With Web 2 tools being used in teaching and general communication, it is important for teachers to role model good ‘netiquette’ and also to familiarise their students with it as a standard practise.

It is not possible or necessary to cover all social networking areas. In fact, if you look at the Wikopedia list of social networking tools, you will understand why. The list is looonnnggg! I have found some good links to help understand the Web2 netiquette which can be used for any Web 2 tool…

• Twitter etiquette: Like any social environment there is an inherent etiquette involved with using Twitter and a level of  behaviour expected of you if you’re to take part successfully.
• Email etiquette: Dare I suggest… replying to emails is a good start?
• MSN etiquette
• Blog and Wiki etiquette: The 10 commandments of working with Blogs and Wikis.
• Facebook etiquette: Every member of Facebook has a duty to be the best online citizen they can be. Here is a video clip with some tips…

Please add your own etiquette ideas and things that bug you, in the comments section. You go for it… you know you want to!

OR… take this poll:

Dear friend,

You were raised in a time when learning was only valued if it were formalised. In a time when the teacher was the expert and you were a vessel to be filled with knowledge. Where experiential and collaborative learning was not always considered to be a valuable pedagogy.

It is not to say that formal learning doesn’t have a place in life. I have been studying in formal learning continually for 15 years now, but I consider the learning which means most to me, to be the knowledge and skill I gain from experiencing and collaborating. In fact, most of us tech heads have never taken a computer lesson.

Unfortunately, technology (or any learning) cannot be seen as a ’shelf’ which we need to reach. It is more like a very long ladder we climb, that we will never reach the top of. Unfortunately, some of us get stuck on one of the bottom rungs. Moving upwards is a scary feeling. What if I make a mistake? What if I break something? How will I know what to do without someone telling me?

My son can build a computer from scratch in 30 minutes. He doesn’t have a Facebook account, however, because he ‘doesn’t know how to use it’. What does this mean?

1. He taught himself to build a computer and could just as easily teach himself to use other tools.
2. There is no such thing as an ‘expert’.

We all have knowledge of certain areas and not others. Technology is changing so rapidly so we could never know everything. As soon as you learn a piece of software, it is replaced with a new version.

My friend, I have two pieces of advise for you:

1. Push lots of buttons and ask lots of questions
2. Get yourself a Personal Learning Network

So many people are afraid of pushing buttons. Ask yourself: What does this do? What will happen if I press this? Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. We learn from both success and mistakes.

Ask for help when you get stuck. There is nothing like peer learning. This leads me on to point 2… Get yourself a Personal Learning Network! I have written about this before (click the link for further reading). It is a very powerful way to learn. If it wasn’t for my Twitter networks, my learning would have almost stagnated.  Find some blogs to follow with helpful advice on things you want to learn. Comment on blogs, ask your Twitter network for help, join a Wiki.

Ask questions.

Collaborate.

Follow links.

Experiment.

My friend, you are on a journey like the rest of us. It is just that you are not on the ladder rung where you want to be. Keep climbing, that is all that matters. You are reading this blog, you have  a Facebook account and send emails = you are learning.

Keep learning.

With love,

Jen (e-blogger)

If you want a good start, try this self paced ‘23 Things program’ I designed last year. It is unsupported at the moment but still very useable: 23 Things  4 Swin

To finish off… I have included this YouTube video. It might be a little scary, but it highlights the speed in which technology is racing. Best of all… here is a last resort: Tech support cheat sheet.

Watch it and comment if you feel inclined!

Kingsbury Training Centre 1978

In a past life, (for 28 years) I worked in the disability field, more specifically, with people with intellectual disability and autism.  In the late 1970’s I left school in the country, arrived in Melbourne and began work in at Kingsbury Training Centre, a new ‘forward thinking’ institution for people with intellectual disability. I was one of 3 staff on shift at any time, with 30 small children aged from 5 to 13 years old. Amongst the concepts, which were futuristic for the times, we ran individual programs, mostly based around life skills for the residents. As time went by, this concept was developed across all disability services. My shift into Educational services for adults, saw the IPP (Individual Program Plan) delivered, by law,  across the state of Victoria. This has since been abolished and replaced by the ‘Person centred planning’ concept. The focus shifted from ‘helping and caring’ to ‘empowering’, although I admit that it is implemented with varying success across organisations. One of my greatest contributions to  the disability field designing the  ‘All about me communication books’ this whilst at EDAR and consequently, winning the Dept of Human Services ‘Best practice award’. These books embraced the concept of individuality and empowerment and have been used across Australia.

Management in the disability services embraced the same philosophy: Management supported Staff from below, as the foundation of the organisation, rather from the top looking down. I particularly experienced this at EDAR, where I eventually became a manager myself. Collaboration and learning come hand in hand in developing an authentic and sustainable organisation which will manage change effectively. By role modeling this to staff, the philosophy flowed through to the clients and became a holistic learning journey for all.

What has this got to do with e-learning?

Be patient, I am getting to it!

I began my career change by teaching Cert 4 in Disability across 4 TAFE organisations. It was a very steep learning curve which flowed into Aged care, Nursing, Business and many other areas. In fact, I taught over 45 different units of Competency in my first year of work as a teacher. It came as a surprise that program delivery was largely focused on students as a group and that personal learning concepts had not been embraced. Content seemed to be delivered at students rather than involving them in collaboration, by providing real world experiences and choice of delivery methods. Teachers from a disability background find it natural to teach in a collaborative style as they tend to utilise the skills they learned in industry. Of course, I am generalising. There are many many amazing and talented teachers out there who are from various backgrounds, who have become that way by both natural means and through trial an error. What I am saying is that it is easier for teachers when this style of teaching does not involve behaviour change or who have had the learner centred approached modeled to them personally.

Recognise and embrace difference

Diversity in the classroom

Some people have struggled their whole school life to ‘fit into the mold’ and only ‘blossom’ when a teacher recognised their strengths and encouraged them to learn by using them.

Many people come to a position in their lives where they disengage with formal school learning, despite the good work of talented and dedicated teachers. Some have learning difficulties, some have the capacity but are not interested.  Either way they separate from learning either physically or in their commitment. The path to re-engagement, if there is such a path, is individual and arises through linking learning to a passion or interest which in turn is linked to work life or purpose.

Perhaps the first requirement is a shared acknowledgement  that not all people learn in the same way.  Some like to  follow an academic path while others learn better by doing and applying skills to practical situations. Some learners succeed through formal study while others succeed through  engaging in work-like learning. Importantly both paths lead to success and should be equally esteemed.

Individual learning and e-learning

Many studies indicate the advantages of blended learning in terms of lower dropout rates and success in  achieving learning goals. There is obviously nothing wrong with blended learning, but its implementation can be even more challenging than the introduction of 100% distance learning. A model appropriate to blended learning must allow for individual path combining contact and distance learning. In practice this is hard to implement because of logistic constraints, especially on contact hours. Careful design is therefore essential.

I am teaching the ‘Design and Research e-learning’  unit in the Diploma of VET program at Swinburne. Most recently I have trialled the use of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework Learning design tool as a first step towards developing programs for online learning. The Learning Design Tool is a FREE online resource which guides you step-by-step through the four essential stages to write high quality, learner-focused course content, and to create your own learning design template. Using this tool has helped teachers to think more seriously about who they are pitching the learning to and how they will design it.

Tips for individual learning online

Encourage your students to develop a Personal Learning Network. EXAMPLE: The majority of my learning is done informally, mostly because I have a huge network of ‘Twitter people’ who are e-learning consultants and teachers. READ: Using Twitter to enhance your personal learning network (PLN)- How can Twitter be useful to educators?

Follow me on Twitter

Don’t try to force feed content to your learners. Give them opportunities to learn collaboratively and experimentally. Use tools such as the discussion or chat tools in your LMS or  Wikis and Nings for collaborative learning.

Find out what skills they already have and allow them to ‘choose their own adventure’ to become competent and skilled at tasks.

Take baby steps:

1. Not all Gen Y are techno whizzes and often students in their advanced years are very computer literate. Gen Y are often fantastic at Facebook and SMS, but have no idea how to use email. Allow for plenty of support and learning.
2. ‘Taking baby steps’ also refers to yourself. You don’t need bells and whistles to be a good online facilitator. Just keep it within your area of skill but keep learning and progressing!

Don’t underestimate peer learning. Quite often students have asked questions in the online discussion forums and another student has answered it for them beautifully. This is meaningful learning for both students. Good facilitation will encourage this, providing they are not left without support or encouragement from the teacher altogether!

Engaging Gen Y

In this video, which is part of a larger project investigating learner-centered teaching with technology, the need for motivation and engagement with technology is highlighted. The use of the technogy advertisements is designed to highlight the engagement produced by technology and media. Part 2 is also available on You Tube if you find it helpful.

I would like to finish with my favourite, thought provoking video…

Your comments are always welcome and I try to reply to them as soon as is humanly possible!

Is your organisation pushing or pulling e-learning?

E-learning is in high demand, let’s face it, and teaching and learning organisations are under pressure to keep up with demand.

Are teachers willing to embrace e-learning, or is it a constant struggle or ‘push’ to develop the skills in technology required to create engaging e-learning resources?

Is your organisation recognising the strengths of the e-learning champions to build skilled teams and empower those who have the capacity to develop effective online learning material?

I have long noticed that many teachers are not willing or skilled at developing e-learning resources. This isn’t to say that they are not great teachers!! There are some awesome teachers out there who are not cut out for technology, but they feel pushed into developing online courses in their teaching field. Understandably, this can be a daunting and disempowering task for some teachers.

Is your organisation utilising the expertise it has and embedding e-learning strategically?

A new report was released on 14th May 2009 called: ‘The impact of e-learning champions on embedding e-learning’

Some of the summary points are:

This report looks at the use of e-learning champions as a change management strategy and outlines common activities and guidelines adopted by e-learning champions to successfully facilitate the uptake of e-learning within their organisation.

It confirms that successful e-learning champions possess a defined set of characteristics, including:

    * Credibility – A champion is skilled in e-learning; shares knowledge, skills and resources; is passionate and tenacious; communicates well; is client focused; and problem solves.  

    * Support – A champion provides tailored, educationally sound solutions; encourages teachers/trainers to explore e-learning; supports teachers/trainers one-on-one; and reviews and adapts as required.  

    * Influence – A champion builds capable e-learning teams; creates communities of practice; facilitates peer-to-peer learning; recognises and showcases achievements; and nurtures influential advocates.  

    * Commitment – A champion makes e-learning part of the strategic plan; ensures e-learning is appropriately resourced; makes e-learning part of teacher/trainer performance plans; and provides opportunities and time to learn, experiment and review e-learning tools and products.  

The study has a firm message for employers looking to harness the benefits of e-learning, warning:

    * E-learning champions are often better recognised for their work outside of their organisation than within it. 

    * Champions of e-learning cannot alone embed e-learning in their organisation, industry or community. To sustain e-learning, managers and policy makers must assist and build organisational cultures and work processes that support innovation and the work of e-learning champions. 

http://apo.org.au/research/impact-e-learning-champions-embedding-e-learning

So what does this have to do with pushing and pulling?

E-learning needs to be embedded strategically into an organisation for the emphasis to change from ‘push’ to ‘pull’. By changing our focus from pushing to pulling, our approach is more in line with adult learning preferences and Adult Learning Theory. 

Making e-learning a part of the strategic plan; ensures e-learning is appropriately resourced; ensures the planning of professional development according to needs; that champions are patient with teachers who are not tech savvy, ensures that  e-learning tools and products are researched and reviewed regularly. 

If organisations strategically set aside funding for resources to be developed by people who have the skills, teacher stress is minimised and student learning will benefit. Recognise that not all teachers are e-learning champions and either ‘encourage’ them to develop skills or stop insisting that they develop them. Most likely, they are awesome teachers in the classroom and are best left doing what they do best!

Poorly developed resources, with little understanding of design and development strategies, will not do your organisation or your learners justice in the long run. WIthout the foundational understanding of development and design, often we are left with a Learning Management System which contains a bunch of Word documents and handouts. I have seen some online learning which has made me want to curl up and suck my thumb! 

In saying that, I encourage all teachers who have an interest, to develop their skills and their Personal Learning Network. … more about Personal Learning Networks here. We all have to start somewhere!

Just recently, I made a decision which seemed exciting at the time, but unfortunately things didn’t work out as I expected. It has got me thinking about how we can have expectations which are not always fulfilled. Sometimes these are our own high expectations and other times there is a ’selling’ of the service, which influences our choice. Could this be the case sometimes with our students?

Years ago, a friend told me a joke, which seems relevant to this blog post, so I made a little animation video for you to enjoy:

It is often difficult for students to understand the implications of enrolling into an online course. They often get into it and discover it is ‘hell’. Maybe that is a bit over the top… but it may be ’sold’ to them in an enticing way, only to discover it isn’t what they expected. Students may not have considered:

1. If they are suited to online learning
2. If they have the technology necessary
3. If the course will suit their learning style

They may enrol and discover that the entire course is delivered as text. This can be very BORING and they might just as soon get out a good book and read it!

So walk your talk and avoid disgruntled students! Take a look at these top tips for making elearning interesting.

I would love to hear your comments so please share your thoughts!

]]> http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/04/29/do-we-deliver-what-we-say-we-will-deliver-to-our-students/feed/ 0 http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/02/16/developing-creative-elearning-material/ http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/02/16/developing-creative-elearning-material/#comments Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:33:47 +0000 jennywood http://jennywood.edublogs.org/?p=163 At school I was often considered odd!

Well maybe I was/am…? I long suspected that in my childhood, certain abilities were seen as being more valuable than others for reasons that didn’t make sense. Thankfully, my mother understood my strange creative personality, as did the occasional teacher, although most didn’t! How do we develop our creativity without encouragement from adults when we are children?

If our creativity is nurtured at school it sets us up for ‘thinking out of the square’ and developing engaging courses online in the future (or anything else we do of course!).

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity on the following video:

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in this video of his TED talk, explains the concept of flow for which he is famous. Flow is his answer to the question ‘What makes human beings happy?’

How Does It Feel to Be in Flow?

1. Completely involved in what we are doing – focused, concentrated.
2. A sense of ecstasy – of being outside everyday reality.
3. Great inner clarity – knowing what needs to be done, and how well we are doing.
4. Knowing that the activity is doable – that skills are adequate to the task.
5. A sense of serenity – no worries about oneself, and a feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of the ego.
6. Timelessness – thoroughly focused on the present, our sin to pass by in minutes.
7. Intrinsic motivation – whatever produces flow becomes its own reward.

Boredom can stem from predictability. Your creativity in developing material to put online, can be the deciding factor as to whether your students engage in learning or or remain passive and bored. So why do we create boring elearning materials when we can be happy and ‘in the flow’, as well as engaging our students?

Possible answer:

Creating interesting engaging content requires understanding the content and the audience. In most instances that requires a strong relationship between the content developer and the subject matter expert/s (client). You also need an eLearning developer/vendor who understands the value of having an initial needs assessment and brainstorming session to determine what the objectives of the course are and how these can be achieved. Some business users/customers are scared off by the process as they see it as too time consuming and detailed.

Possible solutions:

1. Equip yourself with some basic tools. You don’t need to be a master in technology. Tools for online learning

2. Get a grip on your Personal Learning Network (PLN). Skill yourself up! Take baby steps and go easy on yourself.

3. Test your material out on a collegue or even better, several collegues who have different learning styles.

4. Step out of your comfort zone and let your creative juices flow!

5. Read these tips

6. Practice, practice, practice! There are no shortcuts to inspiration.

Useful link: Generation C (content)

If you have more tips… please share and contribute them in the comments section!

For those who haven’t seen the movie, Slumdog Millionaire is the story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life. With the whole nation watching, he is just one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India’s “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”

Authorities challenged Jamal because they didn’t believe that a ’slumdog’ could possibly have any knowledge, especially since he had no formal learning in a school. It highlighted, to me, the fact that learning can be done in many ways… even on the streets! Life experience can be undervalued. Where can we record this valuable information and reflect on it as a learning process?

Experiential learning is the process of making making meaning from direct experience. For the adult learner especially, experience becomes a “living textbook” to which they can refer.

At the heart of all learning is the way we process our experiences, especially our critical reflections on our experiences.

What has this got to do with eportfolios?

Do you have lots of life experience and reflections, which aren’t recorded anywhere, and/or your formal learning experiences are in a cardboard box under your bed? This is where an eportfolio, could be valuable to you and to your students.

Last weekend I attended an eporfolio symposium in Brisbane. We looked at many types of both sophisticated and simplistic e-portfolios and observed that philosophically, they all serve the same purpose. Some of the options available are much more ‘polished’ (which is always a winner with me!), but basically it is all about the portfolio owner having ownership of their learning and control over their own eportfolio. What goes on it and who sees it is totally up to them. Keeping record of skills and experiences is a valuable tool for employment options and for accessing formal learning.

Here is a guide for eportfolio owners:

Here is one persons view on using a blog for an e-portfolio: Pros and cons of using blogs for an eportfolio

Did you see the parallels with Slumdog Millionaire?

Any comments? Feel free to express them or to subscribe to my blog.

]]> http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/02/11/slumdog-millionaires-e-portfolio/feed/ 3 http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/01/15/teaching-with-blogs-and-wikis/ http://jennywood.edublogs.org/2009/01/15/teaching-with-blogs-and-wikis/#comments Thu, 15 Jan 2009 08:45:54 +0000 jennywood http://jennywood.edublogs.org/?p=117 How do you learn best?

Learning is an active, social process. Using Blogs and Wikis for teaching is embracing the  concept that students don’t learn best passively, they learn best from using experiential and constructivist learning.

Above: Kolb’s Learning Cycle

Using blogs and/or wikis for teaching is a great solution for encouraging reflection and collaboration with your learners.

If you are unsure of what they are or the difference between the two, take a look here:

What are Blogs and Wikis?

The argument for a wiki…..

A wiki encourages collaborative learning. It can be used to summarise small group discussions, giving greater value to small group interaction and building an online archive of student activities. They have the potential to build effective bridges between group discussion and individual learning, face-to-face and e-learning provision and to foster a deep engagement between students and their subject matter.

The argument for a blog…..

Simply put, reflection is the process of making sense of one’s experience. Reflection can be said to act as a hinge between practical knowledge and theoretical knowledge.

More about Blogs and wikis

• Comparison of collaborative online tools [PDF]

• 7 things you should know about Blogs [PDF] – EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative

• 7 things you should know about wikis [PDF] – EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative

• Can wikis be useful for learning? [PDF]

Using Wikis in Education

• Using wikis in Education – [PDF]

Using blogs in education

• Edublogs – an Australian site based on WordPress that offers free accounts for personal users in education as well as an enterprise solution for educational institutions – http://edublogs.org
• EdNA groups – services are free to organisations that are part of the education and training community – http://www.groups.edna.edu.au
• Blogs in Education, University of Houston, has links to lots more blogging resources – http://awd.cl.uh.edu/blog/
• Educational use of blogs – Reflecting, Writing and Responding: Reasons Students Blog [PDF] – http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3010.pdf

Where to now?

Try following some of the instructions on our ‘23 things‘ project. This will help you to set up a blog.

If you are wanting to improve your blogging skills… try joining this project (based on a wiki):

31 days to a better blog

If you use a Wordpress blog….

Instructions on how to set up a blog

Or an Edublogs blog….

http://edublogs.org

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Benjamin Zander is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and on the faculty of the New England Conservatory. “Zander is a prophet of human potential…Watch as he helps unlock the boundless potential of a 15 year old cellist and teaches the entire…audience what it means to live in a world of possibility” (Source: Pop! Tech).

This is quite long…. but I promise you it is worth watching……

I picked up some things about the presentation which challenged me. I would love to hear from others who might have found some challenges too! Some of the things I liked were that:

How can the physical classroom space best support different styles of learning and different styles of teaching?

Classroom spaces can generate increased teacher-student and student-student communication and collaborations with peer-learning.

Swinburne are currently designing learning spaces for teaching, which will give us the capacity to facilitate constructivist learning. If you are looking to engage your students and encourage creativity, collaboration and curiosity, these are the classrooms for you!

Professor Peter Jamieson of The University of. Melbourne ran workshops this week which highlighted the direct link between successful engagement of learners and the physical learning space.

The workshop focused on areas such as:

• How to keep learning groups connected
• How to bring students into contact with learning content
• How to facilitate group learning
• Teaching from all around the room (and not from the front)
• Letting the students take ownership of their learning
• How to design/arrange space for optimum benefit to learners

Classrooms should be designed to permit easy circulation and grouping of students for discussion.

I concluded from this that we need to think carefully about how we set up our classrooms for learning and to  beware of the architectural designs, which are often done by people without teaching knowledge. We are on a great pathway to work collaboratively with architects and share our expertise in our own areas.

Following on from this workshop, I spent a half day at Melbourne Uni with Peter, looking at his learning space designs and the projects he is involved with. We discussed concepts and logic behind design plans in depth. This has helped me in my capacity of ‘Flexible Learning Advisor’ to think more creatively about classroom usage.