The first Ontario Extend Extended Lunch conversation was very filling. Thanks @ProfessorDannyS, @NurseKillam, @IrenequStewart, @Joanne_Kehoe for joining in.
This was my idea to get to know participants and to listen to what they were interested in doing as part of my summer role facilitating the project for Terry Greene, who is again a dad (congrats!).
I was hoping for a conversation without an agenda, or a purpose of my own (beyond wanting to know folks better). And even after many years of connecting with colleagues from afar via the internet, just like the connections made back in the 1990s when it was mostly asynchronous email, there was an incredible adrenaline rush.
And so I was eager to capture ideas, and blog quickly… and while I was doing my own lunch (I’m 2 hours behind Ontario) Quick Blog Laura already had posted.
Lunch with Alan Levine @OntarioExtend https://t.co/UjXm3oQHgA pic.twitter.com/V7zwIOQL5V
— Laura Killam (she/her/elle) (@NurseKillam) June 7, 2018
I decided to pause a bit to simmer on the experience, and had a chat with my colleague
It also reminded me of an observation by friend and colleague Todd Conaway, fro when we was working with faculty at Yavapai College in Arizona, was in the busyness of everything they do, that most teachers almost never have a chance to informally talk with each other about ideas and the way they teach. #TooManyMeetings?
This felt a bit like that kind of conversation, among people at different institutions, roles, disciplines in Ontario.
Notes Before I Forget (it might already be happening)
In no particular order, some of my own notes…
Lunch schedule. People did like the idea of s standing lunch time, and why not Thursdays? We agreed to nudge the start time to 12:30pm. Some want a thing to sign up, yto get reminders (looking into that). “If it’s not in the calendar it does not happen”! Here is an effort to provide a link to a calendar
See if that works? But count on the next Extended Lunch being June 14, 12:30pm EST in my Zoom room https://ecampusontario.zoom.us/my/cogdog.
People mentioned a reminder app that they found useful, please let me know which ones you like?
Irene mentioned in interest in getting better at providing good descriptions for images to improve accessibility. I’ve been thinking about this in trying to do better for using this feature in twitter now that it’s a a feature. More than knowing how to do this, the question is, what’s the best way to do this so they are effective picture descriptions? I’m bubbling blog post to think about it.
We also discussed suggestion ideas for our own reflective blogging as part of the Extend project, but also, had conversation about ways to design this into classes where we ask students to write about their work in public, rather than burying in the LMS.
Laura is thinking (in public on her blog) about how to incorporate student blogging into an upcoming research class she is teaching– see #BSN4416 Plans: Engaging, Ungrading, and Empowering — and give her some good comment feedback, please.
And there was much talk about the Extend Scholar Module and shared ideas for how to go about choosing an idea, doing research, addressing ethics of data use. Joanne mentioned that eCampus Ontario is offering an upcoming June 28 webinar What is Action Research?.
Danny suggested contacting Dr Robin Yap for research expertise- @robinyap – Robin has recently jumped into the Extend fray.
Joanne also shared some sample documents of her own research project
So great to see and talk to everyone! @NurseKillam here is a link to the final project docs I used if they are of any interest/help whatsoever https://t.co/lNcUrc34sm
— Joanne Kehoe she/her (@joanne_kehoe) June 7, 2018
Lots of discussion on framing research questions (“make it answerable!”), keeping it focused, doing something in your area of interest.
The Daily Extend Leaderboard came up, and some group consensus on how hard it will be to catch Greg Rodrigo (we will reset the count on the board, on July 1, 2018, so maybe make a plan to do 31 for 31 in July?). This also led to some good talk about the value of motivation/pressure of performance of things like this as well as badges “Badges do create some pressure. It is hard to balance.”
Join Us For next Lunch?
I’ll be reminding as usual in twitter, but set your calendar for weekly Extended Lunch conversations, where agendas are never on the menu. Invite more people to join in! As another connective effort, I just started a new Twitter List for people who join the lunch sessions, this can make it easier for you to follow each other.
Also, if you are looking to find fellow Extenders, see the list of participants that includes their blog link and twitter handle.
Let me know of more topics, ideas, people to pull into our conversations.
Danny described a rather healthy lunch, I might have to up my game for next week!
Featured Image: Pixabay image by LUM3N shared into the public domain using Creative Commons CC0
Excellent notes! Your title is so creative. Maybe we can chat about how to title blogs next week! Thanks for the shout out. I can’t wait for our next lunch 🙂