Hi all,
We're nearing the end of our first deadline for CALMet proposals, and our total, as of our last check, stood at an even 0. (Zero is an even number, right?) This is not that unexpected, because we should assume that given human nature most people will reply near the final deadline of 1 December. But it is clear that we will probably be extending the deadline, perhaps into January. The good thing is that it gives us another opportunity to announce the conference and reach more people, possibly.
However, traditionally many of the presentations and nearly all the workshops have come from a core group of dedicated people, many of whom are in this working group. So I think it behooves us to begin our own planning internally, and perhaps to do some collaboration to create the best set of workshops and other conference events. I know many of you already have plans to submit papers or workshop proposals, so if you can manage it, do so by the December 1 deadline. But in the spirit of international cooperation that CALMet represents, we should look for joint opportunities as well.
For example, in conversations with Jeff Wilson in September in Nanjing, we discussed the widespread interest in new Radar training, and how that might become a focus of discussion at the conference. There is also a growing use of Moodle and other course management tools that lends itself to sharing from various perspectives and experiences. In this spirit, we'd like to start some discussion of possible conference events spearheaded by CAL Working Group members, but of course, not limited to them.
1. Radar Training: Many weather services are implementing new or enhanced doppler radar systems, and will need to train new and existing forecasters in their use. A possible conference event might be a panel discussion with a panel drawn from countries who are beginning to plan, or have already implemented, such training. The panel and audience discussion could generate new approaches to meeting radar training needs, or find opportunties for collaboration. You may have other ideas as well as to how a sesson on Radar Training might be undertaken.
2. Course Management Tools: From COMET, Bruce Muller is planning to attend CALMet in Beijing, and has experience running our first Virtual Course (mostly live and at a distance), with the aid of the MOODLE course management system. Bruce could not only share those experiences, but lead a workshop to teach about how to set up and use its basic functions (with help from CMATC in setting up a working lab). While Bruce and COMET could do this workshop alone, it might also benefit from participation with collaborators from other countries who have also used such tools. If there are enough experiences to share, in addition to the workshop, a session of papers on the topic of distance learning course management might be useful.
3. Real-Time Training: There seem to be a lot of collaborative learning activities taking place that use real-time weather discussions with VISITVIEW or other tools. CMA does map discussions each day that aren't directly training, per sae, but probably do deliver a lot of good training. Is this a topic for which it might be of interest to hear about activities and approaches in a longer, focussed session?
These are just a few examples of how we might leverage broad application and interest to create some highly useful events that use international collaboration. Please make other suggestions, or help elaborate on these if you think these are good. Also, if you are interested in taking a leadership role in one of these, or know someone who is, let us know.
Finally, we are back to the consideration of key note speakers. Vesa and I made some very preliminary recommendations a while back, based mostly on giving CALMet community members some focus, but perhaps not placing enough considering on who might make an inspiring address. We welcome other suggestions from the group, with the realization that with travel costs, the keynote speakers should likely either already be planning to attend, or could be invited by one of the national services as a representative. It might also be good if CMA could identify at least one local presenter who could inspire or provoke creative thinking about meteorology training and education.
That's all for now, but let's start using our blog and gettting some ideas rolling for the conference, less than 8 months away!
We're nearing the end of our first deadline for CALMet proposals, and our total, as of our last check, stood at an even 0. (Zero is an even number, right?) This is not that unexpected, because we should assume that given human nature most people will reply near the final deadline of 1 December. But it is clear that we will probably be extending the deadline, perhaps into January. The good thing is that it gives us another opportunity to announce the conference and reach more people, possibly.
However, traditionally many of the presentations and nearly all the workshops have come from a core group of dedicated people, many of whom are in this working group. So I think it behooves us to begin our own planning internally, and perhaps to do some collaboration to create the best set of workshops and other conference events. I know many of you already have plans to submit papers or workshop proposals, so if you can manage it, do so by the December 1 deadline. But in the spirit of international cooperation that CALMet represents, we should look for joint opportunities as well.
For example, in conversations with Jeff Wilson in September in Nanjing, we discussed the widespread interest in new Radar training, and how that might become a focus of discussion at the conference. There is also a growing use of Moodle and other course management tools that lends itself to sharing from various perspectives and experiences. In this spirit, we'd like to start some discussion of possible conference events spearheaded by CAL Working Group members, but of course, not limited to them.
1. Radar Training: Many weather services are implementing new or enhanced doppler radar systems, and will need to train new and existing forecasters in their use. A possible conference event might be a panel discussion with a panel drawn from countries who are beginning to plan, or have already implemented, such training. The panel and audience discussion could generate new approaches to meeting radar training needs, or find opportunties for collaboration. You may have other ideas as well as to how a sesson on Radar Training might be undertaken.
2. Course Management Tools: From COMET, Bruce Muller is planning to attend CALMet in Beijing, and has experience running our first Virtual Course (mostly live and at a distance), with the aid of the MOODLE course management system. Bruce could not only share those experiences, but lead a workshop to teach about how to set up and use its basic functions (with help from CMATC in setting up a working lab). While Bruce and COMET could do this workshop alone, it might also benefit from participation with collaborators from other countries who have also used such tools. If there are enough experiences to share, in addition to the workshop, a session of papers on the topic of distance learning course management might be useful.
3. Real-Time Training: There seem to be a lot of collaborative learning activities taking place that use real-time weather discussions with VISITVIEW or other tools. CMA does map discussions each day that aren't directly training, per sae, but probably do deliver a lot of good training. Is this a topic for which it might be of interest to hear about activities and approaches in a longer, focussed session?
These are just a few examples of how we might leverage broad application and interest to create some highly useful events that use international collaboration. Please make other suggestions, or help elaborate on these if you think these are good. Also, if you are interested in taking a leadership role in one of these, or know someone who is, let us know.
Finally, we are back to the consideration of key note speakers. Vesa and I made some very preliminary recommendations a while back, based mostly on giving CALMet community members some focus, but perhaps not placing enough considering on who might make an inspiring address. We welcome other suggestions from the group, with the realization that with travel costs, the keynote speakers should likely either already be planning to attend, or could be invited by one of the national services as a representative. It might also be good if CMA could identify at least one local presenter who could inspire or provoke creative thinking about meteorology training and education.
That's all for now, but let's start using our blog and gettting some ideas rolling for the conference, less than 8 months away!
posted by PatrickParrish at
8:49 PM
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