Wednesday, April 8, 2009

International Day of the Midwife 2009: 24 hour virtual event

I can't believe it's a year ago that I was planning for International Day of the Midwife 2008 when I collected stories from midwives about the midwives who had influenced their practice over the years. I also organized a virtual meeting between my students in New Zealand and student midwives in Nashville. And here we are...one year later.

2009
So I have been thinking about how we can celebrate International Day of the Midwife this year. For some time now, I have been thinking that I would like to organize a 24 hour virtual event so that there is something happening every hour for 24 hours of the day, so everyone has access to some thing at some point in time. Here are a couple of ideas:
Do you have any ideas for what we could do in the 24 hours? If you would be interested in getting involved, what would you like to help with?


Image: 'Dorise helps Amy'
www.flickr.com/photos/26667277@N00/311398719

14 comments:

Leigh Blackall said...

I think you should curate it rather than waste energy trying to get people to volunteer. Its only 24 people you need to lock down to run something. Perhaps you contact all those trained online facilitators you know from last year and ask them to facilitate events and gatherings for your midwifery community :)

Sarah Stewart said...

Yes, I agree. I am sure that with all our contacts Deborah & I could cover 24 hours.

Another couple of ideas is to get people to upload photos into a Flickr group, or send me photos so I could make them into an Animoto video. And, make a video in YouTube & start an asynchronous conversation based on the video.

Carolyn said...

Looking forward to seeing what you and Deb come up with.

Carolyn said...

If it is any use I could set up and facilitate an open Elluminate session for an hour or so. Would it need to have a topic? If so how about chatting about our new undergraduate programme?

Sarah Stewart said...

Love that idea, Carolyn, thanks a lot-will put you down for that. cheers

Anonymous said...

I'm cogitating and could use some help with ideas - - I'd be thrilled to be a part of this!! What could I do from my little corner of the world?
I love the wordle idea.
Any ideas for accommodating non-English speaking midwives?
Maggie Traore, CPM
Burkina Faso
GMT

Sarah Stewart said...

Hi Maggie, we'd be thrilled to have you on board, and even more thrilled to get some non-English sessions going. Would you like to be a presenter at an online meeting, in Skype or Elluminate, for example - how is your access to the Internet? How about we have a chat on Skype - do you have access to Skype?

cheers Sarah

Cosmic Mother said...

Hi Sarah,
I would like to take part in the event...I am a traditional midwife from mexico, we are holding an international congress an encounter between the traditional and medical models. We are working on some footage. The cibernetic world is pretty new to me, so maybe with some patience on your part I would be glad to participate in anyway. Sabrina

Cosmic Mother said...

Hi Sarah,
I would like to take part in the event...I am a traditional midwife from mexico, we are holding an international congress an encounter between the traditional and medical models. We are working on some footage. The cibernetic world is pretty new to me, so maybe with some patience on your part I would be glad to participate in anyway. Sabrina

Sarah Stewart said...

Hello Sabrina, We'd be delighted to have a midwife from Mexico get involved with this event. Would you like to be a presenter at an event - you can do it in Spanish if English is not a language you are comfortable with. I am happy to help you set up the technical side, and can arrange for someone to support you. Can we have a chat about this...do you have access to Skype?

Here is the link to the wiki where we are developing the program. Have a look at what we are thinking about, the time zones and let me know what you think:

Anonymous said...

I have access to internet, skype is good. I would love to present a session in French - - presentation/discussion of maternal mortality in Burkina Faso?? WRA/BF made a lovely short community participation film addressing the problems and solutions. HELP!! for the technical set-up. I see having one or two persons with me, film on CD (French).
You can contact me on skype - 'maiasong'. I am on line most afternoons from 13h00 GMT into the evening. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Sarah Stewart said...

Hello Margaret

That sounds a lovely idea - a French presentation would be fabulous

Can you decide what time slot you would like:

http://onlineprofessionaldevelopment.wikispaces.com/International+Day+of+the+Midwife+2009

and can you send me a short abstract of what you want to talk about, to give people an idea of what to expect. Can you please identify that your talk will be in French

I suggest we use Elluminate if we can - that way we can get more people than using skype, but that will depend on whether you can use it on your computer. Lets have a play with it over the next few days & see how we get on

Elluminate meeting room (sponsored by Otago Polytechnic but views presented by speakers are not necessarily those of the school of midwifery, Otago Polytechnic):
http://elluminate.tekotago.ac.nz:80/join_meeting.html?meetingId=1239314642011. This room is open until May 6th so you can have a 'play' and check your computer system is set up to use it. Please check here for advice on how to set up Elluminate.

Anna Hughes said...

Hi Sarah

I am happy to present on Illuminate at 2pm on Tues 5th. Leigh is available to set me up on Illuminate at this time. I will base my 10 mins on the latest post on my blog Sustainability and Midwifery - http://annahughes.blogspot.com
Let me know if this works for you and I will do some prep. Cheers. anna :)

Sarah Stewart said...

How funny-I have just left a message for you on your boog at the same time as you were writing this. That's fantastic-thank you very much. Can you give me two sentances that tells the potentail audience what you're talking about so I can post it on the wiki for people's info-cheers.