Hanging around in virtual space

A few weeks ago I blogged about online learning and how incredibly interesting the current developments are in that field. I mentioned MOOCs and some of the online platforms providing opportunities to join virtual conferences, webinars etc. All fascinating stuff!

This week we have been thinking about ways in which to take some of the work that we do with groups in real time and attempt them using Google Hangouts. We are at early stages of thinking with this. A great conversation with Kevin Wyke yesterday helped to propel the thinking forwards.

The advantages are that we can get busy professionals together in groups of up to 10 to explore topics and get to know each other. There is no need to travel, or to take out a whole day for a workshop. In fact, a workshop that would typically take a day could be run instead over a number of days for just an hour each day. That way we could minimise disruption. There would be plenty of opportunities to get to know a whole set of new people.  The platform automatically gives the option to stream the discussions through YouTube so there is the opportunity to watch the discussions happening in real time. This can also be set to private if that is a preferred approach. Each Hangout session is also automatically recorded giving the option to enable people to listen back after the event.

The disadvantages are the learning curve, and the initial barriers to adoption for people  who may not be used to the approach. Also, and this is a really important point, I wonder to what extent the making of new connections depends on being in the same physical space as someone – having the opportunity to really get to know someone. That is possible when you are in the same venue, less easy when you are on the same laptop or iPad screen.

We are going to experiment with this method and see how it works. We will learn from this piloting, but I would welcome any comments here from anyone who has experimented already and has key learning points from it.

Our first step with this will, I think, be a small group having a discussion to try out the approach.

Then, once we have ironed out all the problems, the ambition would be to try out a workshop that would typically include 80 people working in groups of 10 having parallel discussions. Let’s see how the initial session goes.