A couple of years ago, I experimented with FlashMeeting - an online conferencing site developed by the Open University, and (then) made available free due to European Union funding.  Three of us held regular online meetings and shared our experiences and some resources about Psychosynthesis - a counselling and psychotherapy approach developed by Roberto Assagioli.

At the beginning of 2010, I set up an online community to support the Primary Science Teacher Fellows (PSTF), which I mentioned in my previous post. I used Ning - a facility designed for online communities. I have had a number of challenges - such as engaging reluctant Fellows in the community, designing an easily navigable site, and setting privacy levels.

In May, Ning announced that they were to cease offering free sites, although they subsequently said that free sites would still be available for educational organisations.  However it soon became clear that these free sites were only available to organisations in North America. It would cost us hundreds of dollars per year for the type of facilities we had previously enjoyed free.

A search for alternatives revealed that Grouply - another online social group provider - had a facility to transfer Ning sites to Grouply automatically.  Furthermore they also provide ‘premium’ educational sites for free - and we qualify.

So I am currently exploring Grouply and redesigning our online community in the light of experience, and to accommodate a new group of Fellows as well as previous groups.

When I set up the Ning site, I had a Main (home) page, and areas for the two cohorts of Fellows that existed at that time. In order to encourage discussion, I made the whole site private - the Main Page to both cohorts, and the two group pages for each cohort. That was a mistake, because there are advantages in the Fellowship having a public face. It has proved difficult to negotiate making the Main Page public.

With Grouply, we have the chance to change the rules. However, there are some issues I need to work through - such as the fact that some of the postings that on Ning were in the individual group areas now appear to be publicly visible after importation into Grouply.

I also use Skype regularly with the PSTF workshop planning group, backed up with e-mails and pb works wiki. We also used Skype to carry out a National link up of PSTF cluster groups in Wellington. Christchurch and Taranaki.

I have also participated in a number of online professional development sessions with my colleagues in CORE across New Zealand. For these, we have used a variety of platforms such as Skype, DimDim and videoconferencing. A couple of years ago I was involved in sessions in SecondLife - but do not like that medium for online learning.

As well as the above personal experience, I have been involved in evaluating a number of online learning initiatives.  I joined this course because I need to learn more to do a better job with the PSTF’s, and because I need experience of what I evaluate!!!