Week 8 Webinar with Dr. Wayne Mackintosh

I think this blog post would have been better titled "What Professionalism Look Like"

The guest for this weeks presentation was Dr. Wayne Mackintosh a key memeber in the development and promotion of Wikieducator, a wiki that this course Facilitating Online 2010 curriculum is offered. Part of the assignments in the Facilitating Online course is primarily for the paid participants to practice facilitating sessions using a variety of web conferencing tools with the final assignment of facilitating an online event in the course mini conference

Both Malcolm Lewis and Claire Thompson, two of the participants in this course hosted this weeks presentation.

Despite how well prepared they were, the key learning for me is what you do when everything seems to go wrong and it started to go wrong almost from the beginning.

The web conferencing tool of choice was DimDim (free version) which may have looked good but when the rubber hit the road, DimDim didn't deliver and there a huge gap between when we were suppose to start and when the decision to go to the back up plan was implemented.

And this is when we learn.

As much as I felt for both Claire and Malcolm, it was how they both handled the problems is what we can all learn from. I'm sure they were both screaming inwardly, but they were outwardly cool and calm. Their behavior in working to deal with the problems of audio and slide change made us all want to be there to support them.

Which proves that as wonderful as technology can be, you need to have multiple back-up plans and alternative ways of dealing with potential problems. I wonder if we have a wiki made up for all potential problems and alternative solutions.

In the end we all migrated to Elluminate which this course uses, and the problems still continued with the slides not being able to upload. Claire in the end used Elluminate's screen sharing feature from her desktop to show the slides as Dr. Wayne Macintosh did his presentation


Real Learning is all about experimenting, exploring and discovering a variety of alternative ways of moving forward. In the end, it is the presenters, facilitators behavior that we all take a page from and model. Claire looked like she may have had previous practice but it doesn't take away from her skills and how she translated those skills into action. Although you don't want to see people go through these kinds of problems, this is the best way to learn. It's like the Olympics, they all look wonderful; we just don't see the immense effort these athletes go through to get a chance at the podium.

So congratulations to both Claire and Malcolm. You showed us what true professionalism looks like.

So I'm curious ....

1. What back-up plans do you have in case things go wrong when you faciliate?
2. How do all these problems and possible solutions get documented?

For those who want to learn more about DimDim, look at both Sara Stewarts blog post on How to Use DimDim and Claire Thompson's screencast created by a free web-based software called Screenr

New Zealand's Earthquake - Take Time to Appreciate

Last week, a number of people from several of my online learning courses who live in Christchurch, New Zealand got to experience what people hope they never have to experience ... an earthquake. In a matter of seconds, somes homes previously safe and secure were now in rubble.

Michael in this group who experienced the earthquake was lucky. His children and wife are safe; his home is still standing and as far as he can see, the structure is still sound.

This is why I love the internet, although it can be a time hog, it always comes down to the people you meet and the lives, albeit from a distance you share. In times like this, it is that sharing that makes you appreciate what you have.

In the spirit of the generousity of sharing, Michael shared this link that gives the story of some of the devastation that some New Zealanders are currently experiencing. It's heartbreaking (the loss of those historical buildings) and yet it shows so much hope. There are two pictures with dogs in them (I'm a dog lover so of course I notice those pictures) and one I think the most telling someone pouring coffee to a police officer. People are good when put to the test. We just need to hear and witness those kinds of stories more often.

Although I hate lectures, I can't help but be moved my these pictures and say 'take time to appreciate your loved ones. We think people will be there forever. Like this earthquake, it can take only a second to lose someone you love. We can replace things, we can never replace those we love.'

So ... here's my question
In what ways do I show the people I love and yes take for granted, how much I appreciate them and how often?

Something we should all be asking