This ongoing series of articles keeps members up to date with some of the activities in the NEX online learning community. Jump in and join the conversation!

Our online community is still in it's early days. Welcome to all the new members who have joined recently. 

So far we have had lots of suggestions on how to improve the functionality of our platform (WordPress & Peepso for those with a tech interest) and continue to welcome feedback through the Suggestions group. For example did you know that you can post directly from the Stream to any group? Don't forget to use # hashtags when you are posting to make topics easier to track and use @username to include specific people in your conversation (just type hash and our names will come up). If you want to set up a new group to lead sharing & discussion around special interests please contact Rachel or Darren.

The Foundations group, designed for teachers who are new to teaching online, has been discussing developing relationships with students, group student presentations, collaborative activities, tools and strategies, and managing assessment and student portfolios. These are great topics for seasoned teachers too. If you have burning questions or experience to share with newbies please join in.

Deep Support, focuses on how we support and develop learners in the online environment. Here members are discussing: "Do online learners need different learning support (as opposed to on-site learners)? Why?" It is interesting to see conversation that cuts across the Primary & Secondary teaching areas as our online learners needs are very similar across the sector.

Languages Community have been discussing ideas and tools for students to record themselves and share with their teachers. They are also considering what issues specific to teaching languages online they can support each other with.

General Discussions, our NEX lead teachers are starting to introduce themselves here through sharing their challenges and problems of practice. Philippa kicks off with 'How can community be developed in the online space and how can authentic learning be captured?' Here we also post resources and upcoming PLD opportunities - make sure you join this group to stay in the loop.

There are a lot of teachers introducing themselves in the Lounge group. Get in there soon, introduce yourself with the #competition and be in to win spot prizes.