LearnScope Start-up Workshop 4

Poison pills for your future online delivery

What have you disliked about courses you have attended????

LAOG (backward spells goal) ... therefore you are aiming for the opposite.

• lack of interaction
• being 'done to'
• poor preparation
• poor communication
• lack of context, higher order extension
• poor preparation and organisation
• timing and planning
• aimed at incorrect level - not valuing previous learning
• lack of knowledge or faciliation skills
• hindering educational progress
• using jargon
• does not fulfil aims

Theory and thoughts about online facilitation

Gilly Salmon's Model of e-Moderation

Stage 1 - make the classroom feel welcoming
Stage 2 - introduction and students meet each other (can use online forums)
Stage 3 - actively interacting with material
Stage 4 - higher order, do something with knowledge, groups generating new knowledge
Stage 5 - external, very high order skills

Online Facilitation: Stories from the field (Michael Coghlan)

• the teacher - centric model of teaching is out the window
• teacher is just ONE of the resources
• stage one and two of the Salmon's 5 step model are the hardest in an online environment
• 80% of students like to know information about the teacher and other students
• most classes get stuck at level 3 (ie, content, assignments etc)
• deep learning and analytical learning takes place in stages 4 and 5
• need to identify what level students are at and respond accordingly, ie, don't bombard them with information from a higher level and/or don't respond at a lower level to more advanced learners
• facilitator changes role during the learning, eg, goal setter, discriminator, host, pace setter, facilitator, mentor, provacateur, participant etc
• most important role - HOST - inviting people into your space and making them feel comfortable
• don't forget to use your telephone - more personal
• troubleshooting/conflict negotiation: private email? phone? public discussion? peer resolution?
• rate of response/level of involvement: respond with 24 hours unless otherwise specified, but establish ground rules upfront, eg, won't respond on weekend etc
• don't respond to everything - let the group take some responsibility (discuss upfront)
• appropriate ratio: about 1 message from lecturer for every 5 to 8 messages
• Modelling (behaviour) (1) summarising discussions (good brain work); teacher do initially then hand over to other students (2) communication skills - don't be patronising, teacher off centre stage, don't forget students bring knowledge (3) manner, attitude, humour - the affective domain: includes 'learner's values, beliefs, biases, emotions, and role expectations that may influence their disposition towards the learning environment - show you care
• let people know who you are
• engagement: motivate them, inspire them, annoy them, make them laugh, make them angry, but for goodness sake don't bore them! (Thiagi) http://thiagi.com/
• Positive comments Michael received: enthusiastic, sense of humour, thank you for your input into my life
• Email: michaelc@chariot.net.au
• Website: http://users.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/
• Thank you very much Michael.

Online facilitation - giving it a go

We have the role of facilitating an online course for the next three weeks as well as participating in two other courses. I am part of a group with Sonya, Kristen and Sylvia and we are going to create an online course on "Bargains and Free Stuff on the internet" aiming to incorporate the theory from today. We elected Sonya as our leader and have decided to share facilitation of the course by each of us being responsible on different days, ie, Sylvia on Monday and Tuesday, Kristen on Wednesday and Thursday, Sonya on Friday and me on the weekend. We aim to provide responses to students within 24 hours, 7 days a week!

Moving into e-learning - implementing your idea

Everyone spent two minutes discussing their projects. Marlene used a powerpoint that represented us going up in a lift - it was very effective - once the lift opened everyone shut up straight away! :-) I was really impressed with the work everyone is doing. I hope we get the opportunity to see the projects along the way.

Reflection, questions & homework

1) Post up your REFLECTION of the 4th Workshop – how did you feel about it?
2) Post to the YOUR PROJECT thread – how’s it going? Where are you up to?
3) Post to the TEACHING ONLINE thread - let's talk about facilitating online!
4) Facilitate your online ‘course’…and participate in another 2.

All in all, another excellent afternoon!!!!!

Deciding on my LearnScope project

For my project I have been trying to decide between an online classroom or an online staffroom using EdNA groups. Marlene posed the following questions to me in the Workshop 2 homework forum on Projects to try and help me make a decision (my responses are in bold):

• Which one is more likely to bring immediate value? Either
• Which one is going to take the least time for the initial setup? EdNA staffroom
• Which one will be the easiest to promote within your work team, to get them on board with what you are trying to do? Online classroom I think???
• If they were both ready now, which one would you use the most? Online classroom
• Which one will be the most FUN to set up and get going! EdNA staffroom
• Which one are you attracted to the most (as opposed to the one you feel you should be focusing on.) EdNA staffroom

For the purposes of this project the EdNA staffroom may be the best in regards to scope and time required, however … we are in an unfortunate situation where our numbers have dropped and the online classroom will most likely benefit the students more so that is what I will undertake for the project. The main benefit for producing an online classroom is to allow us to still offer the Applications Stream of the Certificate III in IT at Port Adelaide. Currently there are not enough students to warrant running this course in the classroom on a continual basis but I think it would be a real shame to pull it from our offerings when it will be a pathway into the Certificate IV in Website Design which I am hoping we will start running next year.

At this stage I haven’t got very far at all as I have found it very hard to decide exactly what I would do for the project and also to define the scope of the project. This has been further compounded by the fact we are also implementing a new training package next semester and the competencies and how they will be bundled has only been finalised last week. As it stands, I still do not have the textbooks I need to start planning or teaching the new subjects after the holidays (and therefore have no resources for any of the subjects to put online)!!!!

Another problem I have faced is that I will not be teaching the competencies for the Applications Stream until Term 4 when LearnScope will be finished. To put this online in Term 3 I would have to rely on other staff teaching the subject to give me the resources they develop each week. This puts a lot of pressure on other staff members and does not allow me the opportunity to see firsthand how effective the online classroom is and what modifications need to be made. (We will be using it in the classroom in the first instance next semester).

As a result of all these issues I have decided I will put some other competencies online for my LearnScope project. There are also some common competencies in both the Applications and Network Administration Stream of the Cert III that if put online would make it much easier for our part time students as well as having the resources online for our full time students. I will be teaching and developing the resources for these competencies so I can modify them as needed as a result of feedback from my students. The hope is that I will continue on developing the online resources for the Application Stream after LearnScope has finished.

One of the other considerations for this project and any further online development is the platform on which the online classroom(s) should reside. As TAFE use Janison it seems likely that is where the resources will end up once they have been bedded down. For the purposes of this project and the resulting time constraints I feel it would be wiser to use a VETSA Moodle classroom in the first instance. I am however concerned about duplication of effort so I will have to try and create reusable content wherever I can.

LearnScope Start-up Workshop 3

What current team members are doing:

Sonya's comments on her blog:

• make it personal (as if you are talking to others)
• short and frequent
• links to work she has done

Judy Forbes' moodle site on vetsa:

• Children's Services Diploma
• Has news forum, profile

Guest speaker - Michael Bullock (1 year on from Start-Up)

• Managing Director of Subrosa Solutions
• Only a small company with not a lot of money BUT a lot of tools out there are free
• About changing people's attitudes
• Won't suit everyone or every course
• More open minded
• Make a decision to put in some of the technology
• Still meeting with other start up team members
• Went back excited about the different technologies

Baby Steps...2 years on...Sean Simper

• At Online Access College
• 15 years experience prior to Start up including Web Design business
• Taking ideas back to work, finding out what people were doing, continually flagging things that they should be doing better
• Organised an elearning expo (primary to TAFE staff sharing what they were doing with others)
• Kept looking for opportunities continually - flexible learning strategies
• Started networking with others
• Project - taking stock of elearning direction
• In project on multimedia online learning objects
• Looked at funding opportunities, finding people with a passion who spoke a similar language, conferences, online training, edayz
• Sense of an antenna - honing your skills - the who, what, where, how
• Be strong in your mind about what you want to do and go out and try it, communities, blogging, connect with other, training (you must be the driver), work out who you need to talk it, find the person to make it happen
• New project on research into podcasting
• Passion and drive
• (Marlene comments he was always there at everything she went to)

Sphere of influence

• Dropping a pebble in water - ripple effect
• You can influence things you are in contact with
• World sphere - so far out of our sphere of influence (but they affect us)
• Peoplele usually work on their sphere of influence and whinge about the world sphere of influence because they can't change it.
• Middle sphere of influence - break our of your sphere of influence and influence change in areas around you, eg, talk to your manager, get elearning on the agenda. It will ripple out and it will accelerate - "The surface of the pond has been disturbed".
• Push those walls and don't waste your time on things you can't change (the really big picture)

Introducing the e-learning guru

• Passion
• Risk-taker
• Determined & initiative
• Approachable
• A willing learning
• Skilled
• Willingness to explore
• Expansive & creative
• Energetic
• Persistence
• Prioritise
• Focused
• Non-threatening
• Networking

Guest Speaker - Robby Weatherley

• Capability Building Program Leader (Australian Flexible Learning Framework)
• Professional Development: opportunities to learn, progressing skill, creating new knowledge, application in context
• Strategies: workshops, mentoring, networks, coaching, conferences, conversations, dialogue, experimentation, reading, watching, questioning
• Expert centered learning
• Work based learning
• Life based learning ... adults learn from multiple sources, ie, leisure, family, work, personal

Speed Dating!

We had to sit in two rows facing each other and we had one minute each to tell the person opposite us how what steps we were now going to take to become an e-learning guru. After two minutes one row had to move down a chair so we had to talk to the next person. My thoughts were as following:

• Read our forums, make time to really look at links everyone else's provides
• Look and participate in other online communities at EdNA groups
• Share my journey with others at work, get their input

FINISH HOMEWORK BY 10am THURSDAY 27 JULY

My exploration

The following are extracts from my homework forum question where we had to discuss our explorations of the tools presented to us in Workshop 2:

• Skype: I have downloaded skype and have it working on my computer. I know we won't have permission to use this at TAFE but I still think I could talk to some of my students from home if they miss a class or need help prior to major assignments/tests etc.
  
• Wikis: I have set up a wiki for myself and jotted down some ideas I have been having about a project at work. I have also spoken to my manager about us using wikis for agendas for meetings so everyone can have some say (anonymously) about what we want covered at staff meetings. For students, ? use it as a brainstorming tool to find out what students know about a topic and maybe getting lesson feedback about what was good or bad about a topic and what they need extra help with???
  
• Live classrooms: I haven't managed to set up one of these for myself yet because THEY ARE BLOCKED ON THE TAFE NETWORK!!!!!! Elluminate was impressive when I got to see it in action at the Tapping into Social Networking for E-learning Online Event. It was possible for everyone to interact with each other in a number of ways, eg, voice, text etc.
  
• VETSA classrooms: I have using forums in an online classroom I have but haven't had any responses from students except for a very funny one from a student who had been busy celebrating our victory in the world cup the night before and couldn't come to class. I did have one other student who added some useful links but interestingly enough it really just ended up being a way for me to communicate on mass to the students and they seemed happy enough to get the posts emailed to them.
  
• del.icio.us: This is a place for keeping your favourites and sharing them with others.
  
• Podcasting: Attended an Apple podcasting in education seminar this week which was awesome. I think our students would love this as a way to receive and submit assignments. Unfortunately there are not equivalent tools for PCs!!! Must looks at Podkids and download iTunes to see what podcasts are out there. Also must look at subsribing to relevent ones.

LearnScope Start-up Workshop 2

E-learning tools, LMSs, online spaces and other resources:

• Survey Monkey for creating surveys.
• MeetOMatic for organising meetings.
• QuickTopic for discussion forums.
• Skype for making free voice calls over the internet.
• Seedwiki for creating a place where everyone can edit the pages (asynchronous).
• Tripod for creating free websites.
• LiVVe and iVisit for creating collaborative spaces.
• Quiz Center for creating puzzles.
• VETSA for free online classrooms.
• EdNA Groups for free staff rooms.

Thoughts so far ...

I can't believe 3 weeks has passed since our first LearnScope session. Where has the time gone??? I have done the required homework but still feel like there is so much more I could be doing. I wish I had a PAUSE button somewhere!

I feel the need to rewind and comment on some things from the first LearnScope session that have stuck in my mind:

• Allison commented on reproducing exactly what is done in the LearnScope sessions back in her classroom. This was a bit of a light bulb moment for me (doh!) - of course that is what we can do and probably should be doing. I think I have previously had the notion I could use the tools but had to come up with my own way of doing things. Whilst, I may well have to modify things to suit my students at least I have a complete working template to start with!
• I thought the exercise we did to define flexible learning was great and a good way to get everyone moving around etc, I must try this too! If I remember correctly we wrote down our definitions, passed them around and then in pairs gave them a score of seven. We did this five times to get a possible total out of 35.
• Encourage students to use blogs for learning journals also. Get them to share with other students if they feel comfortable doing so. Suggest to them to take their notes there etc.

I'm sure there is more and hopefully it will come back to me!

Orangies blogs

I thought I might put the links for the rest of the orangies' blogs in one place so I can easily find them. I hope nobody minds I have done this. Please let me know if you do.

• Tracy
• Joanna
• Kylie
• Sonya
• Annette
• Sylvia
• Daryll
  
  

LearnScope Start-up Workshop 1

I created this blog a couple of months ago and then never really knew what to do with it. Now here I am at the first LearnScope workshop and find out we need to create a blog... at last, a use for my blog!!!!!

Wow!!! My own blog!!! How bloody exciting is that!