INNOVATIVE PRACTICE

Podcasting - Jim Plummer
- Audio * to amplify what's on a screen, * mp3, * downloadable from internet then transferred to a portable personal audio device, * "ipod + broadcasting"
- audio-casting
- personal broadcasting possible
- whenever/wherever you like
- requires Windows Media Player
- needs an aggregator (available from itune or ipodder on the net) for automating/customising

Digital Storytelling - Brian Gepp
- great for flexible learning - students can access video instruction at their own convenience - slides & narration
- Movie Maker (more powerful than Photo Story 3 which can't handle video) - free software in XP, use a digital camera, easy to use
- www.freeplaymusic.com

- use SMS messages to contact students, websites available to administer, messenging via computer, Groupwise has the ability to send SMS messages

Photo Story 3
- needs XP, uses photos, very easy to use using step by step wizard, save into Janison/moodle
- ednaGroups/SA Learnscope - have digital stories of their own projects

Webquest
- evaluated each other's webquests

Interactive Ochre CDROM
- New Practices - Innovative practice funding available
- Info-tainment - Jeff Hunter
- Induction package designed for people who work with indigenous people, mixes information with music & visuals to educate people - getting a message across
- cultural awareness resource, indigeous people traditionally used music & storytelling to 'educate' their people

PDA
- Personal Digital System/Accessory for delivery & assessment
- used to take video with a lens attached
- can convert to a laptop with attachments
- load assessment sheet on to the PDA and mark onto the screen out in the field
- follow instructions - instructional learning

SMS
- txtg messages
- motivational messages, information reminders, quizzes, student evaluation/feedback
- intrusive? out of hours? could be overused, costs involved
- makes it authentic - use when only use SMS for, 2-3 per day max, slang dictionary required

Changing Organisational Culture

Nancye Stanelis - Strategic Planning
- Skills up existing employees
- A lot of young people are already engaged in e-training
- Need to identify the advantages for your business - new or better markets, more business
- TVI TAFE used a Learnscope project to train Managers in flexible learning, capturing their attention
- Reframing the Future is another form of funding for this type of training for staff
- Professional Development sessons for staff for learning about technology
- The Business Imperative - what is the real imperative? - increased flexibility? responsiveness to customer needs? accessing funding for staff? emerging industries? training to improve SA Businesses?
- Good Booklets to support this type of training in SA/Aust - "Skills"; "New Times, New Ways, New Skills"; "Forward Directions"; "Flexible Learning" - fitting with Federal & State priorities

Alison McAlister - Implementing e-learning
- The Game Plan
- creating wealth through a skilled workforce - moving away from manufacturing into the information age
- TAFE uses their intranet to share "good news stories" - anyone can submit what their doing
- Creating "Bump Spaces" for employees to meet and network
- Join the Edna Groups - Business Administration Group
- e-learning training for the facilitators
- best practice sharing amongst trainers
- RECOGNISE, REWARD, CELEBRATE!

Promoting e-learning in your organisation - the webquest
What is a webquest - an inquiry orientated activity in which most or all of the information is obtained from web - Explore an idea.

Online Instructional Design resources

There are a whole new set of rules required when setting up material in an online environment vs plain paper copies. Being a computer immigrant (someone who was not born into the computer age) I find it very difficult to read online for extended periods of time - it doesn't feel so natural. I like Kate's idea of "chunking" information and adding hyperlinks for lenghly materials.
Useful Resources for online instruction design:
1. http://www.edtech.vt.edu/edtech/id/wbi/
This website provides links on how to "best utilize (the) internet's attributes and resources." It also have "chunks" of information about different online learning possibilities, as well as some good visuals. I like how its lay-out uses some of the features Kate recommended when presenting information.
2. http://www.pitt.edu/~poole/onlinelearning.html
This webpage is a lot of links for online learning resources covering the following topics:
General Instructional Design Resources
Assessment Strategies
Designing for Inclusion
Designing of Online Activities
Evaluating a Good Website
Fabulous Freebies
Facilitation Skills/Teaching Strategies
International Conferences
Learning Styles and Profiles
Managing Courseware Design
New Paradigms and Research in Instructional Technology
Publications and Forums
Software and Applications
I'm sure there's something for everyone here!

Instructional Design & Copyright & Intellectual Property

Kate Fannon
Is Instructional design a license to impose "instruction" or what?

What are deadly, dull learning situations?
- talking at your, little motivation
- non-passionate delivery or content
- boring, delivery - poor presentation
- rigid learning/teaching
- lack of relevance
- forced learning
- passive learning - non-engagement - no questioning

Cone of learning - Edgar Dale

Technical Aspects - Online vs Printed Page
- very clear instructions
- full page scan - not able to online
- use lots of white space
- meaningful graphics
- chunk information - lots of headings
- good introduction
- hyperlinks for lengthy pieces of information
- carefully consider sequencing / navigation

Effective or Transformative Learning Design
- Constructive
- Collarborative
- Conversational
- Reflective
- Contextualized
- Complex
- Intentional
- Active/Manipulative

* Webquest - Alternatives to detention - for ESL Learners
http://www.users.on.net/~katef/detention/default.htm

Rubric - an assessment matrix of how student's work will be graded

* Role Play - unpredictability
http://www.users.on.net/~katef/unpredictability/default.htm

* Fablusi - role play software
www.fablusi.com

Reflections on 3 Week Facilitating Course as a group
- what did we personally learn?

Carole McCulloch - Motivating & Engaging people in an online environment
Web Communities - where people share information
- needs relevant content and members can share best practices
- make it visual, remind members that it's a pleasant place to visit, 'networking' sharing information with one another
- 'guide on the side' replacing the 'page on the stage' of people's learning or for facilitating/moderating skills
- inclusiveness, caring

Peter Schultz - Copyright & Intellectual Property (IP)
- Use it & Promote - Lose it!
- What is it? - protect origin & creative effort
- Why important? tangible asset, competitive advantage, 'passive' income
- Types: Copyright, Trademarks, Trade Secrets, Patents
- Managing IP - list what organisation has and add to Asset sheet
Resources:
www.flexiblelearning.net.au/copyrightkitchen
www.copyright.org.au
www.aesharenet.com.au
IP Australia
IP toolbox

Progress 1 of my own elearning project

My Project: Spicing up my online units for Cert IV / Diploma in Bus Admin
My Update: I've updated and added some more units for this semester and we are using the information for the first time this week. I've been more aware of making sure students update their online information to ensure they add their own email address - for more regular contact (motivating).
I've added a wiki for our fortnightly meetings - inviting students to add agenda items as required. How successful this will be will only come to light after a few fortnightly meetings.
I have requested a guest student login for our group to access these online units - and if one's available I will ask our Orange group to have a look and offer feedback.
I'm continuing to use my blog: http://millersmindmap.blogspot.com to keep all of my online learning in one place.
My Barriers: My most recent barrier has been the QA process through Online Educational Services (OES). It is a very lengthy, very "particular" and very discouraging process. At one point they had "misplaced" 2 of our units. None of my other face to face teaching material goes through such strike scrutiny. However, with my heart on my sleeve I will push forward and develop another two units ready for next year, and continue to improve what is currently there. I've learnt a lot this time around with OES - I'm not going to sit back and wait nicely next time - I'm going to ensure OES know I need my work by a certain date and ask them to acknowledge my requests for work submitted.
I'm glad I have this project - as it's my incentive to keep looking for new and exciting ways of making my students' learning experience more enjoyable.

Onlline Facilitation Workshop

globeofblogs.com is another really good blog website!

Poison Pills for your Online Program - what should you do:
- negotiate/allocate time
- ask for help
- work with others
- plan/flexible
- introduction / explain what you're doing
- identify client needs
- obey the rules (anti virus protection, firewalls)
- give clear explanations
- interact regularly with participants
- motivation
- getting team onside
- good record keeping
- reflect / modify
- access for all
- compatable technology
- provide handouts/support materials

Catriona Ward - adelaide-i-globe TAFE SA Adelaide South - E-moderating:
Moderating & Faciliating online - how is face to face different from online?
- ask for feedback/reflection
- blended learning
- explicit information/instructions
- interactive environments
- need guidance
Skills required:
- Pedagogical (teaching skills) - guidance, challenging, education, questioning
- Social (share info about each participant; social interactions; chatrooms; discussion forums, explore) promoting human relations; group cohesiveness; group dynamics
- Managerial - scheduling, record keeping
- Technical - students need to become comfortable with the technology
Role of Facilitator:
- goal setter
- discriminator
- the host
- the pace setter
- the explainer
- the entertainer/motivator - log-on to monitor activity; games/quizzes
- the communicator - phoning participants who seem to be "lost" or not contributing
Other components to e-facilitating:
- teaching processes
- interpersonal qualities
- technical skills
- communication
- technques
- content expertise

Online Role Playing:
- similar issues to classroom role-playing
- toolboxes/pretend environments - good for individuals
- take on particular roles - good for groups
- simulations of real life situations
- what happens if individuals are all at different stages in the online environment or there's continues enrolment?

Onlline Facilitation

Online Facilitation is a whole new 'teaching' ballgame and it is taking me back to my early teaching and then lecturing days - when I really had to think about the processes I needed to go through when presenting my classes. As Katriona mentioned there are a whole set of new facilitating skills to be developed when using this mode of presenting a learning environment - especially when you don't ever see the students in a face to face environment.

I believe that if it is possible to get participants together for regular workshops (like our SA Start up programme) then information can be shared a lot more quickly and more interestingly. However, if this is not always possible I believe a lot of "visuals" - photos of facilitators and participants; visuals of working environments would be important to keep the participants focussed. Perhaps webcam's during chat sessions would be handy.

Online facilitation requires a different mode of organisation on the facilitator's behalf. They have to keep very good records of when and what people have contributed to ensure all participants are learning something. They would need to be creative about motivating people via very non-visual email (and perhaps a very good typists). They need to be attached to the computer on a daily basis.

I agree that being a participant in the SA Start up programme has given me an insight into how my students view the online learning environment. Where I previously felt they needed long winded explanations about how to "get on with it" I now realise this is boring, off-putting and un-inviting - thereby demotivating some.

Onlline Facilitation Workshop

Another wonderfully informative session.
Catriona session on online facilitating was very useful and interesting. She offered lots of appropriate strategies. I could really relate to what she was saying about getting the students to "gel". I also felt more at ease about being an online faciliator, recognising that a whole new set of skills will need to be developed. I challenge I'm happy to take on...
Gilly Salmon's 5-stage model will also be very useful. Recognising that different methodologies will need to be used to ensure students can cope with their online learning environment, and how best to do that.
The LOAG (lacking any obvious goals or guidance) - Poison Pills activity was useful - to re-iterate what's required to be successful in facilitating in the online mode - and a very clever play on words - some GOALs can now be cemented.
It was an interesting task having to brainstorm our online facilitation activity. It's great to work with success professional and supportive people. This will give us the opportunity to put some of our theory into practice. I think we've mapped our programme out and will be able to handle the task well.
If was great to hear the excellent work people have done so far in getting their onlline projects up and away. A lot of hard work has gone into these projects - well done everyone - take a bow!
Allison Miller

My Own e-learning project

What is my Project?
Introduction: I faciliated, in a blended mode, four Certificate IV in Business Administration units online during Semester 1 and I have worked with the students on ways that this online environment could be improved. I have also designed another two units at the Diploma level for use, again in the blended mode, for Semester 2.
My Project (and my desire) is to provide a more "interesting" and "useful" online learning environment (and one which could eventually be used for "external" or distance students) by introducing some e-learning tools. The types of tools I'm looking at include:
- multiple-choice and true/false quizzes
- introducing a wiki to organise the agenda for our fortnightly meetings (and for other possible uses)
- making better use of forums - where students can post questions about the course or their learning for me to promptly reply to, rather than have to wait for the weekly classes
- a survey to determine the usefulness of these tools
- as well as investigate the toolbox currently available for the Diploma in Business Administration, and determine whether anything can be "uploaded".

How far along am I?
I have been working with some of our support staff to introduce some of the quizzes. I have also been "redesigning" the Cert IV online units to make them more coherent.
We have updated the forum for the Question and Answer forum.

What are the barriers?
TIME - we need to have the courses ready for quality assurance early next week. TIME - to muck around with what's around and then experiment with them. TIME - to have the brainspace to be creative in adapting the learning material into some really "groovy" learning activities. TIME - to offer the support that students will need once their using the online materials/tools. How to overcome? - Perserverence (sp?), Motivation, some excellent support staff (thanks Michael & Chris), more investigating/networking, some Good time management skills, making use of the "annoucement" section to update students of any new tools I'll add during the semester (eg the wiki and the survey), and what I'm learning during this Start up programme.
EXPERTISE - the quiz tools within the Janison platform (where TAFE puts their online learning stuff) are very hard to work with. How to overcome? Luckily I have some really excellent support staff (thanks Michael & Chris again :)) who can do the hard work of designing the quizzes and presenting them appropriately. I just need to come up with some more good ideas to implement!!!

e-learning skills - what's required?

Current Perceptions of the skills required for e-learning:
My thoughts about how my e-learning information is presented has changed since putting some our Cert IV in Business Administration courses online, and again since I've started this Start Up Programme. I've realised that being about to clearing communicate your ideas is a lot harder when presented electronically and static, then when you are presenting these same ideas to a face to face audience. I've found that you have the body language and the ability to question the audience to determine whether your information is being understood. However, in electronic format it requires the students to "trial" how it works and then ask the students for lots of feedback about how useful or easy to use it was. Making the information or task relevant to their learning is also important.
Students with good computer skills take to the e-learning platform quite easily, but the techno-immigrants (the bodies who are still a little computer shy) do struggle with accessing information this way.
Skills needed for e-learning:
- enthusiasm and a need to discover
- risk taking
- some 'internet' & computer experience
- problem solving skills
- group workshops to get that the "human" touch and to be able to check whether you're on track or not
- hard copies of the information being used electronically
- interesting and useful content & activities
- access to 'fast' internet connection and reliable computers - and some time of "back up" support if struggling
- time to 'play around' and discover
- an understanding of how to download and retrieve software/information
- ways of keeping track of useful information, as well as log-on ids and passwords
Ways of motivating students to participate in e-learning:
- set as part of their assessment
- we run group meetings to share and discuss usefulness of the e-learning material/platform and its application in the workplace/real life
- set up the e-learning platform to that information will appear only once previous tasks have been completed
- having the facilitator respond to the student's work during their e-learning or during a forum etc.