Using SAKAI to Build the BCT Community of Practice

Building Community through TelecollaborationNovember 19, 2009

Palais des Congrès, Montréal, QC

SAKAI and the BCT Community

Sakai can help us:

Build a community of practice for BCT teachers and educational leaders (i.e., shared vision and shared repertoire)

Share experiences, thoughts, knowledge, and resources in relation to our professional practice

Sustain communication and collaboration among BCT teachers and educational leaders

http://www.learnquebec.ca

http://sakai.learnquebec.ca

BCT Community on SAKAI

Recent Announcements

Calendar

Private Messages

Member Listing

Discussion List

Recent Topics

Last Message

Discussion Forum Discussion List

It consists of 9 forums, including BCT Project for the whole group and Cycle Groups for each cycle. When you post a message, you should choose a pertinent forum depending on the target of your message (either the whole group or each cycle).

The list shows when the Last Message was posted by whom. You can check the forums that were updated. In a forum, topics are listed in order from the last message first rather than the initial message posted in the topic.

Recent Topics: It is a list of new topics updated recently. You can easily scan the updates in the discussion forums.

Member Listing: It is a list of participants in the BCT community. You can send a Private Message to an individual participant here.

Private Messages: You can find private messages you receive and send here. You can also send a private message by clicking the icon [PM] on the messages and the Member Listing.

Quote: When you want to respond to one of the replies (rather than the initial message) in a thread, you can quote that message by clicking the icon [quote] on the right top of the message. Or, you can start your message with the name you want to reply to.

Resources • It is a repository where all materials related to the BCT project

-including collaborative projects- are gathered.

• When material is uploaded, it is announced on the forum BCT Project.

BCT Website http://bctcollaboration.wikispaces.com/

It is a public space for the BCT Project.

• General information on the

BCT Project

• Collection of artifacts built in the BCT Project

• History of theBCT Project

Why Should We Use Sakai? Open Communication

Freely ask and share questions, information and experiences Use discussion forums rather than personal e-mails

Continuous Participation Read forum messages, documents, and resources (to keep

current) Respond to forum messages Post new messages

Sustainable Interaction IRF: Initiation – Response – Feedback Interact with other BCT teachers and educational leaders

Culture of Sharing and Shared Repertoire Inform BCT community of activities planned, underway, and

done in cycle groups and sub-groups and share the experiences and reflection.

Share “craft” knowledge and expertise within and across cycles

Some Suggested Guidelines BCT teachers are encouraged to:

Keep up-to-date on what is going on in the BCT Community.

Reply to requests asking for a response (e.g., E-mail, Online survey, Discussions in DF) in a timely manner.

Feel free to communicate openly and interact freely.

Keep records of activities in cycle groups and sub-groups (e.g., DF and/or BCT website).

Example of potential guidelines We try to visit the BCT Community on Sakai once a week.

We regularly check announcements and new postings in the Discussion Forum (e.g., BCT Project and Cycle group).

We try to post at least one relevant message each week.

Group Discussion

In your cycle group, please discuss using the SAKAI

portal in terms of:

Usefulness

Difficulties

Further Questions

Guidelines for your cycle group (* note: It can be linked with

the group discussion on Developing Collaborative Projects)

Please summarize what you discussed and post it

into the forum for your cycle group.