learning elearning

Emerging approaches to educational research - book summary

2012-01-26T09:04:00.000+13:00

Through browsing through another new book in the CPIT library, I started to work through the first few chapters in greater detail. The book is ‘the Sage handbook of workplace learning’ edited by Margaret Malloch, Len Cairns, Karen Evans and Bridget N. O’Connor. Chapter 2 by Professor Paul Hager on ‘theories of workplace learning’ provides a good overview of the three approaches , the theories influenced by psychological theories, socio-cultural theories and post-modern theories. So, time to update my knowledge on the post-modern theories through an ebook from the CPIT library ebook collection. The book is edited by Professor Tara Fenwick, Professor Richard Edwards and Peter Sawchuk and called ‘emerging approaches to educational research’. Fenwick presents a summary at the University of Technology last month.

This book provides a good introduction to why research approaches have shifted and moved towards trying to understanding the diverse nature of learning and the various contexts learning take place in. The book introduces, describes, discusses and evaluates the ‘sociomaterial’ research approaches or ‘four arenas’ for future educational research. The four arenas are complexity theory, cultural historical activity theory (CHATs), actor-network theory and spatiality.

Each of the four arenas is based on recent dissatisfaction with the inability of research frameworks to capture, study and explain ‘how people learn’. Each proposes frameworks / methods to try to account for the many material / non-material contributions towards how learning occurs. There is generally no ‘right or wrong’ answer coming through using any of the four arenas as research frameworks. Hence, the use of ‘post-modern’ as one categorisation for a raft of research approaches that go beyond the usual ‘qualitative/quantitative’ debate.

The common premises of the four arenas are:

Not dependent on the individual as being the sole focal point of study

Challenge relationships/binaries on which our understandings of ‘practice’ are founded

Challenge notions of context as being where the action is and allowing for a wider range of ‘contexts’ to be recognised

do not take reductionist stances but recognise the continuous dynamic nature of learning

acknowledge the complexity and ‘mess’ that represents the ‘real-world’.

Accept that learning is fundamentally difficult to pin down or to explain.

For me, the above represents some of the steps I have taken as a teacher/researcher, moving from trying to grasp the ‘known’ to understanding that the ‘known’ is slippery, dependent not only on context but on social/historical/ontological factors and attempts at explanation are always going to be incomplete. The above also challenge my grounding as a ‘socioculturalist’ in trying to explain learning as an ‘equilibrium’ between social affordances and individual agency with contributions from the various social relationships individuals encounter. Shifting towards a post-modern framework requires unpacking my current belief systems and evaluating another new way of looking at things.

There is a helpful explanation of the terms used in ‘knowing organisations:practice-based approach’ (book by Nicolini, Gherardi and Yanow) by Svabo – titled – ‘materiality in a practice-based approach’ also relevant to the ‘emerging approaches to educational research’ book.

Ibooks 2, ibooks author and itunes u app

2012-01-20T09:27:00.003+13:00

Endgadgets has a brief summary of the latest Apple launch. An educational focus with details of ibooks 2 for purchase of textbooks, free Mac app - ibooks author - for those who want to compile their own textbooks and put them up on itunes and an ipad app for itunes U. A more educationally focused summary from the Guardian provides some balance.

Unfortunately, ibook has always been a dud in New Zealand as we are only able to access a small range of 'free' classics . Similar thing now with ibook 2, textbooks are only accessible within the US of A. As a teaser, there are two interactive books that we can download in NZ. One a pretty picture book with animation is for younger children (the yellow submarine) and the other, and Introduction to life on earth. Both provide good examples of what is possible with interactive books, with a facilities for the book to be read out (yellow submarine) and video and interactive windows/sections (life on earth).

On the bright side, it will be interesting to try out ibooks author to compile interative textbooks. Something we will work on through the next couple of months. The ibooks author app is now downloaded onto the Learning Technologies Unit sandpit Mac and I have emailed a few tutors who might be interested, to try it out.

I downloaded the Itunes U app on to my ipad this morning. A nice, clean interface which recognised my current itunes podcasts and popped them on to the bookshelf. Straight –forward app store type layout to find and download more pod or vodcasts. I have been working my way through a series of podcasts from Oxford University on 'critical reasoning for beginners' and now downloaded a series on 'Nietzsche on mind and nature'. About 4-5 hours of podcasts on Nietzche, enough for the next two months of dog walkies :)

Working knowledge in the globaliizing world

2012-01-18T10:22:00.000+13:00

I am putting the time in this week to catch up on reading of books recently purchased by the CPIT library. Firstly, a hard copy book edited by Liv Mjelde and Richard Daly as part of the series published by Paul Lang on studies in vocation and continuing education called ‘working knowledge in the globalizing world'. The articles in this book originated from papers presented at a conference in oslo in 2004 on vocational education and training.

The chapters in the book have been divided into two parts. Part one with writings on ‘working knowledge: work related learning’ and part two on ‘vocational education training: policies and practices in a globalizing world. I concentrated my reading on the chapters in part one although there are also a few chapters in part two marked for future follow up.

The chapters of relevance in part one are:

‘apprentices’ transfer of knowledge from school to workplace in the VET dual system: a study of a VET-programme for rescue officer’ by Vibe Aarkrog provides a good overview of the ‘transfer’ challenge. The main premise of the chapter is that more complex work situations tend to involve some form of customer service component. Least complex tasks tends to see a transfer of knowledge learnt at vocational school towards applying or replication of learnt knowledge/skills. Whereas more complex tasks involve interpretation / re-estimation and reflection of learnt knowledge/skills.

The second article by Faizul Bhyat is based in a South African printing press workplace context and discusses ‘From the particularities of practice to the generalisation of theory’. The author works with a team of printing press workers to enhance their understanding of printing based engineering through situated and applied learning of physics. An interesting article, detailing a strong theoretical framework, a good description of the challenges and case study and the possibilities for the approach to workplace learning. In the conclusion, the author summarises the approach as ‘consciously applying scientific thinking to industrial processes, through conscious introduction of concepts in their appropriate syntax and application context, provides a material basis for what has been previously been seen as the abstract language of science knowledge.’

Jeanne Gamble’s chapter on ‘what kind of knowledge for the vocational curriculum’ provides for a good overview of her work with apprentices in cabinet making. There is a good summary of Bernstein’s work on pedagogical practice and an attempt at explaining craft pedagogy in terms of the relationship between ‘externally visible performance’ and ‘internally held competence’. This leads to discussion on forms of knowledge in relation to the vocational curriculum. The main premise is that epistemology from academic and vocational traditions are both valid but need to be respected for what each has to offer. In respect to the vocational curriculum, theory and practice can be brought together, each with their context dependent meanings.

‘Cooperative education: learning to work- working to learn, and trying to make sense of it all’ is written by Garnet Grosjean to discuss the challenges of helping students learn through work based attachments / internships etc. The chapter provides overviews of activity theory, constructivism and socioculturalism as pertaining to cooperative education programmes, bringing the frameworks together to help students ‘become a professional’.

Tony Irizar and Adita Chiappy contribute the next chapter on ‘the concepts of ‘working knowledge’ and ‘zone of proximal development’ as applied to teaching English as a secondary language’. There is an overview linking the various concepts to enhance communicative language teaching and a call to acknowledge the contributions of zpd to assist students in learning a new language.

Last chapter in part one is from Liv Mjelde on ‘ workshop pedagogy in vocational education: working knowledge and the zone of proximal development’. Here the work of John Dewey, Mikhail Bakhtin and Lev Vygostsky are synthesised with Mjelde’s work to explain how to best utilise the zone of proximal development to assist ‘apprentices and master’ reach learning goals through ‘learning by doing’ to move from simple/concrete to the complex/general; learning through goal orientated activity and the integration of hand, mind and heart.

Plans for 2012

2012-01-11T11:20:00.001+13:00

After last year’s interruptions, I am looking forward to a quieter and more productive year. However, the year ended with a good shake up on 23rd December with another aftershock and we have had several reminders the earth is still settling in with aftershocks in the first week of January.

I am hoping that plans for this year will eventuate as CPIT braces for another year. I have applied for two Ako Aotearoa Southern Hub funded projects. One with hospitality front office receptions tutors Debby Taylor and Heather McEwen to improve students’ critical reflective practice in front-office reception skills using net tablets to record and archive role plays. The other with the manufacturing (fitting, turning and toolmaking) team led by Tony Smith, to evaluate their project based learning approach and to do an impact evaluation of the effectiveness of embedding literacy and numeracy into their programme.

The other important objective for this year is to concentrate on dissemination of findings from the many projects completed over the last three years and the PhD thesis. Not only in the form of academic journal articles, but presentations at relevant forums. For instance to trade tutors and industry / employers forums on the first year apprenticeship project and the peer learning projects with Flip.

An article by Michele Martin via a November blog from the bamboo project, provides some direction for on-going professional development. She introduces the concept of being a ‘social artist’ linking to the work of Wenger’s ‘learning citizen’.

My Xmas present to self was the book ‘designing research for publication’ by Anne Sigismund Huff. This highly readable book, is a real ‘must-read’ for postdocs and aspiring academics. The book is full of insightful hints and provides good guidelines to plan a research pathway and trajectory. Of note is the need to ‘find the right conversation’, something I need to think through as I presently have a diverse (but I think connected) range of research topics. Mlearning/use of technology in teaching/learning, vocational identity formation for apprentices and trades tutors, skills acquisition/learning of novice trades students, apprenticeship processes, eportfolios and constructive/inquiry learning etc. to name the main strands! Bringing structure and cohesion to find synergistic links with these research topics makes life interesting, but they need to be carefully brought together.

So, there is much to look forward to this year :)

Review of 2011

2011-12-16T15:06:00.000+13:00

This year is clearly one to remember. The earthquakes of September 2010, followed by the damaging February 2011 and large June 2011 aftershock, created a great deal of disruption for many and huge lose and sadness for large numbers of Christchurch residents. At work, we also had disruptions caused by two large snow storms (in July and August) and strikes from one of our teacher unions (September, October). So it has been a hard and trying year for students and staff. A year of having to continually cope with change. The good things that have flowed out of our experiences are the sense of community and solidarity that has arisen both at work, in our communities and with our families.

The challenges of rebuilding the city and its infrastructure continue. We are surrounded by constant reminders of the huge task ahead. Each day I view the shattered Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, situated across the road from CPIT. Workers steadily take it apart and carefully label and put aside each removed piece. For me the Cathedral represents what has happened over the year, shattered by the earthquakes but still symbolising that life goes on and that there is a future ahead involving the need to think creatively and to work hard at putting things back together again.

For me personally, the challenges of the year have been to complete projects, help staff cope with the disruptions and logistical issues brought about by losing access to CPIT for over 6 weeks. Completing these, along with completing final work on the PhD have been trying at times but rewarding now that all have been accomplished. Completing the ‘net tablets’ project with Katrina and Peter and their students has been particularly satisfying. This project has assisted much in building technology and research capability.

Over the year, I have also been supporting the writing of a new programme for approval both internally through the CPIT programme approvals committee and externally through NZQA. Despite the many starts and stops, the programme has now been approved and I am now working with the tutors on mapping the programmes’ learning activities and assessments.

A relatively quiet year for conferences but I managed to attend and present at the ones that were the most relevant. It was also good to be able to introduce Flip to the vocational education research circuit as we presented at the ITF NZ vocational education research forum and the NCVER no-frills in Coffs Harbour. I also did some good networking at the INAP conference that I hope to continue with.

As a whole, work on research outputs did slow down but one book chapter and one journal article (both on mlearning projects) have been published and there are two journal articles (from using video and multimodal discourse project) in press for next year. So overall, a good year to settle into my various roles as programme designer, staff developer, researcher and elearning advisor. I am now looking forward to a ‘thesis writing free’ summer with plans for several long tramping trips into the NZ Southern Alps / Mount Aspiring National Park.

blogging solely on ipad and paper helper

2011-12-14T15:50:00.000+13:00

Last week, I was away from the office for almost a week. I took along my ipad and resisted using any other computer. While away from the office, using the ipad to complete simple tasks like checking and replying to email is sufficient. For blogging, I type up notes on notepad and then copy across to the ipad blogger app. The blogger app also allows for insertion of photos, either from the photo gallery or directly from the camera and tagging with labels. However, both notepad and the blogger app do not have a readily available hyperlink insertion function.
I have since found the app - paper helper - which has a notepad and a web browser. will need to try this out the next time I am out and about. The url of the website tends to be copied across to the notepad area instead of just a hyperlink, so will test this out to see how well it works as a replacement to the ipad's generic notepad.

Ako Aotearoa academy symposium day 2 afternoon

2011-12-12T07:54:00.001+13:00

After lunch, three more round table discussions:

Working with small groups with Sam Honey

Students with disabilities with Tracy Riley

Accommodating baby boomer to gen x with Judy Magee
most academy members are baby boomers but students tend too span the generations. 'Generational gap' between students seems to be narrowing
and each brings challenges and rewards. In some programmes, 'mature' students are 'valued' as resource centres. utilising students as resources requires some planning and tact although spontaneous class relationships between inter-generational learners can be rewarding. challenges revolving around students' formal or informal use of social networking sites. Piazza recommended as a discussion forum that is more intuitive to use than LMS supported options.

we had a 'return home' session to share with others round table discussions.

Alison Campbell took us through a brief session on the international biology olympiad - lobbying for support for 2014 event hosted by University of Waikato.

Last session was official welcome to new members, and introduction to the new committee. Overall, good to touch base with familiar faces and meet this year's academy members. it is a good opportunity to find out how things are in the different tertiary sectors, share good practice and celebrate the entry of new members. Each sector has challenges and sharing solutions is a good route towards improving learning for NZ students.

Ako Aotearoa academy symposium day 2 morning

2011-12-12T07:51:00.001+13:00

Day begins with a discussion of academy future with John Hoskins. Each regional group summarized their plans on how they will respond to Ako aotearoa's call for academy members to contribute.

Then two sessions to choose from
I attended Mike walker's session on Growing undergraduate success with Maori and pacific island students. Began by defining the Maori phrases in his title. Te whenua, the tangata, the aronui, the maramagata. Nzs young people are predominantly non-pakeha but concentrated in low decile schools where likelihood of progressing to university is low. Need to support Maori pasifika students due to small numbers moving through with most being the first in their family to enter university. attrition rates high in first year. Tuakana programme provides a structured introduction to university life and helps students make initial contact with each other. Newer putaiao is a pre-university academic and professinal skills prograame.

The other session was 'Integrating Kaupapa Maori into teaching' with Kelly Pender

After morning tea round table sessions begin, session including

Large class teaching with alison campbell

Gifted and talented with Christine Rubie-Davies

equitable assessment practices with Kevin Gould - ensuring students are treated fairly with regards - university of Alberta 7 guidelines to assessments - similar to David Boud's work. Good discussion with contemporary assessments supplied as examples eventuated. Text/paper based assessments predominate but aspects of peer marking etc. also discussed.

Ako Aotearoa symposium day one afternoon

2011-12-08T16:13:00.001+13:00

After lunch, we participated in a series of 'PeArLS' - Personally arranged learning sessions

CHoice of:
audio visual teaching with Margaret Henley
used analogy of providing 'readings' to the use of video in teaching - often used badly, students do not know why they have to watch video, struggle with critical reflection and evaluation and assumes a whole range of student skills (digital natives?). Provide questions to consider and strategies to leverage the use of audio visual material to help students improve visual literacy skills.

Feedback with Dawn Garbett
using feedback from students to improve students. Begin with a diagnostic to find out what they expect to attain from the course. Prime students after to become independent learners. Mid-course use Stephen Brookfield's (1995) student feedback - critical incident (5 questions) to ensure students are on the right track. then use standard institutional tutor and end of course/programme evaluations.

other sessions from :
students in trouble with Donna Buckingham - used scenario to open up discussion on how to support students when they are faced with challenges.
transitioning to levels 1-3 with Sam Honey
sensitive topics with Heather Kavan - sharing session on various contributions from participants as topics different in each context.
supervising workplace learning with Dale Sheehan

All the groups returned to 'debrief' each other so that everyone could catch up on all the individual sessions.

After afternoon tea, we had a session centred around the 'Canterbury Experience: shaking up teaching and learning. Jason Pemberton from the student volunteer army on student experiences over the course of this year. Covered the formation of the student volunteer army (SVA), formal and informal learning through participation in SVA and the student experience in 2011. Jason presented an inspirational message on how students decided to do something to help and get it done!

An interesting day with symposium dinner to get in more networking time.

Ako Aotearoa academy symposium day 1 morning

2011-12-08T13:25:00.001+13:00

Ako Aotearoa symposium day 2

Official start of symposium with mihi with Dr. David Jansen and a the singing of the academy waiata followed by welcomes and official address by Dr. Peter Coolbear.
Peter challenged academy members to reflect on the symposium's title ' celebrating diversity'. What is diversity? If it is for students, the NZ tertiary sector completion rates are a call for more work to be done as large sectors of students have poor completion rates when compared to the mainstream culture. Call for academy to be proactive in encouraging pursuit of excellence in tertiary teaching so as to enhance learning for ALL students.
How can we foster excellence in teaching as an academy, can the academy assist with setting up standards of tertiary teachers, need to think forward.

The morning begins with panel discussions with Marc Wilson coordinating.

David Jansen on Maori learners. Provided an overview how to better engage with Maori communities. Even though 23% Maoris speak Maori, still important to engage in Maori. There is diversity in Maori due to geographical distribution, urban/rural shifts away from tribal boundaries and need to recognize achievement. In general Maori value working in groups, using the Maori language.

Sandy Morrison on asia pacific association for adult and basic education (ASPBAE) - has the goal to build leadership and capability. Cultural depth and integrity valued in one context and perhaps not in another. Connecting pacific cultures by helping them to articulate their on 'ako' pedagogical model is one approach. Assisting migrant pacific workers when they come to NZ to value their culture and provide environments for further learning - learning in place, learning in context.

Ksenij Napan on second chance learners - discussed how derogatory the term may be and how it is important to establish another term -- 'interesting people'? Potentials include opportunity to explore peer learning, cultural / racial, religious, sexual orientations perspectives, social expectations of disabled, mature, differently literate etc.

Tracey Riley on gifted and talented students - generalisations as presented by others reflect the way in which gifted/talented students. Students often not identified when they proceed to tertiary education. Important to establish personal choice so that individuals able to choose how to learn, be assessed, maximising on their strengths but also guidance to identify skills, literacies to work more on.

Discussion followed with Marc eliciting searching questions from the audience.
Importance of engaging with students as individuals, with 'generalisations' as a beginning and then working with students to help them learn. helping students construct/engage with intercultural dialogue. Need to perhaps follow up on Ausse data (survey of university students) to unpack whether diversity is addressed (although just capturing ethnicity is too broad a brush).

Then concurrent workshops then proceeded. introduced by Dawn Garbett and consisted of having home groups (colour coded) for us to report back to.

multicultural arts with Jill Smith and Marty Vreede. Jill began with overview of research informing practice and her work with encouraging students to increase learning about cultural diversity. With an example of helping mainly pakeha student teachers use art to explore Asian viewpoints through art. Marty's session revolved around 'a paper on learning' with us participating in making paper from harakeke (flax) as we discussed aspects of philosophies of learning.

other sessions on :
Research supervision with John Hoskins and Marc Wilson

Sara Kindon with New New Zealanders

and will hear from others in the group on the content of these later in the day when we do the group debrief.

Ako Aotearoa Academy symposium workshop day

2011-12-08T08:26:00.001+13:00

In Wellington, the rest of the week to attend the annual Ako Aotearoa academy symposium. The academy is a networking and professional development base for winners of the NZ excellence in tertiary teaching awards (now just over 150 strong), with about a third or so of members attending each year.

Great to touch base with many familiar academy members and meet this year's inductees.

Yesterday, day one insisted of a half day of workshops before the formal symposium starts.

After brief welcome from Jon Hoskins, the academy president, we break up into regional groups to discuss how to contribute towards helping tertiary teachers improve practice. The Otago and Canterbury groups met together and after batting several ideas to hold Another spotlight on teaching event, decided on organizing a series of roadshows to the various south island cities/towns. So watch out for these events for next year.

Then two streams of workshops began. I ran a session to introduce the ideas gained from the net tablet project at cpit. A hands on session with some good input during the discussion wrap up.

In the other room, various projects seeking to garner academy members participation proceeded. Including worthwhile projects from Ksenjia Napan on co-inquiry learning, Sara Kindon on educational equity for refugee-background students and Marc Wilson and Dawn Garbett on extending our award portfolio into a publication.

Open Polytechnic staff development day on 6th December

2011-12-08T08:22:00.001+13:00

open polytechnic

In Wellington on Tuesday for the Open Polytechnic staff professional development day.

To begin, a traditional Powhiri opened the day, followed by welcome by CE and housekeeping matters from Mark Nicols.

Here for the day to present (twice) and workshop on topic of 'building reflective practitioners in trades at CPIT " providing overview of past, present and future projects, with grounding on frameworks used and reasons for tutors to engage with research.

Managed to also attend a couple of other presentations.

Firstly with Professor Sir Mason Durie on marae encounters as models of interaction relevant to educational success.
3 pathways - engagement, enlightenment and empowerment.
whakapiri, whakamarama, whakamana
Used the marae encounter as a way to explain how education can form relationships between institution and others (students, stakeholders),
increase awareness and understanding and strengthen identity, resolve and purpose.

engagement - negotiating relationships - distinctiveness, defined pathway, connections, reasons for coming together.

enlightenment - awareness and understanding, exchange of thoughts, ideas, aspirations impacts on spirit, mind, body and whanau.
in education should be cultural, intellectual insights, social cohesion and healthy lifestyles.
ways of thinking - centrifugal or centripetal.

empowerment - identity, resolve and purpose - mutual knowledge, respect and connections with the land - endorsement of dignity, identity, confidence and capability.

outcomes of successful tertiary ed include collegial, career,personal, cultural and academic.

secondly with Dr. Stephanie Doyle (Victoria University) on 'stretching the distance: the transfer of learning and distance education'. Went through a few approaches to define "learning transfer" including 'bopeed' analogy - i.e. ignore or leave transfer trusting it will occur 'naturally' (black sheep), transfer need to be nurtured and carefully facilitated (good shepherd). Can also be envisaged as 'transferring learning from course etc. to future' or transfer of existing skills/knowledge into learning context/course.

Learning focused on 'passing an exam' may cause students to learn how to pass an exam but not be able to use the 'learning' in a workplace - where problems are typically ill-structured and mult-dimensional.

transfer more effective if existing learning and present context brought into the learning environment. Making use of the lived experiences of learners.
important findings include - applying learning to real problems and situations linked to deep learning, application generated confidence and clarity, some course work assisted with making sense of past experiences, opportunities to reflect on learning likely to nurture dispositions and habits conducive to transfer.

Also networking with several Open Polytechnic staff. This is the FIRST staff development day OP has held for quite a few years, so a good initiative to get staff to come together, share practice and establish institutional cohesion.

posting this week's posts via ipad only - so will evaluate next week, how things went.

Book on learning through practice

2011-12-01T11:07:00.001+13:00

Another book from the professional and practice-based learning (Springer publishers) has arrived in the library. This one on ‘Learning through practice: Models, traditions, orientations and approaches’ edited by Professor Stephen Billett. With short preview on Google books

Much of the book is of relevance, so here is a brief summary of each pertinent chapter.

The first chapter, ‘learning though practice’ sets the scene by providing the rationale for the book, including the growing interest in practice-based learning and the purposes of learning through practice. Then the conceptual premises for learning through practice are set out by way of summarising the next six chapters and then a summary of the following chapters as instances/examples of practice. Overall, a good overview is provided to set the scene and provide the theoretical foundations for the following chapters.

Chapter 2 by Wolff-Michael Roth is on ‘learning in praxis and learning for praxis’. Using fish culture as an example, this chapter discusses the large separation between what is taught and tested at school and the competencies learnt and practiced at work. Of importance is the exploration of learning by implicit (tacit) and explicit modes. There is also a good overview of the praxis and theory from historical and phenomenological perspectives at the beginning of the chapter.

Michael Eraut writes on ‘knowledge, working practices and learning’ in chapter 3. This chapter is a good summary of Eraut’s work on lifelong learning. His premise is that through life, we undergo a series of learning trajectories. These trajectories occur through engagement in work and life. Access to learning depends on type of work etc. and personal, situational and interpersonal influences have an impact on what, how and how much learning occurs.

Stephen Billet’s chapter ‘ the practices of learning through occupations’ provides a historical and conceptual account of learning and discusses the nature and effectiveness of learning for occupations through practice. Of interest are the historical accounts and how, for much of humankind’s history, occupational learning has been largely based in workplace environments, often through apprenticeship type processes. Of note is the need to recognise the complexity, demands and often difficult to learn knowledge that characterises workplace learning. An overview of his concept of affordances and engagement in work also provided.

Chapter 6 is by Gloria Dall’Alba and Jorgen Sandberg on ‘learning through and about practice: a lifeworld perspective’. Argues that approaches to practice-based learning tend to overlook the ontological dimensions that are central to learning. So that learning emphasises skills, knowledge etc, to be learnt but not on how learners are becoming and what the processes of becoming involve. Propose the ‘ways of being’ needs to be used to direct teaching/learning.

David Guile’s chapter ‘developing vocational practice and social capital in the jewellery sector: a model of practice-based learning’ uses a workplace scheme to explore concepts of practice based learning and occupational competency. Cultural-historical activity theory is used to examine the various influences on work placement.

Laurent Fillietaz provides examples from apprenticeship training on aspects of ‘guidance as an interactional accomplishment’. Of note is the use of video and discourse analysis methods to study the learning of apprentices within workplaces. In this chapter, four categories of guidance are proposed. These are spontaneous, requested, distributed and denied. Provides a good framework to explore inter-relational aspects of workplace learning.

Chapter 12 by Helen Worthen and Mark Berchman is on “apprenticeships: what happens in on the job training’ set in an American context. The main discussion in the chapter is the tension between production targets and workplace learning needs.

Several other chapters also need to be studied! But the above are the ones most applicable to current projects.

Pebble pad presentation - Shane Sutherland

2011-11-25T12:44:00.001+13:00

Attended a presentation this morning to CPIT staff on Pebble pad -not an eportfolio - pedagogy, principles and practice by Shane Sutherland, development director.

Shane provided a background on why and how pebblepad was developed and also overview eportfolios. The original premise was to make a easy to use interface , however, this now tweaked and a new version about to be launched. Also, principles of portability followed - allowing students to have continued access to their pebblepad space beyond their studies.

Pebblepad supports creation of eportfolios but is not an eportfolio on it's own, perhaps it is more of a 'personal learning space'. a narrative of learning journey can be archived as it evolves.

eportfolio definition (Sutherland & Powell, 2007) but important to acknowledge the processes that underly portfolios -- JISC, 2008 - behind any product, or presentation, lie rich complex -----
aka good learning

What makes pebblepad different is to help the reflective learning process using tools - for instance 'thought' - journal, reflective journal, what now?, Kolb's cycle - as a way to encourage the meaning making process.

PLS conceptualised to be a bridge between personally provided and controlled content (facebook etc) and institutionally provided and controlled (LMS). PLS also brings peers, students, tutors together as co-creators of content.

examples of student work at http://pebblepad.co.au/pebblepad.examples.asp

Overall, a glimpse of possibilities, providing learners with an integrated 'front end'. It will be interesting to test the newer version of pebble pad as the present version does require some intensively/delibrate practice to learn how to use.

Ways of knowing and making knowledge

2011-11-16T09:15:00.001+13:00

ways of knowing and making knowledge

Had a day over the long weekend to put into exploring in greater detail, two new books just arrived in the CPIT library. The contents of both books, complement my current reading around 'how trade skills are learnt'. The first book is 'Ways of knowing: new approaches in the anthropology of experience of learning'. published in 2007 and edited by Mark Harris. I had skimmed read this book at the Griffith University library and placed at order at the CPIT library, so good to be able to get back into the interesting chapters. The second book is published 2010 and edited by Trevor Marchand called "Making knowledge: explorations of the indissoluble relation between mind, body and environment'. Both books have common anthropological roots with several chapters written by the same authors.

The above books complement two other books I have been working through. "Knowing work: the social relations of working and knowing", 2009 edited by Markus Weil, Leena Koski and Liv Mjelde and 'Emerging perspectives of workplace learning", 2008 edited by Stephen Billett, Christian Harteis and Anneli Etelapelto. Both have socio-cultural leanings and education backgrounds. In the knowing work book, chapters of interest and relevance include Richard Daly on 'communicating the working knowledge of working life: making visible the invisible' - using the need to decode a totally diagrammic ikea instruction sheet to built a stool, as an example.

In the book 'Emerging perspectives' chapters of relevance include:
Stephen Billett's introduction providing a summary of the purposes of workplace learning.
'Negotiating professional identity' by Katja Vahasantanen and Stephen Billet report on how individuals negotiate identity as vocational teachers in the face of continual top-down directed change.
'Learning through Errors' by Johannes Bauer and Regina Mulder provides an overview of concepts of 'error' and how we can learn from through making mistakes
'Reflection and professional competence' by Martin Gartmeier, Stefanie Kipfmueller, Helmut Heid and Hans Gruber - provides an activity theory and social perspective on processes of learning through reflection
'Developing conceptual knowledge in road transport' by Jason Lewis (avetra paper) is of interest for its exploration of guided learning and its role in helping drivers learn problem solving.

Of the ways of knowing, important chapters are
Trevor Marchand on 'Crafting knowledge: the role of parsing and production' - uses a study of masons in Mali to try to explain how craft people communicate at work with very little verbal interaction.
Greg Downey on 'Seeing with a sideways glance', derived from studies of the Brazilian martial art/dance form capoeira.

Most of the chapters in the 'Making knowledge book' are pertinent.
Trevor Marchand's introductory chapter provides a very good overview, marrying the anthropological findings reported in the book to studies in brain function, cognition, psychology, biology, etc.
His chapter on 'Embodied cognition' extends on the work reported in the 'ways of knowing book' and uses examples from a joinery programme, to again explain how people seem to be able to use bodily movements as a form of conversation, including interjections and agreement.
Of interest are the chapters on embodied learning (Greg Downey), Kazakh women's everyday craft practice (Anna Odland Portisch), Central Slovak lace makers (Nicolette Makovicky), weavers in South India (Soumhya Venkatesan) and medical students learning how to hear heart sounds (Tom Rice).

The challenge over the next couple of years is for to formulate projects that study trades skills learning, bringing together the literature on workplace learning, identity formation, socio-cultural influences with the anthropological literature on human knowledge.

First year apprentices' experiences in the workplace - report now out

2011-11-10T08:41:00.000+13:00

The official output from the Ako Aotearoa National project funded "Belonging, becoming and being:First year apprentices' experiences in the workplace" now available on the Ako Aotearoa website. This project began early 2010 with focus groups and interviews carried out mostly in the middle of 2010 with first year apprentices, pre-trade students and discontinued apprentices. First year apprentices interviewed were re-contacted at the beginning of this year to find out how they were progressing and the few who had discontinued were then also interviewed. In all 251 apprentices/students participated with 56 first year apprentices and 34 discontinued apprentices interviewed. My thanks to all of these apprentices and the Industry training organisations (ITOs) for their support. The seven ITOs, presented various sectors of industry with the AgITO for the primary sector, the Building and construction - BCITO for infrastructure, NZ Marine, Competenz and Joinery ITO for manufacturing and Hairdressing ITO and hospitality standards institute representing the services sector. Apprentices were dairy farm trainees, Gateway students on building sites, building apprentices, boat building and marine engineering apprentices, fitting/turning, fabrication and refrigeration engineering apprentices, joinery apprentices, glazing apprentices, hairdressing apprentices, front of house trainees and cookery apprentices. So some diversity and a wide range of workplaces from small one employer, one apprentice, to large factories employing hundreds and training dozens of apprentices.

The project was an ideal one for me, incorporating and building on some of my learning from my PhD and extending my research skills with a larger cohort of research participants and amount of data. The data collected was extremely rich and much of the raw data was collated into individual reports for each ITO. Each ITO had developed systems suited to the context they worked in, with many meeting the needs of their apprentices and their employers. As always, there is room to learn and some ITOs had very good practices that could be worthwhile sharing across to other ITOs,

The final report is largely a consolidation of the many themes emerging from the data. The main ones are 'common sense' but are crucial in helping apprentices make sure they have made a studied choice of occupation, settle into the workplace learning environment and maintain resilience and motivation to complete their qualifications. For in completing an apprenticeship, many opportunities for future career development and individual achievement are then made available.

My thanks to Ako Aotearoa for supporting this project as it has provided apprentices with an opportunity to voice their perspectives. The apprenticeship journey is viewed by many as being a 'rite of passage' and for many young people, it is an exciting and rewarding experience. However, for some, workplace and occupational mismatch mean that they discontinue. One interesting finding has been how people who are really interested in an occupation display persistence in trying to meet their 'vocational imagination' goals. So although some discontinue as apprentices, they still maintain connections with the trade either by enrolment in a full-time training programme or by obtaining work in another workplace. Helping people to 'become what they want to become' is an important outcome of this project. As the Chinese saying goes "Choose a job you like, and you never have to work a day in your life" :)

The Phd journey - reflections

2011-11-09T09:10:00.000+13:00

All good things come to an end :) although for me, the continuation of the researcher/academic journey now truly begins. I started tentatively on a Phd in mid-2003 with a preliminary meeting with my associate supervisor and my primary supervisor. After exploring the feasibility of investigating cognitive apprenticeships, I muddled through with the proposal to do a longitudinal study of apprentices. The proposal was accepted in 2005, with the thesis entitled - Belonging, becoming and being bakers: The role and processes of apprenticeship. Data collection began mid-year 2005 and continued to the beginning of 2008 as I collected data in the first, second and third year of apprenticeship. Then, over the next two summers and most Saturdays of 2009 and 2010, the dissertation writing proceeded, with my supervisor Stephen Billett, providing much support as I got to grips with academic writing. Over the beginning of 2011, the final edits were made, interrupted by the Christchurch earthquakes. I submitted in mid-July and the examiners reports, which are very supportive and positive, came through at the end of September. Revisions as required by the Griffith University Chair of examiners came through in October and I submitted these with the accompanying paperwork mid-October. This morning, an email from the post-graduate office confirms all revisions accepted and provided instructions for sending in bound copies of the thesis.

I now use the skills I have learnt over the Phd process on a daily basis. The transition from bakery tutor to researcher has been a long but mostly gradual learning curve. Many of the skills and dispositions of a baker have transported well into becoming a scholar. In particular, the need to

Complete adequate preparation – in baking to understand the function of ingredients and to plan the process flow before beginning . In academia, to have sufficient grasp of the relevant literature and to organise one’s argument.
Maintain momentum – in baking, many processes are required at timely intervals, hence the need to plan a workable workflow so that processes are spaced out through the shift. In research, there is still a need to establish a realistic timeline and to stick with it. Otherwise, other activities start to take precedent.
Keeping at it – diligence and attention to detail are important aspects of baking. This is required to keep track of all the nuances inherent in the baking process. In research, there is also a need carefully and reflectively collect and analyse data and to hone the craft of academic writing. The initial writing is not difficult if one is prepared but fine tuning a piece of writing does take dogged persistence and hard work.
Continual learning – consumer demands continually drive the craft of baking. Bakers have to meet ever changing customer demands and this along with the vagaries associated with working with ingredients like flour and yeast, lead to continual learning opportunities. In becoming a researcher, the demands for continual learning are also ever present. There is the need not only to keep up with the literature, but to learn new research methods as projects evolve and new ways have to be found to find answers to research questions. Added to this is the learning required to keep up with technology, including data analysis software and the many ways to now access, evaluate and archive digital literature.

For almost 30 years in baking and teaching baking, I learnt something new each and every day. In becoming a researcher, the same holds true. So the continual learning to meet various challenges are the things that enrich my life and in doing vocational education research, I hope to help contribute to the improvement in the lives of others. So my next goal is to focus on dissemination as research is not much use if only accessible to the few who read academic journals or attend presentations at discipline specific or academic conferences.

DK on social media for educators - CORE breakfast session

2011-11-08T11:14:00.001+13:00

Another well attended session, at the last Core breakfast for this year. DK, who now works for Core in Christchurch, presentation an introduction to contextualise social media, to the audience who are mostly education administrators plus also touched on young peoples' use of social media using concept of young people as a barometer of change.

Social media can be defined as 'digital dialogue', so not just a broadcast medium but a form of conversation.

Hi went through a timeline of ways in which we have moved into social media- including
first sms message in 1992 as a business tool.
1994 first mass mobile phone - nokia
1996 hotmail addresses
1999 first file sharing network plus start of blogger
2000 psp 2 allowed people to play with others via web
2001 wikipedia and crowdsourcing and ipod launched
2002 second life and linden dollars
2003 myspace -
2004 Skype, flickr - concept of geo tagging
2005 youtube
2006 twitter
2007 iphone
2008 use of social media in american presidential elections, Obama shows how to leverage
2010 amazon sold more ebooks than real books

Main point is change and technology continutes regardless, there should not be a 'digital divide' between us and although most of us are 'digital immigrants' we have more experience, money, power and have access to the same technology and software tools.

Used video from zefrank on ugly myspace pages and how do we become producers to make the point of consumers becoming producers and aggregators and how this changes they way in which digital media is constructed and viewed.
Introduced the six spaces of media :
secret - text email
group social - face book, myspace
publishing public - flickr youtube
performance world of warcraft, geocaching
participation showcase - threaddless kickstarter
watching - ppt tv

desire paths - when we want to go somewhere but the majority are shifted to go down another way - stefan sagmeister - video on using speech bubble stickers

play/neoteny - ted talks - steve keil: a manifesto for play, bulgaria and beyond - the need to continue to 'play' as adults

media snackers - 2007 johannesburg - young people with limited digital literacy becoming digital journalists

blogging - seth godin and tom peters - why blog open forum.com

social media business is in the work of creating and promoting change

= change - doing something different- alvin toffler -" the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn"

The presentation covered a lot of ground in a short time frame and there were some thought provoking challenges for educators. How can educators embrace social networking as a form of continual learning for themselves and for their students/

Ipads in schools - Victoria Australia

2011-11-01T15:03:00.003+13:00

Via Derek Wenmouth's blog on his experiences at a workshop on BYOD - bring your own device - at school - is the link to the ipads for education site for schools in the state of Victoria in Australia.

The case studies provide a range of ideas for using ipads and there are handy hint on implementation and evaluation of the projects. Of note is their use of individual ipads for each child and the opportunity for students to immerse themselves in the device by not only using at school but also outside of school hours. The other important point is the integration used reported in many of the case studies. The ipads are not 'add-ons' but used as normal classroom tools where appropriate.

Good points to bear in mind for our own project.

Supernote on asus transformer

2011-10-25T11:21:00.000+13:00

Just in via Endgaget, is a video demonstrating the capabilities of Supernote on the asus transformer. Will need to keep a look out for it when it arrives in NZ as currently, we have had to use a variety of apps on the ipad2 and the toshiba thrive tablet for students to compile their on 'workbooks'.

Supernote proposes a much more integrated experience and the video shows how the process is largely intuitive. It allows notes to be typed in, sketches to be added and then for these to be manipulated (resized and moved) and photos to be integrated. Did not demonstrate if the photos can be annotated so this will be one feature to test out.

James Gee on ‘opportunities to learn’ and ‘beyond mindless progressivism’

2011-10-12T11:02:00.001+13:00

Working through one of the comments brought up by one of the examiners of my PhD dissertation. The context is to ensure that ‘affordances’ to workplace learning is not conflated to cover all aspects of opportunities for workplace learning. The reference suggested to check was one on ‘sociocultural perspectives on opportunities to learning’ by James Gee.

I have come across Professor Gee’s work via my interest in researching elearning, mlearning, reluctant learners and vocational education. His background is in linguistics as informed by socio-cultural frameworks and so I have used references to his work on several occasions. Of note is his work on identity and its role in education research. He proposes four views (nature, institutions, discourse and affinity identities) as lenses that can be used to study how socio-cultural influences impact on learners and their eventual perspectives of learnt concepts/ideas. Antother aspect of his work, is on video games and its contribution to education with an example here being one of several publications of games and learning.

A recent blog on ‘beyond mindless progressivism’ argues for the introduction of a ‘post-progressive pedagogy ’ form of situated learning. Many of the 17 points he brings up, are relevant to our current Ako Aotearoa Southern hub funded project, using net tablets to encourage students to create their own content. The main gist is to encourage, provide learning opportunities and tools for students to become ‘constructors’ rather than consumers of content/knowledge

Professor Gee's blog contains thought provoking content, along the lines of another edublogger I follow, Artichoke. Both bring up topics that are in accord with much of my work. Keeping in touch with these blogs, provide a source for my continual critical introspection on where my work goes plus affirmation that I am on the right track most of the time.

Cool tools for Schools

2011-10-06T14:23:00.000+13:00

Came across a very good repository of web 2.0 tools for education while updating my list of 'alternatives to powerpoint' for recommendation ot our tutors. A good range of Web 2.0 tools is provided with a colourful and accessible interface.

Comparing pebblepad to Mahara

2011-09-30T07:59:00.000+13:00

Our Centre for Educational Development (CED) manager has organised access to trial pebblepad. The main reason is for CED staff to record their experiences, as they work with teams, to support the programme design process. At CPIT, we base programme design on principles of constructive alignment, starting with the development of graduate profiles. From the graduate profiles, flow learning outcomes which are tightly linked to learning and assessment activities.

I have used Mahara off and on and found the interface to be mostly intuitive. I have been playing around with pebble pad this week and in comparison, Pebble pad has a ‘prettier’ front page and is also mostly intuitive to use. There are more elements to Pebble pad as well, making it more flexible. Parts of Pebble pad are user customisable, so there is less of having to do things for the sake of filling up the space.

Pebble pad, like Mahara, works through the collection of assets/artefacts. A difference is that pebble pad treats ALL entries as assets, whereas Mahara tends to have an area for uploaded artefacts and the other entries (journal/blog, CV) etc. are separate ‘blocks’ that you can choose to display.

There is a sharper learning curve to learning how to use pebble pad because there are so many ways to collect and then display assets. Therefore, it is important to provide examples and opportunities for learners to see the bigger picture. One advantage of Mahara is that you can configure various 'showcases' for your portfolio depending on audience. You can do the same in Pebble pad as well by setting up separate webfolios or blogs but it is less obvious.

A trawl through the www indicates a slant towards pebble pad. Examples include this Australian report surveying TAFEs and universities, indicating more users of Pebble pad (p 17) and eportfolio platforms being the most widely used (amongst Australian tertiary institutes) although more so in universities than their TAFE sector who tended to lean towards using their in-house LMS. And a UK report comparing several eportfolio alternatives, trimming them down to a choice between pebble pad and Mahara and deciding on pebble pad as it would be serviced and the institute did not have to set up their own unit to oversee.

Lenovo Thinkpad tablet - evaluation

2011-09-23T10:35:00.003+12:00

ITC have provided a Lenova Thinkpad for us to have a play with for a couple of days. The Thinkpad runs on Android OS 3.1 and comes with a pen! It is pitched at the business user with documents to go uploaded.

The initial feel of the Thinkpad is that it is solid, with a slightly rubberised base for a secure hold. Positive reviews in general with usual comparisons to the ipad2, with the Thinkpad coming up well as far as capabilities is concerned. For our purposes, the solid feel of the Thinkpad is not a problem as we use it in workshop/workrooms where there is a danger of things being dropped/spilled on the tablet is a high possibility.

There are more buttons on the thinkpad then on other tablets reviewed so far (Acer Iconia, Toshiba Thrive). The on/off button is a bit awkward on the right top when the tablet is held in portrait mode with the buttons (home, go back, browser and lock display) on the bottom. The usb is on the wrong side as when you are in landscape mode, the normal approach is to have the buttons on your right which means the usb memory stick stuck into the tablet is in the way when you use the tablet on your lap.

Access to external files etc. is easy with mini usb, sd card and standard usb. However the usb file copy app means you have to copy your files across and I have not figured out the way to just run your files off the usb without physically copying your files across into the tablet. Plugging the tablet into your pc allows for easy transfer of files from PC to tablet. Downloading files as attachments through browser based email or gmail is less intuitive. You download on to another tab and the attachment ‘disappears’. I then discovered the files in ‘recent files’ when documents to go app booted up!

Of note is the OEM only mobile note from myscript to make use of the pen. There is an ipad version which seems to have more limited capabilities. The mobile note allows you to write with your pen on to the tablet. The slippery screen takes a small amount of time to get used to. Overall, runs well, converting writing to text, has sketching/doodling pen option and allowing you to transfer notes to email etc. also brings in photos and for limited annotation above or below but not ON the photo itself.

In all, a nice piece of hardware, displaying photos with clarity and bundled with enough apps to get things going from the business productivtity point of view. In comparison, the Toshiba Thrive's bundled apps are more user friendly and intuitive to use. The best part of the thinkpad was the ability to use a pen using mobile note. Something which is really useful for our tablet projects where we are trying to encourage our students to write notes.

Andrew Massie's presentation on reconnecting Christchurch's electricity supply after earthquakes

2011-09-21T07:43:00.000+12:00

Andrew Massie, one of my Diploma in Tertiary Teaching and Learning students who is an electrical trades tutor. Andrew is completing a project, recording the learning garnered during his academic study leave and then using the data to write a curriculum document for training electricity supply industry trades people, working as linesmen, specifically for cable jointing and line mechanics.

Andrew recorded most his learning through a blog and collected a range of industry pertinent photos and videos, recording the work he undertook. The timing of his academic leave coincided with the Canterbury earthquakes. Therefore, his blog and it's contents are now of interest to a much wider audience than just Andrew and myself!

I attended the presentation which was well attended by industry, the people Andrew worked on his attachments and a few of Andrew's family. The main objective was to assess Andrew for about 3/4 of the negotiated learning outcomes for his course, but the information presented was also of interest for finding out how a part of Christchurch's infrastructure was reestablished after the major earthquake events.

Much of the presentation focused on the technical details of different types of heavy duty cables used and how these are installed or repaired. For me, the really interesting part was to capture a glimpse of the distinctive work culture and practices of a specialised type of work. Andrew mentioned how putting up power poles was done with little verbal communication and yet accomplishing a highly technical and complicated task efficiently. How do we help our students enter such a tight knit community of practice and learn the required skills?

Core session on Mobile learning in the cloud

2011-09-20T15:00:00.003+12:00

A well-attended session at this morning's CORE breakfast series, presented by Paul Rodley, ICT director from Christ College, a private boys high school in Christchurch. The presentation concentrated on aspects of cloud computing after a brief overview of ICT use in education.

How can educators capture learning using technology when technology keeps on changing so quickly? Work on the actual use of technology and adapt hardware as they are updated. Examples of using mobile technology concepts include location based technology, domination of ebook, cloud computing in schools, bring your own device classrooms, online collaborative learning, rise of the tablet, on-line class management, social media in education, snack learning, mobile learning in workplace learning.

Provided case studies used at his school including using tweeter in a economics classroom, ipod touch with ebooks in English class, ipads with English and Geography classes, using QR codes to access information, teacher generated ebooks with embedded videos and align mobile access to LMS (moodle),

Stressed importance of surveying students to work out how and what sort of technology they are using as this changes quickly from year to year. Also to enable teachers to make use technology including building confidence and providing sufficient support.

Encouraged access to cloud computing as one way to provide equitable use via a variety of devices. Examples include using mediacore for storing videos, myportfolio (Mahara), eTV for archiving NZ based TV programmes and the public cloud (youtube etc.) Lucidchart and diagram.ly for doing diagrammes, aviary (flash based) for editing and storing multimedia, Google docs, plus socrative to quiz students and poll everywhere (both accessible by multiple devices),

Possibilities include ipads as an interactive white board (for $5 to $10) - we have been testing doceri which cost US$50 per PC - teamviewer allows control of several devices, booktrack for soundtrack for books.

Used page three of addiction to angry birds infographicto provide challenges to teachers for keeping up with technology and using ICT to enhance student learning - keep it simple, rewarding, realistic and have fun :)

New Blogger interface

2011-09-12T12:17:00.002+12:00

Noticed last week that blogger was inviting people to try out their new interface, so I clicked on the relevant panel and a nice, clean mainly white /pastel coloured screen came up. On the left, you can click on links on overview of your blog, posts, pages, stats, earnings, layout, template, settings.

Of interest is the stats area. A bit of a surprise to find out that the post ‘learning welding #3’ - on observing non-verbal interactions-, comes up on top for the week and month. Perhaps someone out there (the country accessing this link is South Korea!) has made a link to the posts as an example of observations of non-verbal interactions?

The all-time high post is one I put together from the ITP trade tutors forum last year, followed by posts from ITF research forums! As these are mainly notes to self, it is interesting people pick up on these posts. This also indicates there is (perhaps) large gap in the blogging community for trades-based type posts. I will need to encourage more of our trades tutors to blog. One, Andrew Massey, an electrical tutor, blogged extensively on his academic leave attachment to a line maintenance firm through the first six months of this year, over the period of the Christchurch earthquakes. By all accounts, the blog has been taken up by various civil engineering types, interested in the after effects of the earthquake, from an electricity supply viewpoint.

I have sitemeter installed on this blog and check the sitemeter stats weekly, they generally show interest in tech. related posts, as whenever I post items about tablets, or use of apps etc. the visits to this blog go up.

Also, as of last week, I am able to blog directly from my ipad, although the blogger app is an iphone version. Will try this out at the next conference/forum I attend.

Literature informing tablet based interactive etextbook project

2011-09-08T08:11:00.002+12:00

I have been doing a catch up on literature that forms the foundation of the interactive etextbooks on tablets project. The four theoretical approaches to learning underpinning the project are mobile / mlearning, learning as students make meaning (constructivism/connectivism), situated learning in simulated workshops/workrooms and leveraging on multi-literacies and multimodalities.
Some recent material to explore in deeper depth over the next few weeks pertinent to each approach, and to add to existing literature include the following.

mobile learing - The Joint Committee for Information Systems (JISC) have put out the recent wiki document covering an overview of mobile learning, strategies, pedagogy, technical considerations and case studies. A sort of one-stop shop to find out about what is mobile learning and how to implement into educational settings.

Also of interest is mobile usage and Derek's blog provides a cartoon to bring together data on how American's are always connected via their mobile devices.

Constructivism - George Siemen’s work on connectivism has been introduced as a concept that updates constructivism into the information era. A recent presentation (on sensemaking and wayfinding)provides a summary of some of his recent thinking including how connectivism builds on and extends traditional teaching/learning approaches into the digital era (slide 10).

Situated learning and multi-literacies/ multimodalities - A recent post from Artichoke, provides much food for thought plus ideas to follow up on. She discusses the challenges of assessment for learning in the digital age and provides an example from a NZ primary school context, with usual caveats and provisos. All in, the above provide me with ideas on how best to structure the literature review section of the report and to make the links between mobile learning and the affordances mobility/mobile hardware/multimodal apps, provides for students to record their learning within simulated work environments.

Using onenote and evernote in education

2011-09-06T08:07:00.000+12:00

I have started using onenote at work, as a way to keep random notes, interesting websites, maps of places I am about to visit and other items that do not have an official digital home as such on my work or home PC. As usual, learning by doing has helped to provide an opportunity to evaluate how to use onenote more effectively. As we are using evernote on the net tablet project, it is time to do a bit of a comparison between the two. Of note too is that there is an ipad version of onenote for the ipad.

There is a comparison between onenote and evernote on this blog. With onenote having more features and being compatible with the Windows suite of Word, powertpoint etc.

Plus information on how to best use onenote and evernote in education, how to get the most out of onenote and onenote for eportfolios.

I did some research to look at how to transfer onenote files into other platforms/software tools and came up with how to share notebooks from between onenote users from the official Windows office site, which will be useful for teachers to set up base material and for students to add to, annotate and re-organise, producing their own 'textbook' through the exercise. The site also provides instructions on how to share and export onebook files and also found these useful - how to view onenote files when you do not have access to the onenote programme and similar.

There is also the possibility of providing students access to onenote files through Moodle and something to try out this week, importing evernote files to onenote as a way for students to retain access to their notes compiled on the tablets using evernote.

Learning activities on tablets

2011-08-30T07:56:00.000+12:00

Due to snow event a couple of weeks ago, our interactive text book project has been delayed a week in officially starting up. However, we are now back on track and things are starting to move along.

Some ideas for learning activities of a ‘ice-breaker’ kind will be used to orientate students to using the tablets. The icebreaker activities will allow students to play with the tablets, use the camera, save some photos and make use of some simple maths / flashcard type apps.

Both Peter (automotive tutor) and Katrina (barista tutor) have set out ‘learning activity’ type information sheets to guide the students through the more official part of the project. These learning activities, make use of tablets to basically bring together, students’ recording of their learning journey.

Selected by Katrina for students to compile content on latte labs are photoshop express (PS express) to edit photos, Pixitag lite to add captions/speech bubbles etc. to photos, imovie to edit video and neu-annotate to edit worksheets provided by tutor. Also apps pertinent to barista including latte art, aroma coffee and coffee café, the last two are games to get students up and running with using the ipad.

Peter will be basing his work mostly around using the Toshiba Thrive camera/video and the presentation tool (show). He will also use picsay to add captions/speech bubbles and highlight sections of photos. We are also testing a few apps as video editors.

Another way to get content in the form of videos and documents off the web, is to use TagDiskHD on the ipad. This app has a feature for downloading and saving youtube and other social media site videos for offline viewing. The equivalent for the Android is youtube downloader.

Learning from tablet PC projects

2011-08-29T15:25:00.000+12:00

Following from Daphne Robson and Dave Kennedy’s work with the older style tablet laptops, and presentation at last week's CPIT research week, I did another trawl through the net to find updated information on using tablets in education. First port of call was the Australian Tablets in Education conference sites for 2009 and 2010, I did another search the net to find updated information on using tablets in education. A few presentations in the 2010 conference featuring ipads, most conveying a try out and see approach. Overall conclusions seem to be useful but with limitations.

Then came across the Workshops on impact of pen-based technology on education. Conference proceedings are on Google books for 2007, 2008 and 2010.

Also came across this site with case studies of using tablet PCs in education. All of these provide background material for the use of the current tablets in various educational contexts. Will work my way through them over the next few weeks to uncover important guidelines we can adapt, evaluate/confirm or modify for our own project.

Cpit output last day presentations

2011-08-29T10:14:00.000+12:00

There were no presentations on Wednesday and caught up with other meetings etc. yesterday morning when there were presentations from social work, broadcasting, business, computing and engineering schools.

First up Dr. John Schischka, on using the capability approach and children - a development programme in low income area schools in NZ.
Capability approach involves participants so that they are engaged with identifying their core capabilities and able to forms plans to move forward and become what they want to be. 30 11 and 12 year children in a pilot study started in 2009 are followed through to high school and beyond, to find out if the capability approach does work. Children provided with a range of mentoring programmes, future work experience visits, camps and visits with sports and entertainment personalities. findings from childrens' caregivers' and teachers' perspectives support the positive outcomes. Morrison and Allan (2007) on student resilience in school context. - need to send paper - voc imagination john

Next, Julia Wu presented on 'using case studies in accounting ed.' Re-examined the efficacy of using case studies in accounting ed. to prepare for future studies in adult ed. Many pitfalls, balanced against extensive desirable outcomes but selection of case study, matched to what needs to be learnt, most important for instance following teachers' perspectives as controller (illustrative), facilitator (integrative) or partner (developmental (Healey and Mcutcheon, 2010).

Then Mary Kensington on 'students' experiences of a blended learning/satellite model curriculum' from the context of midwifery ed. Explored themes of isolation, development of communities of learners, barriers to learning (perhaps need to individualise content?), managing life and study commitments and bridging the theory-practice divide. Outcome of a continuing action research project to try to understand how to improve learning for students on the Batchelor of Midwifery programme. Main purpose to identify barriers and challenges and find out if the blended approach did actually promote integration of learning to practice.

Kirstin Dofs presented on an update of her Masters work on 'automous language learning initiatives'. An on-going project leading to development of guidebooks for students to use in the LSAC. Presentation focused on development of the study guide/guidebooks (student/teacher and at 3 levels for learning English as a second other language) through action research cycles. Included professional development sessions for teachers to help them get the most out of the evolving guidebook.

From School of Nursing, Dr. Paul Watson presented on work he has been doing on 'paediatric early warning score'. A tool designed to help identify children in need of higher levels of care. A joint project between CPIT and the Child Health Service at Christchurch Hospital. Current paediatric tools used have not proved to be greatly reliable or valid. findings indicate need to individualise tool to make it most effective.

Dr. Barbara Dolamore, presented on NTproBNP and cardiac heart failure. A project just commenced on finding a marker to indicate heart failure. NTproBNP is a subset of a hormone released by the heart and stays in the blood longer than the hormone itself. Project to compare how NTproBNP degrades in patients with heart failure and in healthy people.

Missed James Hayes and caught the end of Dr. John Clarke's presentations due to a meeting to get to. John showed photographs of mites found in sun-antartica islands, the most prevalent terrestrial animal in the antartic region. An interesting peek into the world of taxonomy.

Back in for Dr. David Hawke's and Dr. John Clarke's presentation on 'tracking nutrient flow through invertebrates at the marine-terrestrial interface using stable isotopes. Investigates boundaries between ecological zones. 3 studies presented on how birds help bring nutrients back from the sea into breeding areas. Identified, through analysis of carbon content of various mites/beetles etc. and petrel burrow soils, the method mites used to obtain the carbon. For example a mite may eat another who lives on petrel guano! and this shows up on measurements.

Last up, Dr. Margaret Leonard on a collaborative project undertaken just before she took up position at CPIT as research manager. Margaret presented on 'the dark side of virus removal by waste stabilisation ponds'. Project works out how remove viruses in the absence of light. Found mechanisms that work in the dark, are effective in removing viruses.

Cpit output 2011 - day 2

2011-08-23T16:28:00.000+12:00

Due to meeting commitments, unable to get to the morning sessions, which were mainly from the School of Design and Broadcasting. There was also a book launch from a project involving students who had come to NZ as refugees. The book published their stories.

Attended the afternoon sessions as I was scheduled to present in the last session. So, first up, Daphne Robson and Dave Kennedy ' enhanced peer instruction on tablet pcs (another presentaion on setup)". A good interactive session, using the tablet PCs to provide examples of how they use tablets to help students learn maths. Students learn in pairs, so improved peer learning occurred as a consequence of the need to share the tablets! Advantages as from student feedback included viewing, discussing and receiving feedback about answers, easier or faster to learn or suited learning style, more interactive (info from poster presentation), fun, interesting and enjoyable.

Next up, Diane McCarthy on 'getting into actor network theory research' provided an overview of the concepts of actor network (Latour) theory and it's application to educational research. Actants like technology allow actors (humans) to interact, communicate, solve problems etc. often through 'networks'. All of these are fluid and are not bounded by distance, size, hierarchy etc. and cannot really be studied separately.

Amitrajit Sarkar presented on relationship between text action conceptions of programming: A phenomenographic and quantitative perspective - with researchers also from Finland, Turkey and Auckland. Discussed whether students have to understand syntax and compilers before they can write procedures. Need to try to understand how students learn how to programme as high attrition and non-completion rate with computing students. Learning about a hierarchy in how students learn programme may assist. Phenomenology can be a qualitative way to understand how people learn - focusing on phenomenon of relationship between actor and object. Student approaches indicate understandings as based on text, action or models. however, the study has found there is perhaps not a hierarchy, so students do not necessarily have to learn syntax before understanding action and models.

My presentation on the final findings of the first year apprentices project was well recieved with good feedback on relevant conferences to disseminate the information. Important for the findings to go out to employer groups, industry forums, ITO conferences and trade journals, rather than as scholarly writing in research journals. Something to work on : )

Cpit OUTPUT - research week presentations - day 1

2011-08-22T14:28:00.000+12:00

CPIT's annual research week convenes from 22nd to 26th August. I am unable to attend all sessions due to other meetings and commitments but have diaried all the sessions I am able to get to.

The morning began with several sessions mainly from the School of Nursing I would have liked to be at several sessions presenting on their learnings with regards to dealing with earthquake impacts.

However, did manage to attend the lunch time session showcasing student research through short 3 minute kucha type presentations. Students were from the School of Broadcasting and the School of Business. All provided impressive presentations and interesting topics.

Zoe introduced the local student radio station C96 that caters to children as there is a large gap in the local market. Especially important for Canterbury as everyone deals with the challenges involved with recovering from the Canterbury earthquakes.

Rowan presented on Why is Trade Aid important? online survey of enews subscribers, interviews with managers and volunteers. Study showed ethical food purchasers are interested in taste, quality and brand. Stories - used presently to market trade aid products - may not be effective, due to competition in the market.

Will focused on American and NZ lack of local content for sports broadcasting. One limitation has been copyright for important events by large broadcasters, leading to small local stations not being able to provide local commentary.

Shani did a study about developing new stories and the importance to keep redevelopment of these stories. Found many strategies useful to keep stories 'alive', pertinent and engaging to readers.

Eugeny Karchevskiy presented on a brand benchmarking project involving Canterbury Coast Sport Trust - promoting sport with in the Canterbury community. Currently the overall brand is challenged due to there being 4 offshoots of the brand along with many offshoots.

Jacob Bateman reported on project to improve lost and found property, pay sheet processing of accident reporting. developed a template (using interviews and time study metrics) that may be useful for assisting the process of improving organisational practice.

Also presenting with the short format were two staff , Jo and Gareth from Recreation.

Jo Straker spoke on an aspect of her PhD, on unearthing the outdoors in outdoor education. Based on interviews with outdoor educators. often difficult to articulate what is learnt during outdoor education. Where you learn,influences what you learn and there is a need to encourage all people to learn from living.

Gareth Wheeler used an audio visual - powerpoint and music with a handout for his presentation on 'living the dream' in the NZ sea kayaking industry. Interviewed students on why they wanted to get in and what happens after the graduate. Many do not continue in the industry due to the it 'being a young person's game'.
3 Prizes were provided for best student presentations.

This evening, the event is officially launched by our CEO along with a 'keynote' on 'The science and art of chocolate'. Lots more presentations over the next few days to look forward to.

ITF conference presentations now up

2011-08-18T14:16:00.001+12:00

Doing a big catch up over the last two days as CPIT was closed due to snow on Monday and Tuesday of this week. The two days at home provided good opportunities to catch up on accumulated research journal readings and to make a start on drafting some journal articles. Have drafted abstracts for 10!! covering the learning undertaken across my PhD and the various projects undertaken over the last two years. Should keep me busy working on these for the next five years at the rate of two articles a year J

The snow also provided an opportunity to catch up with the presentations from the ITF conference in July. I did not attend but there is always at least one presentation that is pertinent to my work from this conference. Of interest this year is the presentation from William Symonds, who provided an American perspective and Josh Williams on pathways and partnerships: development of vocational pathways for NZ students.

I also managed to catch up on a book edited by Jane Bryson – Beyond Skill: Institutions, organisations and human capacities as a top- up on her presentation at the ITF research forum in April. The book provides more details on Janes’ presentation centering on the need to look beyond skills and to build capability that is generalizable and that meets the aspirations of both individuals, the organisations they work for and society at large. All very BIG picture stuff but important for informing policy on how to best support individuals’ lifelong learning directions and goals.

Setting up ipad2s for project - multiple ipads on one itunes account

2011-08-10T13:01:00.000+12:00

Hardware for our interactive textbook project have started to arrive. We are now organising the set up of 5 ipad2s. Essentially, the ipad is an individual user device. Someone out there must be working on a project to find out how the selection of apps on ipad reflect your personality type, as per a book I read recently, that attributed personality types to people by examining the songs they had uploaded onto their ipod or similar (Snoop- what your stuff says about you).

Some good hints avaialble by googling set up ipads education use from ipadschools wiki including the use of an ipad cart and apple's volume app purchase programme. Also good information on the wiki to setting up ipads for class and link to a workshop that provides information on how to lock appstore on the ipad so that students are not able to access the appstore to download apps or other items. Core-ed blog indicates the apple volume app store is not available in New Zealand (sigh).

Instructions on how to set up more than one device on on individual itunes account provided through apple support site and a youtube video. Therefore, will need to set up one itunes account on our the solitary Mac in our sandpit as our internal IT system only allows access to itunes 7.0!! and sync all the five ipads to the same account. Apps we will put on the ipad discussed in a previous post and once these have been evaluated, we will delete or upload other apps as the project proceeds.

Therefore, one advantage of the other hardware platform for our project, the Toshiba Thrive tablets running on Android 3.0 OS already. The Toshiba tablets came with word processor, spreadsheet and powerpoint equivalents plus Evernote along with assorted productivity apps. We will just need to add a few apps and we are ready to go. Next week, the tutors involved will work on details for introducing the tablets to their students, so lots of interesting learning to look forward to.

Evaluating Toshiba Thrive tablet for interactive etextbook project

2011-08-02T11:18:00.000+12:00

IT had a Toshiba Thrive, running on android 3.0.1 for a one hour play. So gave it a quick looking over and explored it’s capabilities. A quick thrawl through Google reveals a mostly positive review from cnet, techradar and liliputing.

The Thrive is about same thickness as an iPad 1 but longer/wider by 3 cm, the screen itself is only 1 cm longer. The Thrive seems to be more comfortable to use in landscape mode as the portrait mode is definitely narrower. The back of the tablet is covered in a cross hatched rubberised coating, making it perhaps a safer alternative for use in workshops. An added plus is the ability to replace the tablet’s battery via the removal of the back.

Collection of Android apps pretty standard but the Thrive also came with Toshiba ‘think free’ based software for word processing (write), powerpoint presentations (show) and spreadsheets (calc).

A collection of ports (usb, camera and HDMI ) allow for ease of transfer off memory sticks and other storage devices and display on a TV screen. These port are behind a rubber flange on the side of the tablet. The rubber cover is attached with a very thin strip to the tablet and might not take continuous rough use!

Access to the usb via the file manager app was a breeze. Reading pdf documents on landscape very comfortable and reading on portrait view acceptable. Photos come up via ‘gallery’ and viewing of photos very much similar experience to on an iPad. Word docs run on thinkfree write. Typing on the on-screen keyboard is straight-forward, with some tactile response and the backspace key is in the usual place on top right hand corner of the on-screen keyboard. No predictive text though. Powerpoint runs well via access through usb and on to thinkfree show. Could edit powerpoint and save but not sure if it will then run again in Windows environment. The touch interface for show was easy to use.

In tablet camera works well, providing good aural feedback when the photo is taken. Good resolution in the photo with options to sent to printer share (blue tooth printer), picassa, evernote, Bluetooth, gmail etc.)

All in, a worthwhile alternative to the Acer Iconia reviewed last week.

Evernote for learning

2011-08-02T08:59:00.000+12:00

Have been working through Evernote on the ipad, Android OS tablet and Windows OS tablet and desktop (web version only). Lots of resources on the web as to ways to use Evernote in education including as time manager, student eportfolio, video/prezi of educational uses and as teacher's 'swiss army knife'. Also a guide to the ipad apps that complement Evernote.

There is also a blog on maximising the use of Evernote in education with handy posts for teachers, getting students started , tips for using at school and how to best maximise research using evernotes.

So, several approaches and ideas to trial and evaluate later in the month with students and tutors on our interactive etextbook project.

Evaluating Acer Iconia Tablets for interactive textbook project

2011-07-29T09:35:00.000+12:00

CPIT IT have provided 2 Acer Iconia tablets for evaluation. One running on the Android OS and the other on Windows.

First up, the Acer Iconia A501 running on Android OS 3.0.1 with in-built accelerometer, gyroscope, GPS, and compass. Reviews have been mixed, check this and here. Although it looks slightly narrower than the ipad, the screen size is actually the same, with the Acer’s bezel edges being slimmer across the top and bottom of the screen. The silver edges on the side of the tablet make the Acer look thicker than the ipad when the Acer is actually thinner!! We will probably have to stick a rubberised bottom to the acer as it is very smooth and therefore easy to drop. As the tablet is to be used by students in the automotive workshop, robustness and handling will need to be something we consider in choice of hardware. The on/off switch is rather small, even for my small fingers, so it will be interesting to see how the students find it.

The touch screen works well and having the ability to look into the file system, using Astro is a plus. Astro did not pick up files on a memory stick inserted into the USB slot but the generic multimedia app did. The onscreen keyboard was ok to use, providing for aural feedback as keys are hit. However the delete/backspace key is not in the usual place (top right) making it a frustrating exercise to get used to the keyboard.

It does take some time to download apps via the Wifi server though. Downloaded evernote and it works fine with simple excess to my usual evernote pages. The android evernote has also niffy link to the Acer tablet’s camera and you are able to take a picture and have it saved as an evernote page. Addition of attachments etc. also intuitive plus synching the new pages to the evernote account is almost immediate. Also able to access photos stored on usb . From the usability point of view, the Android OS evernote seems to be easier to use than the ipad evernote with respect to ability to bring files into new pages.

Also tried out a couple sketching/doodling apps on the Android based Acer tablet. Kids doodle provides for some fun with the opportunity to save the sketch and play back as a video. Doodle note is more traditional and allows you to take a picture and annotate it.

Secondly, an Acer Iconia running Window 7 which comes with a keyboard as an extra, again reviews are mixed. This could be because the onscreen touch keyboard has small ‘keys’ and is difficult to touch type on. Thankfully, the delete/backspace key is in the usual space. This Iconia is larger than the Android version, longer than the ipad and about the same thickness. Having the windows button on one side means that for all intents and purposes, the tablet will tend to be viewed landscape with the windows button on the bottom left! The touch screen works well and screen resolution for photos good. The screen tends to black out whenever you change the screen orientation though!

On the software side, the usual windows based software – Word, Excel etc. along with Paint and wordpad are available. The windows interface, adapted to touch, is familiar and executes well. Wordpad allows you insert ‘paint’ files as well as pictures etc. but not to annotate pictures easily.

The USB port is in both the tablet and the keyboard section of the ensemble. So ease of access to the usb files via 'my computer' is one feature that is a plus with this tablet. The Acer did not come with Onenote, so not able to test this out. Access through my ‘cloud’ evernote via Wifi was slowish but no problems. Using the Acer on the keyboard was straightforward, with text entry via keyboard and generally intuitive for other actions on the touch screen.

Compared to the ipad, both the Acer tablets take a bit of time to boot up with the Windows OS one taking the most time. The ipad is definitely more intuitive to use and provides a much more satisfying user experience. Apps on the ipad also robust. Android market is more difficult to negotiate through then iTunes. So I revert to googling Android apps on a desktop and then finding the recommended Android app to download. There are recommended apps and also here, on the windows tablet, but due to corporate constraints, we may be reliant on the generic windows software tools.

Resources on other ways of knowing

2011-07-23T12:46:00.003+12:00

In sunny and warm Brisbane this week and off home to wintry and still shaky Christchurch this evening. The main purpose for coming to Brisbane was to put time at Griffith University with my supervisor,Professor Stephen Billett to complete and hand in my dissertation. All this accomplished over long days on Monday to Wednesday to get the final versions to the printery. I picked up the three weighty copies, worked through the various forms to be filled in and dropped them off at the Griffith University Nathan campus on Friday. Now the wait begins as the markers do their bit and I await feedback on what else needs to be done before the PhD process is completed.

On Thursday and Friday, I trawled the library shelves at both the Mount Gravatt and Nathan libraries for books relevant to several of my other projects on studying apprentices learning using multimodal discourse analysis and interactive etextbooks on tablets.I had selected several pertinent readings and books to find, as listed in a paper by Marchand, now in the form of a book .
Was able to check out several books pertinent to understanding how people communicate and express nuances of behavior through body language (knowing bodies, moving minds), articles and books of craft knowledge and thinking through craft. Of note is a book that was referenced in several chapters on "Ways of knowing: New approaches in the anthropology of experience and learning" edited by Harris, M (2007).

So will follow up on the anthropological literature,including the area of visual anthropology and primate research on communication techniques.

NCVER no frills conference day 2

2011-07-16T12:49:00.000+12:00

A good showing considering the late finish last night, after a convivial conference dinner at the Bonville Golf course last night. Dr. Peter Coolbear presented the New Zealand perspective with 'Vocational education research in NZ: old issues and emerging opportunities from a funder's perspective. Presented background on Ako Aotearoa and focus and rationale of research funding. of interest is the future direction: publicly defined thresholds of acceptability of provision, more providers forming partnerships with employers and learners, genuine pathways for learners, differentiation of providers by teaching and learning not 'marketing' and increased professionalism in tertiary ed. in NZ through evidence-based improvement of practice.

Flip and I had our presentation in the next group of concurrent sessions. We provided an overview of 'learning welding: the role of peer feedback' which is available in appendix 1 of the 'using video to study workshop and workplace learning' report.

After morning tea, attended session with Hiekle Buddelmeyer and Nicolas Herault from the University of Melbourne on 'the role of VET in preventing the scarring effect of youth joblessness. Finds VET engagement in the early stages of a career, may increase scarring effects but over time post-school qualifications does buffer individuals from scarring. Scarring defined as effects on individual through a period of un or under-employment. Full report on never.

Then a session with Darcy Fitzpatrick, NILS Flinders University who presented on 'from education to employment: how long does it take? A large study studying differences between different levels on education and length of time to obtain employment. Found higher education level does assist labour market entrants to obtain a job faster and leads to better wage gains.

After lunch, attended session on 'beyond boom and bust: apparent employment in the construction industry with Alex Maroya, Master Builders Australia and Jacqueline Homel from Australian National University. Presented on what factors influence changes in proportion of apprentices over time. A quantitative study of building apprentices from 1995 to 2010. Construction apprentices include plumbers, block layers/masons, builders etc. but not electricians and metal workers. Currently, number of apprentices who do not complete out numbers apprentices who have completed. There is poor correlation between growth rates in industry output/ employment and the proportion of apprentices and labourers. After a poor year of industry growth, proportion of labourers likely to fall. interesting data shown on effect of 2009 downturn on apprenticeships with government 'kickstart' seeming to have some effect in bringing apprentice numbers back up. More data on Australian Master Builders site.

Last session of the day with Berwyn Clayton, veteran and prolific VET researcher on 'starting from scratch: teacher to researcher and back again.Used the story of her Researh journey to provide some recommendations for doing research. Write it up, research used to inform outomes,see things from other people's perspectives, use invaluable advice from experienced others, share findings with others, establish a ripple effect and mind the political element.

NCVER no frills vet research conference

2011-07-15T14:09:00.001+12:00

At picturesque Coffs Harbour for the annual NCVER vocational research conference hosted by North Coast Institute, TAFE NSW. The conference begins with a welcome from Francesca Beddie, NCVER General Manager.

First keynote from Elizabeth McGregor, Institute Director, North Coast TAFE, on 'aiming high - how can research accelerate the shift from inputs to impacts? Can research help the VET sector tell us our story? Approached the presentation from a viewpoint as a 'consumer' of research findings. Quality VET is about workforce development and there is a need to understand how individual, community and enterprise development contribute. Quality providers contribute by improving skills in use to improve regional competitive advantage through workforce participation, social inclusion and increased productivity. Need to move beyond outputs (attainment, completion) to impact (social inclusion, productivity - high skill jobs, skills in use, agency, workplace agility, enterprise innovation). a challenge to VET research - are we asking the right questions? are we framing our answers in a way that tells the story of the sector's impact - in so doing moves the sector's focus towards that impact? Are we connecting up our rich quantitative and qualitative research data? or has the time for a VET sector passed?

Concurrent sessions begin after morning tea. I attend the session with Regan Harding, North Coast TAFE, Berwyn Clayton, Melinda Toze and Mark Harris, on 'professional obsolescence or technical currency in VET. defined the terms, vocational competence, industry and technical currency and professional obsolescence. Causes of prof. ob. for individuals (lack of aptitude or ability to keep up to speed, lack of awareness, confidence, denial, fear), within organization (job, relationship and systems) with on-going impacts on individuals, work teams and organization. Strategies from literature include: getting climate right, adopting strategic approach, encouraging collaborative learning, learning about, through and in practice, updating for the here and now. Challenges include structural and system barriers, career change differentiation, dual professionalism.

Second session with Hinemoa Priest and Susan Luke from Wellington Institute of Technology, 'the learner voice'. an update from last years' presentation. Takes on the stance that students are important stakeholders along with government, industry and society. Official representation on academic boards and council is insufficient. Therefore, learners' voices used to find out whether learners' are engaged, what works and what doesn't, etc. Presents case studies of Tamaiti Whangai (sports programme with mentor). findings include educational achievement as being important, students need to build a sense of who they are, confidence and sense of belonging, getting a job is important, learning environment needs to be safe, important to be valued for who you are and build a sense of self-worth. Another case study with Pacifica students where there is a need for students individual identities (as fijian, cook islander) to be acknowledged. Last case study on young learners (youth guarantees and trade academies). Like environment - not school - study voc. Subjects but support crucial. need to include mentorship, improved study planning, expanding activities youth can participate in.

After lunch, a series of concurrent pecha kucha sessions! Attended the stream on Policy - starting with Dr. Darryl Dymock from Griffith University on 'continuing ed. & training, alternative models and approaches' from a 3 year project just begun with Sarojini Choy and Stephen Billett and others. Why individuals participate in CET - change in workplace skills requirements, prepare for current and future work or retain present job. Studyin goals, purposes, content, learner engagement and outcomes. Presented preliminary studies.

Then 'celebrating seams: VET in Higher ed transition with Janelle Davis from the University of Western Sydney. A visually and content interesting presentation of how to help VET graduates transition into university mainly to provide a more equitable and consistent system. Pre-entry courses, welcome packs with relevant info. contacts and websites, peer guide brochures developed to be student focused.

Sue Sim from TAFE NSW - TAFE strategy, presented on 'getting clever about completions'. competing tensions between students learning to get a job and institution and govt. need for completion of qualifications. pre-enrolment, delivery and assessment systems admin (early identification and counseling) and partnerships (community agencies, industries) all important to helping students complete. currently working on strategies for apprenticeship completion.

Finishing with session with Darryl Dimock with Greg Martin, Greer Johnson and Stephen Billett, reported on 'training and employability: older workers' perceptions. Literature suggested older workers as being reluctant to train, inflexible etc. online survey of mature age workers completed with findings - key reason for staying in work is job satisfaction, strong beliefs in own abilities to cope with significant work changes, most comfortable with technology, have opporunities to share expertise, there was equitable access to training, employees supportive of learning endeavours but many felt skills were under utilised. concerns from respondents were promotion opportunities similar, respect and gender differences.

after afternoon tea, Jai Waters fromTAFE NSW on passion and performance. Pertulla (2004) on passion in the workplace provided passion for work (POW) with 16 items and 5 sub scales to derive questionnaire. Used a concept of change networks and change managers to bring about change required to put in place a new financial management system for all TAFE NSW institutes. Also Schmenner's theory of swift even flow comparing degree of relative throughput to degree of variation. low/low being service factory or fast food, high high as service shop and health sector.

Last session of day from Amy Han, Institute of Technical Ed. Singapore on 'creativity and strategies: their relationship to students' approaches. Need to ensure students gain skills to conceive, design, implement and operate using problem based learning with blended learning. Used Biggs R-SPQ-2F to study students' approaches to learning (deep motives, deep strategy, surface motive and surface strategy). Study undertaken to find out students' learning approaches with the plan-explore-practice-perform pedagogical method. Uses 3 factors, short-term, course-focused (past assessment) and long-term (more self-directed). Therefore if students have a deep approach they have a strong course and long term focus. Proposes more authentic learning in classrooms to provide more real-world, complex problem solving opportunities.

Student generated content on net tablets

2011-07-08T12:00:00.000+12:00

The CPIT Foundation has approved a grant to purchase hardward for the interactive etextbooks on net tablets project. So, we are now able to move ahead with the etextbooks / eworkbooks on tablets project. One of the objectives of this project is to not only provide tutors with the opportunity to upload content, but for students to also generate content.

Katrina Fisher (barista tutor) and Peter Sauer (automotive engineering tutor) are the two tutors involved with this project next semester. Katrina and her students will use ipad 2 tablets and Peter's class on Android tablets. I have made a request to IT to purchase both the ipads and the asus eee pad . IT will be investigating Android OS tablets and have made a suggestion with the Acer Iconia Pad which also as a Windows 7 OS version. So might work on a Windows OS tablet version of the project early next year with the Engineering manufacturing team who have learning resources in the Windows environment.

Having had an ipad to play with for just on a year, I have been able to test several apps for students to generate content. These include note taking (Bamboo Paper), sketching (Doodle Buddy), post-it notes (BugMe! lite), card sorts (iCardsort), pdf annotation (pdf-notes), audio note taking (live notes lite), mindmapping (SimpleMind+) and aggregators to bring together the various items (Evernote, Scribe Lite and Catch Notes).

The equivalents of the above I have tested on our Archos are note taking and sketching (free hand note lite), post it notes (bugMe!), card sorts (flashcard maker pro), pdf aggregators (ez pdf), audio note taking (Audio Notes recorder), mind mapping (mind map memo) and the aggregators (evernote, catch notes, emobilenotes).

So there is a good choice of apps to evaluate as to fit for purpose and user friendliness over the course of the project.

Content can be uploaded by tutors on to any of the above, or on to the photo or video players on the tablets. Plus we can also use ebook readers like Stanza for the ipad and FB reader for the Android tablets. If all else fails, we will pay for documents to go, which is available on multiple platforms. Not yet available for most Android tablets as yet with only the Archos 5 on the list (but for free).

The overall objective is to keep things simple, to explore and study the use of the apps as tools for constructive learning and for archiving / recording the learning journey, and to build guidelines for how to best use this concept to engage students, enhance learning and help students become self-directed lerners.

Microsoft interactive classroom

2011-07-04T09:43:00.000+12:00

A month or so ago, CED replied to a memo from IT with regards to installing technology into classrooms, with the suggestion that the institution explored more ‘student centred’ rather than teacher centred forms of technology. Basically, we were not keen on seeing more smart ‘interactive’ boards and data projectors being installed, let alone, ‘lecture capture’ systems!!

In response, our IT department have suggested an evaluation of the Microsoft interactive classroom. There is a twee offical video and this one from University of San Diego, provides the lecturer's perspective.

What microsoft interactive classroom allow for is using powerpoint and onenote to provide for student input. A bit like ‘classroom presenter’ but using desktops or laptops instead of having to use tablet computers and utilising Microsoft tools. A trawl of reviews via Google reveals a mostly positive response with some emphasis on free download.

There is a video on how to maximise the use of microsoft interactive classroom plus resources on using onenote for enhancing learning, including this one, on teaching with onenote. Of relevance to our 'interactive etextbook projects'.

interactive textbook - examples and direction

2011-06-28T13:40:00.000+12:00

‘Interactive textbook’ are not a new concept, as this example shows. Commercial options include dynamic books, an online ‘repository’ accessed via institutional LMS, Blio as an interactive reader and for the ipad, there is Inkling. PC world reports on several other ipad initiatives including scroll motion and CourseSmart. However, these are still mainly reconfigured textbooks with the usual text book type layout and embedded links to videos etc.

What is the future for textbooks? 21^st textbooks could also be imminently “personalised and mashable” something that will take some working on. Neverending books is one approach, bringing in social media, to working through a text book and access to a constantly up to date textbook. Another is Symtext, allowing multiple ways to access a book either as text, podcast or video. Bill Gates reminds us about the need to include 'self - assessment' opportunities/ software in next generation textbooks.

How can interactive textbooks on a tablet enhance students learning? From the above, we can distil a few pointers:

It HAS to be interactive PLUS be intuitive to navigate through.
Should provide opportunity for students to do some form of self assessment.
Students should also have the option of creating their own content – either text, graphic (sketch, mindmap, photos, annotated photos), audio or video (again with annotation options).

Core breakfast session - Cathy Wylie on competent learners project

2011-06-21T10:07:00.000+12:00

Cathy Wylie, Chief researcher from the NZ Council of Educational Research (NZCER) presents on the latest on the longitudinal study from the competent learners project. The project tracks 500 learners from the age of 4 1/2 (1993) to the present when they have mostly left formal schooling with some engaged in work.

The presentation is on 'building learning identities'. Still over 400 involved so very important corpus of data over the course of learners' school life and beyond. Data collected at ages 5, 6,8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 20 with a focus on collecting data of educational influences on children's lives. Tried to study the wide range of influences on student's eventual competencies, so included early childhood ed. class experiences, family resources, out of ed experiences, friendships, values and thoughts for future.

Focus of the age 20 phase was pathways for NCEA. How to determinative are early competency levels? What role do school and out of school experiences play? Explored role of school leaving age, role of NCEA, other factors from school years formation e.g. engagement in learning, prior competency levels and role of advice. Also looked into learner experiences in tertiary institutions and or employment, learning dispositions, current relationships, activities, financial situation, optimism and future thoughts.

401participants with structured phone interviews and self reports completed on line in 2009. 2008 data from MOE on school qualifications and post school study and face to face interviews with 29 in late 2010 to provide more insight into the 'less well-lit' pathways from school.

Sample from Wellington region with higher proportions of moderate-high family income, maternal qualifications and more pakeha-european sample. Currently, 63% in study, employment without formal study - 28% and neither studying or employed 9%. (69% unemployed/sickness, 31% looking after a child). 11% of sample had experienced unemployment between 16 and 20.

Findings include, relationship with family better than at 16, friends and partners remain important. Leisure usually spend with friends and family. 2/3 enjoyed sports for fun, texting friends, reading, surfing the internet (daily use not frequent), most used alcohol.

84% have undertaken post school study supported by employment and loans. almost all thought they would need further study towards a qualification in their adult life, gaining new knowledge and skills valued, employment also a site of learning and choosing the wrong course of study, not completing it, or deciding not to study the main source of regrets since leaving school.

Leaving school provided more independence and choices but 61% felt apprehensive. Those who left school with less than NCEA 2 had lower student engagement and motivation levels and found it hard to work out what to do when they left school. Second chance education supposed to open some learning and employment doors if links are well structured and supported. Many who do second chance 'yo yo' between work and course and do not complete. many need much more advise and support post school and at school to gain from formal study. therefore many left school without 'learning identities'.

Positive learning identities include sound learning habits built though good school engagement, support from school, parents and friends, teachers advise and seeing learning as having its own rewards and useful to meet future goals.

NCEA level 2 and NQF equivalents are reasonable signals for readiness for some complex transitional arrangements as it represents good level of both attitudinal and cognitive competencies.
Lowest early performance can be improved. 1/3 with low reading and 1/4 with low maths at 8 and 10, obtained NCEA level 3. Factors that make a difference include enjoyment of reading, having leisure interests (not computer games), no bullying /victim experience, family income moderate or more, no adverse events, positive family relationships, friends in adolescence who are not drinking, partying etc.

To shift performance, teachers play a role with importance placed on knowing children as individuals,

Final report due out in a few weeks but the entire series of reports found at educationcounts site.

Earthquakes in Christchurch - again!!

2011-06-15T08:29:00.002+12:00

Well, just as we thought things were settling down and people were preparing for a long and hard winter, the earth decides to move again (as forecasted). On Monday, we were hit by a long, rumbly 5.5 (upgraded to 5.6) just after 1pm. All the people in my office were beavering away at our computers and when the rumble started to increase and the shaking intensify, we all dived under our desks. One of my colleagues two monitors crashed on to the ground and desks were covered in the usual white dust that comes off the ceiling panels. After the shake subsided, all of us got together to figure out if we should evacuate. The alarm did not go off, so we continued as per normal, working through another small aftershock before we were told the polytechnic was closed. I left on my bike just after 2pm.

The 6.0 (upgraded to 6.3) came on just as I was cycling past the public hospital. The shaking was strong enough to cause me to come off my bike and pedestrians near me all fell to the ground. I could see the road ripple and the buildings and trees sway plus feel the earth shift beneath my feet! After making sure an elderly women pedestrain was OK, I made my way home, through traffic jammed Riccarton Road with all the traffic lights off and people milling around on the footpath as their buildings and the Westfield Mall were all evacuated (from the first quake). Got home to find out how strong the quake was and to txt my son and daughter to make sure they were both OK. Then rang friends out Sumner way (no replies but yesterday found out they were OK but very shaken about).

There have been a host of earthquakes since, keeping everyone on alert with many occuring in the early hours of the morning (a 4.7 yesterday at 3am) and a 5.0 this morning just after 6.30 am, visually displayed here for each day. The Eastern suburbs have weathered the main impact with liquefaction and flooding adding to no electricity, water or sewage facilities. Living on the Western side of town, it all seems to be a long way off :( No work yesterday and today but should be back to work tomorrow to help with the usual tidy up (books fell off shelves in the library) before students return to the campus on Monday. Using the time to catch up on a large pile of journal articles, collected over the summer, many through a Routledge 'open access' month in April? for education journals.

Learning by failing

2011-06-13T10:35:00.000+12:00

Stuart Middleton blogged last week about his experiences as a ‘first generation’ university student and how he learnt from failing a his first year at university.

A good follow up to my reading of the furtureored blog where where were two postings on learning through failure and the role of failure in constructive learning.

The above blogs gave me some food for thought, as my experiences as a teacher of tutors, has brought home to me that some tutors are more empathetic with students. Especially if they had experienced some form of ‘failure’ at school. For instance, many of our trades tutors, ‘fell’ into an apprenticeship due to not completing school cert. while at school. So many of them have gone on to complete other academic endeavours, but their memory of not doing well at school, remains with them. For many of these tutors, using 'failure' to motivate young trades students to aspire to better results, is one strategy I have observed in trades teaching. Learning by making mistakes, is therefore a useful strategy, in a supported learning enviroment.

Future of learning (education)

2011-06-09T09:29:00.000+12:00

Just settling back into things at work this week. A few articles from last week and this week to mull through and digest on the future of education.

First up, an article from the Guardian via Thom Cochrane, on ‘smartphones killing personal computers’ . A somewhat ‘one sided’ viewpoint, supporting the rise of the ‘smartphone’ with the comments providing a bit of a wake-up call. My take is that very very soon, the smartphone will be the one piece of hardware that does everything device. However, at the moment, not quite there yet, especially with mobile access to the web still comparatively expensive in NZ. Access to wifi has improved considerably though and one of the proposals for a ‘new’ Christchurch City is to ensure there is freely accessible Wifi throughout the city centre. Tablets are the main compromise at the moment, obviating one of the major disadvantages of smart phones, the small screen. Having now enjoyed reading off my Ipad, I am not too willing to read off my blackberry. However, a recent trip to China and Singapore, reaffirmed that reading Asian script off a small screen is actually quite reasonable as you can fit more characters on to a small screen then words using alphabets.

Next up, an updated ‘future of education’ brochure via email from Knowledge Works Foundation. Glossy and attractive layout, detailing a series of ‘trends’. They propose five ‘trends using ‘buzz words’ These are increased focus on skills required of all learners for – pattern recognition (the visual web), the ‘maker’(user/consumer created) economy, the new civic discourse (rise of democracy through citizen action), platforms for resilience (increasing flexibility and creativity to cope with rapid change), ‘amplified’ organisation (extending human capacity through technology requires new ways to do things) and ‘altered bodies’ (new understandings of how to link biological brains with technology to improve outcomes e.g. for the disabled). Also summarises the impact technological change has on individuals, organisations, systems, society, economy and knowledge.

And their latest blog, summarises the key trends from the New Media Consortium report for schools. These are the challenges posed by the abundance of information off the www to educators; school resources becoming more and more based in the cloud; technology continues to profoundly affect the way we work, collaborate, communicate, and succeed; expectations of ubiquitous computing are now commonplace; and innovation and creativity are increasingly perceived as high value.

Things have shifted in the last 5 years with regards to access to the mobile net and these changes are reflected in how we make use of both the hardware and software as tools. Deploying these tools cause us to change the way in which we do things, leading to a loop of manufacturers/developers, working to meet percieved consumer demands. In the end, as summarised in the future of education brochure, it's the human innate drive to 'play', tweak, innovate, improve which will always make things interesting and slightly unforecastable. It's this 'unknown' that makes life always interesting for all of us. Perhaps, to 'prepare' the next generation for the future, requires little intervention in the form of nurturing our children to keep their sense of curiosity and wonder, for education to NOT quench our desire to experiment and learn.

Beijing and android tablets

2011-05-30T19:44:00.000+12:00

While in Beijing, I had a few days to have a look around, so did the usual tourist sights (Tienanmen square (huge), Forbidden City (austere) and the Badaling section of the Great Wall (impressive). Also caught up with old friends. Both my friends had studied at the University of Canterbury in the early 1980s. One has worked in China for over 20 years and the other for 15 years, so they have witnessed massive changes not only in the urban landscape, but in Chinese society as it has moved from a strict socialists regime towards a 'freer' market-led economy. Both used chaffeur driven cars as the traffic is so horrendous, a capable driver is important for getting around!!

I had a look around for Android tablets, but they were sparse. Visited the two main computer malls in Beijing, one in the city, the Best Buy mall and the other a group of malls clustered around the University suburbs of North West Beijing. Huge number of phones with iPhones and iPads along with HTC android phones galore, but a paucity of Android tablets. There were a few older model Archos and some Samsung Galaxys, but no sign of much else. Phones predominate and watching young Chinese texting on the subway was an interesting diversion. Due to the crowded nature of the subway, one could not help but lurk as various people tapped out their messages. Most phones relied on predictive text, choosing the correct character once a pinyin (English form) of a word was inputted. There were a few phones with character recognition, so the character was sketched and then the predictive text took over. Still slower to text in Chinese then English though.

Phone use was pervasive, from every young person to the itinerant vegetable seller on the street side. From what I gathered from the students at the conference, data plans and phones are cheap although the students still had to be careful with phone call use due to their small budgets. Food, transport and clothing all very cheap as compared to NZ. Much of the city of 20 million (5 time population of NZ!!) live in apartment blocks although I did see a few housing developments with low rise houses, but they will only be for the very rich. Traffic is consists of lots of cars and bikes / mopeds etc. and the subway is very busy, even at 'off peak'. However, there are lots of little parks around and people are kind and helpful, especially to the young and elderly. I saw lots of examples of young people helping others. It is a good sign of a caring society and much needed when so many people are packed into limited space. Will be good to be able to visit China again for a longer time to have a look beyond Beijing. Only a fleeting impression this time around but I am impressed by the Chinese peoples' focus and determination to progress and many are aware of the challenges economic progress bring.

INAP 4th conference - day 2

2011-05-30T19:33:00.000+12:00

Day two opens with keynote from Professor Zhiqun Zhao on 'school enterprise cooperation in China's VET' a topic of world interest and relevance to the NZ context. He provided a brief introduction, followed by the China experience, including ways to promote the process and advantages and disadvantages / problems and discussion. Many methods used to integrate work with VET education, mostly in the form of internships (up to a year) and work placements.

After morning tea, I attended a series of papers in the 'open session' - papers that do not quite fit into the four main themes!

First up, Ursel Hauschildt and Helen Brown 'costs. benefits and quality in TVET: method, results and contexts of implementing a self-evaluation tool for companies in Germany & South Africa. Uses an online tool, adapted from German context to try to quantify benefits of training to individual organisations. Calculations show that costs of training exceeds benefits in the first and second years and in the third year,there is a return on investment.

Then, Professor Alan Brown & Professor Jenny Bimrose from the University of Warwick on 'developmental tasks, vocational development and career adaptability. Life development stages set time of young adulthood as getting into a career.However VET policies tend to assume that choices are set early in life. Current social/economic conditions, require more flexibility as careers are no longer for life. Career adaptability 5 Cs include control, curiosity, confidence, concern and commitment (Savickas et al, 2009). Longitudinal study undertaken to track people as they progress through careers in European countries. Findings include importance of challenging work for ALL, varying patterns of engagement with learning activities, personal autonomy and meaning of career, discussions with others about possible lines of career development, formal learning often valued and identification with occupation and /or organisation or skill set recontextualisation, proactive in shaping career and learning pathways but often support to become reflective, anxieties common, help individuals develop their own career stories/sense of direction, career options and choices limited by context and opportunities structures key. Important factors for career adaptive are proactive personality, good interaction with others and engaging in challenging activities.

Third, a presentation from Professor Moriki Terada from University of Nagoya, on an ' international comparative study on the formation of high school students' vocational views and the challenges of vocational and career education. Study done across 6 countries with 10th grade students. Career choice research still based on dated and mainly psychological studies (Spranger, 1920s and Super, 1970) but young people have changed e.g. in Japan, there are many youth with low vocational aspirations (Free-ter - part-time workers or NEET - not in employment, education or training). Therefore important to do an update. Questionnaire on vocational views derived from Shimizu and Shulenberg's inventory (1990) and Schein's career anchors (1978). Finding that most students,including vocational students (excluding Japan and Indonesia) tend to choose an academic track after graduation but at least 1/4 of vocational students have not made a decision with regards to career choice. Choices include 'self realisation', religion/mission, economy life signifying, society contribution and leader/wealthy class.

The two projects above, adding concepts to the final report my project on 'perspective of first year apprentices'.

Last on for the morning, Helmuth Zelloth from European Union VET research organisation (ETF) on 'a trend towards apprenticeship in EU neighboring countries?' Reported on a 3 year project (ILP) that has just started on workplace learning. Focus on raising awareness and policy sensitivity for WBL in 30 EU countries and to develop methodologies and tools for WBL. Project being reported studying many countries on the fringes of EU using case studies on formal/informal apprenticeships including Eastern /SE Europe, Mediterranean and Central Asian countries. Themes characterising apprentices in these countries include weak education/business cooperation, VET systems mainly small/medium sized VET systems or school based, external/internal challenges in reforming VET, academic drift in education and society and low attractiveness and relevance of VET. Challenges include school-based VET has structural limits in preparing sound human capital, growing bottleneck of public funding of VET coupled with high population growth and stipulated 'knowledge economy' requires new forms of learning (situated/contextualised, integrating work and learning). preliminary mapping indicates some countries have well established systems (Turkey, Ukraine, Croatia, Albania, Morocco, Jordan), long established but small (Egypt, Israel), some piloting and a few with none.

After lunch, attended four papers in the 'multiple roles of universities, schools and their teaching and training staff - there have already been a dozen papers presented in this stream!

First up, Associate Professor Bonnie Watt-Malcolm from University of Alberta, on 'reforming VET pre-service teacher ed: the gifted amateur, the seasoned profesional, and the skilled tradesperson. reports on a 3 year study for improving Career & Technical Education (CTE) teacher education. These teachers have a trade skill and then become teachers. surveyed teachers and found the 3 categories, gifted amateur - minimal work experience and education but interest in VET subject, seasoned prof - non-credentialed training and related work experience and skilled tradesperson. need to customised pre-service BEd to help students become CTE teachers. Skilled tradespersons can come into BEd are provided with a 1 year credit towards the 4 year degree.

Secondly, Volker Bank and Thomas Retzman Chemnitz University of Technology on 'training needs analysis in economics teaching. On the sustainabilityof the test of economics literacy (TEL). Project to develop a tool for self-assessment of further training needs for teachers, in this case for economic and financial literacy, which is part of /embedded inGerman VET system. Uses a adapted TEL originally developed by Soper for an English context. independent variables also used in analysis, these include gender,topic of degree, experience, age, etc. findings indicate there is some need for further training as range of results is wide. However the TEL itself needs refining to provide for more useful results.

The Jianrong Zhang and Luna Huang from Tongji University in Shanghai on 'master education of vocational instructors'. provided ann overview of VET education, rationale for higher ed for VET teachers and the M Ed for VET. In China, very few VET teachers have competence in a technical competence or have had pre-service training. Usually VET teachers have a Batchelor or Masters and then obtain a VET teaching teachers. now developing a M Ed for people with at least an B Eng so that there is some technical competency to be supported by further pedogogical understanding (dual competence).

Last paper from Yasuhiko Ushida on 'industrial arts for career plan in junior japanese education has had an emphasis on preparing students for university, yet since 1980 many university graduates find it very difficult to obtain employment and many have to complete vocational education or even higher education. This project used the 'industrial arts' curriculum at junior high school to introduce students to the concept of thinking about a future career while still at school.

The conference then re-convened with an hour or so of chairs/reporters from each workshop, reporting on highlights.Conclusions and INAP membership details plus information on next conference (in South Africa), closed the conference.

A varied and interesting conference.

On Day 3, delegates had the opportunity to visit Chang Ping Vocational School, North of Beijing, on the way to an excursion to the Badaling section of the Great Wall. I joined everyone for an interesting and informative visit to the vocational school and then made my own way back to the city to catch flight to Singapore in the early evening.

INAP -Iinternational Network on Innovative Apprenticeship 4th Conference - Day 1

2011-05-30T19:23:00.000+12:00

Notes taken at the INAP conference running 26th and 27th of May in Beijing.

Conference opens formally with a welcome in Mandarin (with translation in English) from the Director of VET division of the Ministry of Education, Professor Jiping Wang. His speech focused on the importance of VET in supporting China's strategic goals towards better economic progress for Chinese people. A major challenge has been to work through a method to integrate VET with workplace based training and learning, a process that is still progressing. Modern apprenticeship proposed as a solution, combining the base of traditional Chinese approaches to craft apprenticeship and best of the systems used by other countries.

Then official welcome from Jiayong Li Dean of the Faculty of Education from Beijing Normal University, one of the conference organizers.Followed by welcome from Professor Jianfeng Cai, director of the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. All reiterating points made by Professor Wang on need to further research in VET to inform develop appropriate VET in China.

First presentation from Professor Weiping Shi of the Chinese Society of Vocational and Technical Education, from The Institute of voc and adult education, East China Normal University, to set the scene.
Covered the 3 strategic national priorities and how VET may assist. A challenge is still the reluctance of parents to allow students to select a voc ed.pathway. therefore need to match labour market needs with aspirations of individuals. need to make voc ed more multi-functional including strengthening lit/num skills that leads to further opportunities for voc ed students beyond voc. occupations. integrating lit/num to life and work skills needs to be undertaken to make voc ed relevant. much still needs to be done to integrate voc ed with industry skill needs including partnerships with between voc ed institutions and industry/organisations. Another challenge is to provide development of the 'informal' workplace learning.

Professor Felix Rauer of the International Network of Innovative Apprenticeship then completed the formal welcomes with an opening speech, firstly by thanking organisers and then providing a brief summary of the evolution of INAP through 3 previous conferences in Europe and then this one in Beijing. Then introduced the 4 areas / themes of the conference and connected them to themes from previous conferences. Continued to discuss issues of poor reputation on voc Ed. often further acerbated by qualification frameworks which put Voc Ed below academic qualifications. Proposed a need to research more thoroughly the work process skills/knowledge in order to understand more clearly components of professional and technical work.

After morning tea, first keynote by Professor Philipp Gonon from the University of Zurich, on 'Apprenticeship as a model for the international architecture of TVET'. overviews apprenticeship as a concept, models. element of a successful VET system (e.g. Swiss) and recommendations. Defines apprenticeship in terms of modes ( type of learning, way of education, traditional vs modern) variations (dual, trial) and conceptual (sites, interactions, interest groups). Compared approaches / systems in German (occupation, industry skill based, input orientated and holistic ) French (technical approach, school based, input orientation and access / junction) and UK (qualifications competency based, learner / output orientated and flexible).

After lunch, I attended the sessions on 'learning and development theories and models, one of 4 streams.

First up, Christof Nagele and Patrizia Hasler from the Swiss federal institute for VET- learning at the workplace: optimal learning environments. Work process forms product, work develops not only skills but also many other occupational identity formation indicators. Workplace learning also encompasses both individual and social elements. All handicraft, manual work is first of all: cognitive work. optimum workplace learning for individual (motivation, persistence), social (team support etc.) job design, trainers (expert in domain) and curriculum. used mindmaps constructed by apprentices to try to understand cognitive conceptions and to see if various factors affect apprentices learning. Important to optimum wb learning is trust in the trainer, mere executing of task not learning, demanding tasks with variability and scope for action.

Then Jeroen Onstenk from Inholland University of Applied Sciences, on 'enhancing situated learning: apprenticeship in learning departments. provided a brief overview of the Dutch apprenticeship system and a move into multi-versions of apprenticeship - new apprenticeships, simulations,work learning period (traineeship), adultapprenticeships, learning departments (nursing, care, administration), in-school learning company (catering, restaurant, administration) and out of school learning company. This project evaluated the effectiveness of apprentices, often in different courses, within a single dept. of organisation. Apprenticeships have a coach/teacher from school, the workplace and often students from several levels. The entire department is by apprentices.

Third up, Yanying Gu on ' how to convert individual skill operator to integrated task solver: Teaching research on action-orientated learning for secondary voc.ed. school students studying basics of computer ed. Reports on a shift from being presented with learning, teacher showing how to fix and students replicating towards one in which understanding of important concepts can be transferred. Therefore from just able to replicate to being able to self-directed in planning, developing and creating. Recommends to teach 'course not 'textbook', design learning tasks carefully and select appropriate teaching methods. Uses action process teaching working systematically through informing, planning, deciding, realizing, controlling and evaluation based on 'action-orientated' learning.

After afternoon tea, Tongji Li from Tongji University in Shanghai, and Remy Rikers on 'the role of deliberate practice in Chinese vocational teaching. Defines 'deliberate practice' as not just work or play it must be designed for consciously improving performance. Outlined the background behind research on deliberate practice for instance work of Ericsson (1993) on acquisition of expertise. Found in a small study that some of the premises of 'deliberate' practice', as described in western coontext, also useful in the Chinese context. When designing delibrate practice, ensure also task difficulty falls in the zone of proximal development, not repeating on the previous level. task requires conscious effort, concentration and self regulation. May have low entertainment, no immediate reward and needs high motivation for perseverance. Feedback and adjustment in time plus high requirement in physical and mental resources.

Then my presentation 'learning practical workplace-based judgement through using cognitive apprenticeships and voc.ed. identity formation models. - bringing together work with welding students on how modeling and feedback assists students to learn the nuances of welding in peer support groups.

Last up for the day, Professor Erica Smith, Arlene Walker and Ros Brennan Kemmis on 'importance of the psychological contract for effective learning in apprenticeship. A psychological contract between employer and employee concerning mutual expectations and obligations. survey of apprentices, employers, govt. bodies etc.indicates both apprentices and employers agreed on expectations and that most obligations were met. Training obligations generally better met than employment conditions/obligations. hard promises (specific time for training, range of training methods) and soft promises (opportunity to apply what is learnt, exposure to different experiences) less well met. Older apprentices felt their expectations were met was lower than for younger apprentices.

Thoughts on Beijing/China and looking for Android tablets (again) in Singapore

2011-05-30T02:08:00.000+12:00

Was in Beijing to attend and present at the International Network on Innovative Apprenticeships (INAP). It was the fourth conference with a theme of 'assuring acquisition of expertise: Apprenticeship in the modern economy. The event was hosted by Beijing Normal University who were excellent hosts.

My first time to the motherland, so lots to see and learn, including that the Great Fire Wall blocks access to blogger :( so my posts on the 2 days of the conference will need to await the next day or so when I am able to gain access to wifi to transfer my notes from my ipad to blogger.

Meanwhile, now in Singapore for a week to run workshops on constructive alignment for the IAL which start tomorrow. I return to NZ on Saturday, so only this afternoon to have a good look around for Android tablets for the interactive etextbook project. Visited the Funan IT mall as it is the most convenient and found several shops now have an area set aside to showcase tablets. The newspapers also offering plans for the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy. The iPad still dominates the market. Prices still high with Dell streak for S$788, Samsung Galaxy S$798 and Acer Iconia Tab A500 for S$799. At the lower end of the scale go to the Huawei S7 at S$488, Archos 10 S$599, Creative Ziio 10 at S$399, Viewsonic 10s SS$599. Most promising of the lot seems to the Asus eee Pad at S$699.

Lots of choice and all run Android with the Viewsonic also available with Windows. Purchasing and having the tablets posted across to NZ may be a hassle but will sort things out once we know the project $$ are approved.

Projects for next semester and beyond

2011-05-17T08:18:00.000+12:00

Slight hiatus in blogging over the last week or so as busy getting several research proposals off to various external grant agencies.

Funding for two through Ako Aotearoa Southern Hub, now confirmed for next semester. One with Flip Leijten to extend on work we started last year with the 'using videos to study workshop or workplace based trades learning'. Flip will now carry out an investigation into aspects of peer-learning across workshops in joinery, painting and decorating, electrical and welding/structural steel. It will be interesting to find out how workshop organisation, sometimes based around workshop conventions from each trade, impacts on how students interact with each other.

The second is with Martin Jenkins, manager of the Centre for Educational Development. We will be investigating the 'impact of forced change' brought about by the February 22nd earthquake on our institution, the tutors and the students. The findings should be interesting - as a study of change agents and what happens when change is non- negotiable. The staff and students at CPIT have been very resilient but there are signs of stress and strain as the realities of living in a city that has to rebuilt large swathes of the central city and several suburbs, sets in.

I have also put in an expression of interest in this year's Teaching and Learning Research Initiative, to build research capability with trades tutors (across 7 polytechnics) using a 'learning by doing research' approach. The topic we intend to investigate is 'authentic assessments', in particular to explore how to better recognise and celebrate the many multiliteracies in trades learning. We will know by end of June if this project progresses to the next stage beyond the expression of interest.

The last project has gone to the CPIT Foundation to fund hardware in the form of Android OS tablets towards an interactive etextbook project. I hope to work with Peter Sauer from automotive and Katrina Fisher who teaches barista, on this project. Taken that the last Horizon Report indicated mlearning to go mainstream next year and ebooks in the next two years, it is apt that this project covers both bases :) Both Peter and Katrina are capable tutors who have worked extensively with multi-media to support their teaching, so it will be interesting to learn from them, and their students, as the project progresses.

So looking forward to next semester. My large 'first year apprentices' project will be completed by July, so three projects - mentoring Flip, the 'forced change' project and working on the interactive textbooks will take up my research time. I will enjoy the variety and the privilege of working with a great group of people. More importantly, all the topics will add to enhancing student learning in some form or other.

Ako Aotearoa colloquium - day 2

2011-05-06T07:58:00.000+12:00

Another busy day with 10 more presentations. First up, a TLRI project on 'mathematics undergraduate teaching: perspectives and interactions' with Barbara Kensington-Miller from the University of Auckland. Explored lecturer, student and lecturer interactions/environments components. On the lecturer component, Schoenfeld's ROG -resources, orientations and goals, used to investigate university mathematics teaching. For student perspectives, the mathematical identities of students is studied. In the lecturing component, investigates the implicit and explicit social and socio-mathematical norms. Use of questions in lectures to engage students in processing concepts. timing of questions important with placement around middle of lecture optimum.

Second presentation from Ngaroma Williams from Te Pari Puna Ora O Ateoaroa and Mary-Liz Broadley from the Open Polytechnic on building kaupapa Maori in early childhood education. The main objective is to develop a model/framework to provide kaupapa Moari. Project used online surveys (survey monkey) and focus group sessions and face to face and telephone interviews. Main themes now identified. Move to try to describe the interface/space between the mainstream and Maori and moving from biculturalism to a concept of bicultural development using 'paddling the same waka' resources. Resources developed include a Maori maramataka (Maori theoretical framework calendar), sets of teachers, graduate teachers pamplets and lecturer guidelines and resources plus poster to outline iwi names, powhiri protocols etc. and a ECE Waiata booklet.

Then a project CPIT also involved in on graduate attributes, presented by Associate Professor Rachel Spronken-Smith and Dr. Carol Bond from the University of Otago. Project just started in March and first stage is to complete synthesis of literature and to define graduate attributes pertinent to NZ context. Provided an overview of background of adoption of graduate attributes in Europe, eventually in US of A and Australia moving on into current changes to NQF targeted review of qualifications.

After morning tea, Gordon Suddaby from Massey University presents on 'help or hindrance: a blended approach to learner engagement'. Main purpose of this project is to develop a toolbox for teachers to use for developing pedagogically sound/robust blended learning environments. Toolbox made up of needs assessment, design and development tools, and evaluation tools. Developed from teachers' perspectives with input from students feedback. Some testing of these tools now undertaken to ensure they will meet objectives of project.

Then,'the impact of tertiary education strategies on success of Pacific learners from Dr. John Horrocks and Aleki Siloa from Wellington Institute of Technology. Main objective is to find out if government strategy documents have been used to support the participation and success of Pacific learners. 16 f 29 tertiary education institutes have agreed to provide strategy documents and these supplemented with data from TEC and MOE. Key staff responsible for support strategies will also be interviewed.

Another elearning focused project next with Dr. Stephen Marshall from Victoria University on 'understanding and supporting organisational change with elearning and higher ed.Project focused on understanding organisational change. Used the elearning maturity model (eMM) to provide a framework for studying adoption and maturity of elearning. background on change from Clayton Christensen - see what's next. Sustaining change is the challenge and technology may not have changed the fundamental objectives of teaching and learning- or has it? Change may occur in institutions if there is a state of acknowledged crisis, small, conspicously out of step or autocratic leadership. Mechanisms that result in change include coercive isomorphisms (TEC investment plan, PBRF), mimitic isomorphism (Learning management system, powerpoint) and normative isomorphism (professional culture creating change - student centred learning).

After lunch, the last presentations take place.

Starting with 'unlocking the impact of tertiary teachers' perceptions of student evaluations' with Dr. Sarah Stein from the University of Otago. Used statistical analysis including frequencies, chi squares and cross tabulations, ANOVA, factor analysis, cluster analysis and regression to study data from various student evaluations. Example from findings on a question on whether negative student evaluations on changes in teaching approach or adoption of innovation considered by staff to constrain their moves to take up new approaches. Found in a university context that staff who have taught between 11 - 15 years were constrained. Perhaps mid-career academics in cycle of promotion?

Followed by my presentation on ' first year apprentices' experiences of the workplace' where findings are collated into themes of matching vocational imagination of apprentices, supporting the belonging to a workplace process and providing ongoing incentives towards completion of apprenticeship.

Next up, 'tertiary teaching tracks: holistic teaching and learning practices of Pacific PTEs' with Lindsay Huthnance from the NZ Institute of Sport. Uses a blend of western and pacific models exampled by the Kakalu approach. Focus groups (fono) used to gather data. Explores teaching/learning/pastoral care practices, weaving of Pacific cultures into teaching and learning. Findings included foundation learners enrolled NOT to complete academic qualification however future employment a strong goal, importance off catering to learning styles of students, students to be responsible for their own learning, on-going support, provide encouragement and inspiration to succeed and need to manage competing time demands.

Last up,an interesting collaboration between a wananga, iwi, PTE and ITPs 'Waiariki agricultural collaboration: Nga ringa raupo o pikiao'. Presented by Stephen Carr from Taratahi on building Maori participation and success in tertiary vocational agriculture. A need to build capability with young Maori to work on iwi trusts farms. Programme to be developed as a collaborative iwi led, provider supported akonga centric model, affirming Maori ways of knowing, traditions and values with effective teaching and learning environments and approaches.

Wrap up by Dr. Kirsty Weir to close up another busy but productive colloquium. Kirsty introduced the Ako Aotearoa impact evaluation model that will need to be undertaken by each National project after completion. Impact - who is the target audience? How are they best reached? Write to communicate key messages, generate excitement and capture interest, not just report research. Write to stimulate CHANGE. Re-look at dissemination plan to ensure correct targeting occurs including scoping of communication strategy. Build synergy between projects to launch similar themes/contexts. Presentation of reports to be improved. The impact evaluation framework used to explore sustained impact on learners, project teams, organisations and broader sector involving interviews/conversations at 6 months, 1 year and 2 years after completion. To review project outputs, changesto teaching and learning practice, benefits to learners and wider project team.

Ako Aotearoa research in progress colloquium - day 1

2011-05-06T07:43:00.000+12:00

The annual Ako Aotearoa research collaquium ran for two days on 4th and 5th May. Last year, I learned much about different approaches /research methods, so looking forward to more of the same this year.

Symposium opened with mini whakatua from Ngahiwi Apanui, Ako Aotearoa's Kaihautu whakawhanake Maori. Followed with brief welcome from Dr. Kirsty Weir, Research manager.

A full day of presentations follow. My presentation not until late tomorrow so I can sit back, listen, record and reflect.

First up, Dr.Erik Brogt, from the University of Canterbury- on transforming tertiary science education. Using the Carl Wieman science education initiative and adapt to the NZ context (biology and geology). Uses evidence (preferably quantitative) to support changes in teaching / learning to increase student engagement. Pertinent issue - observations of student engagement identify 'weak' points in the lecture for instance, providing examples and linking learning outcomes seem to increase engagement. interventions include using clickers, in-class exercises and academic development for staff.

Next, success and relational agency in academia: the experience of early career academics with Dr. Kathryn Sutherland from Victoria University. Data collection about completed with analysis from June os report on background. look at what motivates early career academics to undertake research and and variations between organisational and personal aspirations. multi-method approach using interviews, questionnaires and focus groups. Found at early stage there is a BIG gap between external/internal institutional and personal expectations. previous research indicates important factors to be institutional support/resources, prior experience and personal characteristics. leading to better induction, 'academics are learners too. resource on ako aotearoa website.

Patrick Hiki from Kahui Tautoko and started this presentation with Jenny Connor from the Industry Training Federation and Nicky Murray from MITO on 'Maori learners in workplace setting". In NZ almost 10% of workforce = 190,000 people in 35,000 enterprises involved in industry training. 30,000 identify as Maori but very little known about Maori learners in the workplace. ITOs involved include ETITO, BCITO and MITO although more Maoris in seefood, social services, forestry and food manufacturing. need to find out how Maori workers learn in the workplace, what works and barriers to success. Using a Kaupapa Maori research approach, focus on talking with and not about Maori learners and a mixed methods approach.

After morning tea, 4 presentations. Starting with Robyn Baker, Director of NZ Council of Educational Research with an overview of the teaching and learning research initiative (TLRI). So far 20 tertiary projects funded between 2002-2010. 14 have been published.

Then, Dr. Elaine Khoo from University of Waikato on "exploring elearning practices across disciplines in a university environment". 2 year TLRI project with 4 case studies in year 1 and 8 in year 2 across 7 disciplines - earth/ocean science, screen/media studies, history,education, engineering and management. Looked into how lecturers use potential of ICT to support tertiary and lecturers and students. findings include effectiveness of ICT, expands and transforms student notions of subject, develops student professional identity, bridge students conceptual, visual and spatial thinking between virtual and real world and not all students emjoy using technology.

Third up, Matui Ratima from University of Waikato on " factors affecting the development proficiency in te roe Maori for adult learners". Matiu is an Ako Aotearoa PhD scholarship recipient. Used interviews based on ethnographical/ partially auto to try to make sense of the two worlds that exist for Maori speakers in NZ. Emerging points include importance of passion, common strategies used and aspects thought to be essential to successful language acquisition seem to be absent from some proficient participants.

Last on before lunch, "pasifika learners and success in tertiary ed." from Dr.Cherie Chu from Victoria University. process of carrying the project, just as important as formal outcomes of the project. A just commenced National project beginning work to investigate exemplars of success to understand institutional level supports that will enhance pacifika learners outcomes. From learners' perspectives, the internal and external motivational factors that contribute to development and success. institutions include Victoria, Otago, MIT, CPIT & Pacific training institute (Wellington). Based on the Kakala framework, a metaphor to carry out the research. An inclusive approach using appreciative inquiry.

After lunch, three varied topics. First up, Dr Elana Curtis from the University of Auckland on 'success for all: improving Maori student success in health professional degree-level programmes. An example of using Kaupapa research methodology and update from last year on progress made. Study on the non-lecture aspects of health programmes to find out how to best support Maori students - clinical, non-clinical and MAPAs. Maori and Pacific Admission scheme (MAPAS) offers academic, pastoral support and academic representation. Use critical incident technique to find out factors that support or hinder success - trigger, action and outcome. Categorise interview data on critical incidents as helpful or unhelpful (usually 2/3 helpful).

Next, 'maximising learning dialogue opportunities in professional field-based experiences with Dr. Andrew Smith, Dr. Marion Sanders, Suzanne Barlow from the Bethlehem Tertiary Institute. Focused on professional preparation programmes for early childhood education and counselling. A collaborative study with Bethlehem, NZ Tertiary College and Wintec. 27 students and their associated teacher/supervisor took part. Found, among usual items, mismatch between what supervisors say and what students perceive happens and between institutions' goal and actual practicum experience. A desire between both students and supervisors to have a relationship but finding common time to meet was difficult. interventions include partnership map, belief inventory, critical incident (most valued) and research article (least valued) to share at each meeting.

Then, 'storybook dads programme evaluation' with Charles Pearce and Jan Bain from the Dunedin Methodist Mission. A worthwhile and interesting project. Actual storybook dads project has been running for some years (a trojan horse project) is to evaluate it's effectiveness in order to evidence the benefits already collected through anecdotes. Data gathered through analyzing progress made by dads when they record first DVD to later one. So far, seems to have a 1 level increase in literacy level after only 20 hours intervention. this research to find out how program has impacted through interviews with prisoners, families and staff.

After afternoon tea, a couple of presentations and wrap up for the day. Firstly, Angela Feekery, an Ako Aotearoa PhD scholar from Massey University on 'integrating information literacy and discovering voice'. A participatory action research (PAR) project working on 'planning' as discipline to improve information literacy. Succinctly overviewed challenges faced by students on how to sift through and critically review information. Much achieved in first 18 months but more to complete including writing up case studies gleaned from data collected through studying student assignments, focus groups, interviews with lecturers etc. this semester working with 4 courses with some changes to two of the courses worked on from last year. information landscape by Craig Cherie used to help students work out priorities with regards to how to evaluate information. Use Microsoft one note to collate research artifacts into a portfolio.

Last one for today, Associate Professor Mavis Haigh from the University of Auckland on 'making authentic and trustworthy practice-based judgements of graduating student teachers. A TLRI project between University of Auckland and 4 Auckland primary schools. The project aims to identify, develop and test models of practicum-related assessment processes and strategies used by the 4 schools; then test models of the criteria used when judging student teachers' achievement = ready to teach. The project is 1/2 way through and has captured professional conversations between university liaison lecturers, school-based adjunct lecturers and associate teachers. Data analysis now commenced. Uses Lens model within Social Judgement Theory (Hammond, Rohbaugh, Mumpower & Adelman, 1977) to give direction for research on judgement through careful identification and analysis of the context of judgement and the cues that underly the decisions. focus groups, interviews, recordings of professional conversations and meetings and document gathering all form data to put through the lens.

ITF research conference - day two

2011-04-29T15:32:00.000+12:00

Day two begins with keynote form Jeremy Baker on identifying and reporting the value added from training. Important to not only measure training outputs in term of quantification completion but also to take into account training as a process and experience. Value related to right training for the right business and the right job. The training process runs through getting ready, undertaking, assessment and putting into practice. At the moment 90% of the ITO effort goes into the middle steps but 80% of the impact of training actually in the first and last steps. Therefore to calculate reported value added RVA for training requires evaluating each of the stages of training. The steps for the RVA process therefore are to identify things that drive productivity and performance in the business, identify which are affected by skills, then refine information on drivers and impact of skills and staff satisfaction, then work out how trained and untrained employees perform and the $ value. Importantly, review the $ value to analyze is the right sort of training offered, do business practices encourage effective skill deployment and what improvements need to be made to skills and training? Recommendations include need to review content and assessment of training programs, implementation of staff development programs, more thinking about career pathways and aligning training roles, and more emphasis on training element. Therefore not just more training but appropriate and useful training.

Concurrent sessions begin with a report from Professor Rob Strathdee of Victoria University on the social composition of VET in NZ. Outlined the three phases of VET provision, meritocratic, market and managed. These phases are progressively introduced to try to increase participation range of students from various social backgrounds. Concluded VET not just for lower decile schools. However, students from higher decile schools are likely to engage in higher level VET.

Followed by Dr. Peter Waterhouse from the University of Waikato on telling tales on skills and employability: reviewing some australian research through nz lens. Began by introducing the work and future direction of the National Centre of literacy and numeracy for adults. Presented several reports from Australia, mostly through the NCVER, relevant to literacy and numeracy. Include - contradicting the stereotype - on people who succeeded even with lit/ num challenges. Two dimensional work - even though work places say they demand creative workers, some workplaces did not provide space for creativity, critical thinking or critical literacy. Making experience work - could displaced workers transfer their employability skills? Not automatically or inherently generic, key skills of transfer required, important to be able to unpack, repack, latent skills might not beam apparent etc. Skills ecosystem research refers to recognizing context. A good overview of Australian research in the adult literacy field.

Next lot of concurrent sessions with Heather McDonald and Anne Alkema from Heathrose Research and Justin Blakie from the Ag ITO. On what makes a difference to support completion and credit achievement for ag Ito trainees. Tried have 75 trainees interviewed, with recently completed, fervently exited without completing and currently enrolled across dairy (40), sheep/beef (15) and water (20) but ended with 59. Most who left self initiated, usually within first year. 97% knew what was expected of them during training. About half said they did not need qualification to do the job, they saw value in training, farm mobility was common and employers less influential about commencing training. On job farm training valued, conditions could be better, time for training an issue. Off job training valued but written work a challenge for some. Written work a challenge across educational spectrum. Support from employer and training advisor important. Motivator - future prospects once qualification completed. Thosenwho find it harder have lower qualifications, less positive employer relationships and lack time outside work to study. John reported on how ag Ito put findings from the research in place to enhance completions.

After lunch, Dr. Rose Ryan and Heather McDonald and Anne Alkema from Heathrose Research on saying what you mean and hearing what is meant: issues in researching trainee and employee perspectives on industry training. Covered the challenges of ensuring trainee voice and experiences are included and logistical, methodological and ethical issues. Challenges include access to workplace, reliance on interviews, building rapport and interpreting meaning. Reviewed NZ research on industry training 44 of which 27 was primary research and only 10 talked to trainees. Generally case studies, with interviews etc. Ad most had small participant numbers. Access to interviewees include getting workplaces to participate, selection of interviewees, informed consent and ethical assurances (power dynamics and confidentiality in small workplaces). Communication is also issue with gender, ethnicity, ESOL and age. Also how well researchers understand the workplace context and how well interviewees understand the process of research?

Then, a sessions with David Earl from the Tertiary sector performance analysis/ Ministry of education on how can tertiary education deliver better value to the economy? Theories - human capital - more skills = more productivity, improved capacity to innovate and knowledge transfer. Generally improved education (quality not quantity) leads to improvements in economy. Tertiary Ed. = diploma or higher, NZ almost 50% - almost 60% for younger and 60% have above level 3 literacy. Both skills and qualifications complement each other and in combination are important. NZ has well educated workforce but low productivity. Still shortage in engineering, building, architecture, specialist health and post-graduate info. Tech. High skills and more qualifications still important.

Last lot of concurrent sessions starting with Ann Harlow from University of Waikato on the impact of embedded literacy and numeracy teaching on adult vocational learners. 100 students from ITPs and PTEs asked about what teaching practices helped them improve literacy. Students appreciated fun ways to learn, often using more visual representations, games, linking directly applicable to practice often just in time. Students enjoy learning in groups, experts coming to class, use technology, role plays and one on one tutor assistance. Work placement and research assignments were also good ways to learn. Frustrations included difficult vocational jargon, complicated processes to remember, lack of Internet access at home.

Last session with Professor Frank Sligo from Massey University on NZ managers' low literacy : does it matter. 76% of managers are below level 3 in literacy. However, nature of managerial work is more inclined to orality then print literacy. Policy has tended to support workers' literacy improvement. However, low literacy in managers has consequences to workplace practice e.g. Affordances for other workers to literacy support Plus modern digital (document driven) world requires enhanced critical literacy. Innovation also requires both practicalities and literary intelligence. Therefore important to complement NZ no. 8 wire approach capability in print literacy.

Conference ended with a plenary panel discussion with Dr. Peter Coolbear and Professors Stephen Billett and Jane Bryson and Jenny Connor, filling in for Jeremy Baker. Each did a short overview of items learnt over the course of the conference, making links to their own presentations and those of others. Each also raised more questions requiring further work and need for vocational education sector to work with other tertiary sectors.

Overall a busy two days and good to attend a diverse range of sessions and to see how vocational education research is progressing in NZ.

ITF research conference - day one

2011-04-29T15:12:00.000+12:00

At the Industry Training Federation - ITF NZ vocational education and training research forum on Wednesday 27th and 28th April.

Began with introduction and housekeeping with Jeremy Baker the ITF executive director. Opening address from Dr. Peter Coolbear, Ako Aotearoa director on "Direction for research". Covered the policy context for workplace learning, Ako Aotearoa portfolio and issues to resolve. Policy context include limited funding on tertiary ed., youth unemployment, need to have return on investment, concern about duplication and fragmentation. Also a need to bring employers, Voc. Ed institutions etc. together.

Big change is no longer outputs and systems but about outcomes - value added to NZ economy, to the individual, productivity for today ad tomorrow and work readiness and career building. Ako Aotearoa invested 0.9 million in 7 national and 19 regional projects on workplace learning. Emergent trends / issues include little cross fertilization between different forms of workplace learning, work integrated /cooperative education. Competency and capability confused. how education/training programmes proactively address life skills and attributes. Linkages between theory and practice and assessment of learning in the workplace. Emergent ones include how strong is the evidence that work integrated learning opportunities equate to career readiness and productivity? How we actually understand learning in the workplace?Identity as a tradesmen/ professional and what is the nature of expertise? Are we fixated on content rather than concepts and attributes?

Keynote from Professor Stephen Billett on "Making space to lift performance:decision making about and engagement in vocational education". Trying to work through the challenges of what skills drive performance? How to lift performance and what investment in skills will make a difference in performance and productivity.
Introduced intended, enacted and experienced curriculum as a starting point to move forward. Intended - national curriculum documents. Enacted - shaped by what resources are available, experience experience of teachers, interpretation of what is intended, values, situational factors etc. Experienced - what student experience and as shaped by their personal processes of contrual and construction.

Reviewed historical origins of vocational education and provided suggestions on how to move forward from long held perspectives of the hieratic organization of occupations. Important to understand, based on current research, what skills drive work performance. These include set of capacities specific to a particular occupation including conceptual, procedural and dispositional, capacities that augment and are embedded in the domain eg. Communications, team work, problem solvig etc and that exist at canonical and situational. How to lift performance ? State needs to engender value of work, build mAture relationships amongst partners and make space for secure engagement from local contributions, those who assist students to learn and those who learn.

After morning tea, sessions from postgraduates' research.
First up, Jacqui Remnant from the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) on financial literacy as context for strengthening literacy and numeracy for adults. Defined financial literacy as beings aware of financial opportunities and risks and having literacy and numeracy skills, financial concept knowledge and confidence to make informed choices. Key considerations include need to connect financial literacy explicitly with other study and work with learner. Matching resources to learners reading and numeracy demands. Flexibility important as is not giving learners financial advise but for them to work it out themselves. Introduced a range of resources currently available to assist.

Gemma Piercy from the University of Waikato on 'insider outsider perspectives: the subjectivity of workplace identity. Study on what others and how professionals perceived vocational identity based on the occupation of baristas. Proposes a continuum of baristas identity. Understanding of skill requirements of baristas varies from highly skilled to unskilled work. Perhaps skill levels related to types of work identity?

Last up Dan Hunt and Diana Sharma from Unitec on debating and defining the scope of ITOs in business capacity development. The project came about through assisting small businesses to build capability. Training and development was an important aspect of capability building. However, not all ITOs developed training solutions would fit into every businesses' capability building strategy. How can there be a connection? And how can ITOs contribute flexibly to different needs and objectives of businesses at various stages of capability development.

After lunch, Professor Jane Bryson from Victoria University on "Lifting performance through facilitating capability". Explored the concept that skill is important but cannot alone create the conditions for performance and achievement. Multifaceted tools need to be used to try to understand the diverse nature of individual, team and organizational performance. Is performance a function of ability/capability, motivation/willingness/effort and opportunity? facilitating capability includes a focus on conditions which enhance means (qualification, resources, etc.) and freedom (workplace, personal agency) to achievement. Conversion factors between means and freedom include personal (age, gender, ability) social and environment and on capabilities (to use and develop skill) and functioning (vocation, lifestyle).

Presentation by Flip Leijten and myself followed on learning welding: process of feedback. Good interest followed by questions. The study we reported on available as appendix 1 in the guidelines for using video to study workshop and workplace based learning.

After afternoon tea, three concurrent sessions.

Firstly, how does learning happen on the job with Dr. Karen Vaughan, Dr. Paul O'Neil and Marie Cameron. Reports on conditions, motivations and strategies that make workplace learning successful. Based on six workplaces with interviews and observations with learners, trainers and employers. Workplaces were identified as successful by the itos involved. Guidelines include support at organizational level, structured orientation, support structured learning activities, learning from experience and use of formative and summative assessments. Implications were well reported and include a critical interplay between workplace structures and workplace learning, teachers and trainers have a key role, learning is for participation at work, success is about participating in society, knowledge and skills are now always what we assume, and workplace learning both reinforces and challenges institutionally based education.

Then secondary workplace learning and post school transition: insights from the longitudinal surveys of Australian youth with Dr. Sinan Gemici from the Ncver. vet in schools is seen as a way to start students on a career pathway in order to lower the number of youth who do not move into work or higher learning post school. So will work experience at year 11, improve outcomes for youth? After doing quantitative data matching of non wpl kids with kids who undertook wpl, there is still a significant positive effect I.e. Wpl assist school leavers to move on to further learning or into work.

Last presentation of an interesting day. Jen McCutcheon and Mike Hollings present on a community partnership in action - authentic learning through Te Kura. Te Kura provides 'personalized learning distance learning courses supported intensively using a toolbox developed for learning advisors. Based on moving learning towards a big learning picture with the student as part of an advisory group assisted by an advisor. Students also encouraged to be supported by parents and family. A student centered approach encompassing a student education plan focused on students interests and goals. Leads to programs of learning to support interest, job shadowing, development of advisories, internships and portfolio assessments.

Inspire tech at wintec on 18april

2011-04-29T14:45:00.000+12:00

A bit late with this one as Easter intervened and I lost access to the internet for a few days while out of Perth. So, here are notes taken at the very well organised and inspirational Wintec professional development event for staff.

Merran Davis opened the proffessional development progrmme after karakia. Teaching quality program led by Julia Bruce has an objective to raise cababilities in using technology to enhance teaching and learning. Staff interested but at least half of staff not confident with using IT in teaching. So inspire tech organized, a two day PD program.

Keynote to start things going with Mark Nichols now Executive Director for Faculty at the Open Polytechnic. His work on elearning summarised well in his e-ako series. Topic extend, enhance, excite, engage and above all educate. Mark spoke about the importance of pedagogy and how technology can enhance learning. Covered understanding learning, is extend, enhance, excite and engage the focus? How does technology help? Eleaning can be defined as pedagogy empowered by technology.

Cautioned about the seduction of technocentrism whereas sound pedagogy utilizes appropriate technology suitable to subject, content and student. So not content but process important.

Should elearning move into a deeper realm. Where to? Social media learning? Does information availability make education redundant? How can elearning be unlocked? How can information be useful for education? Introduced the following books that discuss the pluses and minuses of digital revolution.

Google and the myth of universal knowledge - Jeanneney 2007
Here comes everyone - shirky 2008
Cult of amateur - Keen, 2007
Dumbest generation - Bauerlein 2009
Shallow generation - what Internet is doing to our brain - Carr 2010.
Mcneely 2010 makes the link with short term memory as stimulus working memory and information but long term memory as education. Perhaps, stimulus - excite and info - enhance, excite engage not main aim of education! What is our role as educator? Helping to form mental schema, transform perspectives and help them become xxx.

Some guides offered.

Diana Laurillard - conversational framework of learning - dialogue leading to a particular goal. Education is an alignment of the understanding between student and teacher.

Mezirow 2000 - transformative learning from whist we know to how we know. Adapted by king 2009 into four steps.

Mark provided five principles for learning application
Focus on end not the means
Aim to be conversational
Keep the subject at the centre
Emphasis feedback and conceptual understanding
Be shamelessly transformative.

I faciliated two workshops at this event. The one in the morning as a general introduction to Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 possibilities. A change to evaluate a range of e tools for helping to enhance student learning. After lunch, a workshop on mobile learning tools. Both sessions attended by keen tutors, so I hope they will follow through and introduce at least one form of IT into their teaching practice next term.

Outliers - some thoughts on the book

2011-04-20T10:08:00.000+12:00

Presently in Perth for a few days to be with family and to celebrate my dad's eighth birthday. Had the usual stack of reading to catch up, including several new CPIT library books on workplace learning and multimodal research. At the airport bookshop, decided to purchase Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers as a spot of light reading and ended up finishing the book over the course of the flights from Christchurch to Perth - with a very quick shopping trip around Melbourne city with my daughter as an interlude.

Some of Outliers is autobiographical. Gladwell uses his family as an example of how the birth year of his mother and the Jamaican culture for mixed race people, conspired or destined his mother to travel to the UK for further education, setting up Gladwell's educational opportunities and future prospects. The book's overall thesis is that intelligence is not enough for individuals to succeed. Other tangibles - family connections, respect for education, propensity for hard work (the 10,000 hour rule), society's focus during your life span and unexpected alignment of things like year or month of birth, opportunity to learn skills/knowledge that others do not have easy access to at a given time (Bill Gates and his access to a mainframe in the 1970s to learn and hone programming skills), all contribute to eventual 'success'.

I am particularly taken by the dedication of the book to Gladwell's grand-mother, Daisy as it rings true for my family as well. My maternal grandmother, passed on recently at the grand age of 98. Without her foresight and determination, I might not be here writing this blog. My grandmother was born in Indonesia, a third generation Hakka, to a family of traders, supplying food to tin miners on the island of Bangka. Her matchmade marriage at the age of 18, brought her to Singapore where she and my grandfather, eked out a living, eventually with 6 children (1 boy and 5 girls), as domestic employees to various government officials. She never had the opportunity go to school and remained, all her life, illiterate - although one of my cousins taught her to write her name in Chinese and English when she was in her 60s.

What I am eternally grateful for, is that she scrimped, saved and worked - baking Indonesian cookies and cakes, to sent all her children (remember, most girls in the 1940s in Singapore did not go to school) to 'Mission school'. My uncle became a police officer, eventually rising to police superintendent, all my aunties became teachers with one becoming a school principal and two very senior subject teachers and my mother, a nurse, who when she retired, was matron of a large hospital. All my cousins have attained professional positions and so far, my childrens' generation has seen each and everyone complete at least a graduate degree. So, as in Outliers, my grandmother's decision to educate not only her son but all her daughters as well, saw out family, rise in one generation, to the middle class. The influences of the Chinese respect for education and Singapore's emphasis on educational meritocracy cannot be discounted as well. Also, the birth years of my parents, as they were in their early teens during the world war 2 Japanese occupation of Singapore. If my dad or uncles were just 4 - 5 years older, they might not have got through the pogrom of young men.

So perhaps some truth in aspects of the Outliers' book, regardless, it's a good book to read while stuck in a plane :)

electronic literature - contrbution to interactive textbooks

2011-04-15T13:00:00.000+12:00

While doing a catch up on reading up on multimodal analysis last night, I came across the use of the hypertext authoring tool StorySpace as a means to compile a multimodal research report. A concept I will explore next year if one of the projects I am applying for funding comes about.

StorySpace runs on Macs and Windows and cost US$295 and also offers multiple user versions for commercial / educational institutional use.

Exploring beyond wikipedia's summary of StorySpace brought me back into the world of electronic literature exampled by the story - Afternoon and a showcase of various examples. Also a good defintion of the differences between ebooks and elit found here.

The examples reveal the capabilities of being able to move through a book using pathways that are based on user choice, moving outside of the book to explore other resources on the www, being able to input/ amend content etc. All not new ideas but execution of these capabilites in an educationally sound way needs to be further explored.

updating on mobile learning and web 2.0 / 3.0

2011-04-11T12:13:00.000+12:00

Doing preparation for a workshop / presentation at Wintec next week, for their staff development day – Inspire. There will be two workshops, one of Web 2.0 and moving on to Web 3.0 and the other on mlearning. The main objective is to provide tutors with some tools they can start 'playing' with and for them to match one tool to their teaching context and hopefully try it out with their students.

As updates, have looked at the following over the last two weeks.

Found Shelley Terrel's site via one of the posts on the MobiMOOC course. The site has some good examples of mlearning using podcasts etc. mainly in the context of language learning.

Also some new web 2.0 sites on carl anderson's site with access to one of his latest presentations on mlearning as being a disruptive innovation and another with ideas for new additions to the digital backpack.

MobiMOOC

2011-04-08T12:01:00.000+12:00

Have registered for the ‘massive open online course’(MOOC) on mlearning facilitated by a host of mlearning practitionerswith several participants from NZ and other places I have met/worked with.

Have been lurking at the moment due to work being rather busy. The course is hosted on wikispaces and communicates through google groups. Over the last week, there has been a large number of emails as course members introduce themselves to each other.

At present, things have settled down somewhat as focus returns to the main event, with week one facilitated by Inge de Waard. There was an elluminate session to kick things off. This ran 5am here in NZ and one Australian participant has already emailed a request for a more workable time for us in the antipodes! The session had a good overview of mlearning (now on slideshare) with two examples from Inge’s Institute of Tropical Medicine’s work with health workers in Peru and a professional development portal for physicians.

Of interest is that the course encourages everyone to participate and offers examples of levels for participation. A good idea due to the number of people involved and individuals seeking to meet different objectives from being part of the course.

MOOCs are really an interesting concept and this is the second one I have 'participated' in. The first one on Connectivism stretched my understanding of how to deploy a variety of elearning tools, towards providing learning opportunities. In the main, both this and the previous course, requires intermediate levels of digital literacy as participants have to be able to navigate through a series of wikis, email or discussion forums and archive for themselves, the learning they glean through the course content and interaction with other course members. The real important skill is to be able to sieve through the large amount of information, work out the important bits to save, archive these somewhere for later retrieval (like on this blog) and then to be able to remember you have archived the items when you need the information! So far, not many 'gems' as yet as the course is still in it's beginning stages. However, I never discount opportunites to learn serendipitous offerings as everyone has different approaches and come to innovative solutions to solve their individual requirements. So I am looking forward to further learning as the course proceeds.

Returning to CPIT city campus

2011-04-04T12:33:00.000+12:00

Officially allowed to return to the CPIT city campus from 1st April with some courses starting today 4th April. I had been into the campus several times in the last fortnight, the first time, to collect personal belongings (wallet, cell phone, keys) and then a couple of brief visits last week to tidy up the office and to meet with other staff. Each time, a fleeting visit, with entry via the Moorhouse road entrance and a quick walk through the empty campus with very few signs of visible damage. Attended the staff safety briefing late last week which featured one of the consultant structural engineers. It was very reassuring as he pointed out the few places where there were signs (cracks, fallen plaster, buildings which have shifted up or down in relation to each other) and explained the structural implications.

This morning, a totally different perspective as I biked in via the border of the cordoned off red zone. Many collapsed buildings and the ones not yet demolished, are fenced off. Most of the old brick buildings housing various panel beaters, auto mechanics, familiar cafes and other shops no longer exist physically. So the blocks East (the Catholic basilica, still standing but just) and North and North West of the polytechnic, basically now a wasteland of piles of brick and debris. A list of the over 100 buildings to be demolished featured in the Saturday newspapers.

Options for rebuilding abound, including making the city more sustainable, future transport options, a blog discussing alternatives etc. There will be much to do in the future but old and familiar Christchurch city landscape is now gone.

Down the wire - the story of NZ and the internet

2011-03-25T08:15:00.000+13:00

Chanced on this interesting site, set up by digital agency Heyday and launched in 2009, 21 years after the internet arrived in NZ. The site tells the story of how the internet arrived in NZin 1989 and its impact on NZ society through the years. A background on how Heyday constructed the site is also provided.

The content is laid in a timeline from 1989 to 2010. There are videos embedded, Kiwi music to characterise each year via the Flying Nun label and facility for anyone to add their comments /experiences/ reminisces for each year. All in a slick and informative site, also running well on the ipad.

On the Heyday corporate site, there are links to other projects including

one developed to provide information for international students at Victoria University in Wellington. It includes links to current weather and street views of Wellington via Google Street view providing students with a virtual impression of the city before they arrive to begin their study.

Telling our stories

2011-03-18T10:30:00.000+13:00

Today, it is a public holiday in Canterbury, to allow people to attend a memorial service for the people killed and Christchurch residents badly affected by the 22/2 earthquake. The service will be held in Hagley park but also televised live. For everyone in Christchurch and NZ, it will be a time to reflect on the events of the pass 3 weeks. How the forces of nature can change the way we live and approach our lives. In this, we share a recent experience with others around the world including the recent cyclone in Queensland, floods in Brisbane and the horrendous earthquake, tsunami and potential nuclear fallout in Japan.

Over the past few weeks, I have been humbled and fascinated by the diversity of stories emerging. The NZ Herald has a series of videos recorded just a couple of days after the quake. Everyone has a story of where they were and what they were up to when the quake hit. Most people were going about their daily routines, travelling on the bus through Lytellton and witnessing the harbour site buildings collapse; driving through the centre of town and just missing being crushed by a falling building; having lunch in the Art's Centre and walking through the damaged city to get back to their cars; crossing the Heathcote river in their best shoes and up to their knees in mud to get home to Sumner with the Ferrymead bridge closed; trying to get home across the boulder strewn Summit Road while negotiating landslips.Through all, there are stories of people going out of their way to help each other, of a stranger going out of their way to provide a lift to an elderly friend through the flood and liquefaction; of young men piggybacking kids and women across the Heathcote; of students spending time not only to clear liquefaction silt but to listen to and provide comfort to elderly folk. All of these stories example the good that has come out of people through a time of uncertainty and adversity.

At CPIT, a series of stories of CPIT staff and students lending a hand is on the website. Telling stories is in many ways cathartic. In sharing our stories, we acknowledge we are more than individuals, but part of a community whereby common experiences bring us together. As classes start to re-convene, it is import for staff and students to have an opportunity to share their stories. It is a good way to build up class rapport, community and increase engagement. Darel Hall wrote about the students of 2011 being 'special' and in a way, everyone who has experienced something momentous in their lives, is changed. The experience, if supported and the good things that eventuate nurtured, leads us to become better people.
Long may the story telling continue.

More tablets launched

2011-03-16T09:51:00.000+13:00

A slew of tablets have been launched over the last few weeks in the US of A and feature on Android tablets blog. Of note on the blog, is a comparison of the main contenders between the recently launched ipad 2 and others including the Motorola Xoom, HTC Flyer, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, BlackBerry PlayBook, HP TouchPad and LG Optimus Pad.

The Ipad2 due to be launched in NZ at the end of next week but none of the others have made an appearance here yet. Most are more expensive then the bottom end ipad. For instance, Motorola Xoom selling at US$800. Samsung Galaxy Tab possibly to arrive in March / April but will be more expensive than the ipad. The Playbook, when it arrives (no date available) might retail under NZ$500 and no sign of the HP Touchpad (US$899) of the LG Optimus Pad either. So options in NZ still pretty limited.

Learning practical skills via elearning

2011-03-14T08:35:00.001+13:00

The earthquake of 22/2 has challenged us to think more deeply about how to deliver learning opportunities to students without access to practical workshops / teaching areas. A large amount of contact time is put into providing student with opportunities to practice new skills and to assist students with applying newly learnt knowledge to practical tasks and real-world scenarios. Many of the CPIT programmes located in the now non-accessible city campus will have to re-develop how to helps students complete practical skills training without access to specialised training facilities and equipment.

I have been thinking the above over the weekend and making connections to my learning of tai chi. I attend a weekly tai chi practice session and have been doing this for many years. Over the last few summers, our group have been attempting to learn a more advanced form of tai chi using a sword - called a jian. Our difficulty has stemmed from having teachers who are expert practitioners from China, who are usually on holiday in Christchurch, visiting family. Each of our teachers over the last few summers have been from different parts of China. So apart from contending with understanding regional dialects of Mandarin, each teacher practiced a different form of sword tai chi. So progress, has been slow and confusion reigns for about 3 or 4 sessions before we adapt, after which, the teacher returns to China, leaving us to unravel the form through notes and videos (if available).

My proposal was to video ourselves doing the form and sending the video to our teacher in China. However, this plan never took off due to mixed digital literacy of our Chinese teachers and camera shyness on the part of some of the tai chi learners.

I now plan to take the above concept further here at work. Students will still need to be provided with a hands-on learning opportunity whereever possible. Demonstrations and initial practice can then be supported by students doing practice at off-campus facilities (in workplace, possibly at home etc.) Practice can be videoed and emailed to tutors for formative assessment. After several iteractions, formative assessments can also be obtained by students sharing their videos with each other. Student will need to be provided with support sessions on providing peer-feed back. Hopefully, the above will replicate some of the contact time that will need to be replaced with self-directed activities. Using the above will still ensure students are provided with opportunities for feedback, even when they are working independently and physically distant from tutors and class mates. Will have a chat with our elearning support team about ramping up Mahara for the sharing process as it will be an ideal tool to use.

The above may be supplemented in some specialised areas by the use of video analysis software, for instance silicon coach, which is easier to use than other specialised research analysis software. Discreet skills in programmes like circoarts (juggling, riding unibike etc.) may be improved using comparative software and especially where key kineasthetic motor skills need to be honed before students are able to move on to more complex and integrated skill sets. If ideas for using video eventuate, it will be good to evaluate the process using a formalised research / evaluative study. Will progress this further this week to see how well the idea aligns with current approaches to teaching practical skills.

Reconnecting with pbworks

2011-03-09T16:08:00.001+13:00

Back at work after almost two weeks on Monday. I am working from one of the CPIT Campus Connect centres, set up mainly for foundation courses in digital literacy. The Campus Connect I am working from is a hive of activity as various staff work on plans to re-start the 2011 academic year. At this moment in time, no one is able to put a date on when the CPIT Madras Street site will be accessible as it lies within the 'red zone' city cordon put in place immediately after the earthquake / aftershock of 22nd February.

Therefore, CPIT management have been working on re-locating classes either to the CPIT Sullivan Avenue site, the various Campus Connect sites, other teaching institutions (Lincoln University for example) and community halls. A staged beginning to many programmes begins next week.

For many programmes, flexible and blended delivery learning models will need to be utilised much more so that the physical teaching spaces can be maximised. The Centre for Educational Development (CED) will need to support staff to modify / review / reconfigure existing programmes to allow for the current situation. To this end, I have been working over the last few days to set up a support site with programme design principles based on constructive alignment, with exemplars and templates. Since our Moodle LMS is currently out of action, I have been working on a wiki set up on pbworks . This is the ex- pbwiki I have worked on and I must say the new pbworks is a much better experience. The user interface is user-friendly with a wysiwyg front-end and there is intuitive handling of files, links and pages. The template provided for 'educational users' reflects the focus of pbworks on using it as an LMS or CMS with pages set up for course information, course outlines, timetables etc.

Setting up the wiki has not been a problem. The challenge has been to set it up without access to our usual digital resources, also inaccessible. Our IT people did manage to remove the servers late last week through the cordon and everyone is hopeful access to Moodle and shared files will eventuate by end of this week.

One major item I now have at home is a pack with all the important articles in it - passport, treasured photos, set of bankcards etc. When I evacuated work, I left everything behind, including memory sticks and my external hard drive with the assumption that access to work data should not be a problem. WRONG. So next time round (hopefully not - but to be prepared), I will ensure backup drive is left at home and if possible, to pick up cell phone and memory sticks when evacuating.

Using technology to provide assistance to earthquake hit Christchurch

2011-03-02T07:28:00.000+13:00

The week since the earthquake has gone by quickly. The central city is still cordoned off and many homes in the Eastern suburbs still without water or electricity. The Christchurch city council earthquake information page makes for sobering reading as the city council works to bring services back to the city. Continuing aftershocks make the recovery effort a challenge and frazzled residents have been leaving the city in droves.

I have kept myself busy helping out with food distribution organised by Comfort for Christchurch (CforC), an offshoot of the student volunteer army (SVA). My son has been helping out with the volunteer army's main effort, the removal of liquefaction from gardens and homes (yes there is liquefaction INSIDE some homes). Both the SVA and the CforC are run by students through facebook pages linked with chat and twitter feeds. SVA runs out of the University of Canterbury Student Association and CforC out of a student flat near the university.

At CforC, they have managed to obtain sponsorship from Telecom and run their database using Google docs, track their activities with Google maps and communicate using facebook and gmail. Two desktops and half a dozen laptops plus a multitude of makeshift 'whiteboards' coordinate the effort. The main objective is to be a collection point for food, water and toiletries and then to distribute these to the people who are in need. Volunteer drivers and mountain bikers from the university's mountain biking club do the distribution into the Eastern suburbs, aged care homes and 4 daily runs to police HQ. We have been deluged with food including 2 truckloads of home baking from students in Wellington and people who bake for another SVA offshoot, the Christchurch baking army (CBA). However, short of containers to put all the yummy food into :( so if you are able to help, please check the SVA facebook page for details.

All the activities above are fine examples of the use of cloud computing, a topic of Derek Wenmouth's blog yesterday. He provided his own example of COREs use of cloud computing, allowing CORE to continue work despite their physical premises being located within the city cordon. There is still no electricity in the central city due to the ongoing rescue / recovery. Today's blog on use of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) also pertinent as guides to providing blended learning. Some programmes at CPIT may need to supplement classes, once the polytechnic opens, to help students catch up with missed lessons.

I am really enjoying my time with the CforC. The students are enthusiastic and very competent. It is heartening to experience the community spirit NZ is well-known for. Everyone pitches in and things get done quickly and efficiently. The majority of the volunteers associated with SVA, CforC and CAB are young and it is heartening to see how they have engaged wholeheartedly with the work. All bodes well for the future :)

Christchurch earthquake on Tuesday 22nd February

2011-02-24T09:33:00.000+13:00

Christchurch was hit by another large aftershock just before 1 pm on Tuesday. I was at work and at my desk. The others in my office were having a meeting with their manager in the office. When the sharp shock hit, I knew this was big. There was no forewarning as per the loud roar as in the last one in September just a sharp jerk followed by a violent shake. We all dived under our desks as books and files fell off shelves around us. I could hear students screaming in the library as books fell off the shelves in the library. The lights went out. when the shaking stopped, we all evacuated to a view of the fallen towers of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, the Catholic cathedral. It dawned immediately that this was a very big one. Eventually found out it was 6.4 but very shallow and centred 5km away near Lyttelton.

After evacuation, I located my son, who works in the marketing dept. at CPIT. He had been in the CPIT marketing car, on his way to the other CPIT campus. The car shook violently, he could see the road ripple in front of him and a shop near the car collapsed!! We milled around, viewing the damage to buildings all around the polytech. there were signs of liquefaction in the carpark, we could see the Grand Chancellor Hotel was on a lean and smoke and dust from the collapsed CTV building, about 100m up the street from the polytech. I was really worried for friends who worked in the city (but yesterday, managed to contact them all and they are well but still shaken from the experience). We left in my son's car to try to get home just before 3pm, giving a colleague a lift as well. I had to leave my car as I had evacuated without keys, wallet or cell phone! Car still at polytech. Took us almost two hours to get home, a drive of 16 kms plus detour to drop colleague off, The roads will choked with traffic but also damaged. Cracks, holes, flooding and a grey sludge over many streets from the liquefaction. A scarry trip as we listened to the radio , featuring calls from people providing eye witness accounts from the city and the eastern suburbs.

At home, no damage to the north west suburbs in Chch. just the usual clean up of books etc. fallen off shelves. Electricity back just after 7.30pm and we could then follow the news on the TV. Only managed to get access to work email yesterday (Wednesday) evening and have been replying to concerned emails from relatives, friends and colleagues from overseas and other parts of NZ. News has not been good, with many people trapped in buildings and the central city in ruins with substantial damage to suburbs East and South of Hagley park. This event will take a long time to recover from. Infrastructure will be a challenge to bring back and this morning, 40% of city still have no electricity and 80% of city have no water. have emailed and will follow up with phone to friends, colleagues who I know have no water. We might be able to assist with providing showers and food etc. as required but the challenge will be getting things to them, or for them to travel to us, as travel into the damaged suburbs is not encouraged.

So priority will be to keep in touch with people. I suspect CPIT will be closed for next week as well as it is within the central city cordon and buildings all around it have either collapsed or are severely damaged. Meanwhile, I will have to work out a way to get access to my work drives so that I can work on various articles that are partway through.

Reports pertinent to mlearning - Horizon 2011 and JISC mobile review

2011-02-22T11:38:00.001+13:00

A couple of reports via edu.blogs.com delicious links provide a summary of the ‘state of play’ with regards to mlearning. The mobile review from the Joint Information Systems Committee in the UK (JISC) provides a good read and overview of work that has taken place in mlearning over the last decade. I am particularly heartened by the assumption of the following:

Three things that learners do expect, however, are:

1. To be able to use their own devices with corporately-owned IT infrastructure.

2. For technology not to be used as a crutch for poor learning and teaching experiences.

3. Unhampered digital communication with their peers, tutors and administrators.

All relevant to current discussions we are having at CPIT on future directions for IT support of educational development.

The other report is the annual Horizon report. Content is similar to the Australian/ New Zealand report published late last year. Mlearning and ebooks are the closest to mainstream adoption. A direction I have taken with work from late last year and starting to consolidate this term, with developing interactive textbooks for use on tablets.

more tablets launched

2011-02-11T08:23:00.000+13:00

Clearing my google reader this morning and notice the launch or eminent launch of a few new tablets being reported via endgadget.

First up, HP has launched their touchpad, with an OS based on the Palm OS, although there is no mention whatsoever of the Palm brand. It will be interesting to assess this tablet as I have always been a bit of a fan of the palm user interface and quite miss my old Treo at times.

Second one, is the possible price in the US of A of the blackberry playbook. Again will be keen to try this one out as CPIT is currently using blackberrys as their corporate phone.

Comparisons of the various tablets also provides interesting reading. Looking forward now to the coming of the new ipad.

The perenial difficulty we face, as educational users, is the various operating systems running on different hardware platforms. So far, I have tried to work on projects that are not dependent on hardware OS. In our mobile portfolio projects, we relied solely on the phones apprentices owned. At the moment, tablets are still seen to be 'new' and most students do not own one. Instead they own mobile phones, although by observing students in the library, the number of iphones seen in students' hands seems to have increased in the last 6 months or so.

For the 'interactive textbook' project, we have committed to developing a 'front end' template for the Android OS and have purchased an Archos 7 to test drive things. So, for the first time, we will need to explore possibilites for acquiring a class set of tablets to evaluate students' experiences with using the tablet based 'textbook'. I might now also think through the advantages of running a similar 'textbook' layout via Moodle. We can then compare the two and see if reliance on hardware is really required or whether we just ram up the LMS to be accessible across all devices.

Zaggmate – ipad case and keyboard

2011-02-09T13:10:00.000+13:00

While away from the office over the summer ‘break’ I began blogging using the ipad. However, the on screen keyboard, even on landscape, tended to limit me to a hunt and peck routine. Therefore, as an Xmas present to myself, I ordered a zaggmate ipad case. Two alternatives, one with the case only and the other with an integrated Bluetooth keypad. I have now been playing with the zaggmate keyboard/case for a couple of weeks and am pleased with its overall performance.

To begin, the case itself is strong but light and matches the smooth, minimalistic design of the ipad. When the ipad is placed into the zaggmate case, the whole looks like a chunkier mac air. Synching the ipad to the zaggmate took all of about 10 seconds. So far, no hassles with the Bluetooth link and although I have used the keyboard off and on for almost two weeks, I have not had to recharge the case/keyboard. The ipad sits sort of securely on to a ledge on the case and is held up with a plastic backpiece which is brought up from flat. I have mainly been using the keyboard on a desk but it seems to be quite solid on my lap as well. However, might not be as secure, say on an aeroplane fold out table when the flight becomes bumpy, as the ipad is only kept upright by the plastic back piece and the way it just fits the case.

The zaggmate weighs in at 200g, the ipad 680g for a total well under a kg. However, total weight still more than double of a mac air 11” (only 380g) but heaps lighter than the Mac book pro 13” which is over 2 kg and still lighter than an ASUS eee PC at around a kg.

Therefore, I now have the alternative of just using the ipad on screen keyboard for quick notes etc. and the zaggmate keyboard for when i need to get to grips with more or am working on re-editing documents. Last week, I attended a one day 'academic writing' workshop facilitated by Dr. Marianne Tremaine who advocated the use of a 15 minute daily writing time slot to raise writing productivity. So the use of the ipad and zaggmate should assist with meeting the goal.

Sharepoint as an LMS

2011-02-01T09:47:00.000+13:00

CPIT has now moved into a fully Microsoft based environment for their intranet. As part of this move, the Microsoft collaboration platform, Sharepoint, will be launched for institution wide use later this year. My sister-in-law works as a corporate staff developer and the organization uses Sharepoint as both its CMS and LMS. At present, we use Moodle as a LMS. Therefore, a good reason to explore if there are advantages to using Sharepoint as an LMS and possibilities for integration of Moodle with Sharepoint.

Also found some references to integrating Moodle with Sharepoint, mostly at the school level rather than at a corporate training or tertiary insitutions. There is a Moodle to sharepoint plugin but is has a 2007 date so not sure how up to date it is. There is a guide to using sharepoint as a file sharing part of Moodle, with some discussions on the Moodle forum and on a educators forum of how to integrate sharepoint and Moodle.

The general approach seems to be to use Sharepoint as a file system and link these files on Moodle. Which is not too different from what we do now. Will need to do more investigation into this to explore how others integrate Sharepoint with Moodle.

Professor Chan Lee on elearning design

2011-01-25T13:18:00.000+13:00

Attended a presentation by Professor Chan Lee from Seoul National University as part of the Institute of Adult Learning - Singapore - monthly Adult Educators' Network (AEN). Professor Chan Lee presented an on 'the new era of elearning design for adult learners'.

He provided a good summary of the multifarious challenges facing elearning designers who need to design courses that have to assist diverse learners based all around the world. Various issues include the needs of just in time education, heterogenous cultures, official language to use, costs of long distances, challenges of interaction to maintain education effectiveness and the pull between globalization and localization. He presented an adapted version of ADDIE as ADDPIE (analysis, design, develop, PILOT, implement and evaluate) as an approach to meeting the challenges.

Then provides some examples including an induction programme used by Samsung Electronics to assist employees in 25 countries to learn about the company; examples from the Korean Government initiative the Cyber Home Learning System with videos of online lecture systems, online games to simulate study; and company in house courses from Sumitomo Corporation and the Visa business school.

All in, an interesting overview of work coming from an Asian country and how technology is harnessed in various ways to afford training for multi-national companies and the future potential for use of technology in the Korean school system.

Hunting for tablets in Singapore

2011-01-23T23:18:00.000+13:00

Back in Singapore for almost two weeks to do some work with the Institute of Adult Learning. This is the 3^rd time I am in Singapore within 7 month. It’s the most visits I have made to Singapore since I left over 30 years ago. Apart from the interesting work at the IAL, who are charged with setting up and developing post-compulsory education or continuing education and training (CET), it is a good opportunity for me to hone specific skill sets including navigating one’s way through crowded streets and shops and catch up with the latest food trends (the local master hawker awards were announced), local politics (Prime Minister Mentor Lee Kwan Yew’s third book, based on interviews with the local papers’ journalists released) and catch up with some of the rellies.

As usual, there was the opportunity to check out the latest tech offerings. The local papers now contains many advertisements for tablets. With the Samsung Galaxy Tablet being offered by various telcos at around Singapore, starting from $250 with 2 year plans. Also the Viewpad 7(S$749) and the Viewpad 10 (S$899) from Viewsonic is offered either with Android or Windows 7. At Funan IT Mall, several shops now sell tablets, with the Archos 7 (around S$500) and Archos 10 (S$600 thereabouts) the most prevalent. Had a play with the Archos and it has a responsive touch screen and runs on Android. Also tried out the Samsung Galaxy (almos S1000) and the Viewsonic (windows version not very user friendly on a touch screen). Lots of ipads about starting at S$748 for the 16G with WIFI. The Archos will be worth a closer look at to experiment with the Android OS.

Over the weekend, had time to spent a good afternoon at the large Japanese bookstore, Kinokuniya, which is a book lovers haven. I could have spent a couple of days there :) I usually try to make at least a brief visit as the shop has several shelves devoted to Asian fiction writers who write in English or there are translated works. Bought a few interesting offerings to add to the ‘books to be read after thesis completed’ box. Also noticed the many books on the effect of social networking including – Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick, Facebook Era by Clara Shih, the Social Factor by Marie Azua and more internet centric ones like Future Minds by Richard Watson, Socialnomics by Eric qualman, Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bennett and a follow up book on the wiki phenomenon – Macrowikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams.

The noticeable thing about Singapore is how go-getting most people are. The mostly young staff at the IAL are all passionate about their roles, generally tech savvy and keen to learn better ways to provide a more learner-centric curriculum to adult students. It will be interesting to work on future projects to explore strategies for introducing student-led learning into a culture which has been traditionally content-focused, exam-orientated and teacher-centric. This is not only for the teachers but also for the students, many of whom would have not experienced formalized opportunities to set up their own personal learning environments.

Plans for 2011

2011-01-10T08:36:00.000+13:00

Looking forward to another busy but interesting year after a couple of weeks of tramping and camping in the great NZ outdoors. On the research front, a major objective will be to ensure the Ako Aotearoa National project ‘perspectives of first year apprentices’ is completed. Also, will need to put time into organising myself to apply for funding for projects in 2012. Several ideas now starting to firm up and move into the proposal writing stage. These include an ‘interactive text book template’ for tablets and a bid for external funding to explore ‘authentic assessments’ which reflect the multiliteracies and multimodalities inherent in trades skills (or for that matter any other vocational learning).

On the teaching front, it will be good to work through a really ‘blended’ delivery option for one of my courses as there will be students enrolled from both CPIT (Christchurch) and NMIT (Nelson) on the same course. It will be good to be able to move back into ‘distance delivery’ mode as it presents on-going challenges to my teaching practice.

In the area of staff development, the Centre for Educational Development (CED) should be gaining traction across this year as our new manager settles in and the new programme development and review regime through NZQA beds down. I am looking forward to working with the CED team as roles become established and the centre gains credibility within the institution.

In addition, I have received an invitation from the Institute of Adult Learning in Singapore to do some work with them. Firstly through a feasibility study to be completed at the end of January. From the study, the contribution of the CPIT adult education team, the CED and Ako Aotearoa Academy may become more formalised into the future. I also hope to negotiate some shared projects on the research front, especially into the area of workplace learning and assessments. The work will be especially interesting for me as it means a return to the country of my childhood, where the contexts of education and training is different from what occurs in NZ.

I have put in abstracts to two conferences for this year but will not be committing to many more, probably just another one. Also have started on drafting several journal articles and it will be another learning experience to work at submitting and honing the articles for acceptance.

So another year of more learning and development as I settle into my various roles. Life is always interesting :)

2010 overview

2010-12-14T09:14:00.000+13:00

This has been a pretty intense and busy year as I consolidate research skills and complete several externally funded projects. Reports for the Ako Aotearoa Southern Hub project ‘learning a trade: Developing guidelines to study trades learning using multimodal discourse analysis’ completed along with the first eight reports (1 to each of 7 ITOs and a background report) for the ‘first year apprentices’ Ako Aotearoa National funded project also done (whew!) The final report for the ‘first year apprentices’ project due in June next year, allowing me time to consolidate the literature and my thoughts and to catch up on reading over the summer.

Final draft of the Phd also completed and awaiting final comments from my supervisor. Should be ready after that for delivery to the markers. Will be strange not having to continuously work on the dissertation but the Phd journey has been really worthwhile, providing the opportunity to learn, practice and hone a range of academic skills. I am forever grateful to my long suffering supervisor who patiently moved me through, using a range of impressive teaching skills including modelling the painstaking tasks of word smithing my early attempts literally word by word and sentence by sentence!

A busy year too with regards to continual professional development over a range of topics. I attended 10 conferences /symposiums presenting at 5, keynotes in 2 and helping with organisation of 1. Also presented in 8 other workshops / networking type meetings across a range industries / ITPs. On the academic side, assisted with reviewing papers for one conference and 2 journal articles.

At CPIT, research capability building begun and progressing with several projects moving on into 2011 and a couple to get started. Teaching commitments have been rewarding and there was re-development work to be done on some of the DTLT courses I teach as the programme is prepared for sharing with two other ITPs.

So lots of activities and I need to reflect on what has been achieved and how to build on these to move forward into the future. In particular, how to continue with development of vocational research capability both at CPIT and beyond and to scope and prioritise projects that will garner external funding support.

Learning welding #7 and building #2

2010-12-06T10:00:00.000+13:00

About coming to the end (of the funding) for the welding project. Flip has good ideas on how to move the project forward, so my role will be to support him with a funding application for next year.

We have drafted a short report on ‘learning welding: Improving the learning of welding using peer-learning and feedback’ that will become one of the appendices in the ‘guidelines of using video to study workshop and workplace learning’ due with Ako Aotearoa Southern Hub this week.

It’s one of many small sub-projects / research questions we mashed about with over the course of the year. So much to study, so little time!! The students have been great, cooperating fully in the various activities. Perhaps the youtube generation is less camera shy. There seemed to be no worries from students whenever we appeared with a video, asked for permission and gathered data. We still have about 90% of the data to analyse more thoroughly as well!! In particular, the data collected with groups of building apprentices on worksites and at their training evenings still needs to be more thoroughly transcribed and analysed.

There is delay in getting an official copy of atlasti on to my desktop as our IT department is doing a mass roll out of Microsoft across the institution, replacing a Novell system. We have been using a trial version of atlasti which only allow for a limited number of files. So hopefully, we will have atlasti in place by early next year to do some concerted analysis of the video data.

From the learning accomplished over the course of this year, I will be drafting a proposal for funding into 2012. This project will include ‘trades’ tutors from several polytechnics in NZ and will possibly revolve around issues of competency based assessments. The tutors will either be tertiary teaching award winners or nominated by staff developers as being motivated to embark on a research project. The prime objective will be to build capability for vocational education research with trades teaching practitioners. On the whole, trades tutors are extremely student and content focused and research is one way for them to bring another perspective into the continual appraisal of their teaching. Embarking on the research journey will require some interaction with the vocational education, workplace learning and practical skills/knowledge learning literature. I am hopeful it will help open doors to relevant scholarship and help to contribute not only to enhanced student learning but more focused understanding and application of the vocational education literature.

Ako Aotearoa Symposium 2010 day 3

2010-12-03T16:28:00.000+13:00

Day 3 dawns fine and sunny for the last day of the Ako Aoteaora Academy Symposium.

First up – Christine Rubie-Davies presents ‘G + T on the rocks’ – the experience of gifted /talented undergraduate students in a tertiary environment. No systematic or planned approaches towards fostering ‘A’ students in NZ primary / secondary and tertiary systems. However, this leads to an ‘untapped’ resource. Funded by Ako Aotearoa Northern hub and run across 4 faculties with 2 staff and 4 student focus groups. Research questions on ‘how talented students defined / identified’ and support provided. Definition of talented included ‘schoolhouse giftedness’ (school grades, creativity, innate, quick learners); multiple talents; personal qualities (people skills, work ethics, leadership, initiative). Talented students identified by staff mostly intuitively/informally. Support of students included individual lecturers; early identification; providing facilitation and leadership opportunities; providing specific provisions; and importantly for students, recognition. Issues included unsupportive individual lecturers; difficult to fit in; lack of opportunity; and assessments. Plans for future include piloting a ‘intervention’ study based on findings – identify at end of first year; differentiate assignment tasks; recognition for talented students; invitation to department and staff seminars; advice on scholarships; inclusion of mentoring scheme; and talented students to act as tutors. I suspect investigation of 'talented' in the trades area will reveal different definitions.

Secondly, ‘scholarly peer review of teaching’: returning ‘quality’ to teachers - with Mark Brown. Who is defining quality and for what purpose? Played video ‘we are the people we are waiting for’ as a challenge to academy members to consider their roles as educators. Challenges to enhancing quality include the tensions inherent in education. E.G. clear standards: creative flow; externally imposed requirements :internally owned commitments; central quality police: local professional responsibility; quality compliance: quality culture and quality assurance: quality enhancement. Introduced the concept of using a ‘scholarly peer review’ to form a quality enhancement framework. Need for academics to ‘own’ quality and the process – not just imposed by institution.

After morning tea, group discussion facilitated by Paul Denny on ‘did I jump or was I pushed – capitalizing on opportunities’ with Julia Bruce, Roger Nokes, Tracey Poutama-Mackie and Marc Wilson. Each presented on how they had moved on (usually through connections fostered through the academy) beyond their award. Julia talked about her journey since the award and support provided by academy (local and committee) on her growth as a staff developer. Also provided 4 videos produced as part of the ‘good practice’ grant. Roger spoke on leading and learning as Head of Department, member of academic board and acting chair of teaching and learning committee and the challenge of representing teaching but also wearing a ‘management’ hat. Tracey presented on the history of her institute – People Potential – as it played a big part in how she has developed as a teacher and now as academic leader and staff developer as manager of youth transition services in Whangarei. “my success should not be bestowed on me alone, as it was not individual success but success of a collective”. Marc presented on his experiences on how the award has contributed to his academic life. Teaching and researching can be very isolating and preparing portfolios for awards provides opportunities to introspection. Also, accepting positions of responsibility within institution should be taken as it widens perspectives and leads to connecting and contributing to the wider university community. Including how to deal with media in a structured way.

After lunch, a session on ‘the academy and YOU: your chance to contribute’. John Hoskin presented on what has been achieved by the academy thus far and workshopped the session to work out future direction for the academy. Also provided background on the separate roles / synergistic relationships between Ako Aotearoa and the Academy. Academy is an independent voice and how can we leverage on this. For next year, encouragement to bring forward more project;, establish ‘regional champions’ to strengthen links between academy and hubs and convene more regional events; establish a ‘teaching day/week/month?’; and portfolio mining. Committee to work on creating a voice for the academy (guide to media relations, training etc).; portfolios volumes; lobbying (internal/external) – how to do this as academy members within and without our own organisations; encourage collaborations; mentoring of PBRF; commission research – effect of PBRF?; finding our kaupapa. Good discussion followed on direction forward for the academy.

The symposium brought to a close with an adapted pecha kucha session organized by the Canterbury team led by Tim Bell.

Official conference closing with mihi Tracey Poutama-Mackie.

Ako Aotearoa Academy Symposium 2010 - day 2

2010-12-02T16:29:00.000+13:00

Day two opened with address from Hon. Steven Joyce, Minister of Tertiary Education with an introduction provided by Academy committee president, Dr. John Hosking. The minister reiterated his support for the work of teachers. In particular for the academy to contribute to fostering networks and strategies to improve learning opportunities for students. This comes from continued interface between institutions / teachers and industry to work on cost effective good quality education. He introduced plans for next year given financial constraints, the usual focus on completions being linked to funding.

Key note for the day from Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington on 'curriculum by design' or 'how to reduce the number of courses offered by your institution'. Presented the different ways 'curriculum' is understood by different sectors within the institution but also perceived in different ways by the students. One approach may be to use a ‘learning spaces’ platform to move curriculum re-visioning and perhaps an ‘ethnographical’ research approach to investigate curriculum design to ‘reframe curriculum’. Need to understand only the ‘formal curriculum’ but also the informal ‘co-curriculum’. So curriculum by design may be through understanding ‘flow’ (what does it feel like to move through the curriculum?); entry /exit (where do I go in, where do I go out?); formal and informal (what to ‘take on board and when do I ‘wind down’?). Strategies include course and unit reduction and/or renewal; timetabling and movement; recognition of formal and co-curriculum (the Monash Passport) and enhancing coursework approvals. Interesting concepts to take into account as CPIT moves towards ‘constructive alignment’ approach to programme design.

After morning tea, Selena Mize presented on 'not just a qualification: getting students to integrate what they learn into their lives'. Provided overview of ‘motivating students’ for a legal ethics course; using clickers; and influencing values of students. Need to ‘motivate students’ as legal ethics course was made compulsory! And change in student’s perception from ‘wanting to do it (intrinsic) to ‘having to do it’ (extrinsic motivation). Went through strategies to use to engage students in intrinsic motivation. Covered introduction to using ‘clickers’ effectively to enhance student’s intrinsic motivation including going through the various types of ‘questions’ possible and advantages/disadvantages of each type. Lastly, when through guidelines on how to ‘influence values’ and whether it is actually ethical to ‘instill’ values. In sum, to try to develop students’ self-reflection by exposing students to multiple viewpoints and difference methodologies; use examples that bring injustice and suffering from immoral behaviour into focus and include a real world focus (not just an ‘ivory tower’ perspective); make value challenges feel relevant and personal to student; encourage class participation; consider use of literature and narratives; guest speakers can also serve as role models; in some situations develop morality through doing; encourage reflection, introspection, deep thought; take a long-term perspective; be open and non-judgemental.

Lighter session introducing the new academy committee followed by a session with Professor Sally Kitt on 'quality and standards in higher education: recent Australian developments'. Presented the Australian context with parallels to NZ situation. Detailed the journey of developing the ‘threshold learning outcomes (TLOs) by using the case study of LAW as an example. Good overview of the various ‘fish hooks’ involved in trying to produce ‘generic’ learning outcomes for a range of disciplines.

After lunch three session on IT in the classroom. Beginning with my session on ' alternatives to powerpoint'. I provided 7 web 2.0 alternatives with 4 useful in f2f and 3 for online environments for everyone to play with and evaluate. Also included brief discussion on how to use powerpoint as a tool to enhance student learning.

Then 'fun with panopto - student feedback and teacher reflection' with Alison Campbell. Panopto allows lectures etc. to be recorded and then put on to a CMS to be available to students. Video of lecture, powerpoint, screen capture of board work and embedded videos etc. available. User friendly system with lecturer only having to turn things on before lecture commences and then turn off and download into repository. Especially good for improving teaching practice for reflective teachers and for identifying students who may be struggling and are uploading and watching the video.

Followed by seesion on using 'AVS video editor 4 in Teaching' with Christine Rubie-Davies. Showed process of uploading video clips from TV programme, how to select and trim the video and use these clips for learning activities.

After afternoon tea, an introduction to the new members of the academy, the 2010 winners of tertiary excellence award winners. TTE award past winners who are buddies of each of this year’s winners introduced the winner they supported and each winner provided a brief presentation and were given a copy of this year’s TTE booklet (fresh off the press).

Lisa Emerson and Ngahiwi Apanui then went through changes/revisions to the tertiary award criteria so that members may support potential applications to the award. Lisa also provided insight into the process from her perspective as being a member of the TTEA selection committee. All selectors do a quick scan of all applications and then have a telephone conference. Then committee meets to do the shortlisting by matching applications to criteria. At end of day 1, 12 shortlisted and on day 2, the list is finalised and then a ballot is done to chooses the Prime Minister’s awardee. Day after the awards, a debrief takes place.

Day ended with drinks and a convivial and entertaining symposium dinner.

Ako Aotearoa Academy Symposium 2010 - day 1

2010-12-01T16:28:00.001+13:00

In Wellington for the annual Ako Aotearoa Academy symposim, with about 50 plus academy members attending and with many presentations from academy members. Began with short welcomes from Dr. Peter Coolbear, Helen Dobson and Dr. Sally Kitt as the symposium convened at 2 pm.
First keynote from Prof. Marnie Hughes-Warrington from Monash University on 'writing 'I' makes me ill: assessment and self assessment. Covered assessment policy - shift towards criterion based assessment; emphasis on 'authentic' assessment; and recognition of early, formative assessment. Came about because her peers did not see importance of assessments. Embarked on a project to find out where, how and from who students learnt history and found out most did not know how they would make use of their history studies! Introduced 'self-assessment' as a way to try to share with students, the learning process for history.

After afternoon tea, 3 concurrent sessions with one on 'putting the T into the PBRF' from John Hosking and Tracy Riley and a 'funding clinic' with Kirsty Weir, to keep up to date with various funding streams availed for projects, research etc. I attended , 'Teaching practically' with Sam Honey, Kelly Pender, Adrian Woodhouse and facilitated by LIz Fitchett. Adrian presented on some of the strategies used to engage his learners. For instance how to teach students the parts of a hogget or pork cuts. So project evolves from purchasing a pig to maximising the use of the pig by ‘adding value’ and having the pig become part of a ‘commercial venture’ i.e. selling the pork products with it’s accompanying relishes, breads etc. at a farmers market Students took ownership of the project, leading to much self-directed learning and responsibility for their own learning and assessments. Kelly and Sam presented on how to incorporate Kaupapa Maori into tertiary education (within a Certificate in Fitness (level 4) and preparation for a law enforcement career). Need to fully integrate so that it becomes enmeshed into the culture of the programme. Presented a good range of strategies provided to engage students, incorporating aspects of kaupapa Maori and enable students to explore their own beliefs and set future goals.

Good to meet up with many from the last symposium and to welcome the 2010 academy members (all of whom are attending). Look forward to a full and busy day tomorrow.

ITF research network meeting 24th november

2010-11-25T13:17:00.000+13:00

Yesterday I travelled to Wellington to attend and present to a keen group of ITO managers. The meeting convened by the Industry Training Federation (ITF) around 3 to 4 times a year as a fora for ITF / ITO members to network and catch up on various issues. 2 ITF staff plus 12 or so ITO staff (some attended for part of the day). Good to touch base with familiar faces and meet new people.

A round of participants for them to introduce themselves and the projects each ITO is involved in or working towards. First session , Eric Krassoi Peach from the ITF opens the meeting with a discussion and direction for next week's meetings. All good background for me and to get into the ITO mindset.

Next up, I provide an overview of the vocational research projects at CPIT, concentrating on the Ako Aotearoa National funded project on 'first year apprentices' but also providing short summaries of the 'new trades tutors' projects from the perspective of identity transformation / boundary crossing and the 'welding project' plus details of projects begun by Barry Dowrick (interactive whiteboards and learning objects), future work with the engineering team (integrated learning and assessments) and with automotive with android OS tablets (interactive textbooks).

Schools update provided by Josh Williams, quantifications and quality manager at the ITF spoke to the group on sector pathways - making sense of secondary / tertiary transitions. Compared to other OECD countries , NZ retention of 15- 20 year olds in training is low. NZ curriculum refers to 'focus on transitions'. One pathway to university but other pathways not as clear as per On the edge of adulthood: young people's and out of school experiences at 16' - NZCER 2008 report. ITF presents sector pathways to service, manufacturing / technology, constructions /infrastructure, primary industries, social / community services and other industries as one possible way forward to provide 'structure' for career teachers. Perhaps to use the term 'majors' for each so that NCEA becomes more aligned towards one of the pathways rather than a 'pick n mix' which does not add up to any 'concrete' way forward. Went through preliminary analysis of NZQA data of u/s completed between 2005 - 2009 by provider by students to show what sector students were completing u/s in. Many students just completing 1 or 2 (credit harvesting??), and 'rural' schools tended to have students who completed more u/s (agriculture? Outdoor rec??) with many students also completing generic safety u/s 497 and food safety u/s 167. Breakdowns may now be needed to be done by ITO, student characteristics, longitudinal etc.

Then Paul Mahoney from Ministry of Education (Tertiary analysis) provides summary of Industry training stocks and flows - effects of the economic downturn pertient to ITOs. Stock is the number of people in industry training in one year and flow is the movement of these people in or out. 9-10% of population in industry training /apprenticeship as compared to 3% in Australia. Data is from 2001 - 20019. Economic downturn = drop in workplace based training participants as the is GDP contraction in 2009 across all industries, 2008 decline in agriculture, 2006 food & beverage with construction in 2007. Employment contraction also occurred especially for young people. Increase in Limited credits programme (LCP) which could be useful as they do not require a long term commitment but often lead to further training to lead to full qualification. Withdrawals increased. Some industries trained existing workers instead of employing new workers to train. Modern apprentice sign up decreased across many industries and terminations / withdrawals increased.

Last presentation from Erica Cumming from the Hairdressing ITO on work completed on Return on Investment (ROI). Using small case studies to understand and measure the ROI from apprenticeship training to selected and their apprentices. Studied 'phases' in apprentices' fit to business strategy - providing support, colouring, starting to cut and running own column - how much apprentice contributes to revenue at each stage. Intangible benefits to salon with apprentices has to be weight up with costs to salon. Key results - payback period is relatively short (y1/y2), how salon manages its revenue makes the biggest difference, what apprentices is compared against is important. Benefits for apprentices include earning while learning, hand-on training and off-job training. Strategies for salons to make the most financially of apprenticeships are to maximise benefits (ensure apprentice is productive quickly, optimal mix of staff), minimise cost (train efficiently, push cost to apprentice - not encouraged by ITO!!, minimise opportunity costs of training) and encourage apprentice to stay (recruit right apprentice & encourage apprentice, align salon objectives of salon and apprentice, undertake dedicated in-salon training, offer a wage structre for stylist which shows it's worthwhile staying, offer financial incentives to stay). Results used to produce a summary - well presented and aligned to industry needs. All useful for the 'first year apprentices' project :)

We have the technology and the pedagogy, but will education change?

2010-11-22T08:18:00.000+13:00

I think that there is little doubt we have the technology (an example extolling the ipad from Graeme Brown – Handheld Learning) and mobile learning is about here (as per Oz/NZ Horizonreport for 2010 via Derek Wenmouth’s blog).

We have also have the pedagogy pitched about right – inclusiveness, participative learning etc. need for critical thinking skills etc. and bringing it together with constructive or curriculum alignment and sumarised in this slideshare (Biggs & Tang, 2008)

But are our classrooms, institutions and IT departments ready?? As the horizon report summarises,

‘even when technologies are strongly promoted, professional development is still crucial’ and ‘there is a mismatch between pedagogy and the design of emerging technologies’ – which is becoming less of a challenge as with say the ipad’.

Two technologies to become mainstream within a years are ebooks and mobiles.

Ebooks are not pervasive in our polytechnic environment. Many of our students and some of our tutors are not ‘natural’ readers. There is also resistance to reading ‘off the screen’ with many people printing off items to read, rather than reading on screen and storing the digital copies for later reference. I have lost count of the number of people I have introduced pdf readers with annotation tools (like FoxIT) but few have taken up the challenge. True, there is a learning curve and the need to relearn years of acquired skill through reading hard copies. However, the advantages of digital make the effort worthwhile. I now find articles easily, whereas in the past, I would have to fossick into my card catalogue and hunt down the article either in the library or through boxes of printouts. Now, most journal articles are archived in various folders under the references section of each project. I can use Endnotes to find the article and once the article found, use the search function on the pdf reader to find the relevant section. Usually takes all of 2 minutes compared to at least 15 – 20 minutes for the manual option or a couple of days for the library option if the article is at the university.

For the adoption of mobiles, concerted efforts to bring down the cost of mobile web access will be required OR better access to WiFi within out institutions. Without either, access to the www will be stymied and that makes mobile access slightly superfluous. The small screen of pdas, ipod touches and phones have always been a barrier to the uptake of mobile. Tablets like the ipad make web surfing a joy and reading off an ipad is much more 'book like' although annotation etc. needs to again be learnt.

So will need to work on both the above. An interactive text book approach using the advantages provided by tablets will be an interesting way to tap into both ebook and mobile technologies. The pedagogy underpinning the project will be aspects of using the interactive text book as a resource for both constructive and participative learning. So something wot work through and investigate more deeply.

Activity / information streams and conversations

2010-11-15T09:57:00.000+13:00

As a follow up to last week’s blog I followed up on George Seimen’s blog on ‘activity streams’ that proposes the internet as the new way to communicate after the phone, fax and email.

Linked to the above is dana boyd’s Educause Review article on ‘streams of content’ and the keynote from Prof. Agnes Kuklska-Hulme at the recent mlearning 2010. Dana links Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of ‘flow’ to the current ‘flow of information’ through social networking. Agnes discussed the concept of ‘social network’ as a form of conversation and how, for instance. Tweets, may be seen as ‘conversation starters’ and directors.

Of note is dana’s summary of how technology affordances, collide with current social mores. Four areas are democratisation of information, stimulation / attention, homophily (where people connect with others who are very like themselves) and power. Some good ideas to think through as we assume technology will solve the world’s problems, yet what individual’s want may not be what is better for society as a whole (depending on which side you are on). For example, Prof. Mohammed Ali’s call to researchers to harness their energies and networks to provide education for all through mobile learning is a worthy goal. However, does every government/political organisation support education /democracy for all? How does one package learning (what is education?)? Will education be used to further repressive regimes objectives? Who decides what is learnt?

So again, things are not as straight-forward as they might be! We need to continually test our assumptions of what is appropriate and if we change tack, why and for what reasons. On to another interesting week.