Learning Live Online

I'm still chuckling about last night's Second Life session. Jane Krauss asks audience members to raise their hands and what do I do? Jump up and down. Ah well, I'm new, a newbie as they say and I have a lot to learn in Second Life and in the Web 2.0 world. Everyone begins somewhere, right? I'm glad that I can laugh about it--and share the funny stories with the teacher next door to me at school, Tim.

Today I participated in a Classroom 2.0 LIVE conversation with Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay who spoke about their Flat Classroom Project as well as other keys to digital collaboration. Just before the program began, the moderator, Steve Hargadon acknowledged the waiting participants and announced the start time, "we'll begin in four minutes", "we'll start in 2 minutes." It was a count down, remniscent of a launch to me. The analogy got me thinking about how learning in a Web 2.0 environment is similar to a rocket launch; I've certainly launched myself into learning with them.

Today's session was quite different from last night's session primarily because of the platform. Elluminate was easy to use with less physical interaction than SL. There are no avatars or moving parts in Elluminate just slide sharing, chat and voice. Still, that's plenty. The multi-tasking still amazes me: listening, chatting, responding, visiting web links and viewing.

I'm starting to get a sense of Personal Learning Networks and how to build one. In terms of my PLN, I am starting to recognize names across social networks and lists. When online I'll find myself thinking, oh that's so and so from my Classroom 2.0 network, or that's such and such from Twitter or the Blogosphere. It's coming together, but I need to do more reading.

After the Elluminate session today I heard from Ruthi, also a participant in the session. In the chat she mentioned connecting with a classroom and I sent my email to her. I imagine that's how you begin, right? Jump in with someone who is willing to talk and plan a project with you. Ruthi teaches English as a foreign language at a school in Jerusalem. We emailed after the session and then skyped together. We had a nice conversation. I just can hardly believe I was speaking a teacher in Israel about possibly collaborating. As Vicki Davis said "this flat world still amazes me."