Do you know 2.0?

Is the school preparing children to address the coming world?
Are development projects addressing new forms of education as effective tools to fight and prevent future poverty and hunger?
Open questions for which I don’t have answers but only ideas…

Define your target group and its needs

Starting a new online community is a hard job. Before doing anything else, I always suggest to ACCESS your TARGET AUDIENCE. Spend your time on this exercise because it is very, very important. This is one of the key to avoid further problems. It is the prerequisite to analyze the needs of your future users [...]

3rd Workshop on online communities

The new workshop on online communities is starting. After the last edition, we modified the structure to take care of participants’ suggestions. So the new features of the course are:
- three weeks only and less contents to read;
- more focused on the IMARK lessons;
- fewer discussions and a different set-up of the space in our [...]

NEW COURSE is starting!!

A new course on ONLINE FACILITATION is starting!
The crew, and what a great crew, is ready again!
Welcome onboard to everyone who wants to share his/her experiences, questions, doubts and ideas with all of us. Remember that:
“…this workshop is not about simply delivering information to you. It is the conversations we will have with each [...]

Launch of “Building online communities” training course

Yes yes yes, after a big effort we released the new IMARK (www.imarkgroup.org) e-learning module in support of online communities called Building Electronic Communities and Networks.
The module is available for free and covers the approaches, methods, and tools used to build electronic communities, as well as the various steps and procedures for developing [...]

CMS for e-learning: MOODLE

For our new online course on “Facilitating online communities” we are going to test a new platform called Moodle. I think you know it.
Moodle is:
“is a course management system (CMS) – a free, Open Source software package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities.”
It is a very interesting tool [...]

Learning log – Week #5: final comments

“I was especially happy to be exposed to using tools (e.g. Dgroups, blogs, etc) which I had only seen, but never quite understood how they worked. I am glad we have been able to start one D-group as a result of this workshop. I’ll now be looking to identify & advise on areas where [...]

Learning Log – Week #3: many members each take a bit of the load

“The one-man (person) show is untenable and we have to find alternatives and quickly…
I have to chime in again – I can’t resist. This point is CENTRAL to successful network work. It cannot be a hub with one person at the middle and the rest of the network like spokes. There [...]

Learning Log – Week #3: Trust is central

“Very related to norms and agreements is building relationship and trust in a group. Sometimes this is hard. There is a tension caused by a lack of time. When people are busy, they are less inclined to spend time building relationships, and developing trust with others in a network. Yet trust is central for [...]

Learning Log – Week #2: Start ONLINE

“I have found that pre-F2F work online makes F2F meetings more productive. For groups that have to go online and have a chance to be F2F, I usually suggest they start ONLINE first.
This helps people test their sense of others online, gain some identity and trust, then when they go F2F not only does the [...]

Learning Log – Week #2: Motivations

“People often don’t learn a skill just to learn it. Try to make sure people have applications in mind before doing the training. It helps!
When expressing this, you might also want to include WHY this is important. Help them see POSSIBILITIES. Some people have a clear picture of why. Others may need some illustrations or [...]

Learning Log – Week #2: Organizational change

“We may be trying to facilitate collaboration and networking, but we may not be operating in an organizational culture with this competency. When we fail, we often blame it on the technology. If we look closer, it can often be related to our organizational culture. So looking at initiatives that reinforce the value of and [...]

Learning Log – Week #2: Meaning and value for participants

“How might you communicate with your participants to market your online interaction space? Remember: if you build it, they may not come!
There is the saying that you can build something that is wonderful, but unless others know about it, care about it and want to participate, they won’t come. Just setting up an email list [...]

Learning Log – Week #2: Facilitation tips

“It was great to see that when a newcomer made an introduction, members of the group chimed in to offer a welcome. This is great from the facilitator’s perspective. One facilitation tip is to role model the behavior you want to encourage and once it is taken up, ease back.
Furthermore, some of us help “hear” [...]

Learning Log – Week #1: Relationship&Trust

“We begun to build our RELATIONSHIP as a group through INTRODUCTIONS.
Relationship is one of the cornerstones for building TRUST. In professional networks, our professional credentials and experience are important, but by bringing other parts of ourselves online, we can discover other bridges that can help us when things get more difficult. In the end, the [...]