Well its been awhile... back to the workshop and back in the headspace...

Reflection on today....

You need to ensure that the structure, delivery and content must be interesting and relevant to your students, its not for audit or assessment sake only.... the learning process is important.

The importance of teachers remains.

Inside the black box... http://weaeducation.typepad.co.uk/files/blackbox-1.pdf

Julie Derksen - Design for how people learn, vocies that matter.

Assessment needs to be integrated, not separate, formative to support and reinforce the learning.

http://blog.cathy-moore.com/ - instructional design tips etc.

Instead of emailing answers to people create a screen cast instantly.

Gardens need good gardeners - you need to tend to it and grow it, otherwise it may disappear or be taken over.

Acrobat

• can create a folio/folder - group elements together to give to students.
• fill in forms inc electronic signature

Lifecycle Designer - form creator - Acrobat Pro10

http://www.html9responsiveboilerstrapjs.com/

create JS - how to export flash files to i appliances

http://wallwisher.com/

Rod - uploading video evidence in my.TAFe - check how SQIT have gone about it!

Sings... these are a few of my favourite things!

My most recent gems!

Benjamin Zander - an orchestra conductor that has become a speaker on leadership, in partnership with Rosamund Zander who wrote the book An Art of Possibility.
http://www.benjaminzander.com/
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html

Nigel Marsh
http://nigelmarsh.com/
I just finished reading Fat Forty and Fired and laughed a lot! I remember one of our managers telling a story years ago about the myth of work-life balance... examplified by her story of being late to go home one night. In an effort to make providing dinner easier she went via the Red Rooster drive thru to grab a cooked chook. Just as she pulled up at the end of the line up of cars her phone rang... "are you to lady in the red car in the drive thru at Red Rooster?" to which she replied yes.... "Well this is your husband in the first car in the line-up at the Red Rooster drive thru, I'll get dinner tonight." or something to that effect... heheheh. Nigel has TED talks and three books and more... check out his website for the links. I'm due to start Overworked and Underlaid next and have his third too. Another part of my life balance changes has been enforced by the switching off of the analogue system. I now have no tv in my bedroom and that is a great thing... I am reading again... more than just work books, well they are sort of, but still fun!

Free Technology Tools for Teachers by Mickie Mueller
http://www.livebinders.com/play/play/108629

And if you get a chance to see it...
"The First Grader" http://www.thefirstgrader-themovie.com/
The importance of education and old goats.

Social me instead of social media!

Been the little travel tart of late, right up there with the social media tart...  basically just a social tart... that covers all!


I just posted a response to Colleen's prompts and it reminded me of how much I love blogging... it is such a useful tool! And yes I just need to give it time... because when I think back over the last few weeks since our workshop I have done sooooo much that blogging will help me remember and maximise the use of all of the learnings...


So let me think... following uni I spent a fair amount time searching twitter, TED-talks, YouTube and Delicious accounts searching for more and more resources, not only for Social Media, but for TAE and for my uni as well.

I have been adding my finds to Twitter, Facebook FNQ eLearning and to my Delicious account. I must repeat Simon's prompt... retweeting something is not enough, you have to actually use something or make a change because of it... so I have stopped searching so much until I actually know what I want to find... if that makes sense?

One of the things I actually learnt at uni... yes stranger things will happen... was how to really manage time... STOP LAUGHING! I may not have implemented my learning yet... but I have time... oh shaddup! They forced us to write a career goal... then to break this down into actual steps... then to give these steps action plans and time frames. Blah blah blah I teach this, you don't have to tell me the devil is in the detail and success comes from clear planning so my first reaction was to go searching on twitter or facebook for something way more interesting to do when the lecturer said she would be coming around to check our plans... holy crap! Accountability! So I frantically started scribbling and then it hit me... this is what I actually have to do! I tell everyone all the time however the reality for me is its often all in my head... I skip steps... I leave it all until the last minute. And I more often than not pull it off okay... (except my Diploma of eLearning)... but this whole process finally hit home for me, in more ways than I care to consider.

Stupid thing was I didn't plan out any of the projects I actually have to do, I decided to work on something else, it gave me the framework to come back to... but my life took over then... and time management flew out the window as it does! I realised how much I say yes and do things without really considering the time required... I thought the DC-LP project would double up as my uni project plus getting the social media program underway... great thought process but that was as far as it got. On top of that I have taken on the Chair for the Recognition Services Network for the year, that'll be part of my LVT role I said... and agreed to get the Diplomas of VET and TD&D up and running as soon as the hours were out, so asked to go to the IBSA Diplomas workshop in Brissy, plus encouraged Management to let me do the staff TAA upgrades... on top of a full student workload.

So after four days of uni I attended the "Integrating LLN into VET" Workshop in Brissy before rushing to the airport to get back to Cairns in time for dinner with friends... alas the flight was three hours late, and I had left my pillow at the hotel... so I got home very later, very tired and very sore (back) and a tad hungry.

The next week was slam back into work and trying to let the information from the weeks before filter. I was organising the RSN VC, catching up with students, still searching for sites and ideas and adding to the never ending list of twitter feeds... plus I threw in a play called "At sea, looking up" and dinner with friends... the usual Wednesday visit up the hill day for the and trivia night at Cazalys... and I was supposed to be back down in Brissy for the weekend, alas I cancelled those plans just to give me some head space and a weekend of not doing my uni assignment.

Sarah-Jane and I organised to meet up on a Friday to check how we were both going with our DC-LP projects and that meeting has been useful! I was able to assist Sarah-Jane with the chatroom function in my.TAFE, plus the instant messenger function, before she went to TI, and it was good as we shared the information with another teacher who had had the flashing yellow speech bubble above her icon for months not knowing what it was... we are all learning everyday!

I flew down to Brissy the next Tuesday to the IBSA Diplomas in VET workshop, another fabulous day networking with many people and realising I was on track okay with my Diploma delivery plans.

That night I spent with my parents before flying back in the morning and it was an incredible night spent reading my grandfather's diary from 1929. How incredible was it to read the day to day activities, to get a sneak peak into the life of a grandfather I never knew, the life and times of the day, the influences on my family, the great-grandfather that we all thought had been banished before his son's birth but was still in touch at times with his son, the meeting of my grandmother... and did you know "feeling seedy" was an acceptable term for hungover in the 1920s! But what it showed me more than anything was that we still hunger to understand each other in our everyday lives, and blogging/tweeting/facebooking are just different ways of doing that! Its the connections and learning that matter, the mediums haven't changed so much really, its all storytelling!

So then I jumped on the Yammer bandwagon, well more like stood up and whipped those horses alongside Simon! After meeting Stephen Ward at the LLN workshop we decided to use Yammer as our TAE TALN site instead of my.TAFE. Easier and quicker to join and participate and we don't have to "add" people in etc. I created the Terrific Awesome and Exciting TAE10 group, which is now one of the meeting sites for the renewed Training and Assessment Community of Practice. When I was at the IBSA workshop I asked everyone interested to give me their email address to start a mailing list, plus I invited all of the old TAACOP to participate. We have also created a LinkedIn TAE10 group to enable those non-deta people to participate. Use of Yammer is growing and when I returned from the workshop my Manager also said she had been in to look and has suggested it as a TALN site for the Tourism teachers as well, a conversation they had been having about seeking moderation from other TAFE Tourism teachers.

So... another week back to work and despite my nearly webbed feet I have been madly trying to finish building my TAE40110 my.TAFE site, mark assessment, get up and down the hill safely on Wednesdays, tuning in to the Friday webconference, threw in a couple of dinners and movies with friends and remembered that Colleen wants our plans today and my uni assignment is due Monday. Oh we also threw in days out doing our planning and timetabling for next Semester... still have to finalise my course review... another document due next week. You'll be pleased to know I at least have timetabled my next term and semester with study groups and chat rooms to try and coordinate a lot of these students studying flexibly.

I am going to post up another blog in a minute about some of my favourite recent finds... they are not specifically DC-LP related but will be relevant to all in the field of training and education, or you can look at twitter or facebook or delicious. JonPigeon still reigns supreme!

Just want to share a photo I took of hours of business in a business' window the other day... nice to know some things haven't changed for awhile.!

I best get onto it all... thanks for reading!

March To Do!

My project is to develop a "social media for business" program based on ICAWEB201A Use social media tools for collaboration and engagement, hosted in my.TAFE but facilitated collaboratively by interested trainers from all TAFE Institutes. The idea is to be able to develop a comprehensive yet varied resource to met a variety of client needs, whilst the collaborative facilitation models the networking and support social media can provide to business. It also has the benefits of quick capacity for development in a shared model, and access to students at all times across the Institutes.

How are you clarifying the focus and brief of your project with your sponsor and Institute?

• I awaiting the resources being developed by MSIT which has now been received.
• I put out a notice in Yammer to obtain interest from other Institutes, I need to formalise this with those who indicated interest and also approach Faculty managers / teachers in the various Institutes to confirm participation
• I sought support from our librarians in accessing existing "how to" resources.
• I clarified with Marketing the EOI levels they are receiving for the program.
• I sought support from Learning Technologies to build the my.TAFE site.

What research are you doing , have you found,  that clarifies your target learners and their characteristics and learning needs?

• I have joined the Social Learning Community in Yammer
• I have followed a variety of social media and social learning twitter feeds
• I have accessed my librarian's Delicious account as she just completed a Masters subject on sical media for librarians!
• I have been adding to my delicious account as I have located social media resources and articles
• I have located an article, need to copy, which highlights the key issues of social media for business

Key issues:

• social media is free advertising - bang for buck but can also backfire!
• the efforts need to be directly related to core business and development of business
• raising profile and awareness - choosing the best medium to access the key clients
• issues of professionalism / code of conduct / social media policy

Learner Group

• EOIs from businesses - online market
• teachers wanting to learn appropriate use of social media for learning and business development
• use of social media for professional development
• networking and support
• self-paced plus group learning
• need to use the media in the learning
• mobile applications

What information have you found, interpreted and analysed that helps you determine the digital content design/learning design for your project?

• hmmm still working on this one, apart from facilitating within the medium we are trying to assist people to learn

What types of digital content, learning design might be suitable for this learner group? 

• one central space to build the networking and access to resources.
• you-tube how to clips including captivate.

Are there legal ethical issues you must be aware of, as you design your digital content/learning strategy?

• copyright
• code of conduct and use of social media
• professionalism and respect for privacy
• use of company / business logos information

 How and where are you documenting your research?

• will continue to post here once I get past my uni assignments!

Prompt from Colleen!

I need to timetable blogging and DO IT!!! This is Colleen's reminder after our webconference Friday so time to give to it tonight I hope!

Hi all it was great to connect with some of you last week at our third web conference for the year. 

However I think it is a tad disappointing that so many of you have not necessarily been able to prioritise these web conference sessions into your working week.  Remember that your Institute has signed off to support you in this program as did you and this means time release from your duties to do some activities and learning as part of this capability program.   Let me know if I can help you in getting this support happening. 

Having said all that........ I do know that there are priorities in your work lives, so here is the web conference recording link so that you can watch and do the activities in your own time. 

https://iconnect.eq.edu.au/play_recording.html?recordingId=1270668670819_1332458876967

All web conference recordings and documents are available under the Collaborate link on the left navigation bar in the my.TAFE site and can be accessed any time. 

Note:  There are now only 5 days till April 2012 so the deadline for the "March - To do list" is creeping closer.  Please don't hesitate to contact me if you require any support/assistance as I am happy to program in some one on one sessions with you prior to our next web conference scheduled for the 20th April. 

I will be releasing an April to do list via my blog in the first week in April so make sure that you have this site bookmarked and linked. http://connectcolleen.blogspot.com.au

so if your project is stuck .. or you are.. try these links at the very least to make you smile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAEjqXGd0lc

http://www.famous-quotes.net/Topic.aspx?Project_Management

News from Colleen...

Colleen has sent through the March "To Do" list and I am posting it in my blog to remind me what to do... highlighted items have been completed, its a start at least, the rest a work in progress!

Following on from our recent workshop held in Brisbane on the 1st and 2nd March there are a few things that need to be completed over the coming month so that you can keep on track with your capability development and your Institute project.  So here are my suggestions for some action items to be completed in March. 

Creation

Set up your blog and use it to reflect on your project and learning. Make a habit of posting what you are learning and use the questions below to focus your thoughts in March. Follow your fellow participants learning via their blog and make comments where useful.



Phase 1 of your Digital Content - Leading Practice project is about research ( so in March think about blogging around the key questions below) PS these questions align with the TAADES503A unit

Element 1 - Determine the scope and research the e-learning resource.

1. How are you clarifying the focus and brief of your project with your sponsor and Institute?
2. What research are you doing , have you found,  that clarifies your target learners and their characteristics and learning needs?
3. What information have you found, interpreted and analysed that helps you determine the digital content design/learning design for your project?
4. What types of digital content, learning design might be suitable for this learner group?
5.  Are there legal ethical issues you must be aware of, as you design your digital content/learning strategy?
6.  How and where are you documenting your research?

Communication:

•  post to the my.TAFE forum for this group

Collaboration

• Meet with your sponsor and clarify what you are designing for your project and what your thoughts were about the recent workshop.  Set up a monthly schedule of checkin coffee chats!
• Share your project plan documents in the document library folder that has been set up for each of you in the my.TAFE site.

Collation

• Set up a filing system and delicious site where you can bookmark useful research and links that you find
• Feel free to add useful documents to your my.TAFE folder in the document library
• Check out this FlickR site I have created where I http://www.flickr.com/groups/connectcolleen/pool/show/am going to collate all photos once permission from you all has been granted.

Connections

• Consider using twitter/RSS feeds or other as a way to check out what other Learning professionals are reading and commenting on 
• Feel free to follow me on twi tter and check out who I follow

March scheduled Activities

1. iConnect web conference Friday 9th March between 12- 1pm.  This web conferecne will focus on the blogging process and ensuring that all communication tools and strategies have been set up and understood.  The link and information for how to connect is located in a document on your USB called Web conference 1  
2. iConnect web conference March 23rd 12- 1pm.  This session will allow us to share progress and activity around your project and will focus on skills, activities that you determine are Just in time learning for you.  Input as to what you would like to see, hear, do in this session can be emailed to Colleen at any time prior to the 16th March 2012 or posted in the Webconference 3 - March 23rd thread in the my.TAFE site
3. Complete the survey monkey workshop evaluation survey that will be sent to you in the 3rd week in March

It's still all about ME!

After a weekend with the fam without a laptop (yes fool me left it at the workshop and it was locked up in the Manager's office until I nearly kissed their feet this morning!) I still managed to mark assessment, contact students and blog on my phone... Mum was impressed, and not, all at the same time... but she loves being able to scroll Facebook on my phone... Dad was concerned for my eyesight... and my niece and nephew were disappointed in the limited battery left on my phone... nothing that their 100 photos didn't use up!
I have returned to Brisbane for the third residential of the PSM Program... forcing me to put my head in a different space for a bit. The unit is called Managing In and is all about ME... nice segway from my previous post...lol... The most interesting part of the day for me was the introduction from someone important... note I cannot recall the name... there's a reason for that... because after the hellos and welcome someone's phone buzzed and the welcomer "took the prime opportunity to tell us to all turn off our phones, (the lecturer) will give you the break times so please turn the phones off and pass the timetable on to others for them to contact you during those break times only." Yeahhhh right... Most had the decency to turn them to silent, and no one accepted calls during class... well that I noted... but the odd vibrations continued throughout the day, the occasional out and out beep, and many of us remained on our laptops/ipads, answering the odd email as the day progressed and making calls in the breaks... we could and sometime had to multitask. The second fascinating thing was the distribution of paper handouts... when I produced a USB and asked for an electronic copy of the presentation to share with everyone the facilitator hesitated and then said would email me... still haven't received it...

Anyway they asked us to introduce ourselves today with a word starting with the same as our name... I went with Social Sandie and everyone heartily agreed... they were all hear-hearing when I asked for the electronic copies of notes to distribute... so the tart tag continues... and when they asked us to keep a reflective journal this week my eyes blogged - I mean bulged! Another blog!! Killing more birds with one stone than I care to count, hoping they are all Indian Mynars!

It's all about me!

So how did I earn the Social Media tart label? Well the following list has a lot to do with it, feel free to join, follow, like, add, but no poking! (What is it with that???)

Email addresses:
sandie_mccoy@yahoo.com.au
sandie.mccoy@deta.qld.gov.au
sandie.mccoy@gmail.com

Facebook:
I have created many groups in Facebook, family and school groups are closed and invite only, but others are open to join. I started a Food Fun and Friends group mainly for Cairns people, to let everyone know quickly and easily what we are up to and what is happening socially in our community, provide reviews and support for local events and restaurants, and encourage people to have fun and support our local events and activities... and my efforts to keep all of the restaurants open (or just not cook for myself)!

The second group is called FNQ eLearning (Far flung and Neighbourly Queenslanders) and it was initially and effort to keep those of us who met at a Francis Kneebone Cairns workshop in touch, as we were not all TAFE people. I had hoped we could get together and catch up again however that takes time, coordination and energy, when its really easy to post links, ideas and tune in or out as you wish too. As you can see if you join, its mostly my place to share links and ideas, but others have commented to me they enjoy the prompts... one day we will have a real coffee in a real coffee shop together... I hope! Again my efforts to keep the local eating establishments reign supreme!

I created a LinkedIn account awhile back for the purpose of professional networking etc, plus we decided it might be the best place to run our uni group for the Public Sector Management Program, Graduate Certificate in Public Sector Management (insert vomit here)... no really it is good, and my public servant heart sings if but to a slightly different tune than most! The goal was professional and secure networking across the many government departments represented in the group and a one stop shop for resources, but the take up has been minimal, we are still an email all group more than anything. I joined many groups when I first joined up to LinkedIn, however the subscription emails drove me bonkers and I just deleted before reading, neither did I go into the groups often... so after awhile it was more following and linking with significant others and then seeing what they were saying within the groups, that helped me narrow down to those worthwhile and relevant to me. No food connections here sorry... a little disappointed in myself really...

Yammer... Love it! You don't have to search for like minded people... they are right there working alongside us! It was one of the first places I joined / went to and yes I lurked for ages, learnt heaps and it was reinforced by one of the readings in the workshop I attended today with the comment "stealth learning" not realising what you are learning at work and outside of it by just reading and being exposed to others' learnings.... you don't have to take it on immediately but it might spark you to explore or someday later you wil go "Oh I remember something about that in Yammer!" And fantastic networking, opportunities to keep chatting and sharing. No food involved again... moving from disappointing to distressing... might go and delete cookies just to get a reference in there!

Twitter... I had gleefully avoided Twitter for aggggges... whilst openly admiring Q&A for changing its whole image and audience by being one of the first programs with a twitterfeed... made me watch the show more! Alas I succumbed when I was asked to take on the Social Media for Business training... @sandan71, best try and find out what I am going to be talking about... and I am a little hooked to be honest... not so much about religiously posting what I am doing every minute... but getting a little bit of info about a lot of people and departments... at first I took a professional slant to it, following TAFEs and Departments and eLearning professionals... then the Taipans slipped in there, a little bit of Ellen Degenerous as she posts funny You Tube clips... and I looooove Jon Pigeon @pigeonjon... he makes my day... in between Anna Bligh giving $15 million dollars to a school and someone tweeting the news about Apple's forthcoming developments I read something like the following:
"Laughing hysterically at a prune..."
and my day is complete... there is balance in the world... Time for a retweet... Until I remember I have linked my Twitter account to Facebook AND LinkedIn.

So what else... two Iphones, three laptops and digital tv later... the world is at my fingertips! I play Word Games with friends all over the country, and some in my office... solitaire, spider solitaire help me through the ad breaks on tv... Love Angry Birds especially when they release a new season just when my uni assignment is due, Cut the Rope was a recommendation from my 7 year old nephew, I am stuck at some level but the Om Nom sound is cute... the Queensland Department of Education tweeted their new Site Words app the other day, have to introduce that to my niece... And Food Spotting!!! An app to recommend food and restaurants through photo sharing... Its all about food!!!
I am one of this annoying people jumping to the head of the queue at the movies having used the Cinebuzz app to buy my movie tickets and flashing the barcode on the Iphone, how sustainable of me!! I use the Imdb app to find out more about the movies and the Flixster app to post my review.
But the key thing in this all is that I am not glued to a screen, except IN the movie! Yes the phone is never far away from me, but I am out and about all the time... Rarely at home and apart from work time on the laptop I rarely open my own... The phone does enough.
I just downloaded the Blogger app so I don't have to go upstairs to use my Mum's computer to blog tonight.
And yes... As I wrote on my butchers paper at the workshop... I love to talk!! So here's to more blogging as we go!
Cheers!
Sandie

What project... I hear you say?

I am participating in the 2012 TAFE Qld Leading Practice - Digital Content project through QVDC. My project will be to develop a collaborative delivery framework for ICAWEB201A, hopefully to share the development and facilitation across interested institutes, and hopefully develop a collaborative framework for future collaborative activities!

In the beginning...

I used Blogger years ago to coordinate a school reunion, and two family reunions. It was a great way to share and store info however I am now into Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn, affectionately called a Social Media Tart, hence my project!