Closing remarks for conference
What Paul saw:
- people looking for deeper conceptualisations of workplace learning that are still convincingly related to empirical work
- some constructive critique of CoP as means of organisational learning
- individual as part of a social activity
- learning goes beyond participation
- strong interest in theory
Paul's wrap up included the
obligatory thank you's to various organisers and helpers.
Looking around the hall, I think about half the number are here that were here at 9am Monday morning. The weather outside beckons!
The Final Keynote seems to have come around quickly! Rethinking the relationships between on and off the job learning
If we take the view that workplace learning is participatory and informal, then:
- work related learning can become invisible
- differences between on and off job learning are exaggerated
- focus on the workplace marginalises individual learning & individual movement.
Transfer of learning implies to Phil an acquisiton mode of learning.
Learning culture is the social practices through which people learn - a learning site might be clearly bounded, the learning culture never is. The disposition of a person has as much influence on learning as the learning culture hass.
[Phil is a lively talker who is able to take the abstract and illustrate with examples well without 'dumbing it down']
Moving from learning to work can be frought with dangerous difficulties dependant largely on the social and cultural capital of the individual learner.
'Learning is Becoming'
seeing movement as a learning opportunity. Learning is not transferred, people move and learn. Movement is not always physical between fields (ie work, study, family etc).
One of the other great things Phil has been doing through his talk is referring to and drawing on the sessions he has participated in during the conference.
Better Questions?
- what learning is practically and morally achievable and desirable in any particular circumstance and for whom?
what learning can be best done off the job?
what are the relationships between on and off the job learning cultures?
how can the on and off learning cultures be better interrelated, and if/when that is desirable?
how can on/off job learning help people become who they want to be?
Building the capability of VET Providers contd...
Changing nature of work within society that also apply to the training organisation.
We are not short of theories about learning! They bring with them particular views on learning, learners and teachers. VET practitioners are not tied to any one theory, there is a pragmatism in selecting and combining theories for application to our practice. However the problem with the theories is that they are grounded in assumptions such as the separation of work and learning, and the roles that exist. Through the lens of these theories, what happens in the workplace does not fit. So the question then is... new ways of bridging the gap between work and learning, and the "ways in which workplaces can provide an environment becomes a natural and automatic outcome of learning... without direct educational interventions."
Only considered RTOs with 50+ employees.
Research to follow up on - check paper for references:
- Skule and Reichborn who identified 7 factors that influenced learning in the workplace.
- Unwin and Fuller about expansive learning environments for apprentices.
From the research 4 main categories were identified - work environment, work process environment, social interaction environment and managerial environment. There's a post earlier in this blog from a presentation Clive gave for TAFE Tasmania in October 2005 which gives some explanation of these terms.
So how can this be made useful to VET Practitioners??????
Did a smallish survey to test the theories. Initial results starting to come in, and it appears that they will have to rethink some sections of the survey. Tool has some value as a tool for Learning Development people within organisations, however a second and perhaps more important from Clive's perspective, it will start a dialogue about making the work environment more conducive to learning.
Project not yet started as place in the whole 2 year program is later.
Business models starting to emerge as commonplace in VET. Team comes from a human resource management and educational backgrounds.
Looking at HR practices as a whole eg recruiting, performance, training, pay etc etc.
Focus on strategic HR management rather than HR operations level.
Best fit rather than best practice - best fit for the case in point.
Project website at http://consortiumresearchprogram.net.au
Reports from research consortium who have been working on NCVER research this year - through the consortium they have been tackling a variety of issues and much collaboration between the focus areas. Final phase will be a series of dissemination forums in which the products and tools will be tested and evaluated.
Complexities -> Opportunities
Customisation - to what extent and who pays?
Personalisation - more than an individual plan
Need to pay attention to different learner groups, varied ways that learning can take place in the workplace, and develop partnerships with enterprises. Sustaining the partnerships is extremely demanding. Case studies are being used to delve further into these critical issues. Boutique RTOs emerging to serve niche needs.
Central West Community College Food processing example to hunt out.
So in this environment what are the skills that VET practitioners need?
Training Packages, Technology, Supporting Workplace Learning.
Assessment - need more refined skills, the process, RCC etc
Ways to develop skills need to be varied, and can include workbased learning - which seems to fit this new world.
Critical success factors-
adopting new work roles such as facilitator, learning manager, coach. Very easy to say, but another to achieve it.
promotion of creativity rather than compliance, changes in policy, developing teaching and learning resources, providing PD. "innovators driven by passion that is priceless"
Complexities are not reducing, but multiplying - VET practitioners can be innovative and creative given appropriate supports.
Keynote- Globalisation and the Changing nature of work and its impact on workplace and labour organisation
Regimentation of work is still in existence - example given from call centre industry in telecommunications industry - this is not the way work was meant to be in the 21st century! Stress generated between reasons why people have entered the industry and the ways in which their work is delivered to them and monitored - eg call observation and sales tracking. Scheduling of leave time - employees told when leave could be taken, also when mandatory overtime needed. Impact on family - no flexibility in schedule for dealing with sudden changes. Very easy to off-shore the roles. Rising levels of 'bad' jobs at large US enterprises. Previously large numbers of 'good' jobs being created in US. Reliance on large profitable firms to provide good jobs now no longer working. Not just about pay, but more about working conditions.
Impact of these changes on learning at work. Through individualisation of work delivery and completion, social aspects of work and learning have disappeared. Investment in formal training focussed on tasks, process and review of work methods. Hope in some corners whether a triple bottom line approach may lead to changes.
"A broken dream factory - there's not a single person there who wouldn't rather be somewhere else."
Web Discussion as an Assessment Tool for Practical Nurse Students Learning during work based learning
Students actually asked why discussions weren't being used as part of assessment material. They were being asked to contribute learning journals and reflection, as well as participating in web based discussions.
Students undertaking a basic vocational degree. Wide range of fields available, eg pediatric nursing, aged care, emergency basic care.
Courses are a mixture of vocational and general education - want the learners to have lifelong learning skills. Over course have 29 weeks of targeted workplacements.
There is some divergence in thought (Watson & Bjork vs Hong) about whether reading and writing or reflection can be used as valid assessment evidence.
Average age of students was 16-19 although range was from 16-43, total number 269 students, 11 teachers.
Found that web discussion was a valid method for revealing the process and outcomes of work based learning - through follwoing the threads of the discussions and looking at the interactions between students. Balance of quiet vs vocal students changed in comparison to the classroom, more need to extablish contact with others while they were in the workplace.
For first year students, they used it as a space for dealing with mistakes and the things hindering their learning. Expressing concern about [check from paper]. Mainly content reflection from the first year group.
Second year - reflection about own learning becoming stronger. Moving to process reflection rather than content reflection. Fewer negative experiences talked about. These students had the same tutors as the first years.
Third years - more positive experiences talked about. Reflection about premises ie the reality of the workplace. More ability to learn from work, and stronger integration of work and learning.
Ability to learn from work is based on the ability to reflect, but many students lack that in the beginning of their study.
The teachers were encouraged to be more hands off, more of a moderator role than leading discussion.
Assessment of discussion was introduced in the later stages, and criteria made explicit to students. In Finland the highest 'grade' is only awarded where they can reflect.
Students all given a course in ICT skills and how to operate the web discussion forum.
Q? are forums used in institutions as well?
Lots of authentic materisls created during the work placements, which they are working with teachers in how this can be used as authentic cases for teaching.
Q? Types of reflection changing over time?
Would it speed up if the length of the course was shorter?
In Finland, requirement for 3 year course length, but having trouble generally in increased drop outs. As more content is being introduced all the time, then maybe that is slowing down the progression to deeper reflection.
Elearning and virtual Communities of Practice
Using the more academic model of CoP which is about how learning actually is.
critical overview of Lave and Wenger's analytical approach to learning, and then application to a group of e-Creatives who worked together for 3 months during this project. Within Lave and Wenger's 1991 text, ' not a presrciptive model, not an educational form, but an analytical approach or lens to reveal learning as it actually is', and then later in their text, they position legitimate peripheral participation as different from traditional educational approaches. Oscillate between writing about learning actually is (academic approach) and how learning should be (practitioner model).
Wenger 1998 text
Components of learning as social participation [get from paper]
Degree students in design - photography, design, art. 22 countries, 61 students, 35 colleges.
Students allocated to groups in virtual studios.
One design brief given later in the project was "design an image that expresses the notion 03>04>05"
Discussion forum was the main communication mode for this brief.
Earlier in the project there were other briefs and groups had to decide on what briefs meant. Over time the level of groupwork increased and collaborative production of work.
Students found the provided tools annoying ie java issues, so some use of msn chat and so on emerged which was then not available to the researcher.
from the mentor - "ultimately you all have been taking time to consider what you are doing, [probably far more than you are used to] instead of the technical issues of what you are doing"
through the project moved to full legitimate participation - learning to talk and participate. Not definite outcomes but rather the process.
from a learner "taking the time to look back on everything that has happened at each stage of this process and considering the why, reflecting, questioning and learning more as we go [Kim]"
Using the CoP model orients the researcher towards-
learning to rather than learning from.
Through the process, researcher got to see some exchanges, but not the actual work process that was taking place beyond the web eg selection of images by individuals, also the use of tools beyond the provided platform meant that some dialogue was not available for consideration. Where there is not spatial co-presence, you miss some of the learning that takes place.
Using the lens of CoP - can miss some things, eg knowledge of how well students could use the keyboard, and the impact that this would have on participation. Should be looking at how learning actually is, and then see how it ought to be. Creating better models, and theorising practice.
Workplace Learning from the perspective of insitutional learning
Over time the link betweeen the world of work and institutional courses has changed and become looser, although at the same time the courses have become more likely to be national qualifications. Learning in a course has to be immediately useful the next day in the workplace, and also contribute to national qualifications and the industry as a whole.
So as a result...
What should teachers know about workplaces, and their learners?
to focus on:
- learner's perspective on work and present job
- aim of course participation
- learner's learning styles
Because of the context of VET where the teachers are generally sourced from industry the teachers should have a base of industry specific knowledge.
Learning styles information to ensure there is a consciously mixed approach to how learning takes place.
Learning Space is made up of production field (doing work) policy field (negotiation of interests) and informal social field (norms and values in social relations).
Suggestion that teachers should discuss with learners about the learning environment in the workplace and how to ameliorate barriers etc.
There are some questions teachers could use to analyze workplaces as learning spaces in the paper.
Communities of Practice change practice but not always or easily
Cohen and Prusak - CoP's are difficult to sustain
Practice has been the tricky one to embrace (earlier in this blog [September?] I have a graphic about practice in CoPs .that spells it out for me from a RTF workshop)
CoP valuable, but Hodkinson & Hodkinson also draw attention to the possibility of promoting poor practice & social inequality, or may obstruct or frustrate organisational learning (final point Huysman 2004)
Waltja CoP from 2004 had some interesting starting points as the participants had a strong awareness of what their communities needed, and then they formed the space to have discussion about their domain and practice. Has led to some participants completing a unit from the new Cert 4 in TAA. The purpose of the CoP was to look at the question of "What if we/ our communities knew about VET?"
A key element of the case studies that were used was the strong and considered facilitation including focus on trust to overcome poor practice, distance and language differences. Benefits are not always uniform for all participants within a CoP. CoPs do contribute to social learning and organisational learning/ development.
Quality Development Tools for Work-based Learning in Social and Health Care
Quality of course is subjective, related to context and relative and the different players in workbased learning have different emphases.
This study emphasised the students as the clients, and looked at various methods for gathering data about quality of WBL.
Project tookplace in a small rural vocational institution. The students were student nurses and other health care workers. The findings were that the 3 players had different aspects of quality - students, teachers and workplace tutors. Students were concerned about the personal relationships, support, tasks and trust.
Various evaluation tools were used and then evaluated for their usefulness in evaluating workbased learning. 360degree, web survey, web discussion boards, focus groups were all trialled. And the winner is... a combination that is integrated into the learning process, rather than being separate. Indicators that were developed have been found to be relevant.
Evaluation is timed later in the courses of study, when they start to prepare for their first workplacement - has required some education of the learners about abstract notions about quality. During their first week in the workplacements, web discussions are held where they can discuss their experiences ad the opportunities for learning that existi in their worplace. Also there will be a one on one discussion between the learner and the teacher - this is a feedback loop after the grades are issued
Q: role of the workplace tutor?
workplace tutors offered a course to learn about their role and evaluation of student's performance.
Q: could this be transferred to higher education? yes
Q: summary of results time demand? This is why internet survey is now used to simplify the data gathering and basic analysis.
Focus group/ interviews are not vital. After the project ends, it is likely this could be dropped and still be able to monitor the quality of WBL. For the students and the workplace tutors, the threeway discussion with the teacher is the key point of feedback and evaluation.
The conference has had a huge range of speakers. When I first looked at the program I thought 'wow! how on earth am I going to get to everything I want.' But in looking more carefully at the abstracts and papers, it became clearer. Being able to pick and choose is a little like using RSS to pick and choose. Some conferences give a limited choice of sessions whereas through this one I've almost been able to make my own program of interest to me :-)
In looking around the session I'm in at the moment (bad choice of session I'll confess) a lot of people are just sitting listening. Few are taking notes. This has been a pattern in the other sessions as well. As I was tapping away on my Palm keyboard yesterday I was taking notes and also commenting on what I was hearing. Last year while I was doing my Flexible Learning Leader project I was fortunate to attend several conferences/seminars/ forums and found that I got the most out of the sessions where I was using this kind of process. It is a mixture of consumption and production.
Something interesting must have just happened in the session because an audience member interrupted and the tone of voices just got fierce! Goodness knows what.
A looming theme from the conference is about the socio-cultural aspects of the workplace, the relationships and tensions that exist in the workplace, the nature of knowledge and the artefacts that exist. Through taking a step back from the workplace and looking from the outside in, the events and contexts of the workplace are treated in terms of organisational development and sociological theory. The few sessions so far that draw on casestudies and the details of those case studies are discussed have captured my attention the most. Tracey Lee, Kati Tikkimatta(?), Geof Hawke and Bente Noorgaard have talked more about the actual practice than most sessions.
The conference sessions are structured around a shortish talk (20 mins) then some time for Q&A in which the audience can draw on threads they found contentious, interesting or thought provoking. This has worked really well - because there are so many sessions the audience size is small and allows for some good dialogue.
Cutting it: Learning and Work performance in Hairdressing Salons
Project in progress so preliminary findings so far will be presented.
industry profile - smaller businesses, some larger salons who tend to have their own training schools.
Entry to industry - similar to Australia, but some non apprentice entry to industry through on campus offering of courses. Changes in tedchnology and styles, and increasing customer service demands.
in talk focussed on franschised salons which had their own training school for apprentices and also for qualified stylists to continue development. Mid to upper end of the market and employees get paid on commission basis.
training within the first case study HHC focussed on business service and process norms as part of the franschise package. SOPs set and adhered to globally within the chain.
mix of both training and OTJ learning. Apprentices recognised the value of informal, OTJ learning in the workplace. Work was organised around a rotating buddy system within the workplace which exposed apprentices to a range of expertise, varied contexts of hairdressing.
For more experienced stylists, learning opportunities also provided through seminars, sesions, exhibitions, competitions etc, formed groups to demonstrate to other staff. Also manufacturers showcasing and training about new products coming onto the market. Sometimes the trainees had an informal role as a teacher as they were learning at the college and bringing things back to the salons.
Performance management in aspectgs such as repeat business, upselling and so on. Goal to convert transient clients to regulars, and to convert cut and blow dry into a colour.
Further research - relationship between organisational control and availability of learning opportunities, also will be looking at independent salons and a comparitive study between independent and franschised salons.
Common Knowledge
technologies we rely on are frail, it is the social activities that make them strong Brown & Duguid 2001
through working in globalised workspace work practice textual practice - artefacts are strongly text based
'Knowledge is not transmitted by texts, it is made and transformed in and with texts, and the people who make and use the texts are real knowledge workers , in the sense that they produce the knowledge that makes the Knowledge Economy happen' (Farrell in press)
Dimensions of On-the-Job learning styles in the nursing profession
Hypothesis - if we make employees aware of their OTJ learning styles then they will learn better in the workplace.
Learning styles that are in circulation aren't ideally suited to OTJ learning, but they provide a base to work from.
Selected nursing because of the changes in the profession that are ongoing and varied in nature - technology, medical and environment.
Learning style: Tendency to use a particular combination of approaches to learning, influenced by perceived capabilities and preferences.
From interviews felt that a differentiation between holisitic and analytica learning was more dependant on the type of ward nurses were working on eg between neurological (holistic approach to whole patient condition) and intensive care (analytic focus on vital signs) wards. The nurse educators identified reflection as a method of otj learning and this raised questions from the audience about why this may be so - it was suggested this may be because their nursing training included a lot of reflection.
from this presentation I did not get a feel for whether knowing one's learning style made a difference to nurse's learning on-the-job. This was probably because the study focussed on interviewing supervisors and educators rather than nurses themselves.
CBT at the edge of Chaos
Finding the room was the first test!
Should we push competence further, not just skills, knowledge and attitudes to perform to the work tasks, or rather should it be pushed to encompass the "emergent and evolutionary ability to adapt to one's skills and knowledge to meet emerging and ever changing situations"? I suppose to some extent this depends on how much you push the contingency management and transfer dimensions of competency. In a workshop with staff last week there was discussion about the fact that the transfer dimension of competency has been removed as a specific dimension as it should be built in as part of competency. So what Phil is talking about are the employability skills that incorporate problem solving, decision making, team work, reflection, adaptation of processes to suit local contexts. Is Phil's definition of competence more about lifelong learning and conscious self and professional development than competence? More about effective workplace behaviour?
We are training for known processes and contexts, but need to be looking more at 'knowable' (yet to be known) context and process. moving from a controlled and stable workplace to an uncontrolled and unstable workplace. More problem solving than decision making happening in the workplace, or when moving to more uncontrolled, shifts to troubleshooting. So how then do we train for this reality?
Argues that the Training Packages focus on known process and context, with stable environments. While I'm listening I'm thinking about some of the units in newer training packages that include things such as personal career development, and how we are approaching some units as more focussed on development and application of research and communication skills rather than product knowledge. In that last example we are not just focussing on the learners knowing how to identify a product, but within the activities the learner is required to research products, competitor's products and customer needs. I guess though the development of the delivery model has required a critical rethink about the training.
Employability skills featured in the questions to begin with. Phil obviously feels that the current talk and action about employability skills is not sufficient. Some doubt about whether we know what we mean about learning to learn.
Difficulty of Phil's definition of competence is that we may not be able to assess it through workplace behaviour. Perhaps competence is the base, and then capability is the further step? Competence is present, and then capability is furture based.
In some ways this was a strange presentation - challenging the definition of competence and suggesting an alternative definition did not really do anything for me. It felt removed from actual practice in VET today. I think it was some of the grand sweeping statements that really bugged me as they felt dismissive.
Lonely Wolf
Engineers in SMEs
Centre for continuing education for engineers
mixture of methods used including providing industry based courses, short courses and some elearning.
Also have a role on developing learning outcomes with enterprises. Within 'method development unit ' provide teacher training for those going out to provide training in industry.
Lonely Wolf Project
aimed at engineers working in SME who may also take on other non-engineer roles such as environmental officer. Finding the right continuing education is difficult and being freed from the workplace to attend classes is difficult.
Goal was to provide CPD for engineers and also to promote local networks.
Individual Learning Contract negotiated from SWOT analysis and daily tasks. Once contract agreed then will be used to track progress.
96 participants
skills identified across a range of areas. One on one sessions will be done during project but longterm might be more coming to uni.
most of the professors enjoy getting out, voluntary participation .
Post project continuity? project probably not, but in the university yes can see facilitated WBL continuing.
Learning everywhere, all at once
Changing context of vocational education and training - the new "worker-learner". Reality is changing for everyone, not just the Gen X and Y. Orientation to opportunities not jobs.
Solomon distinguished between the worker-learner and the learner-worker. But Kate would argue about this binary view - there is a greater mesh of choices and multiple, parallel sites for learning rather than a primary site of learning - closer to Billett, and the notion of the workplace as a place of social practice.
Aim of research (get from abstract)
21st century capacity building:
Drew on research and policy [ANTA Shaping our future, Wagner & Kozma about literacy, ACCI on employability skills, Mitchell in Emerging Futures, Schofield on Flexible learning futures in VET]
Construction of the worker-learner
need to have considered pathways for the disenfranschised or disengaged into VET because they may not know how to engage or feel invited to engage.
Students recognised benefit to a class where some people working in the field, although the teachers did not necessarily exploit this as much as they could. Students saw that they would be constantly learning through their lives, but there was still a level of disconnect between their learning and their lives.
Kate used a couple of examples of learners she had interviewed who demonstrated Billett's concept of learning taking place as social engagement in a wide range of locations. The student quotes demonstrated an awareness of the employability skills that are valued by employers but not always tied to accredited training well (or perhaps not made explicit by teachers in VET). Do VET teachers need to open the dialogue more with learners about where the learning can take place.
Locations for learning
in the workplace
formal
in a community group
online resource or group
informal
f2f social network
growing awareness in younger generation of the need for social over technical skills.
A Learning Network Promoting Knowledge Management
learning networks between workplaces and research institutes.
Wanting to develop knowledge management practices within organisations.
Characteristics of a learning network:
-interaction between participants
-shared objects - view and vision
-meta knowledge, awareness of whoo knows what and where you can find knowledge
-participation
-learning processses and learning outcomes
Listening to this talk I am wondering about the differences between this learning network and a COP. Ths network seems to be very formal and a constructed network rather than a community. This may of course change over time.
Participants in the learning network mainly saw learning as acquisition and participation with only a few seeing learning as knowledge creation.
network members were from various organisations from a range of industries. After 8 months changes of practice were not yet visible, but some changes in conceptual understanding were emerging.
Participants are not meeting between network forums, a project consultant is visiting the organisations. Within the organisations however, there is a group from each. Each organisation has developed it's own project, when the network comes together there is a layer of meta-learning that is of benefit to the participants although their projects are very divergent.
Project is part of a larger program by the Finnish Workplace Development Program, from the Ministry of Labour.
Communities of Learning Poster
Kati commented that through doing her poster discussion she had had much more interaction and discussion than when presenting papers. When I was at the Workplace Learning conference in Denmark last year I heard her present a paper and the poster finalised the outcomes of her research. Rather than taking notes I used the voice recorder whilst we stood and discussed the poster content. Kati worked with two organisations to create communities of learning for frontline workers.
Challenges in achieving vocational skills through workplace leaning: a case study in Aged Care
Levels of aged care have been changing, changing requirements due to changes in government policy, levels of training required, increasing demand.
About 100 small residential homes were selected for a trial of a training program. They were divided into three groups a) satellite broadcasts only b)satellite and flexible learning package and c) flexible learning package only.
Pre- and post- program staff performance ratings for managers to complete.
In this program, satellite training sessions 45 minutes done professionally, hosted and context explained, then expert from industry for specialised session with talking head with some case studies of practice to illustrate points. sessions included group discussion in the aged care home about material covered - and then feed questions back in real time eg by phone or fax and them be answered by expert. Fewer questions were being asked as the program progressed.
Scheduling staff to participate in broadcasts was a real problem for some homes. Each program was broadcast 3 times (second and third were repeats, but questions fielded by experts by phone still)
Satellite program had a lower response rate, and a lot had not participated in the program - because it was all just too hard.
Satellite program group some also went and developed their own training program/material because they did not feel the satellite was enough. Also group b who had combined materials discarded satellite sessions as the flexible learning package duplicated it.
The fact the program was developed was a positive move for the employees.
Competing pressures in the workplace such as providing care and not enough leeway in staff numbers to enable learning programs to operate, finding right person to facilitate the program in house. Despite the fact that the program was for benefit of staff they resisted participating because they saw it as taking away for their prime reason for being at work - to provide care for residents.
Length of the program was an issue due to high staff turnover. Smaller workplaces are unlikely to provide opportunities for accredited training without external support.
Prof. Bente Elkjaer (Doctoral school of Organizational Learning)
Keynote Monday 12th December
Stupid organisation how will you ever learn?
need for tensions in organization, learning @ work collective colIaborative, priority on business needs rather than education
Organizational Learning shift from process improvement (individual and their cognition) to COP (participation and practice).
what happens in participation that we can call it learning?
3rd wave - leave individual and environment together, just as there is not a separation between thought and actions. Learning triggered when habitual actions and patterns no longer work (Dewey)
Case Study of Digitalisation of a municipality in Denmark - versions of stories about the change process derived from interviews:
- change / project fatigue vs. new & exciting things happening
- fear of staff cuts vs. chance to get new tasks
- org change as planned and implemented vs. adhoc & bottom up
both insurmountable and bridgeable tensions identified.
to Learnscope Showcase Day,Tasmania. Dec 5
EPIC
E
volving Personalised Information Construct
One way street many years ago where information came to you eg TV, newspaper.
T
hen two way channels became available, however you needed to be an expert to publish a webpage or pay someone else to do it.
R
ecently, whole suite of tools to DIY are all there for 'normal' people to use.
.
..
C
an't afford to keep investing huge amounts of money into developing learning resources when there are cheaper ways of doing things. Rather than spending $20-60K should be looking elsewhere.
Wikipedia - rigour and accuracy etc previously was better. Story of finding a fantastic 3d animation for a teacher free of change when they had been planning to spend tens of thousands.
Social Networking - When creating your profile then the systems can start linking you with others. This has a lot of power in terms of building networks. Enabled a spike in content creation and location.
Q
uestion then will be how do we find the content that is out there? Over the years lots of $ has been spent on shareable learning content systems.
Y
ou can subscribe to a blog and get immediate notification on topics that are of interest to yourself. This also means that you can miss out on things because you are only seeing what you have selected. Subscribing to diverse points of view on topics of interest enables deeper reading and thinking than available in mainstream media??
Q
uestiosn from the audience on how do you know you are getting the best stuff? - My thoughts are that when you subscribe to a wide range of materials that each draw on a range then you are less likely to restrict. Could a possibility be to subscribe to some peripherals or dissenters to keep you on your toes?
Tagging - metadata on resources so that can be quickly found. Tagging is about a grassroots approach to metadata "taslearnscope05" suggested as the tag for today.
Massive spike in content and Creative Commons is the stuff that makes the spike in content useable. Highlighted the difference in content ownership for parttime and fulltime teachers. I think from previous converstions that the parttime teachers in TAENSW are all contract, no permanent parttime.
"We need
d
igital image literacy
t
o be on an open network
t
o be free and open source"
need to be able to use webmail rather than just Outlook (in our case Groupwise) The software we use in organisations needs to be transferable to other parts of our life. WebCT given as an example where a change of location may mean change of LMS.
Open network - not having our resources locked away behind password controls. Previously you could walk into a library and open a book and teach yourself, couldn't walk out with books without a library card. Make it okay for people to read our content, but maybe pay for facilitation, accreditation, guidance and assessment. Free to learn, costs money to be educated.
Leigh told his story about the TAFE NSW blocking filters and the impact on youth at risk class, and the student who ended up drawing a line for himself and increased his media literacy through the process.
Role of education is to find ways to support development of media literacy for selves and students.
Wants to find a way to enable teachers to teach on an open networks, and students can learn on an open network.
Http/;//networkedlearning.wikispaces.com
Ended presentation with attribution page for flickr photos!
Afternoon Workshop to concentrate on tools that will be relevant for the next 5-10 years.
(a placeholder for the morning session once my Palm's Docs to Go starts talking nicely to me again)
Social networking tools workshop
Screencasting http://screencasting.blogspot.com/
Uses webbased services in preference to software requiring installation as they gives more flexibility about how and where it can be used.
Session started with a brief intro to blogs - different parts of the screen. He uses blog to support learning eg with voice recordings for the odd occasion people don't make it to class, or when we have a guestspeaker.
"I've yet to meet a student who is ferociously self directed with online learning."
A few laughs for starting to delete the entry for Launceston in wikipedia (changes were not saved)
Question from the floor about starting a wiki vs a blog: wiki as a community tool much more complex, because blogs are more personal then you have a sense of ownership and ulitmate control. Invest more time as the response is to me as well - much more personal. Tried to make the blendedlearning.wikispaces.com site as a large wikipedia like site about blended learning but basically has evolved into Leigh and Sean Fitzgerald.
Feedbooks - request for live example from audience. Leigh talked about this using bloglines which was not really where the question was heading I suspect.
Brought up the game that a student had modded to include chemistry questions. http://teachandlearnonline.blogspot.com/2005/12/get-your-assessment-questions-into.html
Bookmarking using Del.icio.us - Leigh suggested in his earlier session that the tag of taslearnscope05 for any material loaded to the web from today. Wendy was the willing guineapig from the audience to set up a delicious account. Whilst listening to the session I have also added this blog entry to del.icio.us By using the information provided by del.icio.us about other people who have tagged this site you can start working through the web and finding other people.
Rebecca was then the guineapig for setting up a blog in Blogger at launcestonretailhospitality.blogspot.com
Speed of setting up a blog and posting - great no wait time for getting it checked etc.
Leigh then added Rebecca's blog to his bloglines account.
Janice was the bloglines guineapig.
Tools are about creating and consuming content - blogging takes more effort to make part of lives whereas we have more history of being consumers than creators.
Flickr.com for creative commons imagery - at http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/ specifically for the creative commons licensed material. Leigh quickly showed the note feature. Note to self: Without logging in I have not yet been able to find the creative commons link from the front page. Must add to my bookmarks toolbar.