Readings/resources ECI831

As I was trawling through the readings and resources for ECI831 week 3, that Alex Couros supplies to his students via the ECI831 wiki, I came across this TED Talks video that gave me some inspiration and ideas for an up and coming presentation that I need to deliver to the TAFE Queensland State business teaching and learning network on October the 14th 2010.  The theme of this yearly conference for business teachers is technology and education.  I am trying to develop a presentation that is both interactive and thought provoking so this video seemed worth a look.  What was interesting was the storytelling the metaphors and the images provided as part of the presentation that kept me engaged and some of the terms and analogies used as part of this talk. 

But let me digress.... In the Queensland VET sector there are teaching and learning networks of teachers, assessors and managers across the 13 Queensland TAFE Institutes.  These networks are aligned across the vocational teaching areas and have been set up to encourage collaboration and sharing of resources, learning design and promote effective and innovative delivery of vocational education.  These networks are managed by specific TAFE Queensland institutes who have responsibility and minimal funding to coordinate meetings and encourage collaboration and promote the sharing of issues relevant to a particular vocational area.  Great Idea... but do they work as well as they could?  My assessment is not yet.  My premise is that sharing and collaborating is not a high priority for busy teachers and managers of these TAFE Queensland Institutes. 
In 2007 as part of my Masters in Learning Innovation, I wrote a paper which was published in a Queensland University publication.  The paper was entitled " The F.A.C.T.S TAFE Qld Lead institutes and professional development.  The paper focused on the need for VET educators to experience technology enhanced professional development if they were to enhance client service and product delivery. So in preparation for this up and coming 2010 presentation I have gone back to this paper, to see if things have changed over the last three years, particularly focused on technology and education options for VET educators to see if their is a spark that will give my presentation some synergy with where teachers in this teaching and learning network might be at now and what might have changed since 2007 and when I made these suggestions!

What has really occurred in the three years since I wrote this paper... NOT MUCH!
But what can be analysed within the Business Teaching and learning network and what can I present to challenge reinvigorate and revitalise possibilities?  The TED Talks video above provided some key words that need to be incorporated and considered as I develop this presentation.  These words were kindness, trust, rekindling, reconnecting and reframing, but what is really needed are the stories of how this has occurred within this network and why it is worth exploring in 2011 and beyond.  The WIFM, what's in it for me.

I also really like this image that was provided as part of a Nancy White presentation, and I need to find some more images to clearly articulate the key words to be used in this presentation.
I have linked the presentation here but not happy about how it translates here on slideshare.

Business tln14102010

View more presentations from Colleen Hodgins.

This post will be added to over the coming week as the structure for this presentation and further research ideas develop...... stay tuned.

Being a student..... open course - Alec Couros

Okay so I am thinking that I might jump in here and have a go at being a non credit student in this program for a couple of reasons.

1. It is a good idea for me to observe and participate as a learner and to keep up with readings and emerging trends in my new role this semester as a teacher who is supporting other Vocational education teachers and assessors in exploring options in blended learning here at Tropical North Queensland TAFE.
2. Plus... it may make me use this reflective blog again as a way to enhance my learning and give my reflection some structure.
3. I also need to practise scheduling and committing to this informal learning process and demonstrating the value of this model and method of learning.
4. So I have now worked out the times for participating via the world clock and will schedule in these Wednesday morning sessions into my schedule and see how it goes!
5. September 28th kick off time.... stay tuned for my thoughts and perspectives of being a non credit student in this open course.

30th June - Project PALM complete and what a great journey that was!

Regional Staff capability projects illustrate the opportunity to learn from and with others.  This post today is to thank all those people who contributed in any way to the planning and implementation of this TQR Project PALM. From administrative support to keep the project tracking, thanks go to Gail, Carolyn and Jeanette at BRIT. 

Thanks to my colleagues at TNQ TAFE who allowed me to plonk myself at free desks and to get into their busy workspaces and managers who let me talk to staff across the region about this project.  Congratulations to all those participants who explored the many options we offered in terms of learning, using technology and a focus on reinvigoration around our core priorities; e-learning, instructional design and assessment.  A special thank you to my virtual team members, Julie, Nicole and Peter who were the key people who made this work, what a great opportunity I had to work with professional and passionate people from our TAFE Qld organisation.

Here are a four survey monkey charts that visualise some of our project activity based on 4 evaluation questions, more detail can be found on our project PALM evaluation page.

Here is the link to our project PALM communication portal in my.TAFE feel free to explore and contact me is you require further information or details.

http://my.tafe.qld.gov.au/tqaccess/logon.aspx

Username: xwbiinductionu1

Password: password1
Enjoy the read

PALM Project evaluation image/words for review

A play with a tool called tagxedo a bit like a wordle program

I went to this evaluation website to review evaluation theory and descriptions  for our project review meeting Thursday and Friday this week .  You open up the  program link to any website and it will analyse the words and place them into a word cloud ... and you can choose the shape.    Here is the website link to the evaluation website  .

I also created another one by using this blog and the words written here and you guessed it is in the shape of a PALM tree. So you can link to them as well rather than saving the image http://www.tagxedo.com/artful/89ff23485e024dc9

Evaluation

The draft evaluation mindmap from bubbl.us and an image of the hope gate to get me in the mood for the purpose and reasons why why we do evaluation and how it can inform our future funding application for staff capability for TQR in semester 1 2010. 

Just came across this interesting link to learning innovation in the public sector, well worth a read!
Plus a pertinent quote "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." Alan Kay

Draft presentation for the VET Futures project Team meeting June 15th 2010.  Click here for slideshare link

Review june15 tqr_projectpalm_vetfutures2010

View more presentations from TQRprojectPALM.

Flip camera and Project PALM metaphors - Rough!!

I have just put together a short video using a cheap flip camera, to add to the VET Futures presentation on Tuesday in Brisbane.  Took about 30 minutes and yes it is rough, but does visualise the metaphors we used for this Project PALM Problem based active learning model.  Palm trees, fronds and coconuts.


The PALM ( Problem based active learning model) acronym was represented with the Palm tree.  Aligning the trunk, coconuts and fronds enable us to market and have some fun with how we talked about this project!  Plus... with so many other VET Futures initiatives out there we needed to differentiate ourselves as the FIRST TQR VET Futures focused project.

The fronds on our visual metaphor represent the 6 Institutes we worked with in this project as well as the TQR facilitators, Julie, Nicole and Peter as key connecting fronds and linkages between participants and Institute management and our Project PALM team.  The trunk as we moved up the tree signified the progression of activities that we as a team had developed to progress the project and achieve our aims in supporting professional development for teachers focused on three core priority areas; e-learning, assessment and instructional design. The bunches of coconuts coconuts represent the learning are all of the possible tools, technology and criteria that encapsulate what needs to be explored, and reinvigorated and applied in teaching practice for the 21st century VET teacher and associated support staff.  The whole coconut represents the learning criteria and the husks within the coconut illustrate how intertwined much of this learning needs to be.  How job was to collaboratively break open this coconut (dehusk) and negotiate with participants realistic just in time learning activities and options in a project Palm action plan.  We have broken the core priority areas down into focused manageable timely learning activities and identified and connected key support methods to assist in the learning process.

So now I am going to attempt to upload this video to Youtube and share this short video of our project that will enable the metaphor to be visualised, 30 minutes work... any feedback gratefully received!