Ngā Matapakinga | Discussion

Some of you might be wondering why you get a notification in your email that says you've been mentioned in a discussion and when you arrive at the thread you haven't.

This is because someone has made a specific mention to another community member using @theirusername. You will be receiving notifications, because when you joined the group, notifications are automatically emailed to you.

To turn off Group Notifications, go to top right-hand corner, click Settings, scroll down to Notifications >>> Group Notifications and click off the groups.

# Tip 15

If you want people to talk, then ask them a good question. We're in this community together in the pursuit of changing education for the better.

What's one trend/issue/concern/gripe/need/question we all share that's common to us all?

#Tip 14

If you own a group, how frequently do you engage with your participants and do they have the information on how to be a good participant?

For example:

• Do they know what a good participation looks like? ie: Open to sharing information about themselves, asking questions, offering support for others, sharing resources, delving deeper into discussions.
• Do they know they don't need to be an expert to participate?
• Do they know what 'tone' to use when they participate?
• Do they know how long a post should be, to self-disclose information about themselves and reveal their emotional state when they ask a question?
• Do they know how to share rich resources and embed content?
• Do they know good questions are better than good answers?
• Do they know the 20% of topics which account for 80% of discussions?
• Do they know who’s in charge and who to contact for help?
• Do they know who else to connect with, that will help them with their learning or mahi?
• Do they know what fun in learning looks like?

If the answer is no or you want to know more,  then feel free to make contact me and we can co-construct a strategy that works best for you as a community group manager. 

Tip #13

You can get more creative with your posts by embedding content - images and hosted videos. You can either click on Embed content and upload an image from your computer or click on   and insert an image url or address and have this hosted from the Internet.

Video

An easy way to embed video is to grab the embed code from the host site (Vimeo, Youtube etc), type 'ZZZZZZZZ' where you want the video to be placed in your post, click on Edit Html and paste the code to replace ZZZZZZZZ'. Click Visual editor to keep writing or press Save or Reply.

For more support, see: Instructional video: Embedding media files
 

Tip #12

If you're a group owner and your invited group members aren't receiving their edSpace notifications, then:

• Get them to check spam in their email account
• Contact Tessa to process user validation 
• Invite them using another/personal email account
• Talk them through the process in person

Image source: Pixabay

Tip #11

Anyone can create a group in edSpace - school, kura or Kāhui Ako (CoL). We've created a mock-up group to show you how to use one yourselves.

Kāhui Ako mock-up space

You and your colleagues can streamline your work together through a secure group portal (closed group), rather than having these spread out across various emails, blogs, social platforms etc.

You can increase transparency and productivity by sharing events, documents, admin tasks, resources, and most importantly, thought-leadership. You can collaborate together by addressing common goals through shared blogs, learning conversations, resources and more. This is all archived in one safe place - and it's FREE!

If you want to know more, feel free to message your community facilitator, Tessa Gray.

Tip #10

If you want to create a group, contact our online facilitator, Tessa Gray to activate your account.

If you have created a group you can invite participants to join in several ways.

1. You can find people in edSpace (use the search box) and make them your friends (if they are edSpace members).
2. From your group home page, click Invite users
3. You can also invite people who are not in edSpace already by clicking on Invite users via email and add one email per line. Add a personal note to join your group in the bottom field. This generates an email to them and invites them to join.
4. Or you can email folk to join your group directly from your own email account using the group url (once it's made). If it is a closed group, they will need to request membership. Notifications come into your inbox and then you will need to click on the link to accept them.
5. You can also click on Friends or Find user/s and invite them directly from your edSpace group.

# Tip 9

By now you will have noticed edSpace is a social platform for educators to talk to each other. As well as sharing resources, we can share opinions, ideas and experiences.

A great way to connect with others, is to acknowledge what others have said and build on those comments when you contribute your own thoughts and observations. 

To do this personally you can add @username to the comments as well. For example, Tessa Gray

Thanks Tessa I will have a tuu over the weekend. put my fisrst pic into a discussion korero so feeling "onto it" hehe

Phebs

#Tip 8

Easiest way to embed videos, docs, website, infographics etc into your discussion comments, blogs, pages or events, is to click on edit HTML and embed 'iframe' code. For example: Here is some code for you to use. Substitute the XXXX with the URL from YOUR own video, doc url etc and change the width and height to suit.

<iframe src="XXXX" width="460" height="265"></iframe>

Click Visual editor and an iframe box should appear. Now click save or reply. You can also click on the pencil to edit.

For more help, see Embedding media files.