Telephone Webinar Classes

For PIA Permaculture Design Certification Course

With Wayne Weiseman and Mark Shepard

October 2006 - Stelle, Illinois

What They Are
In order to maximize our time in Stelle for the on-site portion of the course, Wayne and Mark will cover some of the fundamentals of Permaculture via webinars - the use of the telephone and the internet. What is essential is access to a telephone. What is ideal is access to a telephone and a computer with an internet connection at the same time. Having the ability to view material posted on the CSC website by Mark and Wayne while listening and talking on the phone is not essential, but it enhances the learning experience.

How These Webinar Classes Function
It is a simple 3 step process:

• Before our first webinar begins on Oct. 1 we will email to you the conference call telephone number. You will also receive the website address for the PowerPoint presentation (slide show) for subsequent classes.
• With this information, and before the class starts, you log onto the PowerPoint presentation to be sure it is working for you. Students with dial-up modems that need the line for the telephone call can download the Presentation beforehand (even days before class begins) and then access it during the telephone call.
• You call the number at the designated time and your webinar class will begin right on time. We will be on the phone 15 minutes before every seminar just to visit for a bit and to do any trouble shooting if necessary.

Please Note: The conference call telephone numbers are not 800 numbers. You will be paying for your own long distance phone call. At CSC our long distance rate is about 3 cents per minute so a 1 hour phone call to our own conference call service costs us about $1.80. Your charges may vary. If you have unlimited telephone service on your cell phone you’re ‘home free’.

PowerPoint Viewer
There will be a link to a free PowerPoint viewer program for those who need to download it on to their computer to view the slide show. It doesn’t take up a lot of memory and is fairly quick to download, even with a dial-up modem.

How the Call is Managed
When 10 or more people are on a telephone line at once there is usually too much background noise for people to be able to hear well and concentrate. We have the ability from our end to turn off the sound from all of your phones which we will do after the class begins. You will be able to hear the presenter but no one else. During the presentation we will turn the phones back on from time to time to field questions from students. Bill will be managing the phones as well as monitoring his email so you are also welcome to email questions directly to him during the class and he will bring them up on your behalf.

What is Expected of You During the Webinar?
The quick answer is… nothing. If you would like to just listen in, that is all you need do. You don’t need to identify yourself or talk. Simply remain quiet and no one will know the difference. However, the purpose of these seminars is to answer any questions you might have to the best of our ability while at the same time giving us the opportunity to get to know one another.

What is Expected of You Between Webinars?
Mark and Wayne will be assigning some reading and possibly writing assignments (minimal) before each class. For your benefit and that of the class we request that you do the homework. This will significantly improve the quality of the learning experience for all.

Where You Can Call From
Basically, from just about anywhere in the world provided you have a telephone that can call into the U.S.

Recording of Calls
Since we are aware that we may not have 100% participation on every call, we will be recording each session. We plan to make the recordings available to students, along with continued access to the PowerPoint presentations, for the entire 3 weeks leading up to the course. This way you can even review previous classes in which you participated.