Elgg Storytelling
Posted by SusanEttenheim on September 28th, 2006
We had many questions guiding our storytelling about using elggs in secondary classrooms. See Paul’s post Continuing adventures in elgg-land.
Join us and listen to our stories from this young semester. Add your comments and stories from your experiences and then join us next week to continue the conversation as we explore how people get noticed online, how we guide students to comment to others to entice comments in return and how we help them to not get lost in the elgg as it grows.
September 28th, 2006 at 10:06 am
Dear Susan,
(I know I’m using an e-mail format, but I feel more comfortable doing so with what I have to say, and I specifically want to address you.) I made a special effort to listen last night to the broadcast, and I found some things disturbing.
I really liked what your guest was discussing when she talked about working with her headmaster in Canada and his blogging with students. But, it was as though she was shunted aside when a man came on board. It seemed not just part of the ‘technical difficulty’ but really quite chauvinistic. I completely lost interest in his thread…and began trying like mad to revive her conversation in the chat room. But, there the conversation was way too fragmented to enter into a fruitful inquiry or dialogue.
Now, I recognize that much of what was going on is a feature of wanting to get the “sound” right…and when it isn’t going so, you make quick changes..topic-wise and substantively. But, I love listening in…and last night I gave that precious time only to feel frustrated. I hope you understand what I’m saying as it is intended…constructively. I’d like to know more about Sharon’s thesis work which sounded directly applicable to what we are all trying to do with kids…vivify their language experience by fusing it with technology so that literacy continues to grow. Your broadcasting is so hopeful and so exciting. In the main, I hope you see me as a supporter.
September 28th, 2006 at 11:02 am
Thanks for this comment. Susan does amazing behind-the-mike management of our webcast, and I would also like to hear more from Sharon, both her current work in the Personal Learning Space with her headmaster, and with her thesis on high school blogging. Perhaps we could invite Sharon to join us as a guest a little more formally, and this time spend some time before the show to make sure that everything is working, sound-wise. This webcasting business is inexact, and we appreciate your support!
September 28th, 2006 at 5:03 pm
One of the best things about the Internet is that it creates space for many forms and shades of expression including disagreement. We appreciate your comments and learn from them and welcome your continued participation in Teachers Teaching Teachers.
September 29th, 2006 at 1:28 pm
Every single day, I diligently try to find a website of wonder–a website that will challenge the minds of young people and the adults that influence their lives. And then I stumble across this website, and it let’s me know that I am not alone. Someone else understands the power of this medium in education. Keep up the good work.
October 1st, 2006 at 7:44 pm
Hello! I am a member of the Teachers Teaching Teachers webcast team and am managing the middle school elgg, q1. We are all working together this year to try to make a new space for our kids to learn 21st century skills. Susan, Paul, Chris Sloan, Teb, Madeline, Barbara Dieu, Kathy Malsbenden and I had been planning throughout the summer both live on the show and on the educationbridges elgg in the mapping community there. It has been my hope that teachers and their students would join me in this elgg from all over the world and I am so happy to see that happening this school year.
Recently,after talking with Sharon Peters about the project, she joined us in the personallearningspace.com with her students from Montreal. She also has collaborating teachers from two or three other countries who will join us. As with any new application or educational environment, she is going through the initial exploration of what we are doing, getting her kids signed up, coordinating it with her curriculum, and getting to know her new colleagues.
During the show last week, I think what happened is we were discussing the ideas we will pursue on the map and elgg projects and Susan was trying to keep track of the five different apps we use when broadcasting. We had been grappling some audio issues that night earlier and in trying to do that job, she cut Sharon off in the middle of her description (she was in the conference call). I was in the conference call a bit earlier and we thought I had echo and had to go to the skypecast to try to keep the conference sound presentable. She was just asking Sharon to do the same since we still had terrible echo. I do think that we all intended for Sharon to pick back up in the Skypecast with her conversation but once there someone else had taken the floor so to speak and the rest of the night was a bit of a whirlwind. I myself had quite a bit to add to the show but did not get to do so since we were quite busy with visitors. That is a good thing but sometimes things get hectic and off track. I think it is hard to keep all things in focus at times.
I also would like to hear the rest of the story and am hoping that will happen next Wednesday if Sharon is available. We are all definitely dealing with time being precious. I know it is for me and I want the show to use that time to all of our best advantage. I also think learning to host and have it work as it should is a challenge and feedback such as yours will help the group improve on that skill.
There is just one thing I want to say that stands out for me in your comment. The idea that a male guest was more important than other guests is bothering me a bit. I am a female and have been in a man’s world for my entire career first as a professional banjo player (starting in 1976), as a USET equestrian trainer, and as an audio engineer in the music industry. All three fields, especially banjo and audio engineering, are run by really chauvinistic men. I know chauvinism well and have learned to deal with it very well. When playing banjo, I practiced up to 10 hours a day for years and got a name and a reputation for being equal to the men in the field. Then, when I encountered that attitude, I just played them under the table. It worked quite well. I am small in stature and when I was learning, men would not even give me a break at a jam session or even look at me! It was horrible. Now in any field, as they say in the bluegrass industry, I know who I am and I can handle anyone that suggest such chauvinistic notions.
At the Worldbridges community which we are all part of, I have noticed quite the opposite to be true. I think the women who are involved in the group are appreciated so much by the others. We are all equals in both the Teachers teaching teachers group and the Worldbridges groups and each member is called upon when their particular skill sets are needed for any particular project. Paul and Susan definitely do not have that attitude and in fact Susan and I have relied on each other from the very beginning of our webcasting experiences. When the Worldbridges Webcast Academy was just starting up, we were our own resident experts and were the first ones to go “on air”. We were one of a few women in the group and never felt that it mattered either way.
I know that this has been very long winded but when I heard chauvinism mentioned I thought I would share my viewpoint with you. I also wanted to give a little information about how much I appreciate having Sharon join us. I also want to mention that I had not had a chance to tell the other participants that Sharon had in fact officially started signing her students up so they were really just getting to meet Sharon for the first time as well. There was an awkward moment there but it did not occur for the reasons that evidently came across. Balancing the agenda for the evening, the technology of broadcasting and being a really good host is something we get better at doing as time goes on. I appreciate your letting us know how it seemed. It would go against the very reason we are meeting weekly on Wednesday’s if we judged participants by their gender or sound quality. Thank you and do continue to send us feedback on these things!