What is Week 0? Week 0 is just a fun name to give to the time before the learning community activities actually start. Consider Week 0 your orientation to the program. Take some time to familiarize yourself with the digital tools, structure and modes of participation that make #DigPINS flow. First, get acquainted with the people facilitating #DigPINS at participating schools.
Meet the #DigPINS Facilitators
In 2020, there are five cohorts of faculty and staff.
- Colgate University (Hamilton, NY)
- Facilitator: Christine Moskell (Instructional Designer for Connected Learning)
- University of Michigan – Dearborn (Dearborn, MI)
- Facilitator: Autumm Caines (Instructional Designer)
- American University in Cairo (Cairo, Egypt)
- Facilitator: Maha Bali (Associate Professor of Practice at the Center for Learning and Teaching)
- St. Norbert College (De Pere, WI)
- Facilitator: Taylor Jadin (Instructional Technologist)
- Kenyon College (Gambier, OH)
- Facilitator: Joe Murphy (Director of the Center for Innovative Pedagogy)
Building an Online Community
In the weeks that follow, we will explore the possibilities of using digital tools to extend, expand, and further connect our community to each other and beyond. Community does not build itself and your participation in our various environments is what will make this experiences successful. You may find that you feel more comfortable in some environments than in others – this is natural and normal in digital spaces. Share your impressions and thoughts with our cohort or the larger network. Read what others are saying about their experiences and respond to them. It is these reflections and conversations that help us get to know one another.
Working in Partnership
Each school has their own public #DigPINS site, just like this one. Participants will author blog posts on their school’s site. Each school’s site is connected to a networked “hub” (discuss.digpins.org) which pulls all of the blog posts from each school into one place. In this way, participants are working as part of a larger network of connected websites.
Setting Learning Goals
Having a clear goal is part of being successful in this kind of learning community. As Yogi Berra said, “you can observe a lot just by watching,” but you’ll learn more if you set some targets for tools you’d like to try out, topics you’d like to explore, or activities you’d like to do. So we encourage you, in these early weeks, to spend some time thinking about your goals for the next month of #DigPINS.
You can share those goals using the digital tools that are used in #DigPINS, such as in a blog post, as a comment in our Slack workspace or a Tweet. You can also share your learning goals privately with the facilitator or some other cohort members.
Week 0 Focus Areas
Besides this high level overview information, review the following pages for a more in-depth orientation to #DigPINS.
Participation – #DigPINS is an online connected learning experience. If you have never been part of a participatory networked learning community, you will find this information helpful.
Structure – What will we discuss over the course of #DigPINS? How is our time spent?
Digital Tools – This page reviews the digital tools you will use throughout #DigPINS.
