CCK08. My first connections.

I see now that I am connecting somewhat randomly in the course, therefore I feel isolated. I managed to disable the arrival of the Daily email summary which did not help either, I need to find out how to restore it.
Besides, I have not been able to post the RSS feed to my blog and this stormy week I have had long power cut offs.
I recovered the drafts of my posts but they do not seem to make sense anymore; I keep writing for myself. This will end up as a boring and long post for others to read. I guess this one will be posted with an earlier date. Today is September 12th.

It may have been for the best that I could not post here for a few days,to request a Gmail account had terrible consequences.
After reading Mike Bogle's post "Growing a Network" I realize that I have been doing reasonably well with the Webheads Community but that, besides BaeL, they are the only connection source I had until CCK08. I would like to connect with people who are taking the course for credit, I advanced a bit on that by asking in one of the live sessions. Lorraine Mockford picked up the flag and created a thread and I created a Survey that I hope help us to arrange live meetings when necessary.

This week I met new faces along with familiar ones. I received an emal from Elsa Martínez, she is also a Potosina uprooted from my beloved San Luis Potosí to Toluca. She has extensive experience on Distant Learning Education. I am delighted to have a Paisana as friend in Toluca!! We had a nice chat over the phone.
I also received a kind email from Steve Tuffill who came to read my blog before the last two entries were posted.

On the first and only email digest I received, I found a comment from my dear friend Nergiz Kern. She is a sweethearth! She's very generous, kind, caring and a certified Language teacher. I met her this year in the EVO Convention Courses and we hang every Friday in SL.

The other known faces I have seen in the course so far are: Vance, Bee, Nellie, Jose Antonio, Cris Costa (Adopted Mancunian), Teresa, Horacio, Cristina Costa, Carla, Hala, Natasa, Susan, Doris and Sasa.

Besides leaving a comment, I took screenshots of the interesting profiles I came across with and added to them part of the data they posted on their introductions and messages. I want to remember their objectives for the course and where are they from. The screenshots are here.

If you happen to be reading please stop. It's a long list of my new first connections.

The new faces I found and left a comment are so far:
Johan Potomus is interested in the tools we use, Tita Beaven is a lecturer in Spanish focused on Virtual Ethnography as research method, Jaime Caro is conducting a Web 2.0 program for teachers in Colombia, Juan José Calderón is member of the Sevilla University and editor of an e-learning blog, Fridemar Pache is interested on Extreme Open Business to integrate new income models, Maria Irene Albers is an English teacher graduated from the U. of Carabobo in Venezuela currentrly doing her PhD at the U. of Sevilla. María Gómez is an Undergraduate and High School teacher in Caracas using web 2.0 tools and wanders what exactly do teachers need to change. Silvia García from Caracas is an Online Courses Designer and Administrator interested on how do we use ICT's and their social effects. Collin Milligan from Glasgow Caledonian U. is researching learning technology. José Rodríguez teaches 3rd graders in L.A. and wisely calls CCK08 and Odyssey
Oriol Miralbell is a Lecturer at the Open U. of Catalonia, leading e-learning U. in Spain. Gabriel Bunser is a professional coach from Santiago, Chile interested on how Connectivism affects teaching and learning. Liz Renshaw from Australia interested on using technologies to work in diferent ways. Alejandro Valadez from Monterrey, Mexico works at Sanfora Training and Development and wants to share ideas and generate more knowledge. Bruce Nightingale is a Senior Lecturer at Nothingham Trent U.focused on training ICT teachers and researching multy modal learning. Gina Bennett coordinates distant education and educational technology in Canada.
Beatriz Jaramillo is an English teacher in Chile. Therese Weel from Vancouver, Canada expects to have her world view changed. Antonio González from Spain is an Andalusia's Government pedagogical advisor and Catherine Fitzpatrick who is active in SL, she/he claims to be skeptic but she/he is generating more connections than anyone.

CCK08 My long run connections.

People keep asking me why I am paying for a course given for free. The answers "I seek feedback to learn" and "credentials are important for me" do not seem to suffice. I have my mind racing all over the place, I wish I had a handy voice recorder! Besides meditation, what helps me to focus again is to write the bothering thought down. So, here I go.

The best way I find to explain my point of view is by telling stories, I use them with my patients. So I will tell the story of MMV®.

Our Centre, or company, is called MMV® Centro Multidisciplinario de Asesoría Integral. We founded it in 1993. Our first year was great. We had plenty of work and according to our accountant, we did exceptionally well considering that it was our first year on business.

When we where thinking about names, it was easy; we were a Multidisciplinary group of friends, we assessed students, people, projects and organizations and integrated our work fields. The initials issue was also easy. Vero's position was crucial. Her daughters, then just kids, were an important part of our engine; besides, she is the most visually attractive and friendly of us, her connections opened a lot of doors.

I worked with her giving Spanish/English classes and doing some of the English Spanish translations. She was Head of the Languages Area which included German. I worked with Margarita in the Educational programs and Psychology projects, she was the Head of the Education and Research Area and she took English lessons with Vero. Margarita and I worked together in the Organizational Projects with Toluca Industry, I was the head of the Organizational Area.

Looking at the way we interacted we thought that it was a good idea to place Vero initials at the middle, she was our strong connecting point. Lancelot was our shining Knight in Armour, an Arian car made in Monterrey Mexico: The Gross Borgward.

The funny part is that when we asked ourselves what would be the meaning of "MVM" initials or what would we say to people when they asked... the first thought that popped up was "Me Vale M..." There was a long lasting burst of laughter!
After a while we decided that the first "M" should stand for Margarita, who has a PhD. The second "M" should stand for me with a Master Degree. Vero has a Bachelor degree so "V" would be the last,obviously not the least, to avoid trouble and misunderstandings.

O.K. Back to read!