Icebreakers

=Breaking in your elearners (without breaking them)!= // To edit, click the Edit button (above right) then save the page by clicking the Save button in the editing toolbar (you'll see this when you edit)... // ||
 * [[image:https://my.northcoast.tafensw.edu.au/ourspace/eLFwiki/WikiPlus%20Images/block_of_ice.jpg]] || Find or design your own icebreaker activity which you could use with your own elearners and share your ideas here. You may be able to adapt an icebreaker activity that you already use in a face-to-face classroom...


 * **Your name** || **Your icebreaker** || **How you would implement it online** ||
 * Des Osborn || 15 mins of FAME || You've just seen this one in action and know how I implemented it online. If anyone can think of any other ways it could be implemented online, please share...! ||
 * Cara Schultz || Name Game || Everyone has to think of a name that describes them, that starts with the same letter as their name. For example 'Caring Cara'. When everyone has done that they then have to say their word and their name. Once this is done, each person has to say their name and one other persons. This helps people to be able to remember other people in their group. This is especially important online as people can't put a face to the names - (Des' comment) You could get them to put these words and names onto a whiteboard in Connect OR get them to bring a picture/photo that depicts them being 'caring' or whatever - they could upload their jpgs into a Share pod in a Connect room ||
 * Sharon Bradley || How are you feeling || I have some great black and white photos which I bought years ago to use in a classroom. They are called "Photolanguage Australia". I think they were originally developed for use by counsellors to get people to look at the pictures (ranging from scenes to people) and pick a picture which describes how they are feeling. I often teach HR and management subjects and when we get to a subject which might be personally daunting ie like staff appraisal and counselling; difficult conversations etc I get people to look at the pictures; choose one; explain why they have chosen it. Responses range from "train tracks" - on a journey and looking forward to it....to "soaring bird" - learning and improving....you get the idea. I like this icebreaker because you get past the facts and into the feelings and students realise they have a lot in common. I would think uploading say 10 similar pictures and asking people to describe which they relate to and why would be good. Or could have a picture and label it myself and get the students to respond via a poll. - (Des' comment) Great that you've already considered how this would work online! ||
 * Helen Shepherd || Humanising introductory email and semi-not so serious Questionnaire || I am partially going to borrow from Des, I would use an opening email with a similar friendly jolly tone like the: "Hope your login doesn't work so we get to meet before the session!" I think this is actually a great icebreaker, very humanising. I also feel getting something back from the elearner is also important but feel making it an arduous task can detract from "breaking the ice" so a few simple non serious but insightful questions may do the trick. For example: "If you were going to be an animal explain which one and why" thrown into a more serious questionnaire about what the elearner wants to get out of the course may be amusing and open up the dialogue. Possible other questions: Reason for doing the course? Would you rather be a Monkey, Bird, Elephant or Fish? Why?, Favorite all time band / musician? Favourite book? When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? 3 favourtite things you like to do, 3 places you want to visit before you die? - (Des' comment) I guess you'd use Moodle forums for this?

Some Useful links http://twt.wikispaces.com/Ice-Breaker+Ideas http://www.group-games.com/ice-breakers/two-truths-and-a-lie.html http://keirsey.com/sorter/instruments2.aspx?partid=0 || ** Would you rather? ** Ask participants some 'Would you rather' questions and let them answer them. After this participants can make up their own would you rather questions. Come up with a list of Would you Rather Questions or use some of these: • Would you rather always win pie-eating contests or always win wheelbarrow races? • Would you rather be a deep sea diver or an astronaut? • Would you rather be able to hear any conversation or take back anything you say? • Would you rather be invisible or be able to read minds? • Would you rather be the most popular or the smartest person you know? • Would you rather be the sand castle or the wave? • Would you rather give up your computer or your pet? • Would you rather never use the internet again or never watch TV again? • Would you rather not be able to use your phone or your e-mail? - ( Des' comment) You could provide them with a Poll pod in a Connect room so that they can make their choice then ask their reasons for their choice individually. || - (Des' comment)To make this workable online you might need to get them to do their self portrait on A4, scan it, and then you could upooad them as JPGs to a Connect room or Moodle forum ||
 * Kirrily || A few ideas from the internet || #1 - **MII** - I took this quiz [] - identifies your learning style/s as one of 8 in the multi-intelligence inventory. You could post results and comment on one person similar to you and one person very different. Sounds good for recognising diversity in the group and then working to people's strengths.
 * 1) 2 - I like the idea of a **"MapQuest"** - you set up a map and everyone has to pinpoint their location on it and write why they live there and 1 (touristy) highlight of the town/region. Good for a geographically diverse group. (Des' comment) - you could upload a JPG map into a Share pod and get them to use the green 'pointer' tool to pinpoint
 * 2) 3 **Mis-computer-mication** = have a discussion where everyone writes about their most embarrassing computer glitch, email disaster etc. Might take away some people's fear of technology if they know everyone stuff's up occassionally (or all the time!). Right now mine is the need for data recovery work on a portable hard drive that I didn't back up enough - it will cost $2,400!!!!
 * 3) 4 - **2 lies and 1 truth** - everyone could list three things about themselves, only one of which is true - the class has to work out which one it is.
 * 4) 5 - **Interviews** - pair up the group and have them interview each other (via email or phone?). Each person then reports back to the discussion forum 5 things about their person. You could set the questions, set some, or leave it totally open. - (Des' comment) - you could use Breakout rooms in a Connect room for this & send each pair off to their own Breakout room for 5-10 mins then bring everyone back to the main room to report back ||
 * Cherylee || **I'd Rather Be** || One I've found on the Internet.
 * Alicia || Self portrait || In one of the first sessiosn we have the stds draw a very simple 'self portrait 'on butchers paper, showing things about themselves they wish to share ..then they explain the portrait to the rest of the group..fun way to intro yourself...we keep the self portraits to use in follow up sessions until they learn each others names etc...and then at end of course, where they can add to the portrait or change it ..a version of this on the internet is a site called 'The Monster name decoder' a fun activity where participants put in thier name and it produces a version of a self portriat depicting the person as a cartoon character monster with their name...
 * Simone || What car are you? || Get students to bring along a photo of themselves to update their profile in the first session so that people can see who is in the virtual world with them. Ask students what type of car best describes them and why. they could even bring along a photo. Also if they were to choose a part of the car which part would they choose that describes how they feel about their week so far.

Modification for online would be to get students to send their car to the faciliator in advance so they could get posted on the whiteboard if possible or in a share room with the students name. You could frontload the students to come with their car in mind and them they will discuss in the connect room via voice. - (Des' comment) Thanks for describing how you'll implement this online. JPGs can be uploaded into Share pods OR you could put them all onto a PPT slide and upload the PPT into a Share pod. ||
 * Judy || Two lies and one truth || I think an adaptation of the icebreaker where the learner gives three facts about themselves - two are lies and one is true - would work online. The other learners could vote on which one is true or it could be expanded to encourage questions and answers in order to identify the true fact. The number of questions each person could ask, via a forum or something similiar, could be set at say one or two. This would also benefit those who are not familiar with the technology and layout of the online learning platform as they would be gaining practice in using it. (Des' comment) This would work well in both a Moodle forum AND a Connect room using Poll pods in Breakout rooms - thanks Judy. ||
 * Cathy || Too many choices || I have used the same one as Cara for ages where students have to describe themselves (positively) using alliteration.We also go round the room and ask for students favourite movie and why. This could also be done easily online.

The link attached does the same with cars. Students answer questions and then the website comes back with what type of car you are. I liked the idea that I was a Porsche. http://twt.wikispaces.com/Ice-Breaker+Ideas

The following link had some great ideas. Using one word to describe yourself was a good one.

There was also one where each students had to submit a digital image. The facilitator had a map showing where each of the class was sitting. When you scrolled over the map you found the student's name and location and the image. The image could be of themselves, their pet, favourite place or anything they wanted. [|Online Icebreakers.doc - Online Icebreakers - Examples] (Des' comment) I've heard of the car one - it was very popular and got the students chatting especially when someone had the same car as someone else - it created interesting conversation around what the 'car' said about their personalities. Thanks Cathy - these links could go in your (& everybody else's) Delicious site tagged 'Icebreakers'. || click here and you can download a tiny program that makes jigsaw puzzles out of any picture, which would also be good value.(choose a picture that is somewhat related to the topic of the course)
 * David || fridge magnets || At the start of a Adobe connect session, having a pod with a flash program on it that simulates a whole bunch of letter style fridge magnets which people can rearrange to spell words. You learn very little about each other, but it is oddly engaging and encourages a mood of playfulness/ interactivity.here's an example (right click to 'save as' a swf file, or try it out on line http://tim.kerchmar.com:5080/WeeklyQuest/Fridge.swf.

I follow this with a jpeg of a map that people can stamp an arrow and type their name on, telling people who and where they are. This helps show everyone that we are spread over the whole western region of the state. Probably not so effective if it's just a map of the campus or room!

If I had more tech-hesitant students, I'd consider making the arrows myself, with names on them, so all they had to do was drag them to point at their town. (Des' comment) I can't get these links to open (just get blank white screens) and am REALLY keen to have a look and a play - perhaps you could show us this week in Connect? They sound engaging. I like the jigsaw idea - a perfect way for learners to get to know each other and make connections. ||
 * Sally ||  || I enjoyed the icebreaker used at our recent CLI workshop: gather a selection of images and ask each partipant to select one they identify with and explain why/how ... for example, we had images of jugglers, people swimming, people screaming, babies etc. You might ask the participants to say how the image relates to how they are feeling about the course (eg. "I am the one swimming because there is always the chance I could drown in all this work" or "I am am the girl at the party because I'm really excited about learning all this stuff!) (Des' comment - yes, this is a good one. I've done this numerous times in a F2F setting but not in Connect yet - I guess we need to be a bit careful of not overdoing the same activities but it's hard to know who's had exposure to the various activities isn't it. With this one though you can use (and change) such a wide variety of images that it doesn't really matter - you could use some really quirky / funny ones for a bit of light-heartedness)

This could be done in a synchronous Adobe Connect session, or in an asynchronous forum or wiki format.

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[] (Des' comment - this is a great page of ideas about how to change boring old icebreakers into something a little more interesting) || wilderdom.com/games/**Icebreakers**.html
 * Steve || Standard oldie || Asking people to introduce themselves to the group and give a little background which relates to the course. Without any modification, I think this would work better online than it does in face-to-face classes. Learners will not feel as intimidated as they do in a classroom and are more likely to participate freely. Using a chat pod would be ideal for this (unless there is a better tool). (Des' comment - yep, a Chat pod or a Connect Whiteboard where they can draw pictures as well to make them feel even more relaxed - they can have some fun with the Whiteboard overlay tools) ||
 * Melinda ||  || Chinese whispers or a version of it could be fun and get people to be involved. The session could involve several chat pods that allow people to continue the stiry as they move around them. Be cause there is no set structure to the story if people are typing at the same time who ever finished and added first would be shown. (Des' comment - I'm wondering if this could work using Breakout rooms in Connect - it would take some facilitation skills on the part of the facilitator but it could work. You could divide the group up into the Breakout rooms so each group can't hear each other and you could start a 'whisper' in one room and move someone from that room to the next to 'pass it on' etc etc. Might be fun!) ||
 * Ann ||  || There are quite a few sites that have icebreakers, not a lot that are suitable

[|www.icebreakers.ws] 2truths&alie this could be adapted to a chat pod or ask some questions in an adobe connect session 1.If you had a magic wand, what would you change 2.who would you want with you on a desert island and why 3.using different shapes draw a quick timeline of your working life ||