Continued...

To ensure behaviour did not default to body language in the webinar environment where participants do not have that luxury.

Continuous improvement - feedback from all roles and participants .

Couple of issues:

1. Trainers tended to overtakk to compensate for the relative isolation and silence of the webinar environment.

2. Online communication tends to have a lower priority than IRL events. For example, workers tended to skip the webinar in fvour if other activities such as meetings.

When webinars were supported & sold by managers, webinar participation rates were 95%. Otherwise, 30%.

Webinars and the unlikely audience - Shelly Gibb, Coated

Coates r an equipment hire organisation with employees spread across Australia. Following restructure, they were faced with unifying the remaining people and business objects.

Priority became real time info and training. This was achieved via Webinars.

Webinars were sold to the workforce using language & concepts they could relate to such a IM, email, facebook, teleconferencing etc all rolled into 1.

Strategic keys:

Big picture - webinars were not an accident. Came about via a defined strategy.

Planning - all coates processes were mapped backwards to define how workers would interact and what information could be elicited.

Session design - identify resources be SME's, minimal words, every session began with a full explanation of how the webinar and the software worked.

People keys:

Participants - max of 15 per sesion to enable each to have a voice & interaction.

Presenter, moderator, co-ordinator -these roles are kept physicaly seperate during webinars to ensure behaviour..

Video conferencing

One of the organizers of this event is a video conferencing outfit by the name of Videolinq. There are also numerous other VC providers with booths. This would suggest a massive push for educators to use VC. Where does it fit into the near future of delivery? Given the state of broadband in this country, I am unsure about VC.

One of the opening speakers was VC'd in and it was a fairly poor example of how VC works - in this country anyway.

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Learning network

'My Desktop Toolset'

Welcome ceremony

12th LearnTel conference. Hosted by sunshine coast Tafe for the last 6 years. Approx 200 delegates aust wide.

George Siemens

Key note speaker

George Siemens key note speaker

What r the characteristics of a 'learning network'? Openess, learner control , belonging & trust, culture of sharing, ecology.

"Connections r to learning what atoms are to the physical world."

Learning is in connections and the patterns of those connections - how we connect to a concept.

Understanding is the degree of connectedness to those concepts.

Content & control has shifted to the learner. They have their own tools & connections often in the palm of their hand. What happens now? As we move forward, what role do buildings & classrooms play?