communication
Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing. by Rollo May

As I sit here, trying to make sense of what I want to write for the communication section, I realise that communication and working with others plays a major role in my daily practice as a learning technologist, as an educator, and also as a researcher. To collaborate we do need to be able to effectively communicate with others while we work and learn with them.

These days I use several channels to communicate with those I work and learn with inside and outside the University.

I could actually provide numerous examples about how communication plays a very important role in my professional, and also personal, life. Today, however, I decided I should reflect about the latest group of people I am informally collaborating with and with whom I have been able to establish real communication. I think all of us are actually benefiting from this situation which started a couple of weeks ago, after I attended a Summer School on Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) for PhD students in Ohrid/ Macedonia.

It was quite a rewarding experience to have been granted a scholarship to take part in this event and be able to meet many other people, who otherwise I would probably not have had the chance to. What was interesting about the entire week of events was actually not so much the lectures or the sessions which had been planned for us as attendees, but all the unplanned connections and discussions that took place during that week, both online and on-site. Those were almost parallel sessions which ran informally and which spontaneously took shape, according to people’s needs to talk, discuss and make sense of topics in which we were interested in for several different reasons. It helped us in a way to bond and feel more inclined to work together.

During the summer school some of the participants used twitter and twemes (a site which helped us aggregate twitter messages, flickr photos and del.icio.us bookmarks based on a specific hashtag) to provide immediate feedback about the sessions that were taking place at the very moment. It not only generated a lot of on-the-fly reflection, it also enabled participants to bond with each other.

Now, after the summer school, some of us are still  carrying on with the unstructured discussion in two different online spaces, where we have the opportunity to share with others what we are up to (and this not only includes resources and opinions, but also humorous conversations spiced up with giggles, planning of future get-togethers, etc) .

Thus, some of the summer schoolers are still in touch through twitter, and a new twemes, ( a micro-blogging aggregator site) and through a written  skype channel, where we keep sharing resources and points of view related to our fields of research and professional interests.

I think most of the conversation that followed after the summer school has been quite important and relevant, not only in terms of the content shared and produced, but also because we have explored ourselves the potentials of such technologies to bridge communication and collaboration.

I think communication is key to any learning relationship. It is important we keep the channels open and make people comfortable enough to share their fears and anxieties, report about their experiences, and give and receive feedback about their practices. Communication is core to collaboration, a good working environment and keep the people’s leraning spark going (motivation).

In my role as a learning technologist I also try to convey the message that I am always willing to talk to people, and more importantly, to listen to what they have to say. In the last year I have also started using skype with the people I work with. It enables them to contact me at the spur of the moment, independently of their whereabouts. The fact that they can see my skype icon in an ‘online mode’ also gives them the reassurance I am virtually present and reachable in case they need to get in touch with me.

From this initiative, many some internal collaborative approaches have developed. Besides being connected to staff through skype, we are also now offering online tutorials and support via skype to students on study skills. Furthermore, we have also provided mentoring for students to start their group skype channels for project collaboration, as reported here.

In all, communication and working with others is really a very important part of my day to day work, and I thoroughly enjoy it. :-D  By using such channels, it not only helps me convey the message “I am approachable and am here to support others in their learning and practices”, it also enables me to constantly benefit from what others also have to offer. Thus it keeps me motivated while learning about this evolving world which is more and more reliable of the web as an important means to establish meaningful communication.

In the near future we are looking at reaching out to university staff through others means, in which communication and collaboration will continue to be the focus.

Communication is key to any learning relationship  :-)

Addendum - December 2009 

Since I last wrote this post, many more things have happen regarding how I communicate with those around me, and how I am trying to help staff and students to communicate amongst themselves and also their research and activity.

We have recently started working on an interdisciplinary project which brings together 1o institutions and students from Literature, Science and Medicine in an open forum. The project leader want to design a strategy which would enable  students to communicate with other as well as have access to the tutors in a continuum, and not only during the face to face sessions or through the exchange of private emails which might not reach the entire group, or more widely. Hence, we started looking at the possibilities the technology could offer based on the context and goals of the project as well as those who it aims to reach. We end up creating a collective space for social engagement, i.e., a space where students have access to other students and tutors, and equally where they have their own space (=blog). The idea was to bridge communication between face to face workshops and also provide a space for those who won’t be able to attend the physical sessions. Further, the purpose is to give students and tutors alike ‘equal rights’ to start new discussion threads, share their reflections and even create groups of interests within that space. The project will officially start in January. Yet, we already have more than 30 people enrolled to the space, and quite a few are already participating in the ‘challenges’ the tutors are posing them. The interesting part of this project is also to observe how the tutor themselves engage in this engage of information as ‘just another participant’. The tutors are taing part in the discussion, giving constructive feedback and also sharing their reflections on the blogs, and not at all acting as ‘the one who stands at the front of the room and talks to the audience’.  in LitSciMed there is no audience. They are all co-producers.

Recently, I have also managed to convince my colleagues to start a Blog for the Graduate Studies Team. It has been an exciting experience. We have all taken up the challenge with enthusiasm and it is interesting to see how our blogging voices are developing in the context of our blog’s thematic. Our goal is to keep posting throughout our staying at our institution.

2010 will be an exciting year where ‘communication’ is concerned. Our goal is to improve our communication strategies with our research students. It is also in our plan to enhance their research profile and create new opportunities for research students and staff to make their research more visible with the use of the participatory web.

Related posts: