November 01, 2004
Book to buy I think
link to website
Author: Morrison, Don
Imprint: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Date Published: 14/03/2003
Fully on-the-job training: Experiences and steps ahead
link to pdf
by Susanne Wood for NCVER
"Fully on-the-job training, the majority of which is conducted in the workplace as part of the normal experience of the employee, is perceived to offer benefits to apprentices/trainees, employers and registered training organisations. This report finds fully on-the-job training is viewed by learners and registered training organisations as a good way to learn as it provides flexibility for all concerned and financial incentives to employers. With appropriate support for learners, benefits of this type of training include learning that is customised, encompasses real work experiences and is relevant to the individual and the enterprise. It also helps to identify ongoing employment opportunities for the learners and employers. Suggested areas for improvement include improving: the level of networking among students, levels of time management skills of learners, the balance between work and study requirements, the level of theory training, and the way trainees are valued in the workplace."
The vocational education and training workforce: New roles and ways of working - At a glance
from NCVER
"Reforms to Australia's vocational education and training (VET) sector over the past few years have brought about significant changes to the work of VET staff and the focus of their roles. This publication summarises recent research into the changing roles of VET leaders, managers, teaching and support staff, and the way they work. The role of senior managers is increasingly focused on the external environment and building links with stakeholder organisations. Front-line managers focus on internal business practices and how to modify these to meet new clients' needs. The role of VET teachers is becoming more diverse and team-based. Within these teams, teaching support staff play a critical part. The publication also summarises a range of human resource and professional development issues, identified by VET staff, which need to be tackled to help them work more effectively in the future."
I found this a solid summary of various issues that have been covered in more detail elsewhere, covering both the changes that are needed, and the capability building that is required to get there.
Drivers and Barriers in Elearning
As part of some study I have been doing this year, I completed a project about barriers and drivers for teaching staff in adopting elearning for learner support and information provision. This has been based on a literature review and also consultation with teaching and support staff in VET in Australia. These are my conclusions about what constitutes the major barriers for the early majority. Click on the images for larger versions. Oh, and it was my final subject in a Graduate Diploma in Further Education and Training, so yippee!
November 02, 2004
Denmark - VET
National Initiatives Concerning Research on Education/Training - Denmark
National Initiatives Concerning Research on Education/Training - Denmark
Kubix - Denmark
Kubix works with working life issues:
# Competence development and work organization
# Development of vocational education and training
# Development of an interplay between companies and training institutions
# Organizational change in public and private enterprises
Adult Vocational Training Concept - Denmark
New adult vocational training concept - Placing the user in the centre
Information about VET in Denmark
New adult vocational training concept
- Placing the user in the centre
Abstract
When the Danish Government took office in November 2001 it transferred the adult vocational training system to the Ministry of Education. The aim was to create a dynamic interaction between initial vocational education and training and adult vocational training programmes. Intensive efforts have since been made to create a framework that ensures that future education and training becomes so targeted and flexible that they will be able to handle the very different needs of enterprises and employees for competence development.
This booklet which contains a translation of the original Danish edition published November 2003 provides more detailed information about the new flexible adult vocational training concept and the increased interaction between initial vocational education and training and adult vocational training efforts. It also describes how the changed financial governance and the new institutional structure support the adult vocational training concept.
more Danish information
Education and training at vocational colleges in Denmark
November 03, 2004
Non-formal learning: mapping the conceptual terrain
link to website
"In this piece Helen Colley, Phil Hodkinson & Janice Malcolm provide a very helpful overview of different discourses around non-formal and informal learning and find that there are few, if any, learning situations where either informal or formal elements are completely absent. Boundaries or relationships between informal, non-formal and formal learning can only be understood within particular contexts. They conclude that it is often more helpful to examine dimensions of formality and informality, and ways in which they inter-relate with each other; and that attention should be paid to the wider historical, social, political and economic contexts of learning, and to the theoretical view of learning that is held by the writer."
November 08, 2004
Net*Working 2004 Online Conference
Here I'll be blogging the NW2004 conference - feels a bit bizarre to blog an online conference, but as only registered participants can view the site and articles, I'll include some snippets that may be of interest. Also makes for a permanent record for me.
From the site: "NET*Working 2004 is an initiative of the Australian Flexible Learning Framework which is a national strategy to support Australia's vocational education and training system meet the rapidly increasing demand for flexible learning, including e-learning, from industry, enterprise and clients."
Conference presentations are using a range of tools - discussion forums, Elluminate for synchronous presentations, Wimba for voice discussion boards, and many presenters have uploaded bundles of resources and files to start the thinking juices flowing.
Best get into the site and hunt out some presenters - My areas of interest are wide but include: Workplace Learning, Flexible Learning adoption and implementation, cost-effective tools and techniques, learning design and so on. One of the beauties of the online conference is the range of topics covered, so I'll be sure to throw in a few odd ones from left-field.
Blogmapper
This tool allows you to include long/lat location information in a blog post, and then generate an interactive map that plots your blog posts. Posts are represented by red dots. When you click on a red dot, the post appears.
Neat. Might try using this as a way of plotting my journey this year, might not, sure a way of using it will come to me eventually ;-)
Thanks to Marilyn Harvey and her website at http://www.learningbytes.net/ for the link to this.
Tradies get Online
A group of four Flexible Learning Leaders interested in the trade areas have started off what looks to be an fascinating discussion. Vanessa Marsh, Brian Gepp, Roger Parry and Steve Elsegood have posed questions around
1) Apprentice Training - Gathering Evidence in the Workplace
2) Essential requirements of offering Flexible Delivery in Trades
3) Factors influencing the uptake of flexible learning in the trade areas!
4) Student management and tracking
From the discussion so far it would appear some of the changes promised by Training Packages and on-the-job training are yet to permeate the trade areas. Negotiation seems to be the key in the examples given where progress is being made.
Colours
decided I don't really like the green colour on the sidebar. Must change it.
Blog-On! in Moodle
Created by Sean Fitzgerald and Wendy Zammit, this course will introduce you to self-publishing tools such as online journals and blogs and will show you how these tools can be used in the classroom. " Tjis
This looks interesting, but I'm too early - starts tomorrow
Dissemination
Kate Fannon is facilitating a discussion about dissemination strategies called "Off the page into the head - a dissemination challenge". Kate manages the Appplied Research Program and produced a CDrom of the 2003 projects. Rather than the typical pdf reports, this cd includes video of the researchers talking about their projects.
The 2003 Applied Research project produced five research papers on elearning, covering barriers to adoption, learning needs, workplace cultures and accessibility.
The Australian Flexible Learning Framework's Research Program (2000-2002) conducted an integrated three-year research and dissemination program on pedagogical, technical and managerial aspects of flexible learning in Vocational Education and Training (VET) with specific reference to e-learning.
The discussion within Net*Working focusses on the best ways of sharing information like this. In terms of my role, I find that I will email people with links to resources they may find useful, or file for future reference against the day I need to find something quickly. In addition, to improve follow through, local champions are important. More to come from this discussion I suspect.
Death of the Online Course
Charles Jennings argues that "Research is showing that the explosion of knowledge, the increasingly complex world in which we live, and the need for 'just-in-time' capability is exposing the deficiencies in event-driven learning. The 'course' is becoming less appropriate in the modern world as a method for building knowledge and capability. "
In the audio introduction Jennings describes the context within which he works - Reuters which is a 'fast realtime environment'. He challenges us that the online course will die, and be replaced by individualised and personalised approaches to learning. Jennings sees that formal learning is dying already 1) business is changing rapidly, 2) changed workpatterns make a full day courses difficult to schedule, and 3) technology enables us to learn in smarter ways.
November 09, 2004
Curtis Bonk elluminate #1
Caught the tail end of Curt Bonk's Elluminate presentation. To get people involved he recommends that case studies, mentoring and buddies, and also making use of the social networking that comes as part of workshops etc.
In the Q&A that followed the formal session, he pondered if with the move to online, we are starting to consider more the range of strategies, and if it is easier to provide more options for learning styles, and suggested that it becomes more explicit when we are meeting the range. This requires deliberation on the part of the teacher. How all the various activities meld into a grade is not always clear. Infrastructure becomes an important part of the equation too.
I wonder if slides will become available or any recordings of the Elluminate sessions?
UPDATE: went back and listened to the recorded presentation that was available. Link to website http://mypage.iu.edu/~cjbonk/ including links to presentations (including this one) for download here
On Educational Technology Curt says: "Resistence is futile" - in a lot of cases we don't recognise the tools that we use everyday as ed tech.
There are continuums based on risk, time, cost, student outcomes. Think about where tools sit on the various continuums.
In terms of resistance, in a poll of the audience, limited familiarity and experience, no time to plan for it and limited support from administration were identified as key reasons.
November 14, 2004
Danish Weather
Snow on Thursday 18th in Copenhagen according to the forecasts.
November 17, 2004
Knowledge Management
in this article from innovate online journal, by Donald Norris, Jon Mason, and Paul Lefrere discuss "Experiencing Knowledge"
..."Taken together, some of the most significant trends indicate the emergence of pervasive computing environments. By pervasive computing, we mean a combination of mobile information and communications technology (through laptops, notebooks, personal digital assistants, and fused-function devices) and ubiquitous computer technology (through the embedding of small, low-cost devices in clothing, appliances, cars, automobiles, work settings, and every other place). Pervasive, ambient computing environments are portrayed in Figure 1. These new technology-suffused settings will change the knowledge experience, disrupting many of our social, organizational, economic, and institutional structures. They will also stimulate new pathways to innovation."
November 29, 2004
Workplace Learning: From the Learner's Perspective
Despite the weather bureau's promise of snow, rain has been settling over Copenhagen for the past few days. The bitter cold contrasts with the steaming warmth inside, so I'm forever removing and replacing gloves, scarf and jacket.
From Thursday to Saturday there has been an interesting mix of presentations from organisational development through interventions to descriptions of learning rallies. All with the focus on developing competence - sometimes the workers, but more often the overall competence of large organisations. The majority of presenters were from the higher education sector, and a large number were PhD students presenting works in progress.
Summary (very brief) of my learning from the conference:
- Worker's identity are seen as being either in a struggle against the workplace domination, or expressed through emancipation into more challenging roles.
- That organisational theory was never far from the surface - where I would talk of education/training, presenters talked in terms of interventions.
- Many were concerned about transfer of school learning to the workplace, or continuance post-intervention.
Through my project this year I have been pondering how to capture informal learning. Some argued that it should not be formalised in this way, but rather 'valued'. Yet within the VET sector, we need evidence of competence, and informal learning would seem to be a key part of the process.
more to come...
November 30, 2004
Workplace Learning contd...
On the final day of the conference David Boud and Knud Illeris both presented keynote speeches, which I guess where most in alignment with my current thinking about issues in workplace learning. The subtitle of the conference had attracted me greatly, but it was ‘from the learner’s perspective’ which I found a little lacking. On this final day the learner emerged as a distinct individual. Perhaps this was more due to the majority of presentations being given in the author’s second (or more) language. I think that if I had not studied organisational theory earlier in the year, much of the conference would have been difficult to connect with. Reflection was a strong theme in the learning strategies, in some ways this was the dominant learning strategy represented.
In one of the breaks I spoke briefly to Steen Elsborg about a project in the construction industry (project website here) In this project the main focus was about finding the best way of running the large construction sites. Workers were involved in weekly meetings, during which the next week’s work would be planned and also learning sessions would take place. Acceptance by the workers was helped through the early implementation of their suggestions for changing practice and the project as a whole has led to higher workplace and employability skills (as they are termed in Australia). Through this process workers were awarded a Diploma of Communication. Teachers from vocational colleges were involved and each week would prepare a session – sometimes the workers would suggest a topic, other times the teacher would select. This required a greater degree of flexibility than the teachers were used to, so there were learning experiences for them too. Further projects will continue to explore this process, and managers will also be offered training.
still more to come...