KEYNOTE CHAT: "The Live Online Instructor in an eLearning World"

Matt Wasowski

April 24, 2003, 1800 GMT

+ Matt has arrived.
<Matt> Am I in the right room?
<Matt> Greetings, who is behind "*tcc staff"?
< tcc_staff> Aloha Matt
< tcc_staff> My name is Kelli one of the TCC staff
< Matt> Aloha! Is this Joy or Karl?
< Matt> ah, Kelli. greetings
< Matt> How has your conference been going?
< Matt> I had a great time last night giving my keynote
< tcc_staff> the conference has been going well
< tcc_staff> I'm glad to hear you had a great keynote
< Matt> Thanks. I thought it went very well. Everyone seemed very engaged and very enthusiastic
< Matt> I'm honored you asked me to participate
< tcc_staff> We're very honored to have you
< Matt> :-)
< tcc_staff> for your info, your chat will be logged
+ joy has arrived.
< tcc_staff> hi joy
< joy> Hi!
< Matt> Hi Joy
< Matt> how are you?
< Matt> I was thanking Kelli for inviting me to give the keynote last night
< Matt> I had a great time
- joy just left.
+ HollyS has arrived.
< Matt> Hi Holly!
< HollyS> Hi Matt. Where is everyone?
< Matt> Don't know
< Matt> I guess no one likes me :-(
< Matt> Were you logged on last night to my presentation?
< HollyS> No, It was 7 pm and I didn't get to listen, so I have to listen to the archive.
< HollyS> Have you been to Raritan Valley Community College in NJ?
< Matt> I see. I believe Bert Kimura will send everyone the link to the archive, but if you give me your email address I will send you the link as well.
< Matt> I was at RVCC in early January for a New Jersey Edge conference
< HollyS> I think I met you there in the hallway after your presentation.
< Matt> Ah, that was you! I remember! And you were with a fellow, if I remember correctly
+ dawn has arrived.
- dawn just left.
< Matt> How have you been since then?
< HollyS> I have an instructional designer colleague named Lonny. They call use Lolly - Lonny + Holly.
< Matt> that's hilarious. i wish i had an equally impressive tale to tell
< Matt> ummm...thinking....
< HollyS> I need to go back and view your archive before I chat. I was hoping to lurk a bit and see what other people had to say. I'll stop back later.
- HollyS just left.
< Matt> yesterday was my birthday so i received a warm response after the keynote...don't think anyone has the heart to tell you they don't like your presentation if it's that person's birthday
< Matt> gotcha
+ miri has arrived.
< Matt> Hi Miri
+ keng has arrived.
< Matt> Hi Keng
< Matt> What time is it in Australia?
< keng> G'day Matt
< Matt> isn't it the middle of the night?
< keng> 4.30 am
< Matt> wow...well i have bad news...you and miri are the only ones in this chat room..not much going on
< keng> I though the Interbet would be like grased lightning at this tim but I have had real prpoblems connecting
< Matt> maybe it's sleeping
< Matt> or just waking up!
< keng> I really enjoyed your webcast earlier on today
< keng> or yesterday for ypou
< Matt> do you have any questions about my presentation this morning? (yesterday, for me)
< keng> Did you hvew a good birthday dinner
< keng> have
< Matt> had sushi
< Matt> but it was FREEZING in the restaurant...i felt really sick and went to sleep immediately afterwards
< Matt> it wasn't too festive...thanks for asking!
< keng> We are just start ing up a learing community to support hoem based busnesses
< keng> and we are looking at providing soem synchonous supporting technolgy
< keng> at the moment we are haveing a play with Flash Comm server stuff
< Matt> how is it working out for you?
< Matt> i'm still teaching myself Flash...very slowly
< keng> It wil bequite new expereience for soem fo the teachers to wor in this way
< keng> sorry about the spelling my eye are hardly open
< keng> The idea of having a web presence - as you demonstrated - will probably take some proactice
< Matt> yes, it will!
< Matt> i've been doing this for 3 years now and i'm still hardly an expert
< keng> Some of the web casts can be pretty dul if ll they are is voice and ppt
< Matt> but you get better quickly
< Matt> right
< keng> well it was very enggaing
< keng> How much is panned nd how much is off the cuf
< keng> as you are going
< keng> planned
< Matt> umm...70% canned, 30% off the cuff
< Matt> had to enough to work from...but then like to wing it a bit
< keng> I gues that iswhat we ned ot be come comforatable with - that level of being spntaneos and responding to the particpating students"
< keng> As we do ina f2f clas room
< Matt> exactly
< Matt> as i said...try to keep many elements the same
< Matt> make time for feedback/spontantaity
< keng> My interest is trying ot provide as rich an environemnt as possible to allow differetn studnt to interact/angage in the ways yhey
< keng> want to participate
< Matt> precisely
< Matt> different media formats work well too
< keng> Have you combinded webcasts with other types of actcivties
< Matt> often show canned video clips and use a CMS and/or message boards
< Matt> -to add an async aspect
< keng> I think the async aspect of online is its strength in that people can participate when they want - not 4.30 am
< keng> but it takes a bit to get used to
< keng> Combining both can add an extra dimension to the learing processes
< Matt> does you think it takes more getting used to by the faculty or by the stduents?
< keng> For some teachers it is big leap to work asynchronously but students pick it quickly
< keng> although ihave one 50 yo student who refuses to particpate online
< keng> her is my challenge
< keng> The challnge for our Learing community will be getting home based busones operators to work online
< Matt> hold on one moment...
< keng> Many have had little experience onlien but have no time or opportunity to engage in f2f courses
< keng> OK
< keng> I wonder where miri is - aer you there miri
< Matt> miri doesn't seem to be around
< Matt> just lurking
< keng> Part of the Learning community process is to get the operators to learn form each other
< Matt> ideally...
< keng> using online faciulities
< Matt> oh well, such is life on a chat
< Matt> and this can be an example of the problems with sync tools...actually getting people to show up
< Matt> i know i tried to point out that if it's a class, well, students will fail if they don't show up, but sometimes absences are unavoidable
< keng> Yes you sort of need a critical masa of peopel
< keng> although can work
< Matt> how long will it take you to get your 50 yr old student to participate online?
< Matt> what's his/her aversion?
+ jean has arrived.
< keng> By the end of the year I hope he is starting o come around but he enjoy complaining
< keng> Hi Jean
< jean> hi
< jean> what are you discussing?
< keng> He just doesn't se the point of working online
< keng> It is a f2f class which i supllimenting with problem based learing online
< Matt> Hi Jean..we're discussing the aversion of sync communication
< jean> are you using any particular problem-based learning strategies
< Matt> why some love it and some are less willing
< keng> I work at a differetn cmapus and never se the students out side of the evening class so online is the only way they can communicaet outside of class
< Matt> Keng gave an example of an older student (50 yrs old) who doesn't see the point of learning online
< Matt> what do you do, jean?
< jean> maybe he doesn't feel the necessity..
< keng> I guess it is not his prefered learing style
< keng> he likes the eye ball to eye ball contact
< jean> i organize a unit called "online environments, do some instructional design in my college and run the EFL departmnt
< jean> what do you do matt?
< Matt> i work at a software company, horizonlive
< Matt> i gave a keynote last night about The Role of the Live Online Instructor
< jean> i met sharon when she was israel. she works for horizonlive in ny. do you know her?
< keng> I teach one clas of che,istry and run an oline learing deveopment departmetn ot our institute
< Matt> tips and strategies for getting the most out of their live classes
< Matt> yes, jean, she's about 20 feet away from me right now
< jean> yes, i'm sorry - i saw that - i'm in israel so it was way past my bedtime then
< jean> pls say hello to her from me :-)
< Matt> what's your last name?
< jean> vermel
< Matt> will do
< jean> we had coffee together in a cafe
< jean> where are you from eng?
< Matt> how did you meet her?
< jean> keng, excuse my typing :-)
< Matt> nope, i'm from New York CIty
< keng> Melbourne Australia
< Matt> keng is in australia
< Matt> right
< jean> she came to Israel to sell HorizonLive and we met I think in the Mofet Institute - or she got my number somehow.
< Matt> i see i see
< jean> I'm origianlly from ny
< Matt> keng, areyou going back to sleep?
< keng> Where has there been some real susses in the synch delivery with Horizonlive matt
< keng> success stories - sorry
< Matt> CSU Chico
< Matt> they've used HorizonLive for 3 years now and teach 30 classes a day
< Matt> what's neat is that...
< keng> What sort of things have they been doing
< jean> We're using a "rival" platform and one of the things we've "discovered" is that you have to keep the "action" moving on the screen - whether with PowerPoint or movement
< Matt> the majority of their students live in the shasta mountains, about 100 miles north of campus. they don't have high speed connections but Chico still uses video for every class and had a 98% success rate in 2002.
< jean> Does HorizonLive also have the possibility of a webca or video?
< Matt> right, jean.
< keng> I think the chat aspect of the presentation is what really makes it happen
< keng> n insult to the presenter intended
< Matt> rule of thumb is to change anything visual every 90 seconds
< Matt> and ask questions every 3 minutes
< Matt> i agree
< Matt> it keeps everyone focused
< jean> have you come up with that from some research - or is that a good intuitive gues?
< Matt> that's why good professors allocate time for chat comments
< Matt> research
< Matt> Chico did a survey/study
< jean> any other "best practices"?
< Matt> name calling...
< Matt> call out people by their names..it wakes them up and makes them thinkyou're watching them closely
< Matt> limit distrations
< Matt> demand they close all other windows
< Matt> if the chat area is slow, ask for comments in timely intervals
< Matt> really give the students the impression that they should be giving 100% attention
< Matt> cold calling is my preferred technique
< Matt> i would say aloud, "jean and keng, what did you think of that last point?.."
< jean> What is "cold calling?"
< Matt> it keeps them listening intently
< Matt> call them out by name
< Matt> does that make sense?
< Matt> like calling on someone in a f2f class who didn't raise his hand
< jean> excuse me for a second, the phone just rang.
< Matt> no problem...keng, anything else?
< Matt> i actually need to leave as well...i had 50 minutes allocated..it's been 60
- Matt just left.
+ Matt has arrived.
- Matt just left.
- jean just left.

TCC 2003 Online Conference
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