[Portfolio] REMINDER > Sakai T&L Call Today at 5 PM ET

[Josh Baron]

Folks,

Just a friendly reminder that we will be holding our regular weekly call 
today at 5 PM ET (our new time following the Denver conference).  Dial-in 
information is below along with, in case you missed it, a great summary 
the Lynn posted on Monday that covers the last two calls (thanks Lynn!).

As some may recall, I've been out on vacation the past two weeks and thus 
not involved in the calls so I'll be playing a bit of catch up today. 
Based on what I've read in terms of the summary and Confluence pages, it 
looks to me like one of our next action items may be to firm up these 
sub-groups and finalize the logistics with regards to how and when they 
will meet.  We may also want to discuss how and when we want to gather as 
a larger group (once a month has been proposed but at first we may want to 
to once every two weeks???).

As usual, everyone should come with their own agenda items and plan to 
note them up front on the call.  This is especially important given that 
I've not been on the past two calls so there are likely issues that need 
to be discussed that I've not mentioned here.

Talk with everyone in a little while.

Josh

Calls are currently taking place every Wednesday at 5 PM EDT (New York, 
USA).  To participate:

    * Dial 1-888-447-7153 (International callers: 1-719-387-1138)
    * Enter in passcode: 917798 (the hit #)
    * Listen to music until "moderator" starts the call
    * Need help? Call tech support at 1-877-807-0970

SUMMARY FROM LYNN WARD:

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, 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 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.  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 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.


-----------------------------
Joshua Baron
Director, Academic Technology and eLearning
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, New York  12601
(845) 575-3623 (work)
Twitter: JoshBaron
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