EL-Week5-PostChat-Section1

__**T-Chart Collaborative Reflections about the Chat**__

Post your reflective comments about the synchronous chat in the T-Chart below. Please be sure to include your first initial, last name after your post (i.e., dsmith)

Thoughts reactions, questions about the chat content || **Process** Thoughts, reactions, questions about the chat __**process**__ and the __**structure**__ that was used. ||
 * **Content**
 * I really enjoyed the conversations with each of you. I too, feel like we got some great information and other perspectives. Sometimes, we seem (or tend) to get caught up in our own districts and goings on...but, listening to other people helps us streamline our thought process-MVarley-ISTE

NConnolly- I think the answers and discussion was good. It is very interesting to hear everyones own view point and experiences to the questions. It is hard to let everyone speak, but there was enough time to say what we wanted to mention for the questions.

It was an interesting discussion. I felt like my opinion was validated through the comments and discussion with my classmates. I enjoyed the dialogue and was actually relieved that my thoughts were in line with others. I am not very confident in my understanding of the materials being read and it's great to hear other people's thoughts and opinions. It helped me to gain a better understanding of the readings. ~ atruger || For me, the process is an adrenaline pumping activity. I'm calling on my seating chart, writing down the answers, reading and listening all at the same time. I get confused at times. I was there at 6PM to get myself prepared and I feel that helped keep me more focused.

NConnolly-The chat process was fine. Everyone who participated received enough time to talk or expressed their own opinion. It was hard at times to type and listen to the answers to the questions. It did keep us going, but sometimes it was hard to do both.

I enjoyed the chat process. I learn a lot more from listening to others versus just reading. I wanted to be able to type my thoughts as I was listening. I am not good at remembering and being quiet until told I can respond. I recognize that some people have difficulty with this kind of multi-tasking and that the open-closed forum works for them. I tend to get distracted while waiting my turn (just being honest). I do agree that it kept us moving and I understand the need for the structure. ~atruger ||
 * I enjoyed hearing from the larger group what their ideas about school reform are. It is a broad topic and it lends itself to the larger discussion. I was a bit confused from the "themes" angle and it was reassuring to hear what everyone had to say so that I could gain a better understanding. ~A Christman

The chat content was interesting and engaging. I think everyone had a chance to share their thoughts and ideas. P.Chodkiewicz DSmith-ISTE || I think the process of the team A, B, C, D was great in order to hear from everyone. I am glad that Melissa called out names because I was uncomfortable with just jumping in with my 2-cents worth. I am very much a f2f kind of person and rely heavily on facial cues and body language, both of which are absent from voice only chatting. When I was talking, I couldn't "see" anyone's face to see if I was making sense, if I was talking loud enough, etc. I enjoyed the "break" from the whole group forum. It was nice to get immediate feedback instead of the asynchronous nature of posting in a forum. ~A Christman ||
 * As usual this group has insightful things to say about leadership and school reform. However, I felt the questions were too vague, and covered too much ground. We needed to talk for hours to truly cover all of the material. The typed discussion was great but distracting. I don;t think I can type and listen at the same time. Why are we typing here if we need to type this on the wiki as well?- A. Smith ISTE || The technical difficulties were annoying as several people couldn't talk (poor Patrick.) It was interesting to hear voices for a change but I'm not sure it added all that much. But then I'm a visual learner who prefers to read over listening. I like Annamarie's idea of teams volunteering to answer a question, I think it would lead to a better discussion. - A. Smith ISTE. ||
 * S.Spissu- Though I was unable to participate in the chat due to technical issues, I did have the opportunity to go back and listen to the recorded chat and compare the responses (that I could hear) to my thoughts that I had written down prior to the chat in preparation. The questions themselves I think invited great discussion about school reform. And as Allyson said above, the class could have discussed into the wee small hours about their thoughts. As is typical in discussions like this, I am always impressed by the new thoughts and ideas that others have about the same information. I was particularly struck by comments during the last question. My thoughts had focused on obtaining new funds for reform programs and I had not even thought about cutting funding to current programs and initiatives that aren't serving the school vision. Many hands make light work, and my classmates have helped me better understand the material!

Content was consistent with prep questions. Students were permitted to share answers and experiences from their own working environment. All opinions were welcomed.-A.Capaldi-ISTE || S.Spissu - The process was well-organized and well meaning. Had things gone smoothely, I think that the discussion path would have been very easy to follow. Unfortunately technical diffculties seemed to be making it difficult for the discussion to happen easily. To make matters more diffcult for myself, it seems the recorded chat was not playing back everyone, even when those who participated in the live chat seemed to be hearing that person just fine. The combination of typed chat and spoken chat was difficult to follow, especially with the problems that occurred.

The process and structure was organized as each grouped shared their responses. By allowing all to participate after the general group shared, allowed all to be engaged. P. Chodkiewicz

I think all should have been encouraged to show up before 7 to test equipment again. Maybe have teams volunteer to answer a question in order to prepare to speak and get your thoughts together. I agree with Brady that synchronous classes are more effective with smaller groups.-A.Capaldi-ISTE ||
 * The content of the chat was helpful for me to better understand the readings and the concept of school reform. It was great to have so much interaction with Melissa so that we could get insights into the models and theories related to the topic. (B Burke - ISTE) || I liked this chat format better than the one we did for the Online Learning Orientation in which we just copied and pasted our responses into the chat text box. This format made it easier to actually have a synchronous, 2-way (or in our case 15-way) conversation! (B Burke - ISTE) ||
 * The content was really good in some points. I think that the questions made an effort to survey too much information. It might be valuable to focus on just one reading. There was some valuable side conversations going on in the typed chat, which might have been good jumping off points to a more organic discussion (moving away from the prepared questions) if there hadn't been the need to keep moving into new content. - B. Cline ISTE || I felt that the tech problems were minor, but just enough to interrupt the flow. (Research has shown that interpersonal communication doesn't cope well with more than a few milliseconds of delay.) I felt that there were entirely too many people in the forum. It seems like there shouldn't be more than 5 or 6 students. I'd really like to see instructors keep virtual office hours on this or a similar platform, so there is a few times a week available to discuss the content or clarify assignments. It could reduce or eliminate the need to do a big syncro that everyone can attend at the same time and would allow for more authentic, less rushed discussions. - B. Cline ISTE ||
 * I felt like there was great potential with the topic, but somehow the execution of the questions lost some effectiveness. I sent along some of the reading materials this week to several of the administrators with whom I work as we're presently in the process of a UbD initiative as well as the beginning of our major 10 year strategic plan initiative. We've had great discussions about the application of the 5 elements of reform in particular, and I would have liked to perhaps see a more pragmatic conversation that discussed specifically what we need to consider as administrators leading major initiatives in the future. -Ben Grey || I could probably write quite a bit on this side of the chart. First, the technical difficulties proved quite detrimental to the flow of the experience. I do believe many of us are advocates for technology, and most people have likely participated in some form of experience like this, so we all have a higher tolerance for such difficulties. However, the experience we had is why many simply refuse to embrace transformative technologies. They have very little tolerance for error, and I'm quite confident had many of the administrators in my district experienced what we did, they would have told me it was unacceptable.

Being that we all do embrace technology, I do think the experience is incredibly important to have periodically to keep us all connected on a more personal level. There is simply something about getting to hear the inflection and tone of someone's voice that helps us all relate and connect to one another as we're communicating in such great volume through text. Even through the technical trouble, I still really enjoyed getting to hear from everyone who was able to be heard.

The chat was quite interesting. Personally, I thought we should have just let that run free form. Let the chat be a backchannel, and if people aren't adept at that kind of experience, or find it distracting, they certainly have the right to turn it off or simply not follow it. I've found so many times I get more out of the conversation that occurs in the chat when at a conference or presentation than I do from the main presentation. I believe there's something significant here, and it's likely because at that point, we're interacting with ideas. Something a presenter or speaker says sparks a question or response, and instead of sitting passively trying to process that thought, we can immediately interact with the concepts with others. I think that is very significant.

Well, looks like I did write quite a bit in this column afterall. Sorry for taking up so much space. -Ben Grey ||
 * Content flow was suitable. The amount of information needed for the discussion was quite overwhelming to be completely ready to react by Wednesday. I enjoyed listening to everyone's responses about each topic and felt that we were in agreement on many of the topics discussed. (not sure why we are posting in two places, a google doc can be embedded here) ccapozzoli - ISTE

I really enjoyed the variety of personal experiences shared during the chat. Reform is a topic that usually yields mixed reviews and hearing so many perspectives similar to my own was both rewarding and validating. I felt that the questions were well suited to establish a quality dialogue however I would have enjoyed spending more time on less content. Some of the simultaneous chat conversations could have been a nice addition to the group conversation. CSualp-ISTE || Structure was organized, but the technical difficulties were a bit frustrating at times. It would have been nice to chat to respond while comments and ideas were being shared. It is more engaging to listen and respond. Overall it was a fun and useful activity. ccapozzoli-ISTE

I had the opportunity to listen to the recorded version of the chat. It was apparent that there were glitches but overall I don't feel that it impacted the overall quality of the information. I appreciated that different questions were available to different groups and then open for response. This process allows the listeners to digest the perspectives of the team and formulate a response. CSualp-ISTE ||