Rabbit holes and other ways of wasting time

This week has been my week off work designed to write articles, do some work on the PhD and catch up with the OF course. So far I've managed to do very little of any of my set tasks. I've watched and listened to the Elluminate sessions. Commented on a couple of blog posts. Read Sarah's blog entry and tried to fix the RSS feed.

The attempt to fix the RSS feed took the majority of time today.  Disillusioned, disrupted and despairing, I sent out an SOS on the news group. I've also been very caught up with the politicking on Twitter and found myself reading very interesting, but irrelevant (to my stated tasks!) articles.

Down the rabbit hole I went! 

The wonderful Chris Woodhouse has responded in brilliant facilitator fashion and will Skype with me later to see if he can help me facilitate the correction of my wrongdoing. The brilliant Lisa Barrett also rang to offer her support. Phew.

Now to the course specific details. Sarah has asked us in her post to consider the following, great as usual, questions. 

• what is online facilitation? 

 To my thinking, facilitation is about creating an environment where people can explore a topic of interest to them, gain clarity and new insights and leave the environment with higher order understanding and if wanted, an action plan. Online facilitation is doing the same thing but in the virtual world.

• What skills do you need as an online facilitator? 

Now this is where the ideas get really interesting. I reckon the same characteristics that are needed with face to face facilitation for a start.  Openness; curiosity; an ability to engage people; a well developed ability to ask interesting, open ended questions; active listening skills; interest and knowledge in the subject area. I have been arguing about this one with myself - at least in terms of the knowledge part and to a lesser degree the interest part - can someone facilitate a process online about which they know nothing and are not interested? Is being interested in the process enough? The active listening skills also include the ability to pick up tonal changes. Now if the facilitation is asynchronous and dependent upon the written word, the listening skills include the ability to translate what is being read into a way of hearing, without the airwaves how and what someone else is speaking. A sixth sense comes to mind. I could go on an on about this idea, but that is at least  a start. If anyone would like to explore those ideas further, I'm more than happy to do so.

• How does a facilitator build an online community or network? 

Building an online community or network takes time. The creation of a network and subsequently a community depends upon the existence or the emergence of a common task, interest or dream. Establishing that idea, by way of an entry point into some form of online 'watering hole' in cyberspace - then communicating through that medium to gather like minded or those with similar orientations into conversation about the topic.  That entry point could be via one of the online 'meeting places' such as LinkedIn, Facebook etc or with an online course structure or program, or even a blog, webpage or twitter account. There could be multiple entry points using a combination of those social media entities.

• What are the key things to remember when facilitating an event, meeting or education course, especially when working with people who are new to online technology? 

The provision of clear instructions, laid out step by step and taking nothing for granted is a necessary prerequisite for any online communication to take place effectively.  Sarah has provided a wonderful example of that with her comprehensive Wiki site for the course. I think you've thought of everything Sarah.  There is nothing I can improve upon.  Just perfect. Thanks.

• What is the difference between teaching and facilitation? 

I just put a comment on Jillian Clarke's blog this afternoon about this topic. I've cut and pasted what I wrote and reposted it here as I can't think of anything better to say right now.

We midwifery academics have been exploring this idea of teaching and facilitation with the theories and processes involved in student centred teaching and situation learning as the foundation of our Bachelor of Midwifery curriculum. In our view, student centred learning can be seen as more akin to a facilitation process in that it enables the student to drive the agenda, to learn what they want to learn when they want to learn it. Situated learning involves teaching on the other hand, as that theoretical base takes the position that there are certain required things (skills, competencies, knowledge, behaviours, attitudes etc) that need to be clearly taught, defined and measured so that we can produce competent midwives at the end of the education process. The students will be given information, experiences etc in a building upon knowledge skills etc way, starting with the basics. Testing and assessment is woven into every step of the process, using different modalities, to make sure they embody the new level of knowing, both cognitive and embodied/kinaesthetic (some could say that's the same thing). Students will not be able to progress until they meet the expected standards. We have chosen situated learning theory as the framework, but incorporate student centred and facilitated aspects to their educational program.

• What is netiquette?

Respectful, polite and clear communication fosters and promotes good relationships.  The rules and codes of behaviour that constitutes good manners, known as etiquette, depends upon the society. Whether people communicate face to face or online, there are spoken and unspoken rules related to that communication. In the online arena, rules regarding respectful communication are called netiquette. One of my favourite netiquette rules is the use of all capital letters in a written post is considered to be shouting and therefore rude.  I've just read a book called "Email in an instant: 60 ways to communicate with style and impact" written by Karen Leland and Keith Bailey, both partners at Sterling Consulting Group. The book is published by Career Press NJ.  I really enjoyed this little book as it gave very clear step by step information and instructions on effective online communication.

Thanks for a good week everyone, and special thanks to Sarah for the course. I'm finding that doing the course is forcing me to take action when otherwise I wouldn't.  I look forward to seeing you in the Elluminate room on Friday morning.