Lechoslaw Hojnacki

The loooong weekend has just ended. I have given myself some break from using this blog. In fact the same time a have updated regularly some of my other blogs. The question is: why not THIS blog? I think we are used to choose the simplest communication channel available.The participants of the group 5 have choosen the Googlegroups to communicate, the Google Sites to build their course prototype…. I know that I can find them in GG, in GS, in Gtalk, in Skype. They also can find me ther. And we do. We have chosen not to use simple e-mails but yet a shift towards using less web2.0′ed tools can be noticed. Blog activity suffers when we have such a choice: GS+GG+IM+Skype+phone… From the other hand: Google Sites are very modern!

BTW: And what about uncle Moodle?

Anyway, Dear Group 5 : I miss your week reflections!

We should meet to discuss our contract(s). When?

It is realy useful to have as comfortable place to discuss as the discussion group. I would also suggest to use another Googlegroup functionalities (e. g. pages, files uploading) to have all of the important data at the group disposal. It would be useful to paste, link or upload chat logs, course elements etc. Please return back to posting your week reflections and the other EMIM course tasks to your blogs.  Keep commenting your groupmates. You cannot exchange this for IM discussions.

I would like you also to show and discuss at least a draft contracts by the end of the week. Use iLogue.

Please do not forget to fill out the tools survey.

See you on Friday Skype meeting.

The situation starts to clarify. The Group has the leader. Dinko was elected according to the democracy rules and he got the votes from all active participants of the group (congratulations once again, Dinko!). Last week’s group chat and the votings has clarified also the group members stratification: active - taking part - absent. We are a bit late but it seems that each new element fixed gives a better foundation for further steps. The group has fixed the leader, the environment for the group communication, the very good course prototype topic… The drawback is, that setting a good means of group communication caused no blog activity of the participants or nmaybe even suppressed the activity. The discussions led through the IM, chat or discussion group do not provoke a blog reflection. I am afreid it was also my case  this week

 I myself used Google groups, Google talk, Skype, phone to regulate my team activities, f2f social and tech talks. Flashmeeting to talk with the facilitators. Also blogs and social bookmarking tools. I communicated mostly with these, who took active part in the teamwork building and in the group leader election and then several times with the group leader.

I am very glad to find how the group progresses from the perspective of social process. Now it is very important to make decisions  on the roles assigning.

You have decided  to use Googlegroup (>>visit the group). Of course it is a good place for the discussing. It may be also a comfortable startpoint for the groupwork. Googlegroups support online pages creating and files uploading. Pages may be good for placing static URI’s frequently used (e.g. your Google Sites service) and non-public text data. You can upload a non-public files there (e. g. our online meeting chat log).  You need to accelerate some organization activities (tools choosing and configuring, meetings preparing and moderating, time keeping,…).

It is not optimal to wait for anonymous volunteers to appear. Maybe it would be good to consider at least a group leader election? Even simple tasks assigning can help clarifying some aspects of distributed groups managing. You also had an opportunity to find out that while Doodle is brilliant, nevertheless a democratic votings for each aspect of an every activity take too much time and energy. This is why people democratically elect their representatives to make decisions faster.
Will you?

This week the first online Group 5 meeting took place. Most of the group has given quite a bit of their busy day just to make a small talk. Was it success or just wasted time? Success, of course. We are social beings. In Web 2.0 we can be represented by our blogs but it does not mean, that the blogs can cooperate. Any effective groupwork can take place only between real people. Of course it would be better to start the course with a warmup meeting a month ago but it was impossible. The process of forming the group list itself was rather long, then followed by a long Easter brake. The group awareness has born with no external helpers. I have not called the local facilitators for help. I have used e-mail mainly… to ask participants to use more social means of communication. I think that Group 5 will take an initiative to meet online another time and that the meeting can be very constructive. I wish I could see also a reflection of the process in the blogs of these participants who do not use this important component of the course yet.
This week I have used a couple of tools rather intensively to communicate with the group or with it’s members: e-mail, blog (plus some trackback bombarding ;-), Googlegroup, Google talk, Skype.
In my everydays activities a have used also Moodle (Web 1.5 courses ;-); Google documents/spreadsheets/presentations online (publishing, online groupwork, fixing contracts); Flickr, Picasaweb, YouTube (multimedia processing, publishing and sharing); Blogger blogs (publishing, group communication) cooperation online); Google notebooks (bookmarking); SecondLife and videoconferencing system (an open lecture leading) Google calendars (time management) and more. Yet I have managed to talk F2F.

Dinko contributed much to the Group 5 cooperation progress. He has published a bunch of wise remarks on his blog. The post is very valuable especialy from the perspective of Group 5 Friday meeting. It appears to be a good basis both for the online discussion and for the evolution of the group cooperation.

According to the Doodle poll results you have choosen meet on 2008.04.04, 13:00 (GMT+1).
Please vote for the communication tool:
http://www.doodle.ch/4qu4a8z2dkvwghrc
and the moderator:
http://www.doodle.ch/s55rdg8xpbc45c9w
as soon as possible.

CU at the meeting .

Probably the best date for the warmup meeting will be the nearest Friday (04.04.2008, 13:00). You have only a while to choose the communication tool. It should be free, easy to start, flexible, modern, commonly used, possibly low bandwitch hungry, net congestion proof, multiplatform; it should allow text conferences, sound conferences, video conferences. It should be multilingual, but English is enough.

Happily it doesn’t have to allow neither washing nor cooking.

Of course I myself would prefer using SecondLife as it allows also flying and teleporting

It is of a high priority that the tool would be chosen at least before thursday noon. Everyone of you should feel comfortable about using the tool by Friday. . .

Let me invite you to the first online meeting. Please indicate your availability on Doodle:

http://www.doodle.ch/participation.html?pollId=g7k95dymc8p6kcka

We will have an opportunity to discuss some important things fast and immediate. Please choose the tools for communication: the group chat? Skype? The videoconference?

Four weeks has passed, the long Easter break is over and it is possible to sum up some Group 5 activity.

• The first important group task was to setup, to configure, to start, to test and to get the wrinkles out of the mashed blogs group communication environment.

From the technological perspective the task was successful - the system is set up and potentially usable for each one groupmate. From the social perspective the task is not finished as for now. Not all the participants use the mashup to communicate (some did not started the communication at all).

It is important to understand, that not only the differences mentioned but also many personal communication barriers together with the ways to override them are the integral part of the course.
Javier pointed his deprecation for setting and using many different services with manylogin not integrated. This was also my first sight frustration when I had been starting myself. Then I understood, that such an environment is simply as heterogenous, as disintegrated, as difficult to control as all the Web 2.0 itself is. We cannot try to avoid these inconviniences by setting one well integrated environment (say: Moodle, GAfYD or something similar) and by pushing all the participants to use it together. This would not let us learn to work in real Web 2.0 environments. I can imagine many situations, when the group cooperation deserves work in such heterogenous spaces. The more difficulties I meet - the more reasons to learn I find.
BTW: OpenID can bring some relieve.

• The next important group task was to setup, to configure, to st… etc. the group wiki.

As for now the wisual wiki system is ready and willing (although AFAIK only three participants put their efforts to give their opinions). The Google Sites service is pretty new but maybe this more worth exploring.

It is important to continue group discourse as close and as social as possible and to help these who decides his participating. Of course it is each of us intrinsic decision to participate or to set the activity aside and leave.
But also it is important that these who is active took care of their progress. The time passes by and some activities require cooperating and making decisions together regardless of the actual number of active participants. Some of the EMIM03 dates are the milestones for this course groupwork.