Site Academy LearnScope Mini Project

Ready to test!

2007-11-06T16:24:00.000+10:30

Well I sent an email to all interested participants last week to announce the launch of my Sfera's e-induction. If you want to have a look at what I have done drop me an email and I will give you the log in key. I was quite happy with the final result but I would have liked to incorporate some more activities before unleashing it. In time I will definitely add more content but I was quite keen to get some preliminary feed back regarding usability. As a means of gaining feedback, I incorporated a Survey Monkey link and I hope to use this as evidence for the LearnScope reporting.
The week prior I conducted a PD session for my colleagues and this was quite successful. I asked my colleagues to fill in a Survey Monkey feedback for this session as well and I will use the results to bolster my evidence.
I will be attending the session on Thursday at TTG tafe being conducted by Richard from Brightcookie on moodle gradebooks. Thanks in advance to the organisers.....
I was quite chuffed to find that I had been "e"mortalised on the Tafe SA podzone. The edayz panel discussion was recorded and uploaded and you can hear the podcast by clicking here.
It is always weird to hear your own voice ........

edayz 2

2007-09-28T22:03:00.000+09:30

Edayz 2 went by in a flash. I really enjoyed the keynote speakers and found both to be thought provoking.

I managed to get to a session about putting toolboxes into an LMS and was quite surprised at the ease of it. In fact I downloaded then uploaded a toolbox learning object into the Site moodle and it took me all of two minutes.

I also spoke with my work colleagues after edayz and they all seem keen for me to run a PD session next week to share some of my newly found knowledge.

I also managed to have a chat with an Australian music legend........

edayz day 1

2007-09-27T15:46:00.000+09:30

Well, first day of edayz part the way through and the most interesting part for me perhaps completed. I was honoured to take part in the panel discussion on the ethical responsibilities of educators in the online environment. I felt a little overwhelmed at the knowledge and experiences of my fellow panellists as well as the sheer size of the audience but I feel I made a valuable contribution (and got a bottle of wine for my trouble thanks Allison!) It was interesting to say the least what Howard Rheingold had to say and it seems that by and large the general opinions of the audience and panellists alike were similar in many ways.

As far as the workshops go... well just not long enough. I went to three workshops on ARED and still feel like I just need to spend time playing. There are obvious benefits for the e-induction but I will have to dedicate a fair amount of time playing before I can say which will be of the most benefit.

I missed out on the fourth workshop I wanted to attend simply because I was had a "blonde" moment with the map and got there too late. Oh well at least I had time to write this!!!

Progress

2007-09-25T17:35:00.000+09:30

Today I took some more photos at Sferas. I plan on using some of these in conjunction with some photos from our current stock to integrate them into some ARED resources.

I bought a (512mb) flash drive for playing with at edayz. I know it is a little small but funds are a bit tight..... Well it is my own money after all. I hope to get to the ARED workshops at edayz as a priority and now have the info on my flash which will help me create some resources.

I have emailed Adam with the details of some software I want our IT department to download to help me with some digital manipulation (hope that doesn't sound rude). I use Gimp at home for playing around with photos and creating logos. It is pretty techo and takes some getting used to but it is free and powerful.

Mark Welchman from Sferas emailed me the Sferas Policies and Procedures today and this will form the basis for the Moodle e induction.

Adam will be creating a new moodle classroom for my project soon... Once this is done I think the rest will start falling in to place.

Number 3

2007-09-18T22:56:00.001+09:30

OK, so I had a look last night at what Allison Miller and her crew were up to. I'm happy to say it was time well spent. It seems you guys have done a lot of work for me. Allison's Headstart e-induction is looking good. Obviously a work in progress but it gives me some ideas.....
I followed some of the links there and downloaded Audacity and Camtasia. Both are likely contenders for the final work. I also looked at the Voki stuff and can see some cool potential there. Maybe you'll see a voki here soon.....

I was at Sfera's today up in Modbury and had some quality conversations with both Andy and Mark. They both seem enthusiastic about my ideas and were willing to help. I hope to see an email soon from Andy with some diagrams and Policies and Procedures which will really get the ball rolling!

Let's see what tomorrow brings.

2007-09-17T21:05:00.000+09:30

Seems that a few folks are getting in and checking out this blog after all. So to direct you to a not so boring LearnScope website Marlene says you should you should actually go to here as it is much more informative. Thanks Marlene!

I spent a little bit of time today getting my LearnScope mini project plan sorted so I can get it sent to Marlene and the team ASAP. I guess the big thing I need to focus on is not going over time on this elearning stuff (right Adam ......) so I have decided I will have to update the blog at night (yes in my own time ;-) The problem is that it takes so long to get a good look at a lot of the tools out there so it seems that I will be spending a bit of time doing it at home. (can I put that in my PD folder to make the auditors happy?). I just had a look at the LearnScope edna Moodle and replied to some posts there. Next on the agenda is a look at Allison Miller's project to give me a few ideas........

It begins....

2007-09-14T10:44:00.000+09:30

Yesterday was the first contact day for the SITE Academy LearnScope mini project. It was held at TTG Modbury Tafe (not at the Lakes resort as some unnamed plonker first thought). I have set up this blog in an attempt to track my progress with the project, as a way to meet the requirements laid out by LearnScope and a method of sharing what I am doing with my colleagues.

OK. What the @#$%@ is it all about...... Well easiest way to find out about what LearnScope is all about is to look at their page
The people you see there are the ones who organise it and all that stuff.

And what about the SITE Academy LearnScope Mini Project? Well Adam Waters and I decided a good way to attack the project was to look at what is needed most regarding SITE elearning and work that in with the needs of industry as well. So we started a dialogue with Michael Sfera from the Sfera's Group to find out what would be most useful for their business. What savings and improvements could be made through the use of elearning in their workplace? The overwhelming choice was workplace induction.

So in a nutshell the SITE Academy LearnScope mini project is aimed at creating the basis for a workplace induction for the Sfera's group which can be completed online by new staff prior to them commencing work. It needs to be engaging and interesting.

"But hang on a second, isn't LearnScope about professional development?" I hear you say. I don't have the skills to be able to do this yet so the funds from the project will be used to pay for someone to take my classes so I can attend edayz and the LearnScope workshops as well as give me time to actually sit down and work out how to use the online resource development tools like ared and Wink and all those other free bits and pieces you find lying around on the net.

So stay tuned to this blog to read and see the progress and maybe you'll learn something new too.