Link-up between teachers in Denmark and in Kenya April 24, 2011

Dear Ken and open letter readers

I'm excited by your news (in the email copied below) about the planned link-up between teachers in Denmark and in Kenya (with Kenyan teachers from the schools in Kibera where Nafsi run acrobatics training programmes). Who will be leading he sessions? Will you be leading one - and if so will you be in Denmark or in Kenya? lt is a great help if the people running the sessions "on each side" know each well and understand the situation of the people "on the other side". The more you can liaise before the event the better.

I'm delighed that you've asked for tips from the  "Teachers talking" programme. There is so much I could tell you - in fact the delay in replying is because I really want to write you a full, comprehensive report, not just an email. However time is passing and the email will serve better than no reply so here are some key points.

Make it a part of ICT studies.
It is a great benefit that the professional group you are working with is a group of teachers (rather than health workers, of architects or somesuch). The benefit of teachers is that they often have to teach about ICT (Information and Communication Technology - the Internet etc.). This means that they should actually have an interest in the technology itself as well as the communication you are trying to achieve by using it Turn the session into a bit of an "ICT awareness training session" as well as a cultural exchange.

If you do emphasise the ICT awareness aspect then the cultural exchange aspect becomes almost the icing on the cake - the excuse for trying out the technology - rather that the main purpose of the event. This means that even if you have lots of technical glitches you do not need to feel worried. (Think of it this way - it  you are there to learn about how to use the technology and how easy/difficult it is to make it work - then any glitches become a useful learning point, not a frustrating failure point.)  If it is "ICT and connecting across continents" then just making the connection is a triumph, and the event is a success,  even if the two groups of teachers do not manage to exchange much information.

Bandwidth limitations and previous experience

One of the challenges of cross-continental link ups is the different bandwith availablility. I would guess that your Danish teachers will be "bandwidth rich" while the Kenyan teachers are likely to be "bandwidth challenged". I would guess that the Danish teachers will also have more computers in their schools and homes than the Kenyan teachers have, so the Danes may be expecting sound and video, and this may not be possible. If the Kenyan teaches are bandwidth challenged then you may need to look for the simplest possible type of connection - probably typed chat (that is what we use each week for our UK Nigeria team meetings - http://www.dadamac.net/network/uk-nigeria-dadamac-team.  Even if you plan to try to use sound and video it is wise to have a simpler, low bandwidth alternative to fall back on.

The Danish teachers may already be accustomed to linking up with people using Skype voice and video. It is probably quite a routine happening for many of them. I know that here in the UK elderly friends of mine who can hardly use a mobile phone regularly use Skype voice and video to keep in touch with their families who are too far away to visit. Similarly my grandchildren learned to use it when they were very young so their dad could say goodnight to them when he was away on business trips. The Danes may be using webinars as a matter of course for personal or professional updates of one kind and another - or they may still be comparative novices about online collaboration. It would be good to consider the ICT awareness level of the groups when you are planning the session.

If they are already confident users of the Internet in these ways then you can't take an approach of "ICT awareness training session as well as a cultural exchange" with them. You had better have back-up material available on the "cultural awareness side" for them, to keep them interested if there are poblems with the connection. In fact, it might be interesting to have a little shared cultural focus before doing the online link up anyhow. Maybe both groups could do this. If both groups have some common knowledge it can provide focus for their conversation - a bit like people taking out some family photos as something to talk about. It is disappointeing if you arrange a link-up and then when it is all working fine technically you find that the groups don't really know what to say to each other.

Group dynamics and layout

There are many different ways to arrange things, even if you are only going to use typed chat. You can have a formal session, where everyone works together like "a class". You have a projector, and session leader. Everyone looks at the large display, and agrees with the leader what they want to type. There is just one keyboard (ideally with the fastest typist using it) and the whole thing is done with "just one shared (typed) voice". Alternatively you can use more computers and have people in groups around the computers so that more people can be typing at same time.  If you do that then you need to agree before hand how formal or informal the chat will be - the main styles to choose from are;

• a free-for-all kind of conversation with various conversations going on in parallel
• a structured meeting with an agenda and a chairman
• something in between - where different people take turns to be "topic leader" - leading the conversation according to their personal interest with everyone else responding. It's less formal than an "agenda led meeting" but more structured than the "free-for-all". You need a "director" or "master of ceremonies" with the authority to say when it is time for the role of "topic leader" to pass to a new person.
  

If you are having sound and video then you have additional complications regarding how things will be arranged. There are more things to go wrong if you are using video and sound so it It is a good idea to have a  second communication channel (such as a simple yahoo typed chat) going on between the two organisers. Then  they can share information about how things are going from a technical and organisational point of view without disturbing the social conversation that is going on between the two groups. In fact whatever channel you use for your main meeting, it is a good idea to be ready with one or more backups in case things aren't working properly with your first choice. For instance make sure the organisers have each others mobile phone numbers, so that if all else fails they can text each other to explain the problem and
agree on "plan B".

Be ready for the unexpected. For instance on one Teachers Talking" course in Nigeria we had arranged to take part in a webinar (only as participants - joining in via the chat box - but fun none-the less as there was sound and vision too). All seemed to be going well, the projector was working, the link was working, we could see and hear the presenter in the USA, we had signed in and been welcomed, the webinar was interesting, things were getting under way well and it seemed all would go well. Wrong - suddenly we lost power and someone hurried in to tell us to leave the building as the generator had caught fire. By the time we came back it was almost over. Even so people felt they had learned more about ICT from the session even though they had missed most of the content.

Mostly chat and a scrap of video
what we have done sometimes for "Dadamac day" is a mixture of mostly typed chat and then a scrap of video. We rely on the typed chat for a real exchange of information and then the video is just for fun, an attempt for everyone to put faces to names. Usually we find we have to have either sound or vision but not both together, and perhaps only in one direction. The video tends to be very jerky, but all we are usually  trying to do is to smile and wave at each other - our one chance in the year (possible only because on Dadamac Day we take just about all the bandwidth on the entire site).

The basic advice
In some ways we've hardly scratched the surface, but on another level it's just common sense really:

• Imagine the dynamics of the session before and after you go online as well as while you are online.
• Plan carefully how you will run your session.
  
• Collaborate with the person on the other side.
• Plan carefully how you will run the part of the session you are doing together.
  
• Practice together to see you have all necessary IDs and passwords, no trouble with firewalls, and a general confidence and familiarity with whatever tools you'll be using.
• Check you second communication channel as well
• Agree a plan B
• Exchange mobile phone numbers
• Double check you time zones to make sure there is true agreement on when the session will start
• Enjoy!

Continuing

In some ways we have hardly started to scratch the surface.  I wonder if this is a one-off session or if it is part of a longer programme of professional development. There is so much I would like to explore with you if that is so. I am so happy to know that there is something going on that could benefit from what we have discovered over the years through Teachers Talking.

I hope this is a helpful start. Maybe we should get together for an online meeting to cover your plans in more detail - or just for for a catch up. Thanks for including me in your planning. It is great to be rubbing minds again.

Pam