You’re too right w/ my efforts early on. I made a concerted effort to put myself out there and offer as much value as possible to my colleagues around the world. Still taking more than I am able to give, I am always working on ways to offer more assistance, feedback, and collaborative assistance.

As always, your forum here provides much food for thought. Thanks for the continued support!

kms

That comment “I’m not too worried about keeping up to date with any of this web or technology stuff because you’ll do that for me” is all too frequent … and, indeed, very frustrating. I get it from people I bump into from time to time. Perhaps there is some kind of osmosis or absorption process I should be seeking … ‘dipping my toes in’ and ‘meeting tomorrows lesson’ seems a possibility for many of our colleagues? What do you think?

Graham please continue doing what you’re doing and never feel you need to make apologies to anyone most of all me - not that (thankfully) you felt the need. I’m certainly not asking for one and if anyone does, well … refer them on

Wow!

If there was ever proof needed that this online community stuff takes a fair bit of vested time and energy, Sue, Clay and Al, you prove it. Sue’s right - as keen as I am, nothing derails me from my sleep patterns and pre-ordained household routine. Gee, the only reason I’m responding now rather than after 8.30 pm tonight is due to the holidays!! So I thank all of you for dropping by and dropping your comments in here. I have this sneaking suspicion that this should be all happening over at Clay’s blog. After all, he started this particular discussion. And neatly demonstrated the power and breadth of blogging by the borderless access that blogging affords, allowing Al to “say his piece” here on my piece of cyber-turf.

My take is that I’m not so much interested in comparing tools as comparing the different approaches to being involved in a “professional learning network/community”. In fact, we could throw another automotive metaphor is that bloggers could be seen as the four wheel drive owners venturing out into areas where you have to make your own amenities while Ningers could be more like the bus tour - someone else is driving but you’ve chosen this destination with its package of features and destinations. But at least, they’re both going somewhere! What about the folks who are just as happy at home and have no desire to go on any sort of elearning/Web 2.0 journey because they have all they need right there?

That’s what you seem to be concerned about, Al. All of my posturing about being “engaged with my online peers” can be seen (with a certain degree of truth) to be self serving and where does that leave the vast majority of our South Australian peers who wouldn’t know their Nings from their RSS? Is it my responsibility beyond raising awareness at a site level? How do we get the importance of online community and network based learning to be resourced by our department so it’s not just your and my moral responsibility? Apparently, it’s recognised as being important as shown by the wording in the EdCap survey but is it again just up to the web-savvy and the boundary pushers to take things further? Al, you have passion and frustration oozing from your comment in equal proportions - a comment worthy of its own blog post, I might add. I’m afraid I’m tending to add more of my own questions rather than nut out answers from your thought provoking response. You ask, “Are you meeting or neglecting your work detail in this regard?” I think that by modeling what’s possible and sharing that at a site level to whoever will listen (and there are plenty that are) I’m meeting my work detail which includes teaching three days a week, managing school ICT infrastructure, providing resourcing for our IWB program, working on combining inquiry with technology and information literacy plus a whole bunch of other things that make up my role. So if I sit down of an evening after all the “must do” stuff is done and dusted and I pursue my edublogging/edutweeting/eduskyping pursuits in a somewhat selfish vein, well, I make no apologies for that. I also won’t dictate what others should be doing with their precious down time either. The great thing about using online communities like Ning or web services like iGoogle or PageFlakes is that people have an easier entry point for toe dipping, if you like. Particularly if we want the next wave of educators past the early adopters to buy in, then it must be time and resource efficient.

And that’s not even touching what I might (or might not) be doing with my class. I’ve been very cautious in that department, keeping most of my students’ online activities in low key privacy but be assured, I’m not just setting up opportunities for my class to work online and leave my lesser-connected colleagues in the dust. But as Clay says, at some stage, they need to get their online drivers’ licences and hit the road. I’m concerned when I get a comment from a work colleague that roughly paraphrased says, “I’m not too worried about keeping up to date with any of this web or technology stuff because you’ll do that for me, Graham.”

That’s where this bus driver needs to get off!

P.S. How embarrassing! My own comment got caught in the spam filter. Too many links - 2!

ROFL with the analogy of the driving instructor I use that every time I do f2f PD sessions with staff. The problem I have is like you I would like them to be able to and want to do their own learning but the people I facilitate PD with are not at that point. They are still on their first lesson with their parents where you need to sit next to them and be ready to grab the steering wheel. Show them too many tools and they will definitely drive into the tree.

Can I also say that I am loving that fact that Graham has written this great post and left us to debate it while he has a nice sleep.

Sue

And I guess I’m guilty of projecting my own goals for webteaching - staff or students - on you. My goals are to make them not need to learn from me, but to get out there and find their own pathways. They’ve got different interests, and would probably enjoy the thrill of forging new connections freely, through their own initiative and a dash of serendipity.

But again - I see online learning as being the opposite, in my ideal, of schools: self-directed, no teachers, no students. In a strange way, I see myself (to borrow Graham’s pet automotive analogy) as a driving instructor. I want them to get their license and hit the roads.

Peace to all in this short and lovely life.

And yet I can disagree with the safe distinction — Ning communities are not always comprised of more newcomers. I am part of Better Blog community (http://betterblog.ning.com/)– which is made up of quite a few very experienced bloggers and you could not say that they are hidden away not looking out of the walls. Instead they are coming together in one central point, exchanging ideas and taking these ideas to improve how they have conversations on their blogs.

Sue’s ultimate goal is to provide mechanisms to help others in buying into e-learning. What I find is that individuals are individuals — some prefer to learn from my podcast site, others prefer my blog, yet others prefer my wiki and the Ning brings them together.

The aim of my ning community was to have what I did more than just a 1 hr online presentation — something that actually achieved some impact — and made people start to use what they gained from my session. For once I can say that did happen.

Sue

I agree with your main point: is it evidenced in classrooms? I just messaged my AP Literature Ning asking if I could switch it to “public” to let the world in, because the discussions there are so valuable. But the very desire behind that was motivated by the knowledge - through practicing this avocation out of motivations not limited to the joys, I grant your point, of being social and creative - that those Ning discussions would be that much richer if they weren’t walled.

My goal is this, if forced to simplify: to empower these students to not be students in a virtual classroom, but learners in the virtual universe. And that’s a large part of what motivates me to keep exploring it (again, while unapologetically enjoying that creativity and connectedness and, let’s not forget, learning). It’s growing exponentially, and I know I can’t keep up. But not to try would mean less to invite my students to explore.

Simpler: show them what they can do as free people, not as prescribed students. But then, I hate school.

On a conciliatory note, though, I just tweeted this to my “friends” :

Are we inviting our students to become (confession time) read-write web addicts like myself/ourselves? Maybe marriage will cure it!

–so yes, that grass is high. (Good thing I live in an apartment.)