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.

Hi,
I am Rebecca Gagliano and I teach at SUNY Ulster.

Task 1

Stage 1: Profiling
Task: Who are you, Where are you based and Why are you here?
Deadline: 20 October, 2014 11:59 pm EST

In today's digital world, the first impression people often have of us may come from one of many of our online profiles, e.g. on an institutional website, on LinkedIn, on Facebook, etc.The information you provide in these profiles may very well influence the impression a possible COIL partner may have of you at first glance. Therefore, we will begin our work together by asking you to take a thoughtful approach to completing a profile for this course.

For this and several other tasks, we will ask you to work in small groups. We have randomly assigned you to a group as follows:

Group 1 Fall
Natalia de Cuba
Barrie Levine
Claudia Sofia Beebe
Linda Rae Markert

Group 2 Fall
Nicole Simon
Julie Thomson

Christine Merilees
Lynda Carroll

Group 3 Fall
Annetta Centrella-Vitale
Simone Hackett
Rebecca Gagliano
Andrea Wade
Joseph Ziolkowski
Lisa Bullard

Group 4 Fall
Elaine Soffer
Anita Meldrum
Maryanne Kildare
Shelly A Purtell
Sharon Moran

Group 5 Fall

Gina Gammage Sikora
Florence Dee Boodakian
Judith Littlejohn
Charles Syms


Group 6 Fall

Jan McCauley
David Parfitt
Liz Froundigoun
Deborah Spiro

Group 7 Fall
Victoria Chai
Kathleen McKenna

Sheila Aird
Margaret Mc Veigh
Joan Buckley

To complete your first Task, click on your Group page for instructions.

N.B. If and when you have any technical difficulties, please post your questions here as a comment since often they are shared by other participants and not just you!

Welcome

Over the next four and a half weeks we will be working with you, a small group of SUNY Nodal Network and Global Partner Network faculty and staff, to enhance our mutual understanding of the international collaborative partnering process.

In the past, most course collaborations developed between early adopter faculty who, on their own initiative, were able to locate a lecturer or professor in another country with whom they could build a co-taught module or course. However, these courses were usually one-off projects which did not lead to other, similar courses being developed at the universities where these pioneers were based. And when these faculty members moved on, or were unable to continue teaching their course, the initiative usually ended.

However, with growing interest in the format of Collaborative Online International Learning, more universities and international programs offices are taking an interest in supporting this approach as a way for their students to gain international understanding and intercultural sensitivity. So over the next weeks we will explore with you some aspects of reaching out to potential partners based at other universities and how to develop a fruitful, lasting partnership. While the actual course development we seek to support will usually be undertaken by teaching faculty, we will consider all stakeholders at the potential partner schools to also be part of the partnering process since the success of COIL initiatives truly depends on institutional teams.

We will not be focusing on actual collaborative course development here as that is the focus of the COIL Center's Academy for Course Development. This "course" is a precursor to that where we will be discussing and engaging the process that precedes actual course development. And we do expect your regular contribution and attendance. Also understand that the aim of this Partnering Orientation is not to find a partner, but rather to learn about the partnering process and partnering sustainability. See the Syllabus/Calendar on the right-hand menu for more information about the course.

In order to make sure we're all on board, please make a comment below letting us know you've been able to access the blog, as I've done below.

Mirjam Hauck for the SUNY COIL Center