Still no news.. and more concerns.

Well - I've tried to reach "Sam" both at school and via her cell phone today - only to find out from school that her cell phone has been disconnected. Apparently she has not been at school for several days - and is coming in later today (in about half an hour) to meet with her advisor/teacher/etc. I offered to try to come to campus - but was advised not to do that. Her advisor/teacher will have her call me (if she shows up for her meeting) and explain everything to me (she - the advisor - was reluctant to explain it all herself).... Apparently, according to the advisor, "Sam's" life has become "increasingly complicated over the last week" and there are several things happening that she may or may not be able to cope with. I'm beginning to wonder if this is beyond my ability - but without any real understanding of the situation, I don't know.

So - I await contact, communication, news, or something.

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I continue to work with my colleague who is both Mentor and Mentee - he attended a "presenter" meeting today for those who will be presenting at the online symposium. I assisted him in setting up his audio (microphone) for the voice-over-ip and setting up the java-application for Elluminate (which is the online synchronous meeting application to be used). The meeting was informative for him and he is now ready to begin creating his presentation. We will sit down together either tomorrow or Friday to begin working on his presentation slides and his script (really more like "talking-points" or an outline). He also asked (this was his idea not mine) if we could have a second sign-on for the practice session and for the official presentation so that his colleague (that would be me) could sit in and provide support if needed (such as let him know if the application shares are showing any lag... ask a few questions to loosen things up if attendees are reluctant to participate... etc... also field text questions if they start coming too fast and furious during the presentation itself). I was particularly gratified that he did this - as I did not suggest it but I did talk to him about how I generally like to have a moderator and/or tech-support when I present online learning events. When we sit down to work on his presentation, I hope to introduce him to some basic instructional design strategies (as I did when we wrote the outline) that will help keep the attendees involved and actively engaged. We've talked about appropriate places to ask questions, request participation, etc. I'm looking forward to the next steps.