Thursday 21 February 2008

informality in a formal conference, talking on social media in low resource settings


Gearing up for the eLearning Guild Annual Gathering on 14 - 17 April 2008 in Orlanda, Florida.

This year I will be speaking on the subject of social media and how they are impacting the learning capacity in low resource areas. It is still a very new area of expertise, but the change that is happening can have a global effect. I talk in one of the concurrent session on Thursday 17th April at 10 o'clock. If you are planning to go there, look me up or comment and then we can meet up.

The speakers list looks promising, so I hope I will see you there.

A short overview of what I will talk about:

Through social media, rural areas have begun to take their knowledge out onto the Web, and into the world; and their knowledge adds to e-Learning information on a global scale. The impact of social media for low-resource settings is phenomenal. In the last couple of years, schools in low resource areas have set up e-Learning courses that provide students in those settings with much-needed content. With the growing access to social media and the Web, more secluded areas are finding their way to the Web, and to one another. This new connectivity has a big impact on the global community.

This session will examine the impact social media in low-resource areas has on the global e-Learning program. Participants will learn of the emerging cultures that are getting into e-Learning, and how they can cross-benefit everyone within the e-Learning world. Social media enables a closer contact between those areas that have been testing digital communication for a long while, and now-emerging areas. The geographical map of e-Learning areas is changing rapidly.

In this session, you will learn:
  • What social media is

  • Which social media are used in low-resource areas to connect with similar areas around the world

  • How the exchange of knowledge with low-resource areas impacts the world on health and other scientific levels

  • How low-resource areas have been able to impact the global e-Learning field

  • Why social media are creating a shift in empowerment of emerging cultures
Just have to make a presentation that is open, leaves a lot of time for interaction, allows adoption while giving it and still stays structured under all circumstances.... yes, I will make it as informal as possible, I will mingle between the participants and give them the floor from time to time so we all can get some knowledge cross polination going.

Does anybody have good ideas for such a cross polination to take place?

6 comments:

  1. Hi, could put your presentation in a voicethread (voicethread.com) and update live with comments - I guess at an eLearn Guild they should have good enough audio coverage to pick up the room?

    Just a quick thought
    Nicola

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  2. oh Nic, that is such a good idea. I will try out the software first in one of the lectures here and then see how it works. Really a great idea.

    thank you!

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  3. No worries, I guess if enough people bring laptops too, you could have people swarm around them - they may have these kinds of speakers / microphones in the room or better, but this is a really neat bit of kit which my colleague has shown to me, you can just plug into any laptop via USB and the quality is excellent(am sounding like a sales adviser now !)I am saving up to buy for home... If you really wanted to be ambitious and stream into SecondLife that would be cool too
    I would love to be there... unfortunately am in Nottingham on 17th, hope it goes brilliantly
    Nic

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  4. Wow :-D that is a bit ambitious, but ... I am always up for a challenge. Let me see what I can do after talking to the eLearning guilders.

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  5. Hello Ignatia,

    I tried to find your contact info on the blog but couldn't.

    We would really like you to join our beta on Questler.com, our learning 2.0 web experience.

    Questler is an informal learning network with focus on individual’s experiences and conversation as the information content from which personal and collective connections are created based on shared interests within diverse contexts. Each quest in Questler is a mini-blog, where text, links and multi-media files can be put around several types of an informal learning experience be it a query, a discovery, an observation, research, a story or media. Our vision for Questler is to become an informal learning space for individuals and later for institutions (educational and corporate).

    Hope you accept the invitation!

    Many thanks,
    Razan Khatib
    Founder
    Questler.com

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  6. hello Razan

    I would love to beta test Questler. I will contact you.

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