The New CILC

Posted on October 16, 2006 by Janine Lim

Today I attended the first webinar on “The New CILC.” If you’re really into VC and you use the CILC site, you really ought to attend. There are a bunch scheduled in the next two weeks, and I’m sure CILC will schedule more if needed. Here are some initial thoughts & comments about the new format.

Communities of Interest (COI)
One feature of the new Premium membership is communities of interest. This has serious potential for networking and sharing with each other. But only if you come share! I’ve been asked to assist with moderation of the K12 Education COI. Two of my other good VC buddies who also blog, Paul Hieronymous and Scott Merrick, are also moderators for the new COIs. I’ve just posted a bunch of interesting questions based on conversations we’ve had here, on the phone with many of you, and from my online classes. I think we can get a really good profitable conversation going. So there’s one benefit of Premium membership. ($25 introductory pricing).

Learning Times
I was really curious about the new online community tool CILC is using: Learning Times. I’ve looked at this before & dabbled in online conferences, so I was interested to see what that was like. I haven’t decided yet what I think of it as I haven’t used it enough.

Other Premium Services

  • There’s a calendar of events. Members can post events that are free to share with everyone else in the community.
  • There are spotlight session webinars for premium members.
  • There will be discounts on the conferences CILC will be offering – including Keystone coming back next fall after a year’s hiatus.
  • Access to CILC research and literature reviews, etc.
  • The collaboration center will become a premium service only starting in January. Hmmm.

The COIs are the main attraction for me. You can subscribe to get the interactive discussions in your email or in RSS. I’m still working on figuring out the RSS feeds. This is a huge feature though. Online communities die out quickly (or never get off the ground) if you have to go to the website to read them. With this one, you can get it daily in your email, by message in your email, or weekly digests. Plus the RSS that I’m still working on getting working for me.

So I hope that gives you some info to help you decide if you will “upgrade” your CILC membership.

Filed under: VC Community | Comments Off

Advertising Projects

Posted on October 16, 2006 by Janine Lim

On Friday I had a chat with a colleague in Michigan whose teachers are creating lots of projects, but having challenges with scheduling. One thing we talked about was the necessity of having teachers post the times & dates they have in mind for their project. If you say exactly when you can do the project (range of dates and exact start & end times), it’s much easier to find a partner. So I thought I’d share with you my suggested format for advertising projects – on the listservs (Edvidconf, K12IVC, etc.) and CILC Collaboration Collage.

  • Project “title” or brief description line
  • Project detailed description. Describe your plans, i.e., agenda, outcomes, etc.
  • Project time frame (Be as precise as possible. For example, between February 15 and 28. Tuesdays or Wednesdays between 9:30 and 11:30 EST.)
  • How to sign up
  • Project registration deadline
  • Number of classes that can participate (i.e. will you take the first person who responds? or can more than one school participate?)
  • Type of connection (i.e. is it open only to ISDN/H.320 schools or only IP/H.323 schools?)
  • Project details website if applicable.

If you’re really specific on the dates & times you can/want to do, then the participants self select before you start your conversation with them.

If you have any other suggestions for finding partners, please comment & share them!

Filed under: Collaborations, VC Community | Comments Off

PICC Ending

Posted on October 16, 2006 by Janine Lim

My fall session of Planning Interactive Curriculum Connections ended Friday and we are finishing up last details. I just had to share with you this quote from one of the evaluations. The class is set up in Moodle with a high level of interaction and discussions between participant from all over.

This is the first time I have used Moodle. The previous on line class I took from a major university now comes off as lame – more lame than it appeared at the time. I likened that class to lecture with written reponse and questions submitted in triplicate 3 days after the lecture. This class has been like a large party where I can move around and participate in any number of discussions or I can just listen.

You too can join the next party! Another session runs January 22 – February 16, 2007. Registration is open now.

Filed under: Professional Dev., VC Community | Comments Off

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