Task 4

Stage 3: Discussion and Negotiation

Focus: How to be a good partner

Deadline: Monday, 06/24/2014, 11:59 pm EST

The final stretch!
Please complete the brief task below. Similar to our first task, though simple in appearance, it does require quite a bit of thought on your part. Once you have completed the task, please share your thoughts and reflections with the rest of the group on your group pages. You can see what others have responded (once they have, of course) by clicking on the same link, then submit, then the link "See previous responses".
We will then discuss your thoughts during our Flash Meetings on Monday and Tuesday, November 24 and 25, 2014.
Mirjam

Two additional video conferencing meetings this week!

The first one is tomorrow, Tuesday, November 11 at 9.00 am. Here is the link: http://fm.ea-tel.eu/fm/b17218-38490

The second one is on Wednesday, November 12, also at 9:00 am. Here is the link: http://fm.ea-tel.eu/fm/c481f9-38491

These have been scheduled simply to stay in touch :-

... and here are the replays for those who could not make it:

(Tuesday) http://fm.ea-tel.eu/fm/fmm.php?pwd=b17218-38490&fb=0

(Wednesday) http://fm.ea-tel.eu/fm/fmm.php?pwd=c481f9-38491&fb=0

Task 3

Stage 2: Partner Selection

Focus: Institutional Context

Deadline: Monday, 11/10/2014, 11:59 pm EST
Partner outreach, engagement, course development and implementation should not be a solo effort, even if it is often a faculty member’s interest in internationalizing their course that motivates this activity.
Both collaborating faculty partners are based at higher education institutions, and the key stakeholders at each institution need to be part of the process. Without such support the course development process will be more difficult and implementation will be harder to sustain. As our goal is to have every COIL course serve as a pilot for additional COIL courses at the partnered institutions, the partnering and development process should be visible to others, so it can spark and prepare the way for further potential collaborations from the outset.

Please click on this link and respond to questions which are designed to help you identify potential strengths and weaknesses of your institutional context, especially as it relates to your locating and sustaining partners.



Deadline: Friday, 11/21/2014, 11:59 pm EST

Completing your profile with video

Those who were able to participate in one of the two first FlashMeetings (Link 1, Link 2) agreed that seeing and hearing one another in the video format helped us better know one another. So, in addition to what we learned about how we want to present ourselves to potential partners through the written profiles and images, we are now going to produce video presentations to accompany these.

Based on what has been discussed in this course so far, go back to your original profile from week 1 and consider what you now want to communicate to a potential partner. This time, however, you will be producing a video rather than completing a table or writing an email. You are welcome to record your own video (max 2 min.) but we invite you to have a Skype "interview" (it will actually be more of a monologue presentation) with me (Mirjam) that will be recorded and subsequently made available to potential partners via the COIL Center.

To prepare for this please make a bullet point list in preparation for the video so that you hit the points you want to foreground, but are not reading from a card. You will be able to produce another video if you are not satisfied with the way yours comes out.

In order to schedule a time for your brief Skype interview (max. 10 min.), click on this scheduling link and choose the time that best suits you. Once you have reserved your time on Doodle, add SUNY COIL Center as a contact to your Skype account. If you don't already have one, you'll have to find a way to make the video on your own and then upload it to this Assignment as a multimedia file or send us a link to it if it's located elsewhere on the web.

Task 2

Stage 2: Partner Selection

Task: Focus on context

Deadline: Monday, 11/03/2014, 11:59 pm EDT

For COIL courses to be successful, partners must engage in an in-depth discussion of collaboration and exchange with a focus on 3 topics:

• why and how two (or more) professors and their students can benefit from working with those coming at related  ideas from another culture, another discipline and with, at times, differing objectives;
• why the work process must include give and take across cultures, followed by reflection that brings forth exploration, comparison and sensitivity to difference;
• how each partner’s institutional culture and type (e.g. 2-year vocational, 4-year liberal arts, research institute) influence the choices we make as educators and the options we have at our disposal when innovating.

Please use one or more of the following resources:

• Read about a COIL course students in a SUNY Oswego women’s studies course who engaged online with an international-management class in Lebanon and listen to SUNY Oswego students' reactions following the second iteration (now in it's fourth) of this course.
• Read the Case Study: Critical Terrorism Studies.
• Visit this website created by participants of a COIL course between students of Transhumanism and English Literature at SUNY Oswego and students of Digital Narrative and Creative Writing at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Melbourne, Australia.

Then, choose a course you would like to adapt into a COIL course or, if you are not primarily participating here as a faculty member, think of a course that a faculty member at your institution is planning to adapt into a COIL course. With this course in mind, complete the following as a comment to your group:

• propose 3 interdisciplinary variants and reflect on how each of these three choices would create different opportunities for student engagement; and
• propose 3 possible geographic locations for a partner class and suggest how this choice could influence the outcomes of the COIL course.

Read your peers’ answers to the prompts and engage in discussion using the comment function on your group pages.

Looking back over the first 10 days and looking forward

Many thanks to all those who were able to make it to our FlashMeetings this weeks and for contributing so thoughtfully to the discussion. Those who could not be with us, please watch one of the replays:

Tuesday, October 21st: http://fm.ea-tel.eu/fm/fmm.php?pwd=7aca06-38352&fb=0

Wednesday, October 22nd: http://fm.ea-tel.eu/fm/fmm.php?pwd=e898d4-38353&fb=0

As a general rule of online etiquette (or ‘netiquette’ as some call it), if and when you are unable to complete an activity, it is always best to send a comment to the group to let them know you will not be able to participate. This kind of sharing is a central tenet of developing a collaborative working environment. We all have busy lives and things come up, it’s just important to communicate any changes. However, we do expect all participants to complete all the outlined tasks and to attend the Flash Meetings, if at all possible, please.

Stage 1: Profiling

Task: Reflecting on what has happened so far

Deadline: Monday, 10/27/2014, 11:59 pm EDT

During the Flash Meeting we began several interesting discussions, a few of which we would like to continue to discuss here. (Please read the Online Discussion Guidelines first.)

1. We had quite a bit of a discussion about self-representation in the online context, which was indeed an objective of this initial task. We noticed that some of the participants who completed Task 1 posted only an image of themselves, others posted other images and none of themselves, a few posted an image of themselves and images of their institutional context plus a few other variations and combinations of the above.
   You can still add pictures to your profile, if you would like to do so. And in the comment section of this post, we ask all of you to discuss your reflections on the role images (of self or otherwise) played in your representing yourself and your understanding of how your peers were representing themselves. What role did/can images play in online self-representation? Why might it be useful to go beyond the literal (a photo of yourself) to the metaphoric or symbolic?
2. There seemed to be consensus during the meeting that what seemed at first like a fairly simple task, i.e. filling out a table, proved to be more difficult as people thought about what they wanted to share. We’d like to ask you which part of the activity or specific question did you find particularly challenging and why? Please share your thoughts.
3. This final prompt is something we’d like to ask you to do individually, and something I as a facilitator, do on this course. At COIL we always suggest that practitioners and students keep a learning journal or observation log. This gives us a space where we can not only plan our activities, but reflect on them and have a record of our thoughts and experiences at the end of the course. We won’t be asking to see your journal or for you to share it with others, but we do think it is a very important part of the COIL process. We won’t always give you a prompt, but thought doing so might be useful. Think about what happens when after years of listening to a radio voice, you see the person or when a movie is made of one of your favorite books. Similarly in our case: 
• How did seeing people on video and hearing their voices change, or maybe not change, reinforce, etc. your initial impressions of them solely from their profiles? Can you imagine a situation where working without an image or video of a colleague would enhance your exchange? 
• We also want to learn how much time you are spending on this course so we can better plan future Partnering Orientations. Please keep a record of your efforts (in hours or portions thereof) in your log.

The "removed comments" in the comments thread are from a previous iteration of the Partner Orientation. They have been archived ;-)

Last but not least: Please also check the amended syllabus and calendar! As it has taken a bit longer than planned to get everybody on board, we have made adjustments.

Great work so far everybody!

Mirjam

Looking at other participants' profiles

What do you think?

Deadline: Thursday, 23rd October: 23:59!

React
Go to your group pages. Take a look at your group members' profiles by clicking on their names. Reflect on what information they have added that you did not, considering how useful these additions may be to developing a successful partnership. Then consider the images your partners uploaded. What additional information does this add to your understanding of them? 

Post your observations and reflections as a comment on your group pages, or, if you wish, also go to other groups and contribute as you see fit.

Video Conference 1

(Image borrowed from http://joedale.typepad.com/integrating_ict_into_the_/ipods/)

Please choose one of the following synchronous online sessions:

Tuesday, 21 October at 9:00 am EST
http://fm.ea-tel.eu/fm/7aca06-38352
Wednesday, 22 October at 9:00 am EST
http://fm.ea-tel.eu/fm/e898d4-38353

For our synchronous video conferences we will be using a tool called Flash Meeting. To join the meeting simply direct your browser to one of the two links above.

You do not need to install any software on your computer, but we do not recommend using a tablet or phone. You need only the same tools as for a Skype call – ideally a webcam and headset. When you arrive at the site, allow the software to access your microphone and webcam and then enter as a Guest. You will join others attending the meeting in thumbnails on the right of the screen. When you want to speak you need to select the button under the main window to the left. You will then either appear in that window where you can speak to the group, or you will be put into a queue with a number indicated over your thumbnail. Unlike in Skype, when you are done speaking you must select the “Stop Broadcasting” button under your image. There is also a chat window that you can access through a tab below. 

One of the advantages of Flash Meeting is that the whole meeting is recorded automatically. You can access the recording by clicking on the same link above that you use to join the meeting.

N.B. The developers of the tool have created a very user-friendly Help site that you can find at http://fm.ea-tel.eu/help.html#interface Furthermore, I will be online 30 minutes early (8:30 am EST) and we encourage anyone unfamiliar with the tool to log on before the actual start of the meeting so that technical difficulties can be sorted beforehand.