06 August 2007

The Starting Point

The Managers in e-Learning NSW LearnScope team is being funded by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework through NSW LearnScope. We have a diverse team of 12 including Managers of Registered Training Organisations (RTOs)from regional Community Colleges, an Industry Training Centre in the Northern Territory, and the Satyananda Yoga Academy as well as senior Managers from TAFE NSW. They have diverse needs as well from hands-on tools to the strategic management of e-learning. Some challenging but exciting weeks ahead! (I'm hoping Jeremy might introduce some online meditation at the end of each session.)
Robyn Jay, the NSW LearnScope Manager, started off the Induction Day which included introductions to the Framework, LearnScope and an online presentation on Flexible Learning Toolboxes by Shane Dowd, the NSW Toolbox Champion. There was also some interesting discussion on Intellectual Property (IP) in relation to e-learning. We might carry that discussion across to our wiki.

After lunch we experienced a touch of chaos as we accessed our virtual meeting software, Adobe Connect, for the first time. Not an easy task when you are physically and virtually present with the same group of participants! Now, they say being 'on the edge' is where the interesting things happen and we learn and I don't think this experience was any different. What I learnt was that it is actually easier to have a virtual conferencing software orientation online, and to be more prepared (should have known that one but ...). We did see what was possible though thanks to Alex Hayes sorting us out virtually and I'm sure our online meetings will be more constructive!

We were in time slip mode unfortunately and really didn't have the time needed to consolidate what blogs and wikis can do. Check out Pages 31-34 of the Networks, Connections and Community: Learning with Social Software report. There are also some excellent examples of social software being used in teaching and learning and for knowledge sharing and staff learning and development on the Report's research wiki. Other exemplars are available on the NSW LearnScope wiki.

Other tools we want to check out further are Personal Learning Environments (PLEs), Flickr and del.icio.us.

We will be using this blog to map our learning journey over the next 10 weeks and to share any interesting tidbits we find. Our wiki will be a collaborative resource which we will build together to support us and other Managers of e-Learning.

And so our journey begins!

1 comment:

Georgie Faircloth said...

Thanks Val,
Not to worry about the virtual conferencing, we learn the most from the things that don't work. The best value in the day is meeting everyone face2face to start off.
Look forward to working with you again.
Georgie