Step Three: It's a Go!
Framework is set, online forum created, first workshop booked and workshop calendar open for more!
This week was a busy one, and it was exciting to see the learning community concept come to fruition.
I agonized over the details (probably a little too much). It is interesting how intimidating things are when you are rolling out an idea to a group of peers.
I set up the online presence as a Facebook Group entitled English for Academic Purposes Faculty Learning Community. I decided Facebook was a good forum (for the moment) - it is easy to use and most people have a Facebook account. I wanted to use a more informal platform, so that people might be more inclined to participate and share. I may need to revisit the choice, should we decide to have more proprietary discussions that require a more secure application. For the purposes of discussion and sharing ideas and best practices, I think that the group will be just fine.
I also created an event to launch our first Lunch and Learn session. As always, slight adjustment to the set goal of holding my first session on November 15th, the inaugural session will actually take November 16th. The challenge of course was choosing a time that would allow for a maximum number of participants and in looking at the faculty schedules, Wednesday seemed to be a more appropriate time. I will need to shift the time for the lunch and learn sessions from month to month, so that we can offer the sessions to other faculty who may not be available right at noon.
I was very inspired using a tool called Padlet in the classroom last week with my Business Applications students. This is what I have chosen to share in our very first session on Wednesday. The goal for the first session is to present Padlet to faculty and then to populate the Lunch and Learn calendar and ask other faculty to commit to participating in and presenting ideas at sessions over the next six months.
As an added goal, I am inspired to try and upload these sessions as a short webinar to reach individuals who might not be able to make it to the session. I am going to seek the help of our teaching and learning staff to see how this can be done.
Next update will be after Wednesday to let you know how things rolled out. Wish me luck!