You will communicate in this course in 3 ways:

1. You will ask questions or provide feedback/comments
2. You will collaborate with your small group
3. You will submit completed assignments/projects

1. For Questions/Feedback/Comments - use Disqus

If you’ve looked through the weeks, you’ll notice there is a discussion board called Disqus at the bottom of each week. Each week has a specific discussion board. There is also a discussion board for general course questions/comments under the ‘Discussion’ tab.

Here is a short tutorial on how to use Disqus.

2. For Small group collaboration - use what you are comfortable with

Your group can work together however you like. However, here are some tried and true communication tools that others have used:

• For synchronous virtual meetings: Use Google hangout or Skype
• For taking notes, collaborative writing/editing: Use Etherpad or Google docs
• For scheduling across timezones: Use Doodle
• For communication in general: Use Email
• For keeping in touch informally: Use Twitter

3. For assignments/projects - use a blog

You probably already have a blog. Please use it for your assignments. Once you have published the blog post, share the link in the discussion board for the week when the assignment is due.

If you don't have a blog, or if you just want to separate your personal blog from this course, you can join the cc4k12 blog. The cc4k12 blog runs on Wordpress. If you don't have a Wordpress account, please create one here. Once the course starts, I will ask you for your WP account name and invite everyone to contribute to the blog as authors.

You will be expected to provide feedback to each other through comments on blogs.

How I will communicate with you

I will communicate with you through all of the above ways + email. You are also always welcome to email me directly with any questions.

Optional communications

Twitter

We live in times where information is instantly relayed, in large part thanks to social media. I wouldn't want us to miss out on the benefits of this communication, especially as we seek support from our peers during our teaching day. I have created the @cc4k12 Twitter account for you to follow for the duration of this course, and a Twitter list for course participants. I will add all Twitter handles shared during the first week of the course to this list so that everyone can follow each other. I also encourage you to use the hashtag #cc4k12.

Google group

For those who would like to communicate with each other as a class, I have created the cc4k12 Google group. If you like holding discussions or asking questions via an email discussion list, join this group at https://groups.google.com/group/cc4k12. This is not for course announcements and weekly facilitation by me the organizer -- you will receive those regardless of whether you sign up for this group or not. This is for you to talk to each other as fellow educators/librarians/etc.