for inquiring minds

Free-range learning

  • Losing the personal touch in online teaching?

    One of the best things (IMHO) about the Facilitating Learning Online workshop (offered regularly by BCcampus and Royal Roads University) is the emphasis we place on building a sense of community for learners and a sense of being “seen” by the instructor and other participants. Previous studies of the experiences of learners online highlighted the…

  • Four FLO Facilitators at Festival of Learning

    Well, this blog post has been sitting in my Evernote notebook since the Festival of Learning in Burnaby this past June! The summer has just flown by! I had the pleasure of co-facilitating another “get the word out about FLO” conference session at a new professional learning event called “The Festival of Learning” (#FOL16) that…

  • Facilitating FLO at ABEABC conference – in two part harmony…

    Location – ABEABC Conference[/caption]Last week really proved the value and benefits of co-facilitation! Sylvia Currie and I had been invited to share what FLO (Facilitating Learning Online) was all about with a group of adult basic education instructors at their annual conference in Harrison Hot Springs. Normally I would have hesitated to take on something…

  • Looking good – coasting into the end of Week 2

    Wow, last week was a whirlwind – I know I spent more time than I should but I was fussing like a mother hen. I'm so invested in the FLO workshop and believe so strongly that the changes we made were important, that I kept poking into things trying to see what I could improve…

  • Launching a “NEW FLO” workshop

    Well…we’re underway – today we launched the April 2016 offering of Facilitating Learning Online (offered through BCcampus). It’s an exciting new approach and some significant changes in content and facilitation – at least that’s what Beth Cougler-Blom, Sylvia Currie, Leonne Beebe and Myra Rhodes will be testing and supporting in the next five weeks! Back…

  • A new adventure in learning…

    I’ve signed up for a volunteer tutor training program through Vancouver Island University and the Career Centre in Parksville. It’s actually two back-to-back training opportunities:  the first two Fridays are focused on ESL Settlement Assistance tutor training (an award-winning program that has had its funding cut?) and that is followed by four Fridays focused on…

  • Immersed, challenged, stretched by LS workshop…

    It's just so great when your high expectations are fulfilled! I was intrigued by the Liberating Structures activity (micro-structure) that Leva Lee and Tracy Kelly tried out during ETUG's Fall Workshop (25-10 Crowd-sourcing) and even more curious after I read the explanation: "Liberating Structures are a collection of powerful facilitation strategies that can be used in our…

  • Liberation in quick gulps…

    I have been looking forward to the Liberating Structures Workshop for ages – since I first learned about it at the Fall ETUG event. I had big ambitions to visit the site and explore all the blog posts and descriptions of the 33 liberating structures but, as with many of the other participants here, I…

  • Warming up for FLO Design Sprint

    Tuesday morning, February 2 I sprang out of bed at 5:45 (the time my chocolate lab usually body-bumps my side of the bed in the hopes that I'll want to get up to feed her) mentally running down the checklist of all the things I had still wanted to get reviewed and noted to be…

  • ‘appy holiday fun…

    It's been an 'appy time (yuck-yuck 😉 and I've learned a lot over the last couple of weeks – and had fun doing it! Thanks to the energetic, thoughtful teams at the Dublin Institute of Technology (#12appsDIT), Regents University London (#RUL12AoC), and University of Brighton (#12brightapps) for the engaging activities, clear instructions, and great ideas…

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