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!
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