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.
31 August 2007
Session 2: e-Learning: Emerging Trends and Issues
It's always interesting when you have two separate groups covering similar topics as is the case with my QLD and NSW Managers in e-Learning LearnScope teams. This week Michael Coghlan from SA presented to our NSW team on e-Learning: Emerging Trends and Issues. He did a similar presentation to our QLD team two weeks ago but this time there seemed to be more interest around the types of e-Learning and the use of open source software.
When Michael presented to the QLD team what resonated most with me was how messy the whole situation was - see my reflections. This time I became more interested in whose responsibility it is to teach or take responsibility and related to Michael's reference to Philip Adams who said:
I'm interested to hear your thoughts. What resonates with you most? Are the AQTF requirements and e-Learning moving closer together or are they mutually exclusive? And whose responsibility is it??
When Michael presented to the QLD team what resonated most with me was how messy the whole situation was - see my reflections. This time I became more interested in whose responsibility it is to teach or take responsibility and related to Michael's reference to Philip Adams who said:
I'm interested to hear your thoughts. What resonates with you most? Are the AQTF requirements and e-Learning moving closer together or are they mutually exclusive? And whose responsibility is it??
28 August 2007
What am I learning?
Hi all
I was just thinking about what I'm learning as part of this process. Well heaps actually is the answer. I began with a bunch of strange words- moodle, flickr, del.icio.us, frappr, blogs, wikis and on it it goes. But at least now I know what they mean and pretty much what each one does. Nothing is automatic yet, I come into the wiki and/or the blog and have to think about where to click to see what I want to see or add a new post but I'm sure that in time it will become like checking my email.
So, small steps, but some progress!
Ann
I was just thinking about what I'm learning as part of this process. Well heaps actually is the answer. I began with a bunch of strange words- moodle, flickr, del.icio.us, frappr, blogs, wikis and on it it goes. But at least now I know what they mean and pretty much what each one does. Nothing is automatic yet, I come into the wiki and/or the blog and have to think about where to click to see what I want to see or add a new post but I'm sure that in time it will become like checking my email.
So, small steps, but some progress!
Ann
22 August 2007
E-learning implementation strategies
Hi all
yes, it was a most frustrating experience in Connect last week. I was comparing it with Discovere which seems to be a much more simple piece of software and I wondered if it was the sophistication of Connect with all its bells and whistles which makes it more difficult to use and perhaps more prone to technical problems. I have not experienced anything quite like this before (!!!) and it must be quite off-putting for people who have not been in an online room before.
However, what I did take away was the wonderful Australian Flexible Learning Framework's Designing e-Learning resource. It explains so many of the different tools we can use and puts them into a context. I have found it very useful.
See you online!
Ann
yes, it was a most frustrating experience in Connect last week. I was comparing it with Discovere which seems to be a much more simple piece of software and I wondered if it was the sophistication of Connect with all its bells and whistles which makes it more difficult to use and perhaps more prone to technical problems. I have not experienced anything quite like this before (!!!) and it must be quite off-putting for people who have not been in an online room before.
However, what I did take away was the wonderful Australian Flexible Learning Framework's Designing e-Learning resource. It explains so many of the different tools we can use and puts them into a context. I have found it very useful.
See you online!
Ann
17 August 2007
Our Communication Suite
Just reinforcing the different options for communicating as members of our Managers in e-Learning NSW LearnScope 07 team:
This Blog: Use it for posting your reflections, your thoughts, your ideas, making a statement. Comment on posts but don't try to enter into dialogue. That's not the best use of a blog.
Our Wiki: For collaborative building of a collection of resources and links, etc that you can refer to as Managers of e-Learning. By being a member of our wiki you can add resources and links that you know about, sharing them with us all.
Our Wiki Discussion Forum: By clicking on the Discussion tab at the top of the wiki, you can engage in dialogue with your peers, exploring topics of interest further outside of our virtual meeting room.
Our Virtual Meeting Room: For our meetings and key presentations where we meet synchronously (2:00 - 3:30 pm on Thursdays fortnightly, except for 13 September which is 11:30 am - 12.30 pm in Elluminate and then 2:00 - 3:00 pm in Adobe).
This Blog: Use it for posting your reflections, your thoughts, your ideas, making a statement. Comment on posts but don't try to enter into dialogue. That's not the best use of a blog.
Our Wiki: For collaborative building of a collection of resources and links, etc that you can refer to as Managers of e-Learning. By being a member of our wiki you can add resources and links that you know about, sharing them with us all.
Our Wiki Discussion Forum: By clicking on the Discussion tab at the top of the wiki, you can engage in dialogue with your peers, exploring topics of interest further outside of our virtual meeting room.
Our Virtual Meeting Room: For our meetings and key presentations where we meet synchronously (2:00 - 3:30 pm on Thursdays fortnightly, except for 13 September which is 11:30 am - 12.30 pm in Elluminate and then 2:00 - 3:00 pm in Adobe).
e-Learning Implementation Strategies
While we experienced some frustrations with a very large ppt file when the software fell over, Clint was able to draw our attention to six different types of e-Learning currently being implemented:
From our team's responses, blended facilitated learning seems to be the most widely used although it was interesting to see a few of the other types being tried as well.
Of course, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework's Designing e-Learning project is a real winner - congrats to Clint and his team. If designing programs and strategies it is the perfect resource. Check it out at http://designing.flexiblelearning.net.au/. Here's a glimpse at the front page -
Sadly the presentation fell over just as we were getting to the strategic stuff - analysing the context and preparing business cases (don't we all love doing that). Despite the jest, it is the most critical aspect of implementing e-learning - too often technologies are introduced without thinking about relevance to the context and the client. Hopefully Clint will come back to share the rest of his valuable experience with us.
E-training
Distance education
Web in classroom
Blended facilitated learning
Virtual classroom
Digital campus
From our team's responses, blended facilitated learning seems to be the most widely used although it was interesting to see a few of the other types being tried as well.
Of course, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework's Designing e-Learning project is a real winner - congrats to Clint and his team. If designing programs and strategies it is the perfect resource. Check it out at http://designing.flexiblelearning.net.au/. Here's a glimpse at the front page -
Sadly the presentation fell over just as we were getting to the strategic stuff - analysing the context and preparing business cases (don't we all love doing that). Despite the jest, it is the most critical aspect of implementing e-learning - too often technologies are introduced without thinking about relevance to the context and the client. Hopefully Clint will come back to share the rest of his valuable experience with us.
Frustrations of Technology
No doubt about it, technology can wear you down when it doesn't work. Having put in lots of practice and joined most of our team in our virtual meeting room prior to our scheduled meeting and presentation, I thought I had it covered but alas, we were all being tested again.
So, more key learnings (they keep coming which isn't a bad thing I guess):
Perseverance will win the day, and our experience is certainly allowing us to experience what might happen with students at the frontline so that in itself makes it worthwhile. What always bothers me though is losing confidence in e-learning per se because of some initial technology woes. We can do it team - hang in there!
So, more key learnings (they keep coming which isn't a bad thing I guess):
Headsets - Absolutely critical to have audio equipment tested and working on the PC you will be using prior to the meeting. Don't change PCs once you know it works. If all those tips on checking mics have been done and you still can't hear or be heard, well what can I say, other than buy a new headset.
Dial-up presents problems - much better using broadband if you can.
Bandwidth presents problems - this will cause the intermittent drop out of audio and presentations. Have to be patient on this one - we can't change this.
Echos - best to not lock audio on unless you are actually talking. With everyone locking in audio you can pick up sounds in each other's background, even breathing. Also draws on more bandwidth.
Sharing files - powerpoint presentations need to be fairly simplistic and certainly not too big otherwise they create a life of their own (gosh, is that an understatement!).
Perseverance will win the day, and our experience is certainly allowing us to experience what might happen with students at the frontline so that in itself makes it worthwhile. What always bothers me though is losing confidence in e-learning per se because of some initial technology woes. We can do it team - hang in there!
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