Facilitating Online- Last assessment

It is the end of the online facilitating course I have been doing for teh last two terms. It is the end of a journey I have very much enjoyed. Last week I hosted a mini event online. Here are my reflections about it following the question/ criteria asked from my course.


What went well, and what did not go so well
I thought it actually went quite well overall. I was quite relaxed and I was very happy that my mentor Rachel was here to support me if needed. I actually needed to have Rachel stepping in at one point when I asked the participants to click on a link in order to watch a Common Craft video about RSS Feed. I didn’t know that the audience could not see exactly what I could see as a host. Rachel dragged the Weblinks Box where everybody could see it. I was also quite happy that I was able to switch between boxes quite fast and that I could use the full screen option in such a way that it did not slow down the event.
How the event was organised and promoted
The event for promoted within our small community of Virtual Professional and Leadership Development. This was done by Rachel Roberts during our last online meeting, our last F2F meeting and in a virtual newsletter. So a lot of people knew this session was on. Participants had to RSVP their participation to the event in the Ning used by this community.
All the information needed to access the event was done perfectly. Each participant knew the phone number to dial in order to get the audio for the event.
support (technical and access)
One of the first participant entering the room was not sure which number to dial in order to get the audio. Using the chat box I pointed out to this person where to find all the information needed. After my explanation s/he managed to have the audio and was able to participate to the event.
relevant for the audience
I actually think that the session was relevant for the participants because each one of them asked question during the event which shows that they were involved and engaged.
Whether the event was managed and conducted smoothly - particularly noting how you handled any disruptions.
As I said earlier, I am happy with my speed going from one box to the other and using efficiently the full screen option. Unfortunately I needed help to show the audience the Weblinks box.
What efforts you made to ensure that all participants knew where they were supposed to be and when, and arrange technical support for people?
I used the chat box constantly to see if each participant knew what we were doing and I also asked them on the phone (audio) if what we were doing made sense. I had also prepared the room during the day to have everything set up in order to run the event smoothly.
How you set the stage, made introductions, explained the aims, and whether you managed to remain neutral and facilitatory
Rachel and I have set up the room during the day to have all the boxes we needed at hand and we also have spent some time to check that the video we wanted the participants to see was working well. We decided to send the audience directly on the internet and ask them to mute their phone as the internet connection was way too slow. In all this little trick worked perfectly and everybody enjoyed the video. This is something I could do next time.
As I was very prepared and that I had notes next to me it seems to me that I gave clear instructions.
How you did a round up, drew closure and indicated where recordings and other follow up materials would be made available.
As I was co hosting, Rachel took it over for the round up. She asked the participants to think about who could take next session. She also made the recording of the session and said that the next day it will be in our community ning.
Feedback from audience?
The participants seemed happy as they thanked us and asked a lot of question.
How you would do things in the future?
I think that next time, I will take time preparing the room as we did this time. It was quite good to have already everything handy. I also feel more confident as I have learned a lot of tips. I would be quite happy next time to do the recording myself as another challenge.
General comments and additions
I was very lucky to have Rachel with me as it was like being an acrobat with a safety net. I felt very secure as Rachel was here to catch me in case I needed help. For my first time as an online facilitator it was a very good idea.

Have you seen Learning? I am looking for it

I have just typed in Goole search “what is learning?” and a post from G Siemens came up on the first page. Although the post is quite old, 2005, I quite like the definition given of “learning”.

But my reflection today is where is the learning happening.


I am a teacher and I love my job but when I ask students why they come to school and that they answer “to learn” I disagree strongly. Students do not need to be at school to learn at all.
I think that technology can bring the learning anywhere, for example right now in my lounge with my laptop looking at my husband in the kitchen preparing dinner -Yummy tonight it is lamb from the garden=)

Yes technology can play an important role in bringing learning where I want but it is not the technology which is important, it is the networking of people. I am learning right now not thanks to technology but thanks to people who have used technology to put their thoughts and their own learning online. If they had not, my computer in itself would be useless. People are making my learning possible, even if it is by distance or virtually as I have not met the people I am learning from. This is formidable for me as I live far away from anything and I can learn anything from the comfort of my little house in the prairie.

So in other words, Learning has no border. So I do not need to be in a particular place to do great learning, but what I need is to know how and where to get my learning and most of all I need to have the will of learning. If I do not want to learn, wherever I am or what ever great technology I have I will not be learning.


I am the seeker of my own learning. I decide what ever I want to learn. For example, my husband and I have learned how to look after a small farm (animals, plants, gardens etc..) without prior knowledge. The only thing we knew and had was the will of learning (making it work) and the knowledge on where and how to find knowledge. As I have a degree one could think that I got those skills from school but as my husband has not had a good school experience it is definitely not behind the walls of a classroom that he has acquired those skills.

The question I have now , as a teacher is how to pass the love of learning to my students. I think teaching how/where finding knowledge is quite easy (tutorials in class on how to do a good web search is easily achievable) but how can I give my love of learning to my students ?



I need now to reflect a bit longer, I need to digest my own thoughts and in one of my next post I will think about “what is the point of school then?”

Planning my mini event

I already have written a post about planning my mini event but I needed to write a bit more. Here are my other thoughts about facilitating an event online




how online communication tools can be used to facilitate online;

During one of the illuminate session we had during this course, I have learned that the word facilitate come from the French word “facile” which means easy. I know I should be ashamed of myself not realising it earlier, but better late than ever. So Facilitating means making things easy. When you speak about online facilitating you obviously want to use online tools to make things easy. In order to help the majority of participants I will need to use different tools as varied as possible in order to cater for the different learning types.

You can use Youtube for example as it is a great source of fantastic videos which can support the message you want to pass. For my mini event I intend to show a video from Common Craft which explains without jargon what is a RSS Feed as I will host a hot session about RSS Feed and Diigo.

You can use online surveys before, during ad after a mini event to see what are the needs of your audience and check their feedback. You can use the chat backchannel of Twitter or the one which comes within your virtual room ( as I will be using Adobe Connect Pro I intend to use the chat box to check on the participants at all times). Thus, the host can answer any questions raised or can include/ make feel valued any participants.

Other tools could range from nings, social networks, youtube, emails, social bookmarks.


the process of facilitating an online event.

For my mini event I had two roles. The one of a host and the one of a presenter. Rachel Roberts, my mentor was kind enough to give me a lot of help before the mini event. She spent one hour on the day prior the event, to go through all tips and tricks about Adobe and the virtual room and reminded me to check constantly the chat box. She also looked at my presentation and we checked the video I wanted to show was working well.

We decided to not only use Adobe Connect Pro but also use phones for audio as a lot of schools have a very slow internet connection. This is something that it is vital to keep in mind as in NZ and around the world there are still a lot of people with low internet connection.

I need to point out here that as the mini event was taking place in the closed community I did not need to advertise it in the wide world.

Online facilitating :mini event

As I had to facilitate a mini online event for my Online Facilitating Course, I had to think about what I could present to an audience.

I have noticed that some people find it hard to keep stay in touch with what is new due to their lack of method in gathering infos. The Internet is a huge space full of good information (or not so good) and how can you know what is new? You obviously cannot look for info everywhere as it will waste a lot of time. Reading blogs is a good way to be kept in the loop but it is time consuming if you have to check them all online in order to see what has been written recently. I have even seen people keeping blog address in their browser’s bookmark and then go through them all one by one in a weekly basis.

I use RSS feed to stay in touch with the rest of the world, therefore I thought I could speak about it with the online community I am belonging to, which is the VPLD Community. (Virtual Professional and Leadership Development).

I spoke about it with my mentor, Rachel Roberts and asked her if it would be possible for me to facilitate a hot seat session during our next meeting which take place once a term. She kindly accepted and the date of 13th of July came up.

So now I have to plan my session per se.

Rachel has sent me a wonderful Common Craft video which would be a great start to the event. It is a very quick video in plain English (no jargon in it , therefore everybody can understand it ) which explains clearly what is a RSS feed. I think this video should be the start point of my presentation.

As I use Google Reader, I would like to show how I use it. I would like to point out how to subscribe to a blog and how to use the shortcut in Google Reader. As my main objective is for people to see how easy and practical a RSS Feed is, I want to keep everything short and sweet. I do not want people to feel intimidated.

I also would like to show the idea of a social bookmarking system. I use Diigo and I LOVE IT !!!! I will thus show to the group how powerful such a tool can be.

As I have to present from school and that the internet is not very reliable I would need to think of a plan B. I will make videos of everything I am planning to do just in case the internet is slow.

Because I am presenting a session to an inclose community I don;t need to advertise the event. If I were trying to attract more people I would need to think about how to advertise. It is actually quite useful that for my first time the event will happen in a define community and that Rachel has announced and advertised the presentation.

My next post will be after the mini event......until then, I will keep my fingers crossed :-)

Facilitating Online Reflections...

Another week, another reflection about online facilitating. This week, the questions I have to answer are the following:


How will you get feedback from participants?


When I teach I always ask my students to grade me, to evaluate my lessons. I always do orally as we are always running after time in secondary school. I know that for some people it does not seem very professional not to keep in paper track about what the kids think.
Asking them helps me planning ahead. For example, if the students tell me that an activity is rubbish I will not do it again. At the end of the day they are the clients in my shop, and if I want the clients to come back I should do what they want. I obviously cannot change the content but I can change the context or the delivery of what I teach.
In our online course this year, I have asked the students to give me feedback using a googleform. I ask them to fill it in Week 6 -we are now only Week four in our course, so I do not have the results yet. Most of them tell me while we are teaching if something is not right and at the end of each online session I ask all the participants to tell how it was, to grade the lesson and to tell me what they didn’t like.

How will you deal with criticism?

I have never had bad criticism from my students. I do not mean that they say that what I do is good, what I mean is that whatever they want to say they say it very nicely. So they might give me a 4/10 but they do it with a smile and give me a lot of encouragement.
I suppose if the participants give you constructive criticism it is always good to know how/where to progress. I like people criticising what I do because it helps me to get better.

How will you make sure people feel safe when they give you their feedback?

Using anonymous form is a good way for people to feel they can tell you what they really want.

How will you ensure you continue to improve your online facilitation skills?

By using the feedbacks received, carrying on reading (blogs, divers communities, twitter feeds etc...) and by attending other people’s online event, I will be sure improving my own skills.

Online Facilitating

It is time again for me to answer a few questions from Sarah Stewart for the Online Facilitating Course. This week the questions are:

How do I make my event as inclusive as possible?

I think I will prioritise the same things if I was facilitating a course for students than if I was for anybody else. I think that one of the most important thing is not to assume that everybody knows about technology. I would need to take time prior the first event to go through the technology with the participants, or even provide them with videos on how to use the technology. I should keep in mind at nobody knows all aspects of technology and I should never use sarcasm while interacting with participants. I myself have already experienced when participants within a community were very condescending when I asked questions, and it made me feel very bad. When I am in front of my class I try not to make my students feel awkward and I try to create a relaxed environment in which kids can ask any questions. I should create the same environment online.

There is also the idea that some participants do not come from the same background; same economical, geographical and cultural background. I will need to think at what time the event should take place in order to allow more people to participate. It seems to me it would be wiser to use sound only and no video as a lot of people still have dial up.

How will I market my event?

As I said in a previous post I would advertise in every community I am already a member of. e.g. twitter, blogs, facebook, nings

How will I engage "lurkers"?

The question is why some people are lurking?

Some people do not feel confident enough to participate either because of the technology itself or because of the content.
I should then provide a lot of technical support and I should direct the participants towards great readings.

How do I serve people with minimal Internet coverage or lack of hardware?

support and use of voice only as discussed above.

How do I manage financial costs?

I have never thought about that. It would depend who I work for I suppose...

First Adobe Connect Session

On Wednesday I have been given a grade by my Year 11 French for our first synchronous lesson using Adobe Connect. My grade was not very good but the kids were very encouraging. So here we are!!! they gave me a 4 out of 10.

To be honest I thought that 4 was very good as I would not have given myself a 4, I would have given me a 0 or a 1. So 4 is quite good, and as I see it next week I only can be better :-) In 6 weeks I will be a 10/10 !!!!

So what happened?

I set up my class in groups of 2 or 3. I know it would have been better teaching practice if I had asked the students to put themselves into groups instead of me being bossy and group them. Why have I been bossy? I was afraid that kids would go with their mates, I thought it was better to pair them up with someone who knew how to use a computer. Thus they could collaborate and help each other. None of the kids complained about me creating those groups anyway.

Then I left the kids with notebooks (with webcam and microphone) and the URL they needed to access the meeting. I went into a conference room while the students stayed into our French room. When I saw them entering the meeting room, I started to feel relieved. At least they could use the URL.

So we started the lesson. The students complained about the delay between my voice and what I was showing on my screen. I think (I am only assuming here!) that the speed of the school connection could have been responsible for the delay. They also complained about the echo with the microphones.
I was very proud that they took the initiative of splitting the class. Some stayed in the room, some went in the classroom next door, some in an empty office while others went outside sitting in front of the Wharenui. As soon as they all went their ways, the problem of the echoing was resolved :-)

Twice I have been disconnected and so wasted time reconnecting. Although I had planned a full hour lesson, we only managed to do ⅓ of it.

At the end of the lesson I felt quite embarrassed but the kids were smiling and they said that for our first lesson it was fine. One student even offered me to meet again during the week-end in order for me to practice more using Adobe connect. This was very touching :-)

RECAP: I was bad, but next time I will be better !!!