Podcast Interview With IT Director
This podcast is an interview conducted by Michèle Royer at Bellevue Community College. She’s discussing changes in IT with their IT director, Agnes Figueroa.
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Jen
Life Before the Backchannel?
Does anyone remember it? I honestly can’t, but realized this week that I have been taking it for granted. Before there was Twitter, I used chat, email, BBS’s and even an email pager with a QWERTY keyboard to keep conversation flowing while I observed meetings and presentations. I can’t imagine life without a Backchannel! Thursday I ran an advisory board meeting with global participation. There were about a dozen attendees, half online through Elluminate, and half in our board room.
When the session ended, I expected comments in the room to center on the content and discussion. One of the first things mentioned was the backchannel chat running in Elluminate. They didn’t understand how anyone could teach using Elluminate with such strong distractions. I explained there were better ways to moderate the discussion, and that I had let the conversation flow. In an instructional setting, I would probably have requested hands raised when people wanted to speak, and would have done more polling. They could not believe the way some of the speakers were able to talk and also respond to comments in the chat.
When I returned to my desk, I had more email asking about the chat and describing it as distracting and irritating. I started to look at it from an outsider’s perspective. It has been so long since I’ve been without the backchannel, that I just take it for granted as a part of learning. But now, I’m wondering if there’s a better way to introduce it to people who aren’t familiar with it. I tried to describe it as similar to checking your email during a meeting, but I don’t think that made sense to them.
I remember when I introduced a former colleague to chat. She questioned why I typed in short bursts instead of full paragraphs. I explained that it was habit and I was just used to that type of conversation flow. It seems more authentic to me for people to read my thoughts as they come, rather than sitting around waiting for a complete paragraph. I’ll save that for the blogs and discussion boards!
So I guess I’m wondering how to describe it to others, as well as how to show the value and promote it so others will use it. How can I do a better job of looking at it from an outsider’s view? How do I teach instructors how to use it successfully to further engage learners?
Instruction and IT Working Together
Here’s my first REAL podcast on injenuity.com. It’s unedited, do be gentle on me!
I mention “Technology Task Force” in the podcast. The correct title is Technology Transformation Task Force.
Seriously
I spent two hours in the hair salon today, and while I emerged looking a little too much like Snow White, I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with people who take life less seriously. I am so immersed in the world of educational technology, that I sometimes forget there are people out there who have no idea that it exists and there is an ongoing battle for freedom and access to information.
What a treat to observe people connecting in person and actually touching each other! There was no need for political correctness, professionalism, or brevity. The stories flowed like wine (can I mention wine i my professional blog?), unfiltered and raw. One stylist carelessly showed off her suicide attempt scars while another spoke about receiving a gift of a hand-knitted blanket. Someone discussed a failed relationship, before continuing on to present the tale of her new love and the promise of the future. I learned of practical jokes, travel woes and family celebrations. I learned I take myself and my career way too seriously.
I am not on a mission to change the world, one instructor at a time. I delight in the little successes and share what I learn with others who can benefit. While my work is important, people learn without technology. Students grow and better their lives without access. Instructors can work around filters and lack of support. The most important thing I do is connect with people. I need to learn to take the process and tools less seriously and focus on the people and strengthening connections. I want to relax about the tools and let the stories flow.
Not Just Because
I don’t think I did a very good job of explaining the thinking process behind my Twitter experiment yesterday. I’ll try to do so now. When I first joined Twitter, I was in the middle of a research project. I needed information, lots of information, and in a short period of time. I followed as many people as I could. I clicked all the links. In a few months, I learned as much about educational technology as I did in my degree programs. During that time period, there were very few people I could identify based on their specialties, expertise, personality, or institution. I focused on individual posts, not people.
Once I completed my research, I began to think more about the individuals within this network. Rather than scrolling back through pages of my “recent” tab, I would click on an individual and read through their feed. This helped me get to know them better and discover deeper connections. I soon learned whom I should address with particular topics and interests and Twitter became more conversational for me. This is when I really started the excessive posting, which led many to stop following me!
At some point, maybe around nine months or so into my Twitter journey, I started connecting with many of these people outside the Twitter network. We connect through blogs, email, webinar tools, chat, etc.. I still check Twitter first to see if my friends are around and what they are working on each day. This usually informs how I will connect with them outside of Twitter.
This brings me to my latest Twitter habits. I discovered that I really haven’t been reading much in Twitter lately. I log in and click on a handful of individuals to see what they are up to, and catch my replies and DM’s. I rarely scroll back through the “recent” tab. I decided that following more than 300 people probably kept me from catching some of the important activity. Even though most of those people rarely post, if I get 5 or 6 posts on a page from people who only log in once a day, it distracts from the true connecting I appreciate.
So far I have enjoyed the process of starting over. I have made new connections and feel re-energized. I suspect I will get back to following 300 again, but it won’t be the same 300 as before, and I am satisfied with the changes.
Tangent Follow-up
Twitter Karma couldn’t handle the task, so I went through all 303 people I was following and removed them. Although none showed on my list, it still said I was following 4! Before I was even done, Mark Wagner noticed something was up. Since he sent me a reply, I added him first! I added about 25 people from my Tweeterboard stats and then started adding people who wrote to me and who were sent messages from the others I follow. I’m now following 42 and have already discovered some very interesting people I hadn’t met!
Tangent
I had a crazy thought on my commute this morning. Well, I had many, but this is the first one I’m applying. I am going to try to rebuild my Twitter network and see if the dynamic changes. My hypothesis is that it won’t. I’m going to use Twitter Karma to stop following everyone. Then I’m going to use Tweeterboard to follow the top 25 people I communicate with. From there, I will follow the people they talk to, as well as anyone who sends me a direct reply. Any guesses on how this will change anything?
Students are Beautiful!
Friday I moved to a new office and it made a huge difference in the way I approached my work. Here’s the hallway outside my old office:
It was in a long building, with short hallways crossing it. There were only a few classrooms and I had to keep my door closed because of the echo. Here’s the hallway outside my new office:
I can look through the center windows and into a lab! I’m in the corner, so people pass me and there are several classrooms and offices on my floor. I was able to keep my door open all day. I can look down through the windows and see the students in the welding and auto collision programs. I can hear them talking on their breaks. I am witnessing learning, and it feels so good!
I love that I have a space where faculty will feel more comfortable to come and relax and just talk. We are working on culture change, more than anything else, and having a safe space to visit, makes a difference! I hope the students will talk to me so I can learn more about their needs and desires. I plan to put a “webcam zone” sign on the door and stream any learning that happens, so others can share with us!
How to Eat Chips, Watch Sports on TV and Stay Thin
I posted on Twitter asking if anyone had suggestions for a blog topic today. @shareski was the first to respond with: @injenuity Here’s one: “How to eat chips, watch sports on TV and stay thin”. That should take up all your creative juices. While he may have been attempting to stump me with something I know nothing about, I actually have the secret: moderation. Of course, moderation doesn’t help if you’re not starting out thin in the first place. That takes a bit of extra effort!
So, to correlate this with my latest experiments in social media moderation, I think I can help with @shareski’s issue, as well as my own. I didn’t start the process thin, so moderation is not the only solution. I started with a healthy Twitter habit, coupled with the need to follow every link on every article as well as RSS addiction, and email exhaustion. Fatness indeed! Rather than moderate, I took some drastic cuts. I haven’t checked my RSS reader in at least a week. I’ve dramatically decreased my Twitter output and have taken control of my email, processing up to 50 messages a day. I made myself invisible on g-talk and have had an incredibly productive week. I will probably continue along this vein next week and then bring in the moderation.
I don’t know @shareski personally, so I can’t speak to his physique. If he’s already thin, he can moderate by burning as many calories as he consumes. This may mean doing crunches and squats during the commercial breaks, or replacing high-calorie snacks with healthy alternatives to balance the TV time. If he’s got a few extra pounds, as I did with my social media consumption, he’s got to consume fewer calories and increase activity. In this case, I recommend cutting back on the chips, while not completely denying them. I also suggest adding in some house work on the commercial breaks. This will burn immediate calories as well as stockpile some positive spousal response for later calorie consumption.