Interesting Bits and Pieces

My 'bloggers of interest' have been busy this week. Here are a few bits and pieces of interest to share:

They do talk! This week the Framework brought together some IT specialists and educationalists to talk to each other. Finally!!! See what Robyn Jay had to say on the NSW LearnScope blog.

Another posting by Robyn Jay on Personal Knowledge Management. Robyn refers us to an article by Dave Pollard who seems to make it all sound easy - so why does it seem so hard!

We knew that the Framework's next 4-year strategy 2008-2011 was being finalised was released a few weeks ago. Well, it's happened which is great but personally I am a tad concerned with the move from capability development to client engagement. It has to happen of course, but LearnScope has been a valuable professional development (PD)program since its inception (1997) and we're only now just tapping into the critical mass. Oh well, hopefully organisations will continue to support PD and it will be integrated into Client Engagement.

Steven Parker introduced his People Learning Management System. I like it and love the idea of the learning object being the people - puts us at the centre don't you think?

Nancy White pointed me to Graham Wegner's slideshare on Blogging as Professional Learning. Graham has clearly presented a guide as to how we can learn from and contribute to blogs for our own personal learning.

Another terrific slideshare noted by several bloggers this week is Alex Hayes' on m-Learning. I won't spend too much time on this one though as Alex is presenting to us in a few weeks. (By the way, Alex became a Dad this week to Ethan William Hayes -congratulations Alex and Jane. And he was answering emails at 3 am in the morning too - phew!)

George Siemens refers to an article on education as an 'Industry in Crisis'. I fully concur with George's statements. Certainly we in VET are caught betwixt/between, ie we have to meet industry needs but as educationalists we want our students to learn.

Last but not least, is Stephen Downes' reference to Wikipedia's Imminent Demise. We've heard this week about staff in Govt departments changing entries as quickly as someone makes a political statement etc. but it usually sorts itself out. I tend to agree with Stephen - the need to control the entries will lead to disagreements and perhaps its demise. Let's hope not though.