• Batman the Dark Knight was good. More violent than I expected. Heath Ledger was quite good. #
• Posted about the @CPsquare book discussion - Communities of Practice: Creating Learning Environments for Educators http://tinyurl.com/5ryz7x #
• @BuckeyeBeth How did the VP Zoo tour go? #
• @howardgr Welcome home! #
• @ithinkmedia I like the Ursula K. Le Guin quote. Where was that from? #
• @howardgr Smell how clean NYC is! We are greener than most large cities and plan to get even better http://tinyurl.com/3c6qxl #
• @gminks Clever, ehh? It started years before I became involved. Wonderful group! #
• Submitted the grades for my Project Management for Training class in person. The last time there was a five week delay. #
• Bryant Park cannot hold another person. Thousands must be there right now. #
• Microwave is broken on my floor. To another floor to heat my lunch. #
• Microwave is broken on my floor. To another floor to heat my lunch. #
• Revised our Course Design Document and PowerPoint templates before leaving the office. #
• I miss the Barnes and Noble that used to be in Chelsea. #

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As I mentioned earlier this week, I just registered for another online class, Facilitating Online Communities.

I really like how Leigh Blackall, the facilitator for the class, has listed the assignments and is being more than patient with the flurry of email that is moving around from the course Google Group.

The assignments for the first week are:

1. Set up a blog to record the course notes. Done–I already have my own blog and will use it for this course as well as for my other work.
2. Listen to the recording for the first week. Not done yet; I have trouble focusing on something like this, and it may be one of the reasons I do not listen to podcasts too often as well. I listen to the radio all the time, but it usually becomes background noise. Thus, my challenge–how to make background noise into something I have to consciously focus on. Will have to try to do this.
3. Post here what I hope to get from this course. OK; here goes. I hope to learn more about online communities and how best to facilitate them. I have recently started to get active in CPsquare as I find a lot of value in collaborating with people who have different perspectives (due to the international audience and variety of experiences and education) from me in the areas of technology and adult learning. I am hoping that this class, which stretches for several months well into the Fall (in the US, at least) will give me ideas and encourage me to try new things with my online and F2F classes I teach. I am wondering how to apply the research, work, and experience from the communities of practice to higher education classes. I try to teach in a democratic manner, and am wondering how students may be encouraged to learn differently from this perspective. I hope Leigh’s class will help me think this through.
4. Introduce myself on the course discussion page. Done. Additionally, I just added my blog to my post there.
5. Set up an RSS blog reader, and subscribe to the blog posts of those in the class. Well, I use FeedDemon, which is an offline reader that synchs online (so I can access the same feeds home and at work).  I like having these things offline, but there has been so much talk about Google Reader, that perhaps I should check that one out as well. My question here is how to get all the RSS feeds for the class? Some people have tried to do this with various tools, but all the lists appear inconsistent. Will have to consider this on my own I suppose.

Let me speak for a moment on my first impressions. Leigh has done a tremendous amount of preparation for this class. Kudos to him! It does seem, however, that some of the students have started a flurry of discussion about tools and technology and the like–so much that I am already having trouble keeping up. Now, I am an instructional designer, university adjunct faculty member who teaches in and with technology, and do consider myself somewhat conversant in using technology; yet I am still struggling to keep up with all the emails that are discussing tools and such. I do, however, think it is very valuable to have this conversation, and am always happy to have (and sometimes be one of the) students who have passion and try to share it with others for the betterment of the entire experience. We need passionate people who want to share! My concern is for those who are not as fluent in the tools already and who may be a bit overwhelmed with hearing and seeing too much at once (namely, by day 3!). Interesting experience as I do not normally feel like one of them.

Nevertheless, we are off to a wonderful start, and I only hope that this passion remains and develops! 

• Finishing some research for an early morning deliverable. #
• @KT_718 Always quite clever. Now, can you just help me wade through these databases . . . #
• Trying to get a few things done before I leave for work. #
• Plan to see Batman tonight. #
• @abalone Sounds like my morning routine. #
• Finished the second of the three meetings I have today. Then I leave for an afternoon meeting in the Bronx. #
• Our Bronx office is 26 stops away on the #6 train. How do people do that commute every day?! #
• On the shuttle bus near our Bronx office. Took a 6 local train to a 4 express to a 6 local to a final 6 local after the last transfer. #

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Wonderful news that the updated CPsquare website is up and running, now on a new and improved WordPress platform. There are even working RSS feeds there, so if you have not been to their website recently (or better stated, our website (as I am a member!)), go and take a look. Running on a blogging foundation, there should now me more regular posts and adjustments on the front page.

Let’s see how the community of practice uses its new community website!

• Smoothest ride through the tunnel all summer. #
• Wow, already noon. #
• I like to Tweet in the elevator. #
• Looking for to my Project Management for Training students’ final presentations this evening. They seem to have worked so hard #
• I like the Google logo for today, in honor or Beatrix Potter’s Birthday. #
• @abalone We do what we can . . . #

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I just learned from my colleague Sylvia Currie at SCoPE that there is a new, online class that begins today–Facilitating Online Communities. Facilitated by Leigh Blackall at Otago Polytechnic in New Zealand, this seems like another of the intersting summer learning experiences to be aimed at a global audience of community facilitators and educators.

I just signed up for it, and am looking forward to several weeks of learning and meeting new colleagues. I am thinking more and more about a class as a virtual community of practice, and am hoping to learn some ways to integrate this into my online teaching, especially my upcoming Principles and Practices of Online Course Creation and Instructional Design course and the online graduate courses I will teach thereafter.

• Watching Song of Bernadette. Always been fascinated by Lourdes. #
• Drinking Sunday morning coffee listening to an NPR tribute to Burt Bacharach. #
• Reviewing research books for a Fall class I am redesigning. #
• Hear lots of thunder slowly getting louder. Do not see the dark sky yet. #
• Flash flood and hail warning just came across NOAA for the Western Catskills. #
• Severe thunder and lightning now. The sky is very dark. Quickly walked the dogs before the rain came. #
• Hope the rain is done for the night. #

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• Went upstate this morning. About to mow the lawn. Great way to relieve stress. #
• Finished the lawn, now time for apple martinis. First weekend without commitments in over a month. #

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• @abalone I felt classy and sophisticated just hearing him talk and seeing what he wears! #
• @gusgreeper Sounds great, if not a bit TMI. Oh well, you are speaking only among a few friends or so here. #
• @Currie Thank you! #
• NYU is using the Epsilen platform for online courses in the Fall. Anybody familiar with it? #
• @BronSt I am not familar with him. Ahh, the global community here! #
• @BronSt I cannot claim to have any fashion sense (or even interest), but Tim Gunn is like Home Depot, “You can do it, and I can help!” #
• @skydaddy Intersting materials you showed me! #
• @ChrisRicca HOpe you squeezed every bit of vacation out of the trip. However, NYC is quiet this time of the year, so nice time to return. #
• @abalone Thank you for the interesting link. #
• @BronSt I agree completely. On the flip side, not sure if I ever would have seen him even with traveling more. Not quite my area of interest #
• @skydaddy Do I hear an “Amen!” coming? #
• Just bought some Chartreuse after enjoying it so much last weekend. #
• A final errand into Lord and Taylor, and back to the office. #
• Minestrone soup. Healthy and yummy. #
• Minestrone soup. Healthy and yummy. #
• Finished revising our Course Design Document. #
• Finished my last meeting of the day. Need time to do the work now! #
• Just revised the rubric for the final project in my Project Management for Training class. #

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