the last week, I’ve been able to encounter and experience several different facilitation techniques for this course. These experiences have been new and interesting, although challenging at the same time. In addition, I’ve been working on my face-to-face special topic facilitation, from which I’ve learned quite a large amount about wikis.

The two experiences last week with web conferencing tools were very interesting. The first experience for class with Wimba was great – I really enjoyed participating in it. At first, I was frustrated with the system download requirements – I had difficulty with some of the settings. I was checking several times a day to fix the pop-up issue, when it finally (somehow) fixed itself. However, I was encouraged that the microphone worked seamlessly – although I only used it once in the beginning of the session. I was also a little uneasy about the tools and applications within system, after the session had started. I had done a little research on the Wimba site prior to our session, but wish I had more of a background on what all of the icons, tools and applications were. I was definitely intimated by the session, particularly with speaking up. I enjoyed Dr. Keller’s presentation and was happy that we were able to submit questions beforehand – that made the session more comfortable for me. It was interesting to note the different types and levels of communication available (hand raising, chat, voice, and video applications). I thought they were very beneficial to choose from, particularly if you’re not comfortable with the more visual/audio choices.

My second experience with web conferencing was with our FIT project. The instructors held an elluminate session right after ours. The timing worked out very well for comparison purposes and to see it in action with a different course. The application was very similar, all of the same functions and capabilities as Wimba. However, I found elluminate almost easier to navigate through, in part because it was very simplistic. The interaction between the students and instructors during this session was very informative and interesting. Four students participated in the session, and communicated mostly through the chat function. The way in which the instructors managed the session, particularly responding to and guiding the students’ focus was really impressive. A few of the students would randomly ask questions using chat, as well as have short sidebar conversations when one of the instructors was speaking. The other instructor would often jump in and respond via chat, answering questions and providing guidance, all during the ongoing main presentation. I thought this was super beneficial for the students – to have the ability to ask questions when they arose, instead of waiting for another time and possibly forgetting them. However, there were times when the chat conversations between students became unfocused, straying away from the topic at hand. The instructors interjected appropriately at these times, bringing the students back to the main topic. I thought about how similar this was to my own high school experiences, that general classroom management is still necessary in a web conferencing environment (useful for organizations as well!). At the end of the session, the instructors left some free time for the students to chat, use the white board function and basically engage in free discussion. It was very interesting and very similar to face-to-face high school settings.

Overall, I was happy to have the opportunity to experience these sessions back-to-back. Having participated in the Wimba session first, I was much more comfortable observing the elluminate session (although it may have been the fact that I only had to observe, rather than participate!).

As for my face-to-face special topic presentation, the information I've gathered on wikis has been really informative. I'd like to start using wiki technology in my organization, and I think all of the information I've found really speaks to the benefits of wikis for collaborative work. However, its been interesting to read and learn more about some of the challenges and limitations with wikis. Although wikis can be a great tool, they are so dependent on people actually using them. I think management buy-in and general support are so important for creating a useful wiki, one that people actually read, add to and edit to keep "alive".