This document describes an online seminar room called Big Blue Button. It has modules for users and listeners, a whiteboard, and chat functions. There was some lag discussed, and fewer interactive tools than other systems like Elluminate. Benefits and challenges of online communities of practice in higher education were discussed. Identity, literacy and community in partially synchronous distributed learning environments were explored as topics, and how the environment interacts with these topics. Evaluations provided both positive feedback on the productive discussion and useful learning environment, as well as technical difficulties experienced by some participants.

1. Big
Blue
Bu(on
On
line
seminar
room

3. • Open
Source
community
• Modular
• HE
oriented
• In
development
• Trial
instance:
– h(p://50.17.253.98/

4. Welcomes
&
IntroducJon

5. Screen
controls
• Users
module
– Assign
presenter
– Raise
hand
• Listeners
module
– Mute/un-­‐mute
microphone
• Whiteboard
– Upload
presentaJon
– AnnotaJon
tools
only
for
presenter
• Chat
– All
– Private
chat

6. Affordances
• Discussion
– There
is
some
Lag
– Those
familiar
with
Elluminate
will
noJce
fewer
interacJve
tools
– The
interacJvity
is
in
the
facilitated
conversaJon

7. On-­‐line
seminar
• Benefits
and
challenges
of
communiJes
of
pracJce
in
higher
educaJon
– h(p://openbrookes.net/copsinhe/

9. Identity, literacy and community in
(partially) synchronous distributed
learning environments

10.  3 events of current interest as new form of CPD
 Online identity
 Digital literacy
 Communities (of practice) in HE
 (in the event, 2 have run)
 Cover the topics
 Exploring the potential of
 Synchronous
 Distributed
 Collaboration

12.  Topics are challenging
 The environment is challenging
 There is an interaction between the
environment and the topics

13.  Might identity, literacy and community be
threshold concepts in educational development?
 Does the Trojan mouse effect persist in any new
learning environment?
 Any novel medium with or through which learning,
is done serves to foreground not the medium but
the meaning of learning
 i,e, discussions about e-learning are really
discussions about learning

14.  The environment
 Elluminate …. But no more!
 Brookes Blogs
 The learning design
 The topics
 Evaluation
 The questions

15.  New breed of collaboration tools allowing people to
be simultaneously present in an desk-top computing
environment based on a classroom metaphor
 2-way voice & video communication
 Text chat
 Graphics
 A “White Board” on which “Slides” can be displayed
 Presenters
 Participants
 Icon-tools such as “hand-raising”, emoticons (smiley faces),
polling

17.  Teaching events
 Meetings
 Distributed/distant co-presence at face-to-face
events (conference streams)
 Benefits
 Reduced travel – time, cost and carbon saving (?)
 Recorded for replay
 Distributed groups

18.  Technical
 The Internet is not like the movies: Lag
 Hardware/software compatibility
 Institutional firewalls
 Cultural
 Literacy: how to use the $%^&*! thing
 Community:
 Interruptability, participation, open plan spaces
 Identity: representation of the self
 Expectation management
 It is different from both face-to-face and “traditional” on-line
discussion-based distributed elearning

19.  Website “home page”
 Email joining instructions and briefs
 Familiarisation sessions
 Simple activity flow
 Breaks and continuity

21.  Some considered the online interface ‘much richer than face-
to-face sessions’, found the different channels useful.
 ‘Interesting and productive environment’ effectively replicated a
face to face workshop/seminar in terms of medium and
activities.
 Useful learning medium once acclimatised
 Breakout groups worked well for engagement
 Interesting conceptual stuff from the panel discussion
 Excellent questions raised
 The moderators and the participants with different views of a
very interesting topic, with moderation that made sure that all
was somehow held together
 The experience of taking part in online learning in this format.
 The (useful) flow of presentation through to reflection and
discussion

22.  A participant who thought the familiarisation session went well
referred to the session itself as ‘fraught with problems’.
 Participant who came late took the first 30 minutes to catch
up, experienced technical difficulties particularly with sound at
first and did not manage to get a webcam working at all.
 Communication a challenge in the medium.
Sound problems
 Difficulty with giving attention to a presentation for full 20
minutes
 Bandwidth broke up audio in breakout groups
 Attending an online workshop from the work place different
from attending a face to face events as the presence of the
web, msn, email and telephone is distraction affecting
concentration; needs discipline

23.  Might identity, literacy and community be
threshold concepts in educational development?
 Does the Trojan mouse effect persist in any new
learning environment?
 Any novel medium with or through which learning,
is done serves to foreground not the medium but
the meaning of learning
 i.e. discussions about e-learning are really
discussions about learning

24. George Roberts, Joe Rosa, Rhona Sharpe, Patsy Clarke