Week 9 - Planning Mini-conference

Sorry for the delay of the post. I had a very very very busy holiday in China for the last several weeks. Not handy to get online, and another main reason is – I’ve got no time to go to the Internet Café and spend hours there. Now it’s the time to catch up, thou a bit late.

Week9 – Planning Mini-Conference
This week we are required to publish the plan of mini conference.

Background information
This is the first time for me doing a course within an online community. I am happy to know various kinds of online communities and experienced quite a lot. It’s really great that I know I am connected and I can share my thoughts, my experience with my peers, get the support from them. Thx guys who visits this blog and left your comments here

Leigh introduced several of experienced wonderful online tutors. We had a really nice chat and decided our topic is “connecting online in developing countries”. I myself had the experience of been connected online in China, and another guest speaker, Minhaaj, living in Pakistan and is experienced in online teaching and face to face teaching. He knows a lot of current issues of our topic. My dear buddy, Nellie, helped a lot in the session preparation and she is a wonderful skilled online tutor, quite familiar with online teaching and knows exactly about the online learning in developing countries. I am so happy we have such a great team to work towards our goals.

Actually I myself am interested in this topic too. All the questions that I can think about at this stage are listed as followings:

• How’s the situation in developing countries to be connected online?
• What are the main issues connecting online in developing counties?
• Are the barriers for us to go online the same for people in developing countries?
• What are the challenges and opportunities for people living in developing countries to be connected online?
• Is there any difference between the communities in developed and developing counties?
• How to empower online communities in developing countries?

Hope from the online session we can learn more on this topic

Overview of mini conference
Title: Connecting online in developing countries
Facilitators: Joy and guest speakers: Nellie, Minhaaj
Aim:

• Explain current issue of connecting online in developing countries


• Discuss the current situation of online communities in developing countries


• Summarize characteristics of online communities in developing countries


• Find out different ways to improve and empower online communities in developing countries

Guest speakers: Nellie Deutch, Minhajj

Promotions:

We are connected online and forming various online communities. Do you know what problems people living in developing countries meet when they try to join in online communities and maintain the connection? What is the situation of online communities in developing countries? Our guest speakers are all very experienced and skilled in this topic. Come and share your thoughts and you will get more information than you expected.

Event time:

Sat. 8th, Nov. 2008 8pm-9pm NZ time. (Sat. 8th Nov. 7am-8am GMT), Check your time here

Discussion starters
At the beginning of the session, I will introduce my guest speakers to our students. Asking all the attendants to briefly introduce themselves.
To start the discussion, I will introduce several interviews I had done in China. Then I will ask attendants to share their personal experience of online community access problems, e.g. language barrier, technical problem, Internet access, etc.

Technical support service

We’ll use WiZiQ as a platform for our online session. So all the attendants need to sign in WiZiQ. WiZiQ is an amazing online learning tool and I am totally attracted by it. We can use audio and video information for our online session and every one attend the session need a microphone (at least a headphone) to talk to others. WiZiQ provides free induction of how to use it. Student can book with their fantastic team. I had one session last night and it was fabulous – very well organized information, clear demonstration. It’s great!

WiZiQ will keep all the session information, e.g. audio recording, chatting text, white board, etc for a certain period for users to review. What a great idea!

Concerned issues
It’s a bit inconvenient for people to sign in WiZiQ before they attend the session;
The audio recording can only be played back in WiZiQ and shared on WiZiQ. Haven’t found any way to download it.

Conclusion

The preparation work is much more than I expected. It’s a good experience of team work, especially teamed up with people they are experienced and from various background. Great to work with them.