It's been awhile since I was in University. But I do remember the first day of each course looking around for someone I know. I remember trying to figure out who would be good to sit next to and who would be useful to get to know. Being shy, when I was in big classes these remained thoughts and I usually sat somewhere I thought I'd remain unnoticed.
Today I checked out my #etmooc classmates. Wow, what a difference. Before it was the complete lack of information overload - all you had to go on is what people looked like to make those first judgments. Now it's information overload!
Yet same issue...
How to seek out those classmates who will help add to the usefulness of the experience?
With the sessions recorded, I am not seeking those who keep awesome notes this time. Rather, those people who you wander out of class with having a great conversation. I'm seeking those people who you have engaging conversations with over coffee.
Some Ideas
Commenting
Over the past few years, as I have participated in more online communities, I have learned the value of commenting as the first step in developing a relationship with others. In fact, that is how I met my husband! :)
You put yourself out there when you post but I think sometimes that is easier than commenting.
Creating Unique Circles
I saw fellow #etmooc-er Heather Martin create a circle for librarians. Brilliant! I am attempting to do the same thing for K-3 educators.
When I first saw the lists they created with the #etmooc participants I didn't know what to do with that information. Today, as I read the introductions, I followed people whose introduction resonated with me. I was reminded of the blog post Why I Unfollowed 5000 People . For Twitter to be relevant to me, I need to follow people who I have decided are useful to me in a personal or professional way. To simply just follow everyone on #etmooc was not useful to me.
Google +
I did the same thing with Google+. I created an #etmooc circle and added those people whose introductions resonated with me. I do need to turn off my notifications because I find seeing notifications fill up my iPhone every hour a bit overwhelming!What is nice about both Google+ and Twitter, is that there are ways for me to tap into the bigger Ed Tech community with hash tags or by visiting the #etmooc community on Google+.
