Thank you for your visit! I’m still trying to work out what exactly it is about the role of the teacher that needs to change in connectivism. I have been reading everyone’s blogs and the Moodle forums, but it is still not clear to me. So far I can only see that a ‘good’ teacher will be needed but maybe my interpretation of a good teacher is not the accepted one. Once I have my thinking clearer, then I hope to make a post, It’s good to be off line for a while, but difficult to catch up when you come back!

Jenny

PS I agree about the difficulty of speaking in the Elluminate sessions!

I hope you’re fine, I don’t really know why but I like to picture you taking time off line.

My impression on last Wednesday Elliminate night session is somewhat different than yours. What I saw was a guest speaker with a host not engaged on moderating for his guest. The silences came up when Nancy said: “Reading chat” and Stephen whas somewhere else and did not react. Then the tactic changed and instead of saying: “Reading chat” I heard: “Your turn” or something of the sort, SD still did not jump in. Another change came along which was finally successful, she said: “What do you think SD?” Then came his mumble yumble souds evidencing he was not listening. It was fun to hear that happen several times. I did not see the case of a teacher refusing to lead as Michael comments. It was a pity that George was away, to leave a guest with a non-people oriented host doesn’t give smooth results. Fortunatelly, Narcy is a great presenter but even if you have an experienced guest you should moderate if you consider yourself a host.

However, it’s not easy to jump in a conversation spontaneously. If you are the guest you have prepared what to say but if you are a participant you are expected to listen and type. When the chance comes to speak you seldom have prepared something to say, sometimes you haven’t even thought about your own views on the topic you’re there to listen. I think that’s why any participant jumped in. From my point of view it doesn’t have anything to do with power, rather it’s a question about solid or valuable information to share.

It’s always a joy to visit you, I’ve heard I was on the daily regarding that session in particular but I haven’t read it. What’s the point? I was there right?
Maru :X

@Michael – Thanks to you too. I hadn’t actually thought that Stephen might have wanted to provoke a rebellion. I wonder if he has carried out this exercise before with smaller groups of students.

I’m not sure why we had the long silences in the Elluminate session. Some participants thought that Stephen might be having problems with his microphone, but I didn’t hear him say so. However, I did arrive late to the session. At the time I thought he was trying to get us to ‘take conrol’/lead. If he was, then he was only marginally successful.

.. but i wonder do we actually know what Stephen’s point was, in ‘exerting his power’?

i agree with you that he was demonstrating “status power”, but was that because he wanted to have control over the situation, or because he wanted to provoke rebellion and make people realise that in fact the teacher is not in control?

Knowing what i do about him .. i suspect that the end-game may have involved participants realising they are not mere pawns or objects in the learning process, but have the power to manage their own flow of information.

Thanks for your thoughtful post,
kind regards, michael

(The Elluminate session sounds interesting .. a case of the teacher refusing to lead ?