Nexus

What images come to mind when you think of a fireside chat? Crackling fire? Intimate group of friends or colleagues? Stimulating conversation? Laughter? Companionship? Glass of wine (or other libation)?

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of attending the K12 Online Conference - Fireside Chat with David Warlick. What a treat!

Crackling fire? No, but picture all of the participants cozied up to their desktops/laptops/PDA’s etc.

Intimate group of friends or colleagues? Not exactly. How about 100+ educators from…Prince Edward Island, South Carolina, New Brunswick, California, Oklahoma, New Jersey, New York, Sudan, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Australia, Michigan, British Columbia, Colorado, Maine, New Hampshire, Texas, Manitoba, Korea, Illinois, New Zealand, North Carolina, Arizona, Ontario, Scotland, Mexico, Kansas, Quebec, and Maryland, (my apologies if I’ve left anyone out), gathered together online irrespective of time zones and geographic distance? Not exactly an intimate group, but there was a very warm feeling of collegiality.

Stimulating conversation? You bet! And for those of us whose brains have been wired in a more or less linear fashion over the past few decades, a mental workout! The chat flew by on the screen like snippets of conversation in a crowded room, competing with the audio and video being presented elsewhere on the screen.

Screenshot of David Warlick’s Fireside Chat

Laughter? Yes, and other social conventions you would associate with a face to face conversation - greetings, informal chitchat, asides, questions, interjections etc.

Companionship? Yes, evident by the fact that people were drawn to the event. It wasn’t necessary to attend the live chat in order to understand Warlick’s keynote address, Inventing the New Boundaries, yet there we were, more than 100 of us from around the world. We are by nature social creatures and need contact with others. We are coming to the realization that we not only socialize, but also learn in networks. Teaching has longtime been a solitary, sometimes even lonely, profession. We spend most of our days, not in the company of professional colleagues, but in a four-walled room with our students. Having the opportunity to quickly and easily reach out to colleagues is very empowering. In blogging about his keynote session David Warlick wrote:

The session was installed and opened around 7:30 yesterday. Part of that web page were instructions for using a chat program to discuss the opening presentation as people were watching it. During the first few minutes, messages appeared from the U.S., Korea, SecondLife (that was me), Australia, Thailand, and The Philippines.

I can think of nothing that illustrates the changing boundaries of our teaching and learning environments than this. In almost 24 hours, 2,539 messages were posted to that chat room.

We are discovering the power of the network in droves.

So, what did I take away from this experience?

• Affirmation that I am a member of a professional learning community, that there are colleagues upon whom I can call (twitter, skype, comment…) to help me or act as a sounding board.
• An appreciation of the skillset that students bring to the classroom, the ability to communicate in non-linear fashions.
• Experience using one of the many tools, (Elluminate), available to us for online collaboration.
• An appreciation of key roles that must be played in order to reign in chaos.
  • The first is facilitator. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach played this role during the session and she is incredibly skilled at it. We have much to learn from her.
  • Conversation rudder. Wesley Fryer played this role expertly. If you read through the chat, you’ll see him updating the group on points made by the speaker, restating key points, reframing questions…
• Increase in comfort level in participating in environments that have new boundaries.

Technorati tags: k12online07pc, k12online07, David Warlick, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Wesley Fryer, K12 Online Conference 2007

Image Citation
Superciliousness. “200510 fireside chat.” superciliousness’ photostream. 30 October 2005. 10 Aug 2007 <http://www.flickr.com/photos/superciliousness/57898245/>.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 at 12:33 pm and is filed under events, conferences, personal learning network. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.