Tassie Devilment: Alan Levine in Tasmania

Hi Alan

Elisabeth (Todd) and I (Jen Dunbabin) thought we'd set up this page particularly for the Tasmanian part of your triumphal tour of Australia

In the first instance, we think this would be a great space for us to discuss what you might do while you are here (that could include tours too, as well as your presentations).

We had in mind a day long event, with a mix of presentations and workshopping (including demos and hands on playing). We envisage an audience of at least 50 people. They will be at varying levels of knowledge - we are not aiming for the highly ICT able people. While they may come along, and are more than welcome - our focus for the day is bringing people with some understanding of Web 1.0 into the Web 2.0 world. We want them to be shown what is out there for them, and how it can be useful in their VET delivery (and their everyday lives if it will encourage them to use the tools). Also, strategies with how to find their way through the myriad of offerings (and your 'being there' presentation seems on point).

What we were hoping was that you could mix and match elements of the session topics you have outlined to cover web 2.0 fairly comprehensively. As mentioned above 'being there' lookings promising, and 'small, precious web 2 gems', then fleshed out with more detail from 'small video', 'tag we're all it', and 'web-based productivity tools'; with perhaps a short finish to get people thinking about the future from technologies on the horizon.

We thought we'd stay away from second life and virtual worlds this time.

We hope this isn't too daunting and look forward to working through this some more from this small beginning.

best wishes

Jen and Elisabeth

A splendid Idea to do this via a wiki! Rather than going sequential down this page like a river of email, I will try and make a few suggestions and draft an outline. What you provided is a very good start to get me thinking, thoiugh perhaps a lot to cram in on one day. Everyplace I visit will have access to all of the resources I use as I travel across the country, so there is opportunity to tap into things we may not do in a workshop.

we are sorry, we don't want to work you into the ground! its just that it is all so exciting and we want to make the most of your visit.

Apologies not needed! It is always a large amount of guesswork when planning such a day, so I epxect to have some luck and try to change course when I miss the mark.

3 july: looks like we have it all sorted - almost just like that! elisabeth is on leave this week. next week we might do another page that has an agenda on it, for you to have a look at, based on our discussion below. I note from your itinerary that you need to finish up at 3 pm to catch your flight to melb and we will start bright and early (for me anyway) at 9 am. or perhaps 9.30. I'll talk that thru with elisabeth.

What is given is that you are interested in an approachable series of events to help open eyes to the potential of whatever Web 2.0 really is. Given a full day is lot of energy on their and mine part, I'd suggest a format that starts with general / widely applicable to perhaps an afternoon set of ones that may be more specialized and even do-able as self-paced activities with some breaks for group discussion. The questions for planning would be:

What sort of venue is this- will all participants have laptops/computers? Will they work in pairs?
again, based on reaching as many people as possible, we were thinking largish scale, 30 - 40 max, depending on advice from you. so we were thinking perhaps tables of 5, with one computer? ........on seeing the photos at the beginning of the being there presentation, we are thinking that we would go for wireless and ask people who have wireless laptops to bring them along, and work towards most people having one-on-one access to a computer.
we are interested in your views on this - the final configuration will really depend on your preferred style.
we don't to loose on quality, if you think this is too many participants. we see this as the beginning discussion, and certainly aren't fixed in our ideas.
we will ensure the venue has good bandwidth, and all computers are connected. but for an event of the scope we are planning, it won't be a computer lab, but an on-the-day installation at a conference type venue.
This will work fine- I'd say plan for as many as might benefit the time there. The "Being There" presentation is pretty much me talking and demo-ing, but it is certainly no problem if people want to follow along or explore with laptops. I can easily make this about 90 minutes and insert some interaction. As I likely will use this as a base presention for many of my visits, I will customize it to your audience- probably leaving off the Second Life portions and focus more on your stated interest of web 1.0 - web 2.0. The sessions that will folow will become less me leading and more hands on; I think 5 to a computer may be a crowd; 2-3 is okay or whatever is available for laptops.
ok, we will aim for base level of 2 - 3 people per computer; and loosen up a little on the numbers if we have people clamouring to attend :) we wish :)
Somethings may require creating accounts with web sites- typically I create generic ones they can use if they dont have say a flickr site, a del.icio.us site (but they can use them if they have them), or they may create them on the spot (some require that have access to their email.
we have the resources here to create the necessary accounts, and upload pictures etc., say to flickr, for the presentation. this would be content provided by you, and I'm sure we could provide content.
another possibility we've thought reading your comments, is that when people register with us we can follow up with them and find out if they already have accts, and perhaps we could set up a series of accounts for them at places you recommend.
Again, it would not be strictly required, as I use a set of generic accounts that can be used during the hands on sessions. A safe set of recommended sites would be:
- flickr http://flickr.com
- del.icio.us http://del.icio.us
- YouTube http://youtube.com
- One of the sessions will be more open ended, and I prefer to have people during the sessions experience the account creation process.
3 july: I was discussing this with someone else after and they pointed out that for people encountering these tools for the first time part of the learning is to see how easy it is to register and get set up and I find that argument quite persuasive.

Is this just me leading these or is it possible to work with someone local as co-presenter for portions?
we would prefer it if you were the presenter, especially during the 'speech/talk/demo' type phases. what we had thought of is that we can gather together a team of people (including ourselves)who are reasonably knowledgeable and comfortable with web 2. we would work with the various tables, so that you aren't expected to do hands on consulting with such a large group. also, we can place one of us at each table to help on an as needs basis, even during the demo stages. the team can be worded up ahead of time about likely directions.

So here might be a suggested agenda:

Morning

Start with the "Being There" presentation -- it will be reshaped a bit from the version I did first here in the states. The goal is to reduce some anxiety about new trechnologies, and share my idealized view that we need to approach it with a sense of experimentation and play.
the images in the slide show look great - and a reshaped version of that would be a great intro. the idea of reducing the strangeness of it all is very good.
A lot of the concepts under "tagging" transcend many tools, so that's a good one to move the mode from me talking into some hands on activities. With this, I liek to have some small group and whole group discussions to process.
this sounds good - I like to small group, whole group discussion approach. and this would get across some of the major tools like delicious etc.

Afternoon

More on web 2.0ness with the things we can do in flickr
?? a bit more info about this would be good.
I generally use flickr as a great example because there are many subtle things one can do with it the demonstrate web 2.0 capacities- tagging, creating groups, annotating images, and a bunch of the third party sites that allow you to easiy do creative things with images. People most easily resonate with working with images as it is something of personal interest as well. It would use many of the esamples I have done via http://flickr.com/photos/cogdog/265279980/
3 july: thank you. this argument is persuasive too. in combination with the small precious gems it will be just what we want, and as you point out, not too overwhelming. I just enjoy it all so much, I want to share it all, at once - which isn't always, or very often, helpful to the recipient.
Self-paced exploration in "small precious web gems" - the concept is that I woukld provide a large menu of web 2.0 sites/services that are beyond the usual suspects, and ask participants to do some small scale exploration and provide some results posted in a common wiki site. Possibilities include Slideshare, geomapping sites, LibraryThing, and more.
sounds good to. would you do little demos as well?
Yes, to get them started. I would use a template via a wiki, and ask them to do some "reporting" back there about what they find regarding these tools-- this in itsself would ab a resource that can just grow.
We could try closing with some future speculation if we have not work out the audience completely.
:)) this would be a great way to finish up - looking at your being there presentation I can see that you could make it light, fun and inspiring, so that if they were a bit tired it wouldn't matter. and they would leave with their minds buzzing with ideas and possibilties.

And of course I am eager to find out what I can see outside in Tassie!

lol. tassie is very picturesque. it will depend on how cathy arranges your timetable. we would love to arrange/take you on some sightseeing. totally depending on how you would like to do it, and what you like to do. just let us know and we will arrange it. a very tasmanian thing is about to take place (info travelling quickly) - I've heard that jo murray has already offered to be your guide. so we could coordinate with her.

Great! The latest is that Tasmania might be my first stop, and I was hoping to arrive in Australia maybe 2-3 days early for the adjustment and getting over let lag.

3 july: this is delightful news. when it suits let us know what you like and how busy or quiet you'd like to be and we will offer up some suggestions.

jen & elisabeth

Alan