| Dear
Colleagues,
Thanks to the involvement and enthusiasm of nearly
14,000 members across the LearningTimes Network of communities,
the new year is off to an exciting start. There's
no shortage of opportunities to meet colleagues in a wide range
of networking and professional development activities.
We encourage
you to share the news and information below with colleagues
who would benefit from participation.
1 - Live from The World Bank: An
IFC Debate on Globalization
2 - Live Session with Thiagi: February 5th
3 - Attend "InSync Facilitation Certification" Student
Sessions
4 - Illinois Online Conference 2004: Update
5 - Live
Webcast: Palloff & Pratt on "The Virtual Student"
6 - New York City Subway Centennial & LearningTimes
7 - Toolsday Sessions
8 - Library Workshop: Executive Decision-Making
9 - LT Global Collaboration Grants: Showcase
1 - LIVE WEBCAST from
the WORLD BANK:
An IFC Debate on the Globalization of Education
 |
LearningTimes
is collaborating with the International Finance Corporation
(IFC), part of the World Bank Group, to host a special
event on the "Globalization of Education".
A live
debate between John Dawkins, former Australian Minister of Education,
and Terry Ryan, a Director with the African Centre for Economic Growth,
will take place in Washington, DC and on the Web via the LearningTimes
Network at 8:30 am Eastern Standard Time / 1:30 pm Greenwich Mean
Time on Friday, January 23, 2004. |
Distinguished
panelists, moderated by Paul Stacey and Jonathan Finkelstein,
will address questions from the pre-debate online Q&A forum
and field questions from onsite participants.
To register
for this FREE event and add your comments and questions to
the dialogue, use your LearningTimes username/password to join
or login at:
http://home.learningtimes.net/ifc
A press
release about this event is also available.
2
- LIVE SESSION with THIAGI:
Thiagi Presents Techniques for the Live Virtual Classroom
 |
Dr.
Sivasailam "Thiagi" Thiagarajan returns for another
live session in LearningTimes. (Actually, he never left!)
This free event will provide an overview of some practical,
creative and effective techniques or "frames" --
adaptable to your own instruction -- that maximize engagement
and learning in the live online environment. The FREE live
session takes place on February 5th at 1:00 pm Eastern
Time / 6:00 pm Greenwich Mean Time. Seating is limited
to ensure the desired level of interactivity; click
the "register" button found after logging in at: |
http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=300200
The session
is a prelude to a workshop series entitled, "Thiagi’s
Virtual Classroom Six-Pak", offered jointly by Workshops
by Thiagi, Inc. and LearningTimes. LearningTimes.org members
are eligible for a special 10%
discount on any or all of the 6 workshops that follow.
Register with the discount at:
http://www.learningtimes.net/thiagi10.shtml
3
- ATTEND INSYNC CERTIFICATION STUDENT SESSIONS
 |
This
month, 14 students will be earning their LearningTimes "Synchronous
Facilitation Certificate" within the InSync
Community. To complete the program, they will be teaching
a "Learn How To Learn Online" session, live
online. Each one hour session will conclude with an audience
debriefing to provide the session leader with feedback.
These sessions are set to take place January 26-30, 2004
at various times on each day. |
If you have interest in attending any of these
sessions, you will be helping these new online facilitators,
and hopefully learning a bit about your own online teaching
style. Write to barbara@insynctraining.com to
request more info, and visit the InSync Community at:
http://home.learningtimes.net/insync
4
- ILLINOIS ONLINE CONFERENCE 2004:
An Update
 |
The Illinois Online Conference (IOC) for
Teaching and Learning 2004 is accepting registrations
for next month's event. LearningTimes is pleased to be
acting again as the sponsoring producer of IOC, which
takes place February 18-20, completely online. For more
details, visit:
http://www.ilonlineconf.org
|
Note
also that a free event on "Scenario Building Online" --
led by LearningTimes members and IOC 2004 presenters
Dan Balzer and Randall Kindley -- will be offered inside
the LearningTimes.org community this Friday, January
16th at 12:00 noon EST / 5:00 pm GMT. To register, login
at:
http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=299776
|
5
- FREE LIVE WEBCAST:
Palloff & Pratt on "The Virtual Student"
 |
The
response to the return of Drs. Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt
to LearningTimes announced in last month's newsletter has
been overwhelming. Palloff and Pratt will be prepared to
answer your questions on issues like: learning styles,
multicultural issues, evaluation, retention, and the challenging
problems of plagiarism and cheating. All of these are topics
they cover in their latest book, "The Virtual Student". |
This webcast
will take place on January 26, 2003 at 1:00 pm EST / 6:00 pm
GMT. The event is free, but seating is limited and filling
up fast! To learn more and save a seat, visit:
http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=274544
6
- NEW YORK CITY'S SUBWAYS and LEARNINGTIMES
 |
LearningTimes
is helping to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the
New York City subway (1904-2004), and we hope you can
join us! We've produced an online Centennial community
and gallery area for the New York Transit Museum in which
student projects relating to the subway will be featured
throughout the year. Suggested primary and secondary
school educational activities can be found at:
|
http://www.transitmuseumeducation.org
Scroll down
to "Centennial Depot" near the bottom
of the page to see the Centennial activities, and to submit
projects for consideration by the Museum.
The New York
City subway, operated by MTA New
York City Transit, is the largest subway system in North America.
The New York Transit
Museum is one of the city’s leading cultural institutions
and is the largest museum in the United States devoted to urban
public transportation history. The Museum explores the development
of the greater New York metropolitan region through the presentation
of exhibitions, tours, educational programs and workshops dealing
with the cultural, social and technological history of public
transportation.
7
- "TOOLSDAYS" SESSIONS BEGIN
Member-led Online Sessions on Collaboration Tools
 |
This
month's Toolsday session features Brian Mackie who will
focus on "CAMS" -- the Community/course Action/interaction
Management System -- which is now in use at Northern
Illinois University (NIU). Mackie will take us on a tour
of this collaborative environment for communities which
includes threaded discussions, project creation, instant
messaging, chat, bookmarks, and calendars, among other
features. Access the session on Tuesday, January 20th
at 12:00 noon EST/ 5:00 pm GMT, at:
|
http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=272868
A "Toolsday" is
a member-led, live online "show and tell" session
in which a collaborative tool or activity that enhances learning
is showcased. Toolsday meetings are organized and led by the "Learning
Collaboration Tools (LCT) Working Group" within LearningTimes.
All LTN members are welcome. Other Toolsday sessions can be
seen in the LT events calendar at:
http://home.learningtimes.net/learningtimes?go=68685
8
- LIBRARY WORKSHOP: EXECUTIVE DECISION-MAKING
 |
At
the time of this writing, only one or two more seats
remain for the highly popular workshop entitled, "Executive
Decision-Making for Library Directors & Managers:
Solving Problems at the Leadership Level". This
workshop, led by Pat Wagner of Pattern Research, runs
from February 2-13. LT Library Community members receive
a significant discount. More details at:
http://www.learningtimes.net/lead115.shtml
Other
upcoming workshops for information service professionals
are listed in last month's newsletter at:
http://www.learningtimes.net/2003decnews.shtml#7
|
9
- GLOBAL COLLABORATION GRANT: HIGHLIGHTS
 |
Over
the last few months, we have begun awarding the first "LearningTimes
Global Collaboration Grants" to education and training
professionals around the planet. The distinguished group
of recipients are working on valuable learning-related
projects within LearningTimes and using the community's
tools to collaborate with colleagues with whom real-time
human contact would otherwise be impossible. Over the
next few months, we will be showcasing some of the Global
Collaboration Grant winners, and how they are making
special use of the LearningTimes toolset to advance their
important work.
|
To see grantees in this month's spotlight, please
visit:
http://www.learningtimes.net/gcgshowcase.shtml
Special gratitude
to LearningTimes.org sponsors who
are helping make the "LearningTimes Global Collaboration
Grants" possible.
 |
I hope
you found this month's newsletter of value, and that we
will have the opportunity to interact with you online
this month. |
The LearningTimes Network now includes over 35
discrete, but inter-connected community sites. Many of you
have told us that you appreciate knowing about learning-related
activities across the network, and we are pleased that we are
able to help foster these connections with colleagues. As always,
please share your ideas with us and let us know what you value
-- or would like to value more -- about the Network.
Warmest wishes,
Jonathan Finkelstein
Executive Producer
LearningTimes.org
http://www.learningtimes.org
Founder
The LearningTimes Network
http://www.learningtimes.net
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