I have enjoyed reading the blog posts,  forum posts, emails and the assessment tasks  that  people have submitted over the last month.  I am hoping to have all backlogged assessments completed with feedback by the end of next week.  I would appreciate being emailed by you if you oustanding assessment feedback on any of your assessments  in this Diploma of E-learning Program After June 6th-  my assessment deadline .  Well done to you all people who are doing some great work and communciating and learning.... High flyers.... Note the reflection (AKA blog!)  under the image below

Here are some things I have been up to lately before I provide some other information under our normal topic headings.  It is worthwhile checking out my del.icio.us latest links as there are many interesting links that may add value to your varied learning journeys. Today I came across some free podcasts that may be of use if you interested in issues of learning and or management and Human resource management (HR) . The link is here.  I have also been in Brisbane this month catching up with some colleagues and some collaborative resource development and design.  As we are located across the state this was a useful way for us to connect and in hindsight would have been more effective as an upfront activity in this project rather than occurring towards the end of the project life.  This project as a professional development and learning process needs further refinement in terms of collaboration tools, skill differences and efforts.   I had a preliminary attempt to develop a common craft type activity as a lead in to a competency unit, which I am now in the process of refining as a videostream and also as a video presentation with some technical support.  I will share this with you all for comment when it is ready to view.   I will also be doing a video presentation on the web 2.0 tools professional development taste test program and the next iteration of this being developed by one of the education students as part of their education project. This will be ready to participate in in June/July 2008 so stay tuned for its availability through this blog.  Feel free this free PD opportuntity to your colleagues and managers!

One more assignment left for this semester, then 2 units to go and I am done. Yea.  This last assessment "Analyse an organisation and explain the shadow system and how this relates to the bounded instability concept of management?"    Ugh... PS my other subject on research used some interesting presentation and communication tools for the first time,  demonstrating that external students can be kept in the loop as part of a learning cohort and not left out on a  limb with a text book and notes.  Plus assessemnt turnaround and feedback with one lecturer within a couple of days.   Pretty surprising and not part of my normal university experience this time around!!  I still think that the feedback is fairly useless and does not really form  part of a learning loop, what a waste? However still learning?

Okay let's check out our some information grouped under our regular topics.

E-Learners and E-learning communities at TNQIT Diploma of e-learning

We are currently three groups of students completing this program soon to be five groups at varying stages of completion.  There will be an intake for the education cluster in June 2008 which will allow some new students to enter at this tiime and also allow the current multimedia students who began in 2007 to progress through to their final cluster in this program.  A new multimedia group will enrol in July 2008 and this will be our last mm cluster enrolment for this program, so feel free to pass this information on to your colleagues and anyone who may be interested in this program and qualification. The final education cluster enrolment will then be done in November 2008 and all students will be completed by October 2009 at the latest.  I will be redesigning this program and the units as part of the Diploma of TAA and hoping that I can  align some of these technological multimedia units as part of the elective process for the Diploma of TAA.  So the next 6 months will be a little hectic.  The previous trainers only ever had two clusters at the one time and I would like to further pursue the use of education cluster students to faciltate sections of the multimedia cluster as is currently happening very successfully as a trial process.

Using technology

 I have had a recent meltdown on my DELL personal computer in relation to my windows program.  I bought this computer in China when I was there in 2006 and it has recently said that there are problems with the verification on my windows XP.  So I have been ignoring this and put off purcahsing another copy of windows.  However I decided to bite the bullet the other day and decided to try and download my original copy of windows and now have a chinese computer that is literally stuck in the donloading process with all instructions in Chinese. ugh...... I can never say that I feel like what is written on the sign below....

So now when I head to Cairns next week I will need to buy some bribery gifts and see if I can get an IT person to see what can be done.  The only reason I mention any of this is because it highlights that I deliver this program using two computers.  This is due to the firewall and IT policy issues that prevent me from using some of the Web 2.0 tools and communication technologies such as skype.  So I am used to jumping from one computer to the other when needed.  Now I am currently weedling my way onto the "partners" computer when desperate.  The analogy would be running continuously between two classrooms trying to present and communicate information to a class and having some hear the message and others not.. Hey doesn;t that happen now?  Have a look at this Youtube presentation on students in education today.   Very powerful presentation and timely ssues raised.

I think I might ask or post a week in the life of an online facilitator and add it to this blog as an activity.  Maybe we could start a wiki entitled a week in the life of an e-learning student.   This sounds like a good collaborative activity for the education cluster for the new group.

I had a play with the msn chat facility and used voice contact and the whiteboard and conference last week as the chat session platform and found it to be quite useful.  The beauty of this chat facility is to be able to see when someone is typing and some of the other communication features.  This is also considered to be acceptable software in the TAFE system and is loaded on the work computer.  I have  issues with being able to complete my Diploma of TAA project now as I was using exe and this is not acceptable .... I do have a trial copy of course genie but am having prooblems with that as well.  One of the interesting issues around technology is different Institutes having different privacy and security blockages and access to different software and courseware. READ more on this in the organisation topic.  The mulitmedia clustser is trying yugma and skype this week and I will  be interested to hear how the access and usability of this software works.   My ongoing agony is that people have access and can use different communication tools and balancing this with access and equity in the communication activities.  Can you just say to someone get skype as a requirement?  Maybe in this environment you can.... however what if they are at work and can only attend day chats mmmmm......

The multimedia students are now working on their digital camera activities, so I thought I would look for some photos on flickr and suggest that everyone checks some of these out and do a search for key words as there are some amazing photos, cartoons and images in this repository.  Love this one,

Website Design and Instructional design

As part of the implementation strategy and training for our new TAFE Qld learning management system there are training sessions being held for staff across Institutes to work within the Janison platform  ( The state based system which won the tender) now called My.tafe and Equella the LCMS plus some training in software called course genie or its new name Wimba create.  So the future may be providing all teachers with some basic training in how to customise their resources into an online environment and then upload to the learning management system.  For multimedia purists they would be turning in their "proverbial graves" but it certainly fits the mould of " Rapid e-learning" and current thinking around this.   It is an instructional design flavour and makes a lot of sense to me as I work more in this learning envronment.  The change issues surrounding teachers and technology are huge and need to be carefully managed and thought out.  Time will tell if TAFE Qld is getting it right.

E_learning methodologies.

I am currently trialling a role play with the education cluster students and finding this both a challenge and an interesting learning experience for me and I am sure from the debrief I will receive some very interesting perspectives form the participants.  There is  great site on role plays and their design and set up at this site  We are focusing on the last topic in the education cluster which is related to the organisation and e-learning.  So we have established the characters in a a fictional organisation and each participant has  role to play.  Some people are really getting into their role and it is an interesting option to consider if you haven't tried this in your e-learning world.

E-Learning and organisations

I am having interesting experiences with my individual work and my collaborative project work and the varying attitudes and IT security privacy and software issues.  It would probably be easy to manage if notification of blocked site inappropriate downloads etc were communicated to delivery staff who work in this e-learning environment.  However what I have discovered is that there is a varying approach across TAFE Qld organisations in relation to their IT protocols and rules.  This makes collaboration across Institutes incredibly challenging. 

Some Institutes have software licences and some don't. So for example. A Brisbane Institute has access to course genie the rapid development software, our Institute does not.  This means that I think... mmm I will download exe a similar program but free and achieve the same results, no... Is unable to be downloaded on work computers.  Google docs the initial sharing repository is blocked at some Institutes, You tube at some,  not at others.  I an sure that the policy around collaboration and the IT policies are  mutually exclusive worlds.  It will be interesting to see how this develops over the coming years.  Meanwhile I groan a lot and get round it as I can and will write some sort of position paper on this by years end.  Maybe including some of the issues that readers of this blog will raise and  I will come across in the next 6 months.  Bottom Line do the best you can and try some new things and ideas and see what happens.  Bottom... bottom line... As an e-learning  professional be resilient  creative and supportive with a focus on the learner.

PS if you have read a good book lately I will have a free weekend away from university reading after next weekend and want to reward myself  let me know what you would recommend.  PS I like the book I have listed here and snuck it into an airport  read and two plane flights. Mmm.....

 Ever thought about how you learn and remember things when they are based against a rhyme or to music .  I thought I would try and find some songs that relate to the topics that are covered in this regular blog but struggled a bit.  Had to go a bit more lateral when thinking about this type of blog entry.

Key words/terms that I have come across over these last couple of weeks in my reading and web travels: learning orientations, learning cycle, learning styles, learning strategies, information processing style.  Orthological, motivation theories, programmed knowledge, knowledge levels, epistemic influences encapsulation, decontextualisation, deep learning, ethnography, learning design checklists, Hierarchy of learning outcomes. If you wanted to read more about these terms then the book I am currently reading is for you and I must say is one of the better textbooks that I have read over the last few years from both a design and content perspective.

So I have 2 key assessment due for my university subjects this next month.  One is an analysis of a qualitative educational research study and the other is a report on an organisation and its knowledge management strategy using the legitimate system.  Taking me a little while to get my head around both concepts but pushing on and still being inefficient in this reading and note taking process.  But at least this time I am improving my writing process and having a structure to the assignment.  Plus the weather here at Mission Beach is improving so here is my theme for this week.

http://songza.com/z/igeajl

Using technology:

So what technology have I used as a facilitator of e-learning over the last few weeks.  I thought that it might be good to share which technology I use and what I have signed up for lately.  Jane Hart has posted a new PD designed web 2.0 tools training program.  Which is an interesting site from a content and design perspective. I have used delicious as a daily tool to save all my favourite bookmarks, I have been google doc.... ing in a collaborative team project and sent a tokbox message to my new students just to get in their faces with a visual email message.  I have also signed up to have a look at wetpaint again, podbean, stickam, Dropit, Clickpass, future lab, diigo and reconsidered jing.  Most of these technology tools are linked in my delicious site so check them out as my recent links or under the relevant tag for technology and tools.  I have also been learning how to use library databases and getting lost in the library cyberworld.  Why do all these academic journals all have to be hidden behind all these walls and levels of security.  I think that it is time to consider how this type of information is shared.  Shoudn't all this academic writing be open to everyone not just those who have paid university fees and or subscriptions.   " Creative commons and copyright!"

Song link for this topic:...

http://songza.com/z/b0p1s7

This is quite dated now in terms of lyrics.  I wonder how these lyrics could be changed and what the words would be now.  I am guessing the radio would be now replaced with facebook, my space... other.

Visual design

I was sent a link to a university of Woolongong website related to resources for e-learning activities which is a great example of a clean and simple website design.  Have a look at this site and see what you think. It would be good to read in your blogs examples of good and bad visual design over the coming weeks.  Particularly in relation to education and or learning websites?  What have you found that is interesting?

Website design/instructional design

I have spent a little bit of time over the last month thinking about how educational websites are designed and the difficulties of designing a resource for "the unknown learner".  trying to be all things in this design process is quite a challenge.  The limitations and or value of a learning management system and how much I still can't do in relation to technical skills and where I can access these skills?   The team approach to this design process is also problematic and needs to be a very clear yet flexible process.   What do you actually need to focus on and in what order and is a template the answer?  Not sure yet but I am still learning and willing to try and put this more clearly especially in terms of being time and cost efficient in this process.

I have also been trialling a variety of storyboards and wishing that I had better skills in drawing in an electronic format via  a mind mapping process I really need to spend time to get my head around this mind mapping software where does it fit though in terms of priorities?

song... mmmm...  Can you think of a relevant song title?

E-Learning methodologies

I am currently looking at the design and value of role plays in an online environment and putting together a scenario that is relevant for the education cluster students. At this time it may focus on the issue of e-learning and the organisational context.  The roles within the play could be educational and design staff,  managers, technical  policy makers and learners. So stay tuned for a simple scenario and a role play process to be conducted in May 2008.  I have had some  feedback across the education network about maintaining momentum in this program and the issue of motivation in an line environment.  The issue of creativity, connecting, collaborating and caring may be the four key C's and something that I will be endeavouring to re-design into this program as I review a variety of activities across both clusters of the program. 

This is an interesting link to a website podcast for technical writers it might be worth visiting the website but this is an interesting marketing strategy through a music website.
http://songza.com/z/5iyy5g

Virtual communities

I am reflecting on what communities I actually belong to and what value they have for me.  I obviously have a community of learners in the Diploma of E-Learning and some past students via their xanga blog.  I have a connection to a virtual community through work ( an e-mentoring group) and I guess as I work from home my work colleagues are becoming part of another virtual network via email etc.  It is interesting to consider how much you are a passive or a proactive member of these communities and how you go through ups and downs in terms of energy to participate, contribute and even have time to read all that is shared through these communities.  How does this get prioritised in your work and personal life? 

I am sure there is a a university community that I could also belong to right now for each of my subjects, however I am bunkered down writing assessment tasks.  Should I be connecting with others and trying to refine my assessments by bouncing ideas off others.  Is this something I should initiate or  is this a  facilitator responsibility?  What I  believe from my experience is that unless I am encouraged to connect with others and get a sense of community in my learning cohort I am loathe and also wary of connecting via a forum post or email to other students around a specific issue.  As student have said to me there is no body language etc to make some of these closer connections to fellow learners.  Plus I think that we are very judgemental of others as we read text posts.  So... collaborative learning as part and parcel of an online learning program would be something that I would align with assessment and encourage right from the start of a program using whatever technology and creativity that can be customised.  Not just posts saying  who you are, but more creative ideas around this.  Have you seen creative connecting collaboration with a caring element, I would love to hear your examples.?

I came across an interesting article that you might want to have a read of... It is written by Len Bird and is entitled " The 3 C's design model for a networked collaborative e-learning: a tool for novice designers"  It is in the Journal " Innovations in Education and Teaching International Volume 44, No. 2, May 2007, pp. 153-167.  If you can't access this send me an email if you would like a copy .

The facilitator

I am very fortunate to have a person taking on the facilitation role with the new multimedia students and bringing their own individual flair and creativity to this learning process.  This facilitation role can be a very lonely existence.  Nobody aside from one or two technical people in my Institute actually have any idea what this role involves and how I conduct this program.  So having feedback and opportuntities to read experience and review your own style and program is a very timely and relevant activity.  So thanks Kiley for picking up this role and giving me the chance to observe and review a facilitator role over the next few weeks.  I think that team facilitation is the future of many learning options in e-learning so practise and observation around this is good learning for me right now.

The organisation.

Currently as part of a university assessment on organisational knowledge management, I am asking a number of colleagues to share with me their thoughts on how TNQIT captures, collates and shares information and thereby develops organisational knowledge.  Thinking about  what systems, processes and technology we use in our organisation to share information becomes a really interesting exercise and I am currently trying to draw this picture, now if I can just get some skills in drawing this mindmap electronically.  doh!

That's all folks

http://songza.com/z/s5sdbu