eLearning eVolution

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts – even online. In two recent webinars about collaborating online, Dr. Janet Salmons of Vision2Lead discusses “collaborative advantage,” what she calls the synergistic outcomes that could not be achieved by any participant acting alone.

Key to achieving collaborative advantage is thinking together, not just working together. And that means developing trust and pro-collaboration systems of communication.

Want to learn more? Just view the Elluminate Live! recorded sessions.

Colalborative Online Learning Part 1: Laying the Foundations

Collaborative Online Learning Part 2: Thinking Together

In addition, here’s a blog entry from Ignatia in Belgium that makes some interesting points about online collaboration and provides some tips for using simple language tricks to facilitate online conversations.

Ignatia also references SCoPE, an open, online community you may want to check out if you’re interested in online educational research and practice.

And if you have any best practices or tips/tricks for improving online collaboration, we’d love to hear from you.

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

What do you need to know to get started in the virtual classroom? Here are five tips from Bronwyn Beach of GippsTAFE (Technical and Further Education) institute in Australia, where she teaches competencies for those working in drug and alcohol counseling. She began introducing online sessions with the help of her mentor, Vanessa Marsh.

1. Have a co-facilitator.
2. Keep it simple and don’t use too many functions at once.
3. Use pre-session activities to help students prepare for each session.
4. Control hands up; pause for questions at set times in the presentation.
5. Treat it like a normal lesson.

Read the entire blog entry about Bronwyn and Vanessa’s collaboration here.

Elluminate also offers a wide variety of training for moderators and participants. So if you’re just getting started or want to know more about individual Elluminate Live! tools, check it out.

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

If you think that Elluminate Live! is just for virtual schools. Think again!

Over the past 15 months, traditional classrooms across three continents have come together, using Elluminate Live! software, to brainstorm, present, and implement projects that help address critical social issues in local areas, such as climate change and poverty reduction. The program is called Fire and Ice , and it was recently profiled on CNN.com (“Children Plan for Planet’s Future”).

Using a simple computer, projector, webcam, speakers and microphone, traditional classrooms in Canada and remote locations in Brazil and Africa, were given a “window to the world” to showcase their creative projects to combat climate change. Projects included organic gardens, litter prevention programs, and campaigns to control CO2 emissions from idling vehicles parked in front of schools.

The interative classroom series also featured remote guest speakers, such as social entrepreneur Dave Irvine Halliday, co-founder of the Light up the World Foundation and a scientist from world reknowed Suzuki Foundation, who inspired the students that individuals can make a difference in driving social change.

And yes, Elluminate Live! really does work on slower Internet connections. A school from the tiny village of Massambara, in a remote, rural area of Brazil, was able to collaborate effectively with the equivalent of only a 50 kbps dialup connection. “Elluminate built a bridge for us,” said Massambara teacher Janice Gloria Terra Passos, “to take our project out of the school, to the community, to the country…to the world.”

- Stace Wills, Elluminate Director of Corporate Development