[Portfolio] Summary of June 30 and July 7 T&L Meetings

[Ward, Lynn E.]

HI everyone,

I am writing with a summary of the discussion, activities, and conclusions reached by the T&L group over the last two weeks to help Josh, David, and anyone else who wasn't able to attend the calls get  caught up.  Detailed meeting notes are provided in Confluence.


1.       All discussion was focused on the six potential areas of activity or "centers of gravity" identified by Josh after the Denver meeting.

a.       Improving Internal and External T&L Communication - 4

b.      Sakai Learning Capabilities Design Lenses - 8

c.       Collaborating on Distance Learning Topics - 15

d.      2011 Teaching with Sakai Innovation Award -  5

e.      OpenEdPractices Brainstorming Page -  5

f.        Bringing Students into the Community -  3

A separate brainstorming page was created for each activity and community members were invited to add ideas to the page as well as to add their names to a sign-up list to confirm their willingness to devote time to the activity over the coming year.  The numbers next to each topic indicate the number of people who have signed up as of today, July 11.


2.       During the June 30 call<http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/PED/06-30-10+Conference+Call>, we used the hour to touch on the activity areas that weren't addressed during the prior call:

a.       Roger Henry led a discussion about the need for work around student engagement.  He summarized the discussion from the Denver BOF<http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/CONF2010/Student+Engagement+in+the+Sakai+Community> on this topic, and sought input from other on the call.   Kim Thanos suggested investigating other organizations and conferences to find out how they structure student activities.  Other suggestion are documented in the 06-30-10 conference call notes<http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/PED/06-30-10+Conference+Call>.  Rob Coyle and Roger will follow-up.

b.      Kate discussed plans for the 2011 TWSIA award.  She mentioned that Josh suggested formalizing the process a bit more-perhaps with rotating chair and review committee.  The team will be revising the rubric this year to place more emphasis on innovation. Kim volunteered to develop a communication plan for the award and to help with the call for submissions.

c.       Lynn led a brief discussion about the OpenedPractices site.   The group agreed that the purpose of the site is not clear.  Currently the site serves the needs of specific groups, but it's not particularly useful for the general public.  We agreed to revisit this topic at a future meeting, once more people have had a chance to review the current site structure and content.


3.       The bulk of the July 7 call<http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/PED/07-07-10+Conference+Call> was devoted to internal communication, with emphasis on how to advance the work in the six areas of focus in a way that keeps the entire T&L  and broader Sakai communities informed without overwhelming everyone with the details.  We reached the following conclusions:

a.       At some point soon, the individuals who signed up for each topic should begin meeting separately.  Each subgroup should determine its own meeting schedule and find ways to accommodate members in different time zones.  Since we were unsure whether the Marist audio bridge could be used for additional meetings, we discussed alternative options for synchronous subgroup meetings (Skype, Adobe Connect, Sakai video bridges, IU audio bridge) but have yet to decide whether each group should choose its own medium or strive for consistency across groups.

b.      A facilitator or group of co-facilitators should be identified for each subgroup.  This person  group would be responsible for organizing and facilitating meetings and the work of the group.  A column has been added to each subgroup signup list to allow members to volunteer for this role.  Some groups already have facilitators who might wish to continue or to step down.

c.       We should continue bring the entire T&L community together once a month to provide status updates, solicit feedback, and explore opportunities for collaboration and synergy. Kim offered to take notes for monthly meeting, polish and publish.

d.      Each subgroup should establish its own mailing list for internal discussion.  Ideally these lists should all use the same listserv platform to make it easy for new comers to get up to speed.  The TWSIA subgroup may be an exception because they need a private space for discussion.  Kim Thanos agreed to explore the possibility of using collab.sakaiproject.org for this purpose.

e.      Once the subgroup lists are established, the Sakai pedagogy list should be reserved for communications directed at the entire T&L community; for example, reports and summaries of work accomplished; calls for participation or feedback, etc.  Kim also recommended conducting live interactive sessions on a quarterly basis to engage the broader community in our work.

f.        The work of all subgroups should be documented in Confluence, so that others can easily locate it if interested.  If we use Google docs or other collaborative technologies, links to those documents should be provided in Confluence.  We should try to keep the T&L space (at least the top level page) up to date and well organized to make it easy for newcomers to find out about our work.

g.       We also explored ideas for increasing participation in T&L activities.  Lynn suggested a targeted email message to directors of teaching and instructional technology centers at Sakai partner institutions.  The message could summarize the current activities of the T&L group and encourage directors and their staff to get involved.  Kate mentioned that Sue Roig and John Moore have already assembled a similar mailing list for the TWSIA awards.  Kim agreed to help organize the mailing.


4.       Also on July 7, Lynn briefly summarized recent work by the functional analyst team on the Sakai 3 managed project.  She is one of the assigned resources on the project and will liaise between the T&L team and the functional analysis team.  She  identified several areas where T&L members could contribute to the requirements definition process:  conducting end user interviews/observations, serving as subject matter experts as well as proxies for end users, writing context scenarios and use cases, etc.  She will provide updates as plans for the first and second quarters of the project firm up.

==========================
Lynn Ward, Principal Systems Analyst, Academic and Faculty Services
University Information Technology Services<http://uits.iu.edu/>
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Information Technology and Communications Complex (IT 225D)
535 West Michigan Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202
Phone: 317-278-5713  E-mail: leward at iupui.edu<mailto:leward at iupui.edu>

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