I am currently checking out the CCK09 online connectivism conference and this is my blog site for posting my learnings.  http://cck09-colleenhodgins.blogspot.com/ .  I am also posting useful links into my twitter and delicious account if you are interested.

Loved this Bart graphic, if it said I will use my xanga blog for my reflective comments it would be even better!!  Maybe I can develop this!

Plus really liked this time mindmap, for many of you out there in the final throes of this program it might have resonance.

It might be a useful tool for any facilitator to consider as they work in this blended learning world. 

I have been reflecting as I finalise some correction for this diploma program how skilled and creative many people are becoming as part of this program. It is fantastic to see people developing assessment presentations and learning from each other as they comment and view each others efforts.  I would have to say that this is appearing to be one of the more successful learning enhancements to this program that was introduced in late 2007 and that you might all want to consider how you build peer reviews into assessment activities where relevant.  Its capacity to enourage critical thinking extend knowledge and connect learning communities with each other has great merit and is particulalry relevant if a program is totally online.

I was listening as I worked yesterday to a program that is on the ABC Radio National where Tim O'Reilly was being interviewed.  He is the person who coined the term web2.0.  He had some interesting thoughts on the new term he uses (web squared) as the new technology buzz word and refers to the connectivity that is being developed and the machine learning that is occurring as part of this web 2.0 development.  If you are interested I have provided the link to this program which is called Future tense http://www.abc.net.au/rn/futuretense/ and you can view previous programs and read transcripts or download audio and listen.  The show is 30 minutes and discusses many interesting technology issues that may have application in the workplace learning and education context. I have also added it to my del.icio.us. http://del.icio.us/colleenhodgins

As part of the virtual graduation activity for this program I am clarifying a couple of guest speakers and wondering if anyone would like to suggest people that it might be interesting to hear speak as part of a 15 minute inspiring guest speaker activity.  I am contacting some overseas people who I think would be fantastic but would love to hear your thoughts on somebody who might be inspiring .. Let me know and I can develop and send them an email invitation.

Ooops got to get to Pilates for that weekly stretch blog and let me know what 's on your mind.

Cheers Colleen

Wow... looking at my blog and recent entries you can be forgiven in thinking that it is a dumping ground for all things slideshare!  It really demonstrates to me that my xanga blog is as much a repository for information and photos as it is a communication method.  I seem to have posted a whole heap of slideshare presentations over the last months as a means of capturing these for some corporate work that I was doing.

The reality of my communication with the Diploma of e-learning students at this stage of their program is focusing on the weekly announcements sent through our Janison learning management system as the primary communication method with the learners.  I need to make time just as a I stress to the students about reflecting on my professional learning journey each month.  Perhaps this should be the link that I send to my boss as part of my monthly meeting to update her on my work and activities.  Might try this today in this entry and clarify with her next meeting perhaps what these key performance indicators are that I should be reporting against. I am also mindful that it might be timely to reiterate to students that this graphic below is a good indicator of what should be developed for optimum student learning.  Perhaps students in this program might just like to reflect on the options they have experienced around the 8 strategies outlined below

It is still good to read how the learners in this Diploma program are sharing their thoughts and doing this somewhat agonising blogging process .  I wonder after my announcement this week reminding people about the relationship between blogging, commenting and posting in blogs to task 3 in the education cluster, whether there will be a flurry of email alerts to my email inbox.  One can only hope!

The Diploma of e-learning journey so far - August 2nd 2009.

The two clusters of students are in the final weeks of the collaborative facilitation projects and for some being in these last teams has illustrated a key issue about the difficulty you can experience in contacting and engaging people in the online environment.  It is interesting as an observer and lurker in these activities over the last months, what respnsibility individuals take on when supporting and engaging with peer projects.  You can certainly bunker down and not be found if you choose and it takes some creativity, communication and motivating strategies to find your learners when they don't want to or choose not to participate.  Has this been a useful learning experience to demonstrate competence in e-learning facilitation????  Task 3 reports should certainly update me on your thoughts around this collaborative group activity.  I actually believe that it is one of the most useful activities that students are asked to complete in this education cluster!!

Is our online blend meeting your needs?  Where should we be according to your thoughts on this continuum.

I would like to use the 6 thinking hats to reflect in this blog entry and add some brainstormed information on my professional learning journey over the last 2 months.

So this entry will focus on the white hat: Facts figures, neutrals and objectives and next entry the red hat!

• Fact 1: I am managing 28 students in the Diploma of e-learning, across two learning cohorts.  One of the cohorts is 8 people with 2 people receiving credit transfers for three of the units from the Diploma of TAA, which basically makes it 6 people.  The second cohort is 20 people of which at least four are invisible and hard to contact around outstanding assessment tasks.The reality is that there are four months left of this Diploma program and there will be at least five people who may be struggling to complete, but can't make the decision to withdraw.  No matter how much I offer help the point is that their individual project on facilitating e-learning is all about self management and application.  I am sure that this is as frustrating for them as it is to me and I am mindful that for many this has been a 2 year learning journey, where time is now running out.  My boss continuously requests me to withdraw people who are inactive and yet this is a difficulty when I can see that people are really trying to get their act together.   The agony of a facilitator and having negotiated deadlines in the past. I am however delighted with the efforts and creativity being used and explored as part of the task 3 collaborative projects, thanks for contributing to my learning and giving me the option to step back and learn from you all.
• Fact 2: I am now responsible for the management and delivery of the Diploma of Management, currently 10 students, 4 RPL applicants and 7 expressions of interest.  This is a blended learning program involving workshops coaching sessions and some very basic online resources.  The delivery schedule has an expectation of a unit completed per month.  A very tight timeline for a part time program.  So the capacity of people to meet these deadlines will be interesting to manage.  No extensions.  Not to mention that it would be great to extend the possibilities of this program to be more online blended and thereby grow the current student cohort.  As far as I am aware this does not as yet happen in any other Qld TAFE Institute, who all deliver the program? Not to metion that there are some great toolbox resources out there just begging to be unpacked and customised!!!!
• Fact 3: I have been providing sceduled and negotiated elluminate sessions for staff at TNQIT and a couple of other Institutes to familiarise them with the potential of this platform for meetings and delivery and assessment options, I no longer have time to do this under current workload and yet this had real merit as I worked with at least thirty people over the last month and demystified some of the technology and issues.  This Just in time learning is a useful PD option that just does not seem to be recognised as per the normal conference face to face options.  Some-one needs to make the effort to do this, but the age old perennial I'm too busy seems to afflict everyone these days and colleagues seem to find it difficult to schedule in this type of professional learning awarenesss type training, unless someone picks up the ball and coorindates and runs it for them.
• Fact 4: I am still project managing and facilitaing the Australian Flexible Learning Framework Project on sustainability but have negotiated some casual payment for this over the month and see that some particpants are really getting the benefit of working across teams and with colleagues who they would not have been able to access in the past.  It does help that there are time imperatives to getting this learning and resource development done.  It will be interesting to see how having an e-learning student as an e-portfolio coach online will work.  Tara will be able to blog about this each month and keep us in touch with the issues and progress.
• Fact 5: The Industry Liaison group for the VGC Blended learning has been set up using NING but I have been asked to not work on this registration and assessment development process for a couple of months, it is not a priority!  This a real frustration to me as I can see that this program provides a useful professional development program where there is no market currently and I can bet that this will fall back in my plate in January to coordinate for a February 2010 delivery which will be undeliverable.  I guess my job is to make sure that everything can be ready to go by accessing a colleague who has just returned from maternity leave but I don't like my chances.  Stay tuned for an update next month.
• Fact 6: I have jsut completed a three day corporate training program on Blended learning for a VET/High School organisation.  This training was very well received and was a three day face to face blended learning approach using their new moodle platform.  I think that this would be a useful professional development program to promote across the High school VET sector.  However now that it is completed, I imagine that it might once again be buried if there is no-one to advocate its value.  Corporate training programs are always being pushed as a valid form of funding that all trainers should be exploring.. However the gap between the rhetoric and the reality is vast!
• Fact 7: I want to get to the end of my working days and week and feel like I have added value to learning.  I want to enjoy the couple of nights that I have free per week and I want to maintain a work life balance... a challenge but one that I think I am achieving by being very focused and luckily having the Diploma of e-learning in the last stages of its delivery for this year.   However the students will certainly be the judge of that!
• Fact 8: Even amongst all the flurry and busyness of work it is nice to note that people appreciate your efforts.  I was lucky enough this week to receive the nomination copy of the document that was sent to our Department (DETA) nominating me for an 2009 employee award for innovation.  Thanks to those colleagues who made comments and also a big thankyou to those students who offered their support and brief summary of how I use ICT in this program, for a 2009 Unisys ICT professional development prize.  Your timely email responses make all of this other stuff worthwhile and bring a smile to my virtual face even if you can't see it, thanks!  Plus I don't usually go in for this stuff!  I do however always make the effort to nominate others in both the DETA awards and the Unisys ICT student prize, so stay tuned, unfortunately it is only open to QLD students!!! .
• Fact 9: It is Sunday and it is time to go and water the trees we have planted so that they have their best chance of growth.  Perhaps this is the metaphor for the blog entry today.  Water and nourish and support the growth of those around you and enjoy the small shoots, obvious learning and development that is both visible and ongoing.  Plus.....

Cheers Colleen