Dear CALMet community members and friends!

If you have had the pleasure of attending a CALMet conference in the past, you know how valuable that experience can be. When our close-knit community has opportunities to meet, we all benefit through the sharing of ideas, techniques, and tools for creating activities for learning meteorology and related sciences.

In 2010, we are expanding the reach of CALMet beyond a once-every-two-years conference by offering "CALMet Online 2010". Over the next several months, this online offering of presentations and workshops will:

• Provide a hands-on way to explore the use of new distance learning methods

• Allow more flexibility for participation

• Help us stay connected for ongoing sharing

• Provide a proving ground for ideas for presentations and workshops that might be offered at the upcoming CALMet 2011 conference in Pretoria, South Africa.

We are pleased to have an interesting and varied program to offer for the next few months. These are described below and on

the CALMet Online 2010 Website

To access this site, you will need to complete a brief registration procedure on The COMET Program’s MetEd Website, if you haven’t already done so. Once logged in, you’ll also need to enter the course enrollment key to make contributions to the sessions. This enrollment key is “calmet2010online”. However, guests can review the course materials without enrolling.

Here are the first CALMet Online offerings in which we’d like to invite you to participate. Learn more about them on the CALMet Online 2010 Website in the months before they are offered. If you decide to participate, we hope you will be an active participant, but observers are also welcome.

May:

“Speaking of discussion forums…“

Instructors: Pat Parrish (COMET) and Joni Dunlap (University of Colorado Denver)

Session Dates: 3 May to 28 May, 2010

Topic: Why and how to use online discussion forums for online, blended, and even classroom learning. The session, through active discussion in the CALMET Moodle discussion forum, seeks to find ways to enliven discussion forums and help them achieve the potential they offer.

June:

“The challenge of competency assessment in aeronautical meteorology”

Instructor: Paul Bugeac (ROMATSA)

The online session will take place on 29 June 2010 at 14 UTC.

Topic: On CALMet Online 2010 the June session is about the aeronautical competencies. Paul Bugeac from ROMATSA, Romania, will present a case study on the complex process of obtaining and maintaining competences in Romanian Air Traffic Services Administration. A discussion forum will follow for idea sharing about this challenge faced by weather services around the world.

To join the online session, go to http://fmi.centra.com/

Public Events > CALMet Online June 2010 - Paul Bugeac

The meeting password is

assessment

The meeting link will appear 30 minutes before the session. Meanwhile you are encouraged to run the System Check at

http://fmi.centra.com > System Check (on top of the page; no login required)

July:

“Issues and opportunities in the WMO Education and Training Programme”

Instructor: Jeff Wilson (WMO)

Session Dates: July, TBD

Topic: Presentation(s) on recent developments at WMO, including aviation training competencies, a revision to WMO Publication No. 258, and the upcoming WMO ETR Symposium, Train-the-Trainer Courses, and new enhancements in distance and online learning. Live presentations and discussion forums provide an opportunity for WMO members to provide input into WMO ETR.

August:

Rest and relaxation (for some)

September:

“Communicating and working as a virtual team”

Instructors: Satu Vesanen, Vesa Nietosvaara, Anni Simola, Alessandro Chiariello (FMI)

Session Dates: September, TBD

Topic: This activity will demonstrate various aspects of communicating, motivating and engaging persons working in virtual teams. Participants will gain new perspectives on how team work can be carried out virtually.

October: Open

November:

“Experiences in new satellite training methods”

Instructors: EUMeTrain team

Session Dates: Mid-/late November

Topic: EUMeTrain has gained experience in online training, production of CAL and self-study material. We have arranged online event weeks and Online weather briefings (SATREP Online). We like to share our experiences with the CALMet community and to get ideas for improving our pedagogical approach, systems of evaluations and surveys.

As you can see, there is still room for one additional offering in October in case you’d like to suggest a session via the online form available on the CALMet Online 2010 website. Note that sessions are intended to be highly interactive and focused on issues and strategies in teaching and learning meteorology and related sciences. CALMet has often focused on professional education and training, but not exclusively.

We hope one or more of these sessions will be of interest to you, and that you decide to become an active member of CALMET Online.

Best wishes,

The organizing committee: Pat Parrish ([email protected])

Vesa Nietosvaara ([email protected])

Bruce Muller ([email protected])

Alessandro Chiariello ([email protected])