Ok, well, maybe it’s just exciting to me, but a
communications officer is SUPPOSED to get excited
about this kind of thing, right?

The news is that there are now TWO different listservs
for every AECT division. There is a required
announcements-only listserv that everyone will be
automatically subscribed to if they join our division.
The only person who can post to this listserv is the
communications officer, which is currently me. So if
you have an AECT-related announcement, please send it
to me and I will post it to this listserv. This will
be the only way to be certain that you have
communicated with everyone in the division. Email from
this listserv will come through the
DDLMembers@aect.org address.

The old listserv (DDL@aect.org) will now become an
opt-in/opt-out listserv. Because you can get the
necessary announcements through the other listserv,
this DDL@aect.org listserv will be able to accomodate
more discussion, requests for advice related to
distance instructional design, questions and mentoring
for newer members, and so on. The norms for this
listserv, and what should be posted to this listserv
we’ll have to develop ourselves as a community. It
will be moderated by the communications officer
supported by the division leadership. I think to begin
with, basic rules of consideration and respect apply,
as well as an understanding that if you are responding
to someone individually, please do so off the list.

But since this is an opt-in listserv now, and I know
there are many who would like to have an avenue for
talking through distance learning problems/issues, I
hope you will feel free to post some more
discussion-related questions and commentary on this
DDL@aect.org listserv. To post to this list, just
email DDL@aect.org.

Finally, the results are in from the survey I created
asking you, the DDL community, what kind of
communication strategy you would like. Thank you to
those who responded. Results show:

- People would like to see announcements and
asking/receiving of help or support through the
listserv. I wonder if today’s announcement would
change those views to include other kinds of topics,
since there is now a separate announcements-only
listserv?

- People also want to see the DDL blog used to
highlight summaries of conference presentations, and
archive audio/video recordings of presentations. To a
lesser degree, they would like to see more sharing of
best DL practices, webcasts about DL topics or
interviews with DL luminaries, and hosted discussions
around particular themes. That’s a lot, which is
great, so give us some time to work on it. We’ll try
to see what we can start to add to the blog to make it
relevant, and I appreciate anyone willing to help me
generate that relevant content.

- People are also interested in DDL forums focused on
many of these same topics. We’ll see what we can get
started in that regard …

So that will give us some idea of where to go with
communications in this division. Stay tuned, and
again, I’d be grateful for any help in making these
things a reality. To begin with, if you have
recordings of DL-related presentations that you have
given (even at other conferences), please send those
to me (rickwest- at- uga.edu), and maybe we can start to
create some audio content on the blog that is useful.

Thank you!

Summary of DDL communication outlets:
Communication Officer: Rick West rickwest- at- gmail.com
Member listserv: DDLMembers@aect.org
Subscribers listserv: DDL@aect.org
Blog: http://aectnow.org/dl/wordpress/

As communications officer this year, I put together a little survey (three questions–how’s that for brief?) to find out what kinds of messages/discussions people want to receive from us and AECT. Please take a minute and make your voice heard so that our DDL communication strategy can by YOUR strategy and not ours!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=534113066834

On the survey, one person gave the following response:

“What is the communications problem in AECT that needs to be solved? How do you define the terms used in this survey? Are we supposed to have a website because our colleagues do? Why? I don’t understand how forcing us to pick blog or forum or listserv is addressing a communications problem that is inherently a social issue and time issue with the members of this organization. Have you considered a questionnaire that forgets technology and focuses on whatever the communications problem is? If lack of communications is a problem, then why? What is it we are missing by not communicating? How do we encourage those things without assuming that blogs are the answer?”

I thought this was a good question, so I’ll try to address it briefly. No, we’re not saying there is a communication problem necessarily. It is true that there is not any discussion on the listserv right now, and there used to be a lot. For some people, that’s probably an improvement. But we have heard from others who miss the way the listserv used to be and who are afraid to post to the listserv because they might offend those who do not want that traffic. So what we are trying to learn is what do YOU, the collective members of the division, want to receive? Do the majority want discussion on the listserv? Or only on a blog? Do you not want any discussion at all? Or do you want only particular kinds of discussions? There are many technologies available to us, and we just want to know what our purpose should be for each one, so we can create a more serviceable communications strategy.

This person also wondered why the survey was so technology-centric. The reason for that is that it is true that we can have really no control over the social nature of communication, discussions, and interactions. People will either talk or they won’t. It’s not necessarily my job to get people to talk to each other if they don’t want to. But what is my job is to discover ways to use the technologies we have to enable the discussions that people do want to have. So that’s why the survey focuses on technology–because that’s the part we can control or work to improve.

Thank you for the feedback and we look forward to others!