LearningTimes Green Room

In this episode, Dan and Susan ask whether it is okay in online classrooms to allow learners to “lurk”. What is lurking? How do you define it and do you accept it in your online courses? The hosts of the LT Green Room want to hear from you. No lurking around this episode.

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Show Notes:
Is it okay in online classrooms to have people lurk? What is lurking? How do you define it and do you accept it?

Context: in a class. In most online classes, you are not permitted to lurk. Dan and Susan talk about why that is and whether this is a good thing.

Part of the impetus for this discussion came from Susan lurking in a SCoPE discussion on Legitimate Peripheral Participants discussion. Good stuff in that forum. Sometimes people just want to be on the edges until they believe they have something to say. What happens when we force students to talk? Not every has a need to express oneself.

Back to considering outcomes and whether forced participation is critical as evidence of learning.

Dan and Susan continue to explore how posting is related to assessing learning and why students post.

Check out SCoPE if you are not familiar with them. The discussions are open, but you’ll need to register if you want to participate.

Would you find it fulfilling if no one discussed with you, the teacher? Doesn’t that limit the teacher’s ability to learn from students?

Time for listener input! How do you deal with lurking in your online courses? You can respond at http://www.ltgreenroom.org or talk to us in LearningTimes. Or call us at 1-800-609-9006 x8055 (US and Canada) or 678-255-2174 x8055 (outside US and Canada). Or record a message online using the recording area below and to the right of this post. Join us!

Dan and Susan explore how we move from just hearing of a good idea to trying it ourselves in our own educational practice. For this podcast, we are joined by Lorraine Leo, a Technology Teacher at two small schools in Newton, MA (Jackson School and Walnut Park Montessori). This interview was actually a conference call conducted in Skype and recorded via HotRecorder.

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Show Notes:
How does someone else’s experience change my practice? How much of what you experience in professional development seminars and conferences makes a difference in how you teach? Lorraine uses a lot of technology with her students and has been very open in sharing what she’s done and how it has worked. She is especially creative in bringing virtual guests into her classroom and shared how she connected her students with an artist in a webcast a year ago. This inspired Susan to take a similar idea and replicate it recently by inviting a Navajo woman to interact with third graders. The opening of the episode is Susan and Lorraine each sharing their guest exchanges and finding people online.

Lorraine started this guest journey by following skipper Rich Wilson on a trimaran around the world. Her class connected virtually and energized both kids and teacher. Since then the guests have come non-stop! ePALS program is another means of meeting other guests. http://www.epals.com/ “Fun for me” A novelty is usually a safe bet.

What tips the scale to move people from hearing about an idea to trying it? Susan says it has to be simple enough to replicate. Lorraine looks for ideas that make learning more interesting. She shares a couple simple ideas with Skype. Dan looks at how close the problem that they’re trying to solve is a problem he also faces (in terms of likelihood of replication). This leads to a problem-solution discussion.

The whole idea comes full circle as Lorraine says Susan gave her an idea! Listeners, jump in on this … what have YOU been inspired by? Tell us that story by commenting at http://www.ltgreenroom.org or talk to us in LearningTimes. Or call us at 1-800-609-9006 x8055 (US and Canada) or 678-255-2174 x8055 (outside US and Canada).