Conference Buzz
It’s hard to believe a week has passed since the ACCESS conference in Virginia Beach, VA. Our time together truly epitomized the theme Networked Christian Learning. This conference brought together members of The Next Step as well as ACCESS members for what seemed like a great fit. Many of the folks from The Next Step were mission representatives involved in a number of activities related to online training, networking, and non-formal educational opportunities for a number of organizations around the world.
The presentations covered a range of topics, some of which we hope to feature in upcoming webinars. One of the sessions I found to be most helpful was led by Amanda Rockinson-Szapkiw, a Human Service instructor and consultant for online course development at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. Amanda showed us how to use wikis to teach a course online. She makes use of wikis as a way of implementing community building that encourages participatory forms of learning. Students are required to collectively write their own textbook by collaborating on a research project, publishing their findings, and providing input to each other. With a background in adult education, I can certainly appreciate the andragogical principles she highlighted in her presentation.
Now if I could only figure out how to get started . . . .