NTLT day 3

A shorter day today to allow conference attendees to return home from Nelson. Day begins with keynote with Dr. Peter Coolbear from Ako Aotearoa on the topic "developing evidence based strategies to support improved organisational performance in teaching and learning". Focus on achieving synergies between individual improvement of practice and organisational change for the benefit of learners. Discussed tertiary education system ( currently inefficient), need for evidence based improvement, what is good evidence, ensuring projects contribute to sustainable change and changing expectations of 21 st century vocational learners.
Currently, significant progress in course and qualification completion rates but still wide variation, lack of parity of success for Maori and Pacifica learners, low progression to success at higher levels of study, increasing lack of confidence about consistent academic standards and continued change environment. Through projects have confirmed that current system does allow great teaching and learning to happen, but not strategic, not enough sharing, fragmented and research base still weak. Need to narrow gap between excellence and threshold of acceptability and also move level of excellence up. Government can enable but organisations and profession still have to lead.
Need to ensure dialogue between practitioners and sector to test assumptions and relies on robust, easily understood evidence.
Organisations need to collect evidence more purposefully and formally. Suggest systematic gathering of informal evidence ( student stories, employers, alumni) and formal through AUSSE, critical incidence questionnaire, research in cognitive psychology, student surveys etc. recommends the location of results into organisational change. Provided a logic sequence for sustainable improvement. Identify need, investigate options, create intervention, practice change, student response, outcomes, adopted as business as usual and share externally. Impact evaluation of 63 projects reveal a outcomes hierarchy. What works is mutual preparedness and congruent expectations of practitioners and organisations based on evidence based research.

After morning tea, three concurrent sessions starting with "learning and teaching models for engineering and trades" with James Mackay and tutors for Weltec. A series of case studies of teaching and learning initiatives in trades training. James presents on project based learning in a 4 week engineering foundation course where students work through the skills to build a steam car. Constructivist approach embedding literacy and numeracy and integrating induction of students into engineering, science and engineering process skills and contribute to self-efficacy.
Shane Taplin provided overview of developing a multi media system to help students learn electrical concepts. Introduce smart boards, netbooks, iPads, visualizer and smart pens. Need to support tutors to move forward.
Phil Mudgeway and Grant Davies on project based learning in automotive. PUsing activity, research, problem based learning. Integration of theory and practical to compile almost 100 competency standards a year. Important to also provide for work and non vocationally focused skills.
Barbara Kelly and Colleen Hurley on improvement of student completion for trades academy. Trying to ensure competencies were being completed progressively instead of at end of year. Change included integrating individual course assessments, tracking of students and encouraging both tutors and students to monitor progress. Led to change in motivation and students' own expectation of achievement.

Next session is with Dale Bennett from NMIT on "learning opportunities: designed for the future, inspired through the evaluation of collaborative partnership". A conversation on how to go about ITP collaboration that adds to enhancing learning. Collaboration increases access to a larger network of colleagues but also creates challenges. Rebecca Gadja's a good place to start with regards to developing model for evaluating collaboration. Recommends establishment of levels of communication, cooperation, joint decision making, shared goals, quality deliverable and minimize barriers.

Last paper with Patricia Griffin from Western Institute of Technology presenting on "using career aspirations to inform academic pathways into polytechnic, does it make a difference? Trying to understand whether proving support to foundation students helps them make correct decisions and move on into further learning. Foundation students tend to complete just enough to get to the next stage so did not complete foundation programme. Put in place an admissions committee to expedite enrolments. Implementation through academic strategy, standards and evaluated through programme viability report and admissions review. Findings indicate students need flexibility in enrolling for foundation skills, allowing students to complete credits required to progress into mainstream programmes.

A good variety of presentations with many opportunities to network with tutors, staff educators / developer and managers between papers. I have enjoyed the collegiality and reflective moments the conference has brought about.

Ntlt conference day 2

Ntlt day 2

Day 2 shapes up to be another busy day with a technology focus in many papers. Keynote to begin the day is with Dr. Wayne Mackintosh on " Kiwi ingenuity favors pragmatism above presence" representing the OER foundation. Open Education Resource university is an initiative including universities, polytechnics. In NZ based at Otago Polytechnic with University of Canterbury, Open Polytechnic, Northtec are main partners. Contrasted the open source movement to the less active OER, so a need to encourage educational institutions to learn to share and share to learn. Examples of OER are wiki educator and OERTen, working towards shared resources. First OERu degree programme via USQ now in prototype and officially launched 2013. Philosophies around OERu utilizes open source platforms and open resources. One advantage for institutions is to be part of an international education network. Resources now include open courseware, open access journals, open distance learning protocols. Presented the OERu logic model of how learners access resource to obtain credible qualifications. Technology requirements to set learning free include open planning and development, collaborative development environment, support multiple delivery platforms, scalable and has detailed version control. Argues that OER is low cost, low risk but high innovation.

A series of concurrent sessions follows morning tea. I attend the presentations focused on technology and literacy and numeracy. First up, James Mackay, Mary Fawcett and others from the Wellington Institute of Technology (Weltec) on " using pen cast". Presentation provided overview of how live scribe pens work and a series of projects on animal care, auto electrical, plumbing and engineering students. Move from using pen cast for tutors to produce content to encouraging students to produce records of their learning (individually or in groups). Noticeable lack of writing on trades examples, pen casts captured drawn diagram and recorded oral explanation. Assist non-text reflection of learning as student explains concepts to peer. Pen cast useful for finding out what and how much students understand.

Then a session with Emma McLaughin from Weltec also on "how technical vocabulary is used in vocational contexts". A sharing of ideas. Defines technical vocabulary (TV), reasons for interest, and strategies for improving TV. Important literacy demand is the learning of TV. Asked tutor, literacy tutor and students to highlight words in a passage from workbook. Reveals a few from tutor, handful from lit. Tutor and none from students! Recommends use of vocabulary profiler to help http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/

"iPads 4 teaching" was session presented by Mark Caukill. Mark teaches IT and shared experiences with using iPads plus ideas for future. 50 plus staff took up NMIT offer to support purchase of iPads. A users group formed to share practice. Used airsketch to show and annotate slides. Used Apple TV to synch iPad to data projectors but does not always work. Demoed 3 ways to show and tell including airsketch, using VGA code to attach iPad direct to data projector, remote control laptop with iPad, wireless ipad display using apple TV and using splash top streamer to link desktop to iPad. Also used socrative as an example of gathering student input. Www.socrative.com

After lunch, second keynote with Stephen Hickson and Steve Agnew from Univerity of Canterbury on "assigning grades during an earthquake - shaken or stirred ? Experiences from first year economics course at Canterbury and learning from what happens when earthquakes cause cancellation of exams. In microeconomics, final exam became an I vigilantes term test. Macroeconomics final exam was allocated to term test and online assessment items. Analysed effect of weighing and scaling to provide students with a realistic grade. Complicated by historical date from 6 years to have cohorts which are difficult to match. Found better to have 2 invigilated assessments to ensure grade disruption does not affect grade.

Then 2 sessions for the afternoon. First off with Carol Campbell and Margaret Henley from University of Auckland with assessment busters. An interactive workshop introducing a learning activity to help students prepare for assessment.
Margaret introduced the importance of getting assessments right as year one students disengage if experiences with assessment are clear. Need for greater communication and integration between teaching and student support staff. A solution was to provide Targeted learning to all students, in a one stop shop, facilitated by peers, introducing the values of support services.

Last session of day with Clement Sudhakar from Weltec on open source and freeware in distance education. Provided definitions for freeware, shareware and open source. Encourage to explore FLOSS (ope source software free software) as an option.

National tertiary learning and teaching conference at NelsonMarlborough Institute of Technology - day 1

Ntlt day 1

In Nelson today for the annual National Tertiary Learning and Teaching conference. Conference opens with powhiri and welcome from Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) CE, Tony Grey. After traditional hongi and morning tea, opening address from NMIT, academic director, Graham Bell.

First keynote with Dr. Catherine Savage and Ereura Tarena. Ereura provided a tutorial on Maori whakapapa and it's significance to the Maori perspective. Tarena is the Maori equivalent of Stirling, with each ancestor establishing each individual 's place in the tribal relationship network and a way of connecting to the historical migration of Maori from Hawaiiki to Aotearoa and from the north to the south. Ancestor names are also associated with various landmarks in the landscape.
Catherine spoke on the topic of "indigenizing higher education". The need to create a welcoming and inclusive space for Maori students. Challenge of "non-mainstream" students (NMS)not being able to leverage on individual cultural capital. How can education met NMS? Colonization still continues through emphasis on commodisation and materialisation. Education now similar with focus on vocational and return to society. Education still needs to have a responsibility to help contribute to building not only human capital but also social capital. Recommends a culturally responsible pedagogy of relations. Teaching for cultural diversity includes recognition of ethnocentrism, knowledge is students backgrounds, awareness of social and political environment, use culturally appropriate strategies, commitment to caring and success, curriculum relevance and recognition of cultural knowledge. Teachers need to work on relational skills and prepare students for needs of the future beyond just the vocational.
Toki ki te rika presented as an example of how Ngai Tahu and CPIT worked together to develop a Maori trade training programme as one of the outcomes of the Christchurch earthquake. To collaborate, conceive success and measure success to inspire Maori leadership in trades. To create opportunities for leadership, entrepreneurship, improve household income and social capital. Aspirational but in progress.
Important Toki ki te rika seen as a reform that also informs, a collaborative innovation that contributes to changes in curriculum, institutional and staff capability building and focus on student learning relationships.

First concurrent session with CPIT Robin Graham and Martin Jenkins . A workshop on creating team based opportunities for course design - the Course design intensive (CDI) experience. This session provided overview, rationale and background is the CDI process. Workshop of stage 2 of the 5 stage course design process ( planning = design blueprint; mapping = student course learning journey; quality check = design rubric; prototype building and testing = online activities; action planning = action plan). Also reported on a pilot that took place last year. Recommendations include CED taking responsibility for facilitation, CDI work to be done in context of the programmes as whole, follow up actions project managed to ensure completion and any CED work informed by relevant evaluation data.

Then a second workshop also with Robin and Martin on "Establishing firm foundations constructing an academic staff capability framework." introduced the academic staff capability framework, rationale, process and implementation. Rationale revolves around usual global, national, regional and institutionally. Changing nature of tertiary education etc. process involved working group, adoption of holistic approach and provision of institution wide support. Key parts of framework are to promote culture of continuous improvement, build individual and organisational capability, identify current capability, support and encourage on going professional development and career progressions and providing students with assurance of teaching quality. Scholarship of teaching and learning is framed by teaching and learning, professional development and research on teaching and learning.

Next session on "Blended writing activities that can be adapted and used to help meet the needs of learners" with Bronwyn Mogridge from NMIT. Used wallwisher as a warm up activity to get everyone contributing.The covered word clouds with examples from wordle, wordsift, neoformix and tagxedo. Plus xtranormal All great ways to get students started with producing some writing and producing visual presentations.

Last session of the day with my session on the 3D Printer project. Topic of "innovating with industry: case study of bringing industry and ITP expertise to enhance student learning. A short overview of how CPIT's purchase of a 3D printer is being used to work with a range of creative and manufacturing industry stakeholders, staff in engineering, architecture, medical imaging etc. engage in research projects and enhance student learning.