Web 2.0 storytelling - using narratives in research

Last week, I was working on the Ako Aoteoroa funded ‘teaching craftsmanship’ research project which involves the building of narratives based on information gleaned from questionnaires and interview content. Each narrative is constructed based on set criteria. This then allows a horizontal comparison to be made between each narrative. Commonalities and differences are then easier to distil out of the mass of data presented.

I could clinically construct the narratives as a large spreadsheet or table but building narratives is imminently more satisfying J Narratives are also much more pleasant to read and some of the characteristics that define each research participant come through, even in a rather objectively composed narrative. The narratives tell stories which are much richer and intense then a list of characteristics off a spreadsheet.

However the above is my interpretation, as a researcher of the participants’ original stories. I need to put some time into exploring how to provide opportunities in my future research projects to record participants’ own narratives.

Bryan Alexander & Alan Levine discuss in an educause review article the emergence of the genre of web 2.0 story telling. They propose they consolidation of a range of social networking tools as being methods by which people are able to ‘tell stories’ about their lives. Alan Levine aka Cogdogroo provides 50+ways to tell digital stories, so there are no shortage of ideas of how to people can garner their experiences, archive them on various sites and for others to follow the threads of their thoughts & learning as they navigate through the various hyperlinks presented. Liz Kolb provides a couple of examples of how to use the mobile phone to create digital storybooks using yodio. Chrissy Hellyer presents the use of voice thread as a digital portfolio & Photopeach as another option.

Lots of ideas, some of which I have explored in the mobile portfolios project. Bringing the opportunity of recording learning while it is taking place provides for many possibilities to extend on Graham Nuthall & others’ work on the hidden lives of learners. The emerging field of multimodal discourse analysis is something I will need to explore as this provides for the rigorous data analysis of the plethora of data that will emerge from investigating participant generated artefacts!

Tools for analysing qualitative research data

Jane Hart is compiling a list of most useful / most used tools for research. Many of the ones listed are unfamiliar to me!! Most of these are search engines, although there are also bibliographical archiving tools. I have been trawling the databases the last couple of weeks. Basically doing the ground work for my Ako Aoteoroa funded ‘teaching craftsmanship’ research project. So it was a good opportunity to try out a few of these tools. I find Google Scholar to be a good way to source ‘key words’ & starting material which I can then use in the standard academic search database to find references pertinent to the topic I am researching. Due to the nature of the topic ‘new trades tutors & their perceptions of teaching’ I have to rely on journal articles. A few books are available on Google books but only as previews so I have had to request interloans via our helpful CPIT library.

I have also started data anaylsis, learning my way through nVivo. I need to use NVivo so that I am familiar with the software in order to be able to support other staff in using this research analysis tool. Will provide more feedback later in the year on how I feel about using nVivo to replace my usual mixture of iterative data analysis using ‘copy & paste’ & find features on Word, along with summarising, collating and reorganising themes / threads into tables. My first impressions are that nVivo imposes a way of doing (& thinking) which is slightly out of synch with how I usually approach my data. I need to have a handle on the ‘big picture’ & how other themes relate to the overall scheme of things. An article by Elaine Welsh (2002) presents both the advantages & disadvantages of using nVivo for qualitative analysis.

Helen Colley & Kim Diment’s article on ‘holistic research for holistic practice: making sense of qualitative research data’ is part of the UK’s teaching & learning research programme ‘ building research capacity’ site. Their interpretation and recommendations on qualitative data analysis does resonate with my approach to undertaking research. I am often after the ‘whole picture’ of why things happen & am constantly trying to work out how the various themes that immerge from the data ‘fits into the whole’. It is also important to view the data as a holistic ‘narrative’ rather than just focus on its atomistic parts. Telling the story which research participants try to impart via their involvement in interviews etc. is an important role of the research process. I need to distil rather than filter & at the moment, I feel a software tool like nVivo is causing me to filter & sieve rather than to distil, refine and sharpen themes. It could be because I am working solely with digital sources instead of a mixture of digital & hard copy. Will persevere for the moment with nVivo & evaluate what eventuates in a couple of months. I can always do a manual collation as well after the nVivo process to see if anything different comes through.

The TLRP site is one I constantly dip into for interesting, informative and mostly practical / applicable suggestions on doing research. The Teaching & Learning Programme itself has been a source of many articles and research reports of relevance to the work I am doing towards by PhD thesis. In particular the projects completed under the ‘further & post 16 education’, higher education, workplace learning, professional learning, lifelong learning and technology enhanced learning sections.

BBC podcast on Web 2.0 in corporate 'training' & action research in the workplace

Gillian Rose, one of our staff developers, listened this podcast from the BBC early one morning last week. The half hour provides for a good overview of the introduction of elearning into corporate training (elearning only coined in 1998!) and how it is now moving towards using social networking tools like blogging, wikis, social networking sites, twitter etc. within corporate training and knowledge creation, sharing and archiving.

Limitations and challenges are discussed along with ways in which to maximise on the use of social networking in building a participative workplace culture.

By coincidence, I was reading a chapter from the book ‘handbook of action research’. The chapter is ‘action research in the workplace: the socio-technical perspective’ by William Pasmore is readable via Google books. I was reading the chapter as an update on my understandings of action research, in preparation for teaching & sharing my classes’ perspectives on action research and it’s role in education. The chapter provides a succinct summary of the work of Lewin and Trist along with work undertaken by the Tavistock Institute on socio-technical systems.

In an effort to bring together the core principles and approaches of action research & socio-technical systems, ten paradigm shifts were proposed (most of which can be linked to how the internet & social networking as tools to assist). These include:
· Elevating quality of total human experience above measures of economic progress.
· Devising ways to make expert knowledge available (the internet has surely a major role to play here).
· Speed of learning should be used instead of costs & efficiencies to measure system performance (hmm, this one needs some thought).
· Elevate environmental & community issues above the creation of wealth as the primary political concern (we really need this one!).
· Restore human dignity as important criterion for evaluating educational, organisational & political systems (yes, & the slow movement towards sustainability is a way forward).
· Enhance diversity in scientific methods and ways of knowing.
· User control (not just the experts) for information, productive and political systems (the power of the internet to do this cannot be disregarded.
· Networking groups that have shared interest across organisational, community boundaries (again, social networking can be used for the betterment of society).
· People working globally just as important as people working as individuals & locally (internet is a tool that also must be used knowledgeably and responsibly).
· Need to explore better ways for organisations & societies to develop, release & use their capabilities(as per above, how to maximise on social networking but to also use it for improving the lives of others ).

Implementation of eportfolios for 'adult education tutors'

Late last week, the staff education and staff development team held a short meeting to discuss the implementation of eportfolios into the revised Diploma in Tertiary Learning & Teaching (DTLT) which replaces our current Certificates in Adult Teaching (CAT) and Diploma in Adult Education (DAE).
One of the courses for the ‘certificate’ part of the course is a ‘professional portfolio’ which will be run concurrently while students are completing five other ‘certificate’ courses. The ‘professional portfolio’ will involve students reflecting on their journey as they ‘become teachers’. Evidence of their growing skills, knowledge and confidence as teachers may be collated in an eportfolio. Therefore it was a good forum to discuss the rational for implementing eportfolios.
To start with, the team were distributed several articles including one from Educause on portfolios to webfolios & beyond:- levels of maturation. Also this one from Educause which gives a good overview on eportfolios, from a more traditional viewpoint.

I am more interested in seeing the use of Web 2.0 eportfolios as summarised by Helen Barrett in this diagram which builds on work by Derek Wenmouth and Sonia Guilana. Out tutors might not be ready for the big wide world of Web 2.0 eportfolios, but as staff educators, we need to be able to promote examples which reflect the future of education. The implementation of the use of eportfolios in the ‘professional portfolio’ will also eventually be followed on my the use of eportfolios for internal CPIT processes exampled by new tutor induction & probation, ongoing academic staff appraisals, professional development portfolios, websites for staff to showcase their work and promotions. Some programmes are also considering the use of eportfolios as an assessment option. Therefore is it important for the staff education team to model not so much ‘best practice’ but ‘informed practice’.

The educational reasons for using portfolios are varied but recent moves in theories of learning indicate that individuals’ learning are influenced directly via their interaction with the various social cultural arenas the live within. An article which provides good back ground is by Hodkinson, Biesta & James (2008). This article discusses the dualist nature of learning as being based on either individual or social and replaces this view with the use of the ‘becoming’ metaphor to help understand learning as being more holistic. Portfolios are one way to try to record the ephemeral nature of learning, the tacit, ‘informally’ learnt, often not described in learning outcome skills, knowledge and attitudes that constitute authentic learning. Teaching is but one occupation which is often learnt more from ‘conversations in the corridors & staff room’ than from reading books on educational theory. Portfolios (be they e or not e) may assist in helping learners to place credence on some of these encounters & to reflect on whether these conversations lead to improved teaching practice.

Using presentations in education - moving beyond powerpoint

I have started planning towards a workshop on different ways to use powerpoint and other forms of ICT assisted presentation. The main objective is to showcase a few different ways to make ICT presentations more interesting and to provide alternatives to ‘death by bullet points’.

The other major objective is for tutors to realise that they do not need to do the work of preparing presentations but that the examples could be introduced to students. Students can then move ahead to conceptualise, prepare, construct & present the material. It makes use of the concept of the student being ‘the producer, not just a consumer’.

To start with, a couple of alternative ways to present using powerpoint can be discussed. These include using powerpoint for publishing, as a backdrop for drama productions, pecha kucha and other similar methods.

Then an introduction to Web 2.0 based presentation sites via exploration of webtools4u2use and examples in readand writeweb, cogdogroo, worsefor wear and boxoftricks. This is followed by a brief look at presentations on prezi and animoto.

In short, the workshop was to encourage tutors to be more aware of the tools, available via the web, to engage their students in using the vernacular they are familiar with to express themselves.

The dialogue which follows student presentations also provide important learning opportunities. I find that it is important to facilitate student reflection on each presentation and sometimes to summarise or make links/applications on the white board while students are debriefing. This not only provides notes for future discussion and work but also models the process of reflection.

21st century mobile learners - here or still to come?

While away last week & travelling about, I mulled over the readings stored up from the last couple of months and blogged over the first half of this year. That wended their way across my screens (laptop & blackberry) as I travelled by planes, trains and buses across the red, red Australian landscape. They all propose a future for education that is in many senses already here but also not quite here yet.

To me, the students are ready & willing. A couple of weeks ago, my group of students working on evaluating social networking sites as eportfolios shared their work with other students in their class.

However, it’s harder to shift tutors towards making use of technology in their teaching. Although many are have made the leap. The Mobile Learning Institute’s film series “A 21st Century Education” profiles individuals who embrace and defend fresh approaches to learning and who confront the urgent social challenges that are part of a 21st century experience. Most of these are general with regards to the use of ICT but Elliot Soloway and Cathie Norris take a road trip through Texas and Louisiana to see firsthand how mobile devices are being used in schools.

Apart from the above, what of the role of mlearning in the 21st century? I caught up with blogtalk radio & listened to Liz Kolb’s interview of Suzette Kliewer who is a math teacher in the K-Nect project in North Carolina. Suzette talks about how she has been using Smartphones with her math students. The project reminded me of many of the findings in John Hattie & Helen Timperley’s article on ‘The power of feedback’. They propose a model of feedback which involves asking three key questions at task, process, self-regulating & self levels. Task refers to how well a task is being performed, the process refers to the main process required to perform the task, the self regulating comes from the student self-monitoring & self directing their actions and the self refers to the personal evaluations and affects of the learner. The three questions are where am I going (feed up), how am I going (feed back) & where to next (feed forward). The model is based on feedback being provided by teachers, peers etc. regarding aspects of performance so that the learner is able to confirm or adjust their learning trajectory.

Therefore, the use of appropriately constructed ‘learning opportunities’ with the use of relevant feedback via ‘just in time’ technology like mobile phones is one way to meet the needs of some current learners. ‘Programmed learning’ segments that are customised to the levels of learning & interests of students will be even more useful & move the concept of personal learning environments forward. Anytime, anywhere access using mobile internet devices is one way to keep the 21st century learner engaged & pro-active towards meeting their own learning goals.

NCVER 2009 - day 3

Only one presentation stream on day three followed by a panel discussion. Paper presented by Warren Pears from the Dept. of education & training , Queensland on the topic - school leavers and the decision to participate in post-compulsory vocational education. Report on two studies carried our in 2005 & 2008 on school leavers. Explored factors including family type, attitute of parents to voc.ed / higher ed., effect of peer groups and social status. Findings that concur that school based apprenticeship / traineeship & VET in schools did lead on to positive impact on post-school uptake of voc.ed.

Panel discussion facilitated ably by Ian Colley & with Pam Christie, Institute direction TAFE NSW Sydney, Tom Karmel, managing director of NCVER, Terry Lloyd, deputy vice-chancellor, TAFE, University of Ballarat & Gavin Moodie, principal policy advisor, Griffith University. The topic was 'the place of VET in the tertiary sector'. The panel discussions are always a good way for me to catch up with happenings in the VET sector in Oz.

NCVER 2009 conference - day 2 afternoon session

I presented just after lunch to an interested audience. Last presentation of the day was from Denise Stevens & Dr. Robyn Clifford from William Angliss Institute of TAFE, speaking aout how to establish a research culture in their institution. William Angliss is situated in Melbourne and runs a wide range of hospitality programmes. So research has not been a priority at the institution. Guidelines etc. were presented. I think that NZ polytechs. are further on in establishing research culture as it is a requirement for the accreditation of degree courses. Will need to explore the CPIT strategy further to see if it can be improved on.

The conference dinner was held at Sovereign Hill, a historical village set up as a mining area. A sumptious dinner, with convivial company was followed by a sound & light show of the 'eureka stockade' incident.

NCVER conference - day 2 morning sessions

Day begins with a keynote from Martha Kinsman from the Policy & Research Council for TAFE Directors Australia. Martha's presentation provides a very good overview of the history of TAFE, in particular, the effect of CBT on VET & the PD of trainers and teachers. Australia seems to be poised to move from mass to universal system of tertiary education. History, turning points in VET & evaluations of these informs policy for the future. Book to check out is Tech Voices: recollections of the tech teachers association of Victoria (2005).

Second session I attended was by Ann Harris from the University of Huddersfield who provided a very good theorectical underpinning to the use of narratives in research. Her session on 'Stories of vocational educators' provides lots of links to my current research on 'new' trades tutors. In particular, the duality of identities, framed as 'conflicted identities' of voc. teachers. Identities impacted on my compled disciplinary & occupational histories through developing institutional situations and changing social & political circumstances.

Next two sessions on building capability in VET in Queensland where the Dept. of Education has funded PD for VET organisations. Mike Harris from the Dept. of Ed. & Training presented a model build via research on PD needs in 2007 & 2009. Lesley Wemyss from Crestfern presented on the private provider experience in an ACPET funded PD project. Both provide some interesting information for CPIT staff development strategies.

NCVER conference - day 1

Travelled down from warm Darwin to a much cooler Ballarat. The 18th NCVER 'no frills' voc. ed. research conference is being held at the University of Ballarat, set in bush about 10km from the town centre.

Arrived late afternoon but able to catch up on a couple of the day's presentations for day 1. Of interest was 'the value of completing apprenticeship or traineeship' by Peter Mlotkowski from NCVER. Survey sampled over 5000 trainees at end of 2008. wages seem to be unimportant in whether to continue with an apprenticeship.

Also Victor Callan's report on e-apprenticeship - how elearning is driving innovation in workplace learning. Profiled 3 case studies, the TAFE/WA state wide transforming trades training initiative, Gary Sewell's work with bakery apprentices & the National work on skills shortages in the plumbing industry. Will need to catch up with these when I get back to work!

Herdsa2009, day 2 concurrent sessions 3

Last few sessions of the conference as tomorrow I travel down to Ballarat for the start of the NCVER voc. ed. research conference.

First up, Barbara Grant from University of Auckland with a presentation on the implications of doctoral supervision on the identity formation of Maori students. There were challenges from the students to the supervisors' predominantly Western approaches to research & doctoral, culture. However, the experience could be & was not only challenging & filled with uncertainty but also rewarding and pleasureable.

Next, Gary Pritchard from University of Wales on the concept of using students' strengths to engage students in learning. Bases on strengthfinder model proposed by Clifton. Talents, knowledge & skills = strengths & possible to also use strengths to work on areas of weaknesses.

Last up, Ray Meldrum from Unitec on 'the student curriculum experience: an engagment with chaos". based on his Phd which looked into how tertiary education could nurture entrepreneurial activity. Used the concepts proposed by Doll (1989, 1993 & 2002) to unpack concept of creativity. At the moment, universities study entrepreneurs but they should be studying what is involve in becoming and being an entrepreneur and using these to inform how to help people attain entrepreneurhood.

herdsa2009 - day 2 - concurrent sessions 2

My presentation was after lunch in between a session by Alexis Esporto from Swinburne University & Nick Zepke & Linda Leach from MasseyUniversity.

Alexis has been working on forecasting future skills needs. He detailed how the Monash forecast survey tool in association with the American Occupational Info. Network (O*Net), to provide for forecast of skills needs for occupational areas. The O*Net provides a comprehensive skill lists which can be used for comparisons between occupations.

Linda & Nick presented a subset of their work on student motivation and engagement in learning. In this presentation, the focus was on what engaged students in learning. Deci & Ryan's (2000) self determination theory was used to underpin the research. Three facets of SDT were student autonomy, relatedness to others and feelings of competency & success. The study showed there was little commonality between various institutions but that feelings of competency & success were important intrinsic motivators for students. Recommendations therefore are to find out what motivates your students in your context, develop student belief in their own competence, focus strongly on student sucess and recognise agengy & relatedness as motivators.

Herdsa2009 - day 2 concurrent sessions 1

Attended 4 sessions this morning. First one presented by Pauline Hagel, La Trobe University on collaborative inquiry using learning projects based on communities of practie. Value of doing this was to support different forms of participation, have distributed leadership, define commitment, be responsive to different interests, allow for small 'wins', provide opportunities to stop and review practice and act as a break fromm teaching routines.

Second, a short session from Marj Kibby (University of Newcastle) on embedding research into first year work of media / film studies using a structured workbook supported by a Blackboard site.

Then an inspirational session from Heather Sharp (University of NSW) & two students, Linda Stanley & Marie Hayward (University of South Queensland). During their undergraduate year, these students worked on a book chapter which was published along with paper for this conference. Collaborative work was supported via a Wiki (wetpaint). The whole project was framed using the eight cognitive benefits proposed by Steinberg & Kinchloe (1998). This is a concept that I will think through & use with the Diploma in Adult Ed. students.

Herdsa2009 day 2 - keynote by Ron Oliver

Day two begins with official welcome to Larrakia country from Dorothy Fox, a representative from Charles Darwin University & Helen Wozniak, conferene coordinator.

Then a demonstration of turning point keypad & brief introduction from Netspot - a conference sponsor.

Keynote from Prof. Ron Oliver was on 'taking distance out of campus study. Well structured, covering the salient points of 'learning design' including a website which archives examples of teaching and learning design and has facility for others to add their examples.

Aspects of 'reusable learning design aligned to info. access, info. organisation and info. processing in the form of task directed (teacher led), task guided (guided) & task autonomous (independent) 'flowcharts' or recommendations. Important to have a learning plan, construct delibrate learning activites, planned form of engagement, provide content & info. learning guides and supports / scaffolds to learning.

Reinforces need to use assessment tasks as learning (LOA) & improving students' engagement with learning.

Workshop 2 at Herdsa2009 by Mike Keppel & Dominique Parrish

Second workshop on "transforming higher education through learner orientated assessment" presented by Prof. Mike Keppell from Charles Sturt University & Dominique Parrish from University of Woolongong. Mike started with overview of assessment including differences between summative / formative, assessments of, for and as learning and learning orientated assessments (LOA).

LOA is defined as using assessment tasks as learning tasks, supporting students to become self evaluators and using feedback as 'feed forward.' Based on work by Carless, Joughin & Liu (2006) & Keppell & Carless (2006). For me, it is an offshoot of 'learning design' & student centred learning with assessments being student directed and enhancing learning.

Dominique presented with guidelines on how to achieve transformative change in education using the development of LOA as context. Ten points proposed to assist the process for transformative leaders to assist their team / organisation towards sustainable & dramatic change.

Herdsa 2009 - workshop on assessments with David Boud

In sunny & warm Darwin for the HERDSA2009 conference at Charles Darwin University and attending workshop sessions today. First up, Dr. David Boud's session on 'reconstructing assessment for longer-term learning: Generating positive student experiences through future orientated assessments.

The workshop was centred on work completed for the Australian Learning & Teaching Council and a website has been set up as a resource site. This site provides good information on key assessment elements which include engaging students, using authentic activities, allowing students to design assessments, assessing using integrative activities, helping students to learn judgement, modeling the practice of good asbe susessments, allowing students to work with peers and reommendations on giving and recieving feedback. There is also an option for practitioners to provide examples of effective practice.

In order for assessments to be viable for longer term learning, they need to be sustainable, help students develop informed judgement, onstruct reflexive learners and contribute towards the formation of becoming practitioners.

A good session, raising very pertinent questions and feedback from various partiipants. It was also heartening to see participants were interested in improving assessment practice and keen to provide students with better ways to learn via assessment.

Visit by Paul Levy from Swinburne TAFE

Paul Levy from Swinburne TAFE visited yesterday to do a catch up on e & mlearning projects at CPIT. We started with the HP tablet project run by Dave Kennnedy & Daphne Robson. Daphne provided a good introduction to the capabilities of using tablet PCs to enhance learning of mathematics and statistics fro pre-health & nursing students. There are inherent advantages to using this form of technology in association with class presenter. Students are able to work on ‘problems’ which have been collated using powerpoint. When they have solved the ‘problem’ they are able to sent their answer to the tutor. All of the answers from the class can then be compared, discussed, analysed etc. In all, an excellent example of social & participative learning in action In the near future, I will need to explore the possibility of using class presenter with mobile devices.

Paul & I then had a chat about his projects. He recommended the Nokia Omnia as an alternative to iphones plus also demonstrated the use of livescribe to archive and document the various conversations & meeting we were having.

We next called on Nick Ford to discuss elearning and how to enthuse reluctant educators into making use of ICT. A good discussion followed by Nick sharing resources relevant to the teaching of electrotech including crocodile clips absorb electronics and designing circuits using yenka electronics.

After lunch, we travelled across to the Sullivan Avenue CPIT site to visit the Technical Innovation Institute tutors. First up, a good chat with Cameron Wright from carpentry about how they use etxt to support workplace based apprentices along with assessment processes used by carpentry. Carpentry also uses student diaries to good effect to journal workplace based skill acquisition.

Then a fruitful conversation with Sean Flanagan, faculty academic coordinator & automotive tutor and Stephen Price, programme manager for engineering & electrical. The main objective was to learn about how best to cluster competency based units into manageable learning clusters, modules and in particular to explore how the concept of ‘projects’ could be useful. Stephen also took us around the electrical training areas which had lots of good resources for students to learn about the practical aspects of electrical trades. Andrew Massie, electrical tutor then showed us his Moodle site & had a chat with Paul with regards to collaborative activities that could involve students from both CPIT & Swinburne.

All in a good day for me to catch up on various activities at CPIT, have in-depth discussions with Paul on e & mlearning and to find out how others approach the teaching of trades content.

Recent resources on elearning and mlearning

A good resource via Bronwyn Hegarty at Otago Polytechnic published by University of Woolongong details research projects conducted there on the use of mobile learning in higher education. Articles include an overview, how to encourage faculty to adopt the use of new technologies and descriptions and some evaluations of various projects with mainly full time students in education using mobile phones and ipods. The last chapter on design principles provides practical guidelines and recommendations.

Other resources of interest that have come up over the last fortnight or so include :

1) A more wide ranging review taken by the Commonwealth of Learning which discusses education for a digital world. This includes articles on how to prepare and implement technology in education followed by examples of various applications and projects.

2) educating the net gen is a Australian study and a handbook of findings for policy & practice. It recommends a cautious, planned approach to be taken as not all students (despite hype) are ready or willing to engage with the use of technology in their learning and not all staff are prepared to make the leap across the chasm to adopt the use of technology in teaching.

3) Two articles recommended to follow up on mobile / social networking use in university. One on policy and the other a response from JISC to the recommendations in the 2007 report ‘Web 2.0 for Content for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education.

4) A literature review of elearning research in the workplace via Ako Aoteoroa. The articles reviewed are accessed via a visual representation of the various aspects of the review. A good example of how to provide a simple portal to lots of information.

5) And a book to catch up on which discusses What if? About the use of technology in the 21st century classroom

6) Website of the American 21st century schools provides good conversation / discussion starter with what is 21st century education along with resources and information on curriculum & instruction and critical pedagogy. Has a mainly compulsory K-12 focus but much of relevance to tertiary ed. as well.

I intend to work through these in the next month or so. Many of the above bring the realism of putting ICT into practice into real educational settings. As I speak to many tutors around NZ, I find that many realise the need to assist learners to learn important 21st century skills of collaboration, critical thinking and citizenship. However, not all are convinced about using ICT as one of the tools. Maybe they have a point. However whether we want to or not, we now live in a world & in societies influenced by technology. Many of our students will live beyond our own live times. Do we do them a disservice by not modelling as teachers, flexibility, self-directed and life-long learning and openness to evaluating new ideas?

Mike Anderson's presentation on implications of the new NZ Curriculum on tertiary

Mike Anderson, principal at Waimairi Primary School and an avid promoter of the use of ICT in primary school teaching, presented at the monthly CPIT Educational Strategy group meeting.

Mike’s presentation was focused around the new NZ National Curriculum which is to begin in all schools next year. He began with a quick tour of how NZ had a curriculum that was student centred and geared to the needs of the community back in the 1930s when the then prime minister, Michael Joseph Savage, appointed C.E Beeby as the director of education. An example was the work of Darracott who taught students via building a house, 2/3 to scale at Jackson’s Mill in Kotuku.

Mike's approach to the new curriculum was to engage his staff and the community in order to base their school’s direction on a ‘localised curriculum’ which was based on 21st century needs. He proposed the importance of ensuring that practices (what) and principles (how) used by teachers in the classroom were well anchored in their core values and beliefs (why). He was keen to incorporate four of the key competencies (thinking, participating and contributing, managing self and relating to others) into a quadrant that could be used to inform teachers, parents and students of their progress.

He used the analogy of the TV shows ‘who wants to be a millionaire’ as an example of the transmissive model of education still prevalent in society when we should be promoting and supporting the skills of confident, connected, activity involved and lifelong learners in education. An example would be the TV show ‘monster garage’ or another example I have occasionally followed ‘junkyard wars’.

He then provided examples of how primary school students are being encouraged and taught the skill to be producers and not consumers. These were in connect TV and Rock our world, programmes his students have engaged & participated in.

blogging with a phone

As a subset of evaluating web site creating websites using mobile phones to create eportfolios, I have also been keeping an eye on developments in mobile blogging. There has always been the capability via Nokia’s lifeblog or with the Nokia using a variety of other apps but several recent developments have made it even easier to blog using a variety of phones.

To start with, NZ Telecom’s recent launch of its XT network not only provides faster mobile web surfing speeds but also promotes phones that allow direct access to bebo and a poster at the local telecom store also promoted access to facebook and twitter.

Vodaphone offered and promoted access to Web 2.0 sites from the middle of last year, sites including trademe, bebo, youtube, facebook and Wikipedia.

Sue Water’s provides a good overview of how to blog using an iphone.

Coupled to the above is the ease by which it is now possible to sent a photo, video, audio file or text to social networking sites that were part of our original evaluations (vox, multiply) and to traditional blogging platforms like blogger and wordpress.

So the choices are increasing and this might have to be the way to go with mobile eportfolios if the evaluations for creating mobile websites as eportfolio sites using mobile phones becomes too difficult.

Adult and Community Education conference 2009

On Saturday, Nick Ford, Robin Graham and I presented at the annual ACE conference, held at the Wharenui at CPIT. Nick presented on the 21st century learner, I did a short spiel on cloud computing, web 2.0 & mobile learning and Robin completed the loop with a session on design for learning.

Our session was well attended and there was lots of interest shown along with lots of questions generated. I experimented this time by using a Word document with logos of web 2.0 sites and other hyperlinks as a base to the presentation. As the session was so short, the hyperlinks could then be useful to participants for future self directed exploration of the various sites and links.

e-ako resource

Mark Nichols from Laidlaw College has compiled a series of e-primers. These are funded via Ako Aoteoroa and archived on their site. The site is now becoming an excellent resource for tertiary educators in New Zealand.

#1 – elearning in context sets the scene with an overview and introduction to elearning in Aoteroa-New Zealand and within the tertiary learning context.

#2 elearning & faculty explores how to engage and support faculty in using ICT and elearning in enhancing their own professional development and to enhance student learning.

#3 design for elearning provides guidelines on designing elearning ‘courses’ and in incorporating ICT into learning experiences for students.

#2 online discourse discusses online forums and other means for communicating with virtual learners.

Currently being written is - #5 - E-xtending possibilities Web 2.0; ePortfolios; virtual worlds; lifelong learning.

Mark also maintains a blog and there is a pertinent blog on mlearning which challenges assumptions made about the ubiquity and usefulness of mlearning.

All in a good resource for anyone teaching elearning to use as a source of readings or course activities or for teachers embarking on some self-directed study on elearning.

Presentations at Waiariki & Otago Polytechnics

As part of my research project investigating the perspectives of ‘new’ trades tutors in polytechnic teaching, I visited Waiariki Polytechnic in Rotorua last week and Otago Polytechnic this week. Funding from Ako Aoteoroa Southen Hub has allowed me to travel to interview tutors in both the North Island and the South Island.

As I was going to be visiting I offered each Polytechnic the option of a lunch time workshop / presentation on the work on elearning & mobile learning at CPIT. It was a good opportunity to catch up with how other polytechnics are introducing and working with technology and to meet kindred spirits.

At Waiariki, I was hosted by Liz Fitchett, staff developer and food safety tutor. At Otago, my host was Terry Marler, elearning developer with a background in veterinary sciences.

Waiariki is starting out on their elearning journey supported by one of the modules in their tutor training programme on flexible learning and most of the modules with online components. However, the work of innovators was stymied by the slow & sometimes intermittent internet access, due in part to Rotoroa’s geographical location off the main north-south highway between Auckland and Wellington. The slow internet access means that sites which have potentially useful resources for use with full-time classes are blocked!

Otago being a larger institution is well advanced in the use of technology in teaching and learning. The polytechnic is currently moving from Blackboard across to Moodle and staff education has a dedicated elearning team . I met with Adrian Woodhouse and Tony Heptinstall after my presentation to find out how their project was going. The cookery team has also been busy putting videos of lessons on youtube which can then be downloaded by students to ipods for revision. We discussed ways to enhance the use of these videos, in particular to use them as starting points for theory sessions or as a focus point for ‘homework’.

Visiting other institutions provides a good opportunity for me to reflect on the directions that staff development (particularly in the ICT) area are taking (or not taking) at CPIT. In general, all the institutions are still reliant on the enthusiasm of ‘early adopters’ to take the lead and to initiate the embedding of ICT into teaching and learning. What we all now need to do is to provide incentives for the next level of tutors who are interested but ambivalent. Providing resourcing for ‘early adopters’ to mentor ‘interested but cautious’ tutors might be one approach.

learning for life in the 21st century: book review

Long weekend well occupied with the National Scrabble Tournament, held this year in Christchurch. However, took time out on Monday to read the book “Learning for life in the 21st century: Sociocultural perspectives on the future of education” a book edited by Gordon Wells & Guy Claxton (also author of book ‘what’s the point of school’)

This is a good book providing good information on applying sociocultural perspectives to teaching & its impact on learning. The most significant factor in learning are the cultural settings in which learning takes place, the learning activities employed to engage learners in participative learning and how each informs the other. It’s very readable book, explaining sociocultural perspectives without resorting to high academese. The bibliography is an excellent resource on sociocultural learning theories which provides me with an additional source of exploration and more reading.

Chapter 2 by Guy Claxton provides a good introduction to sociocultural perspectives and their relevance to learning. Chapter 4 – the gift of confidence : A Vygotskian view of emotions by Holbrook Mahn & Vera John-Steiner reiterates the importance of affect in thinking & action. Effective lifelong learning emanates from growing confidence & the chapter introduces & explores ways in which support from colleagues, mentors, teachers etc. can enables people to be willing to take risks and try out new ideas. Chapter 6, sociocultural perspectives of assessment by Caroline Gipps argues for recognition of the social process in assessment. Assessments need to be more dynamic in order to catch some essence of the ‘learner in action’ instead of just measuring how much knowledge has been transmitted / absorbed.

Chapters 8 through to fourteen have very pertinent articles on school age learning & development, all of which reinforce the influence of social relationships, culture and environment as important contributors to learning.

This is followed by a series of chapters of relevance to all educational sectors with an emphasis on the use of cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) in research. For example, chapter 16 by Yrjo Engestrom, Ritva Engestrom & Arja Suntio provides a good example of the use of activity theory in researching education (in this case teacher development within a school community). Another example in chapter 17 by Katherine Brown and Michael Cole is also available as a paper about after school learning.

Chapter 19 by Andy Northedge (also author of The Good study guide) is especially relevant to my current teaching. This chapter is titled ‘organising excursions into specialist discourse communities: a sociocultural account of university teaching. It provides good guidelines on how to gradually bring students into academic reading via ‘constructing pathways into specialist discourse’. These pathways include the teacher ‘stepping outside’ the discourse & to engage students using discourses that are familiar to them, to plan the route of entry & engagement with the discourse using ‘a flow of meaning structured as a plot’ and to coach the students in ‘speaking with the locals’. Much of this I practice via cognitive apprenticeships but using the ‘plot’ scenario provides me with a better base from which to introduce students new to the field of adult learning to the literature of educational research.

Evaluating mobile web site platforms to set up portfolios using mobile phones

My available ‘research time’ over the last few weeks has been to desktop & blackberry test a range of mobile web site platforms. I am trying to find an easy to use site that allows eportfolio evidence to be directly uploaded on to mobile web pages. Thereby enabling the creation of an eportfolio by using only the mobile phone. I found a website which previews, reviews and archives useful mobile webpages. The mobile version provides an example of good mobile webpage design.

A host of mobile web sites platforms have emerged over the last year or so. Most tend to have desktop based interfaces. In general these were all easy to use, with good visual layout and icons that make sense. The influences of web 2.0 type user interfaces prevail.

As an example of how quickly mobile website development platforms have developed, just compare winksite, one of the original mobile website platforms to jag a relatively newer one via celladmin. One is dated and although easy to use as a whole, it is not so simple to, for instance, add a picture. The other, although desktop based, provides a 30second interface to put up mobile greetings, invitations and sites and allows easy links to linkedin, myspace, facebook & google.

Most of the sites were optimised for development of the webpages via desktop computers. Included in category were wirenode, mobfive (in Swedish), swiftmob, jag and mofuse. Good examples of desktop interfaces include mobisite galore, zinadoo. tagtag, mobilemo, wapple and wapamama. All of these are optimised for setting up webpages on a desktop / laptop and not directly from a mobile phone.

There was one which worked well on mobile phones but required input in HTML, not an easy option on a mobile phone. Phn would be difficult for students to use as a tutorial on HTML will be required first. Mobisite galore may be suitable as you are able to set up a customised template first & then input more items are required.

Two possibilities have emerged for further trial. Mobilikey provided the facility to create, update and post pictures to personal mobile websites via the desktop or directly through their cell phone or mobile device. The interfaces is quite user friendly. To post a picture, video or voice file, you basically email the file across. There is no preview screen, so you need to wait for the pictures to come through before you can view whether they have synched across.

xtgem is more visually attractive but harder to use via mobile phone. In order to include pictures etc. the browse button does not work on the phone so there is a need to store pictures etc on sites like flickr. Generally less intuitive to use compared to mobilikey. Plus in the preview screen, there is a embedded link to a site to view videos of girls! which will be an incentive for apprentices but does not wear well for me!

Another quick way is to make use of Nokia lifeblog. However, to date, very few students own a Nokia phone with internet access! Plus software needs to be downloaded on to a PC for ease of access to manipulate / collate the photos / videos and other blog items.

Also possibility of using the mobile learning engine which is a plug-in for Moodle. Links from various repositories for photos / videos etc. can archived on Moodle. Moodle site can then be the ‘aggregator page’ for a range of evidence.

Will put a few more sessions into testing out possibilities before evaluating a few with students.

Presentation at Aoraki Polytechnic staff professional development day

I was invited to do presentation at the Aoraki Polytechnic staff development day last Friday. I had a pleasant drive down to Timaru with grand views of the snow covered Southern Alps for company. The staff development day is one day when all staff at Aoraki come together to learn, network and re-create. Although Aoraki is based in Timaru, it has satellite campuses from Dunedin, Oamaru, Ashburton and Christchurch. The day is therefore a good way for staff separated not only be subject discipline areas but by geographical location to convene.

The day began with welcome in the three national languages of New Zealand, Maori, English & NZ signing. The CEO started the official talk fest followed by updates the various campus managers.

Keynote by Sue Lindsay on daring to be different.A good presentation on strategies for success and resilience in challenging times set the scene for the rest of the day. My presentation was well attended. I described the CPIT baking tech online & mportfolios underpinned by the precepts of cognitive apprenticeships.

This was then followed by brief presentations on the Aoraki Foundation learning project (taking a different approach to CPIT by using short staff development powows) and the Aoraki use of Moodle as an LMS.

Drove back to Christchurch into cold and wet weather which persisted through the weekend :(

Wolfram Alpha

This came through on Derek Wenmouth’s blog. The wolfram alpha site is a computational visualisation tool. It is an interesting way to bring information together and especially useful for visual learners. It is at present a good resource for subjects that have some form of statistics or numeric emphasis to them.

A good video provides a series of examples. Examples from subjects associated with stats & numbers include maths, economics, geography (demographics). There are also interesting uses in using the site to calculate nutritional values, medical type measurements, climate and an extremely fascinating area of genetics (enter a gene sequence & see what happens!)

The site is an extension of the work of Stephen Wolfram’s work with mathematica and a new kind of science (NKS) which is to study science using a ‘principal of computational equivalence’ to discover links & synergies between various aspects of applied research in science.

The layout of the wolfram alpha pages allows display on mobiles. Chunks of information are also ‘micro’ providing sufficient information to do further exploration. Hopefully, a mobile version will be available in the not too distant future as some of the applications are imminently suited to mobile uses. For example, I would use the nutritional values one quite often & other ones on demographics / anagrammer/ current weather etc. can be useful when you encounter information that needs to be clarified & a desktop is not available.

Personal content management and mobiles

I was catching up on reading as preparation for writing a couple of papers for conferences. The concept of personal content management (PCM) came up via doing a Google search. Personal content management can be thought of as being a subset of personal information management (PIM). One way of bringing together personal information would be via mindmap tools like personal brain.

However, I was more interested in mobile versions of PCM and this dissertation on facilitating personal content management in smart phones by Antti Aaltonen provided useful reading. Antti is also one of the authors of a book on personal content experience: managing digital life in the mobile age which is a report on the work on a group on Nokia researchers. This site is always a good one to keep up with the latest on mobile technology.

The book covers a good overview of development in the past decade on an increase in mobility of people and their devices along with the growth and increasing importance being placed on personally generated content. Factors which enhance the development of PCMs include the ability to access content, share this content and through this sharing re-live the experiences stored. Confidence that the content will not disappear & that it can be kept private if required. Seeing the content as part of a bigger whole and being able to exploit ‘mobility, metadata and context’ to further extend on personally created content. Good links can be made with the concept of PCMs, eportfolios and narratives. This book actually uses five personas (two 16 year old students, a 28 year old activist, a 40 year old artist and a 56 year old plumber) through out the book to help explain the concepts introduced.

Of interest was the motivation towards mobility explained by our innate desire to be mobile (new nomads) and our short attention spans (five seconds!). I have recommended the book to the library and will do a more thorough evaluation of the book when it arrives.

Prezi

Prezi came via Ignatia webs. It’s a interesting presentation tool which provides a visually exciting alternative to the ubiquitous powerpoint. There are good examples in the prezi showcase including this one on why blog.

A good learning site is included which models the possibilities for using Prezi although less visual / interactive learners will appreciate the manual which provides good summaries.
Prezi is very intuitive to use. When you place an object or text on to your ‘frames’ the prezi wheel appears. This allows you to rotate the object, resize (zoom in/out) or move things around. Very cool!

I had a play and put together a presentation in about an hour, learning as I went along and experimenting with the options. Did not manage to remove some of the ‘frames’ but overall a useable presentation which I will tidy up next week.

The presentation can be assessed via the web or you can download as a zip file and run without actually having to be web connected. File is very large but opened smoothly on to my desktop.
This is possibly the best find so far this year (apart from Google books & xtimeline)

21st century elearning - virtual schools

Yesterday, I attended a presentation by Professor. Niki Davis, University of Canterbury and Bridget Somekh, Canterbury fellow from Manchester Metropolitan University on 21st century elearning at a CPIT lunch time meeting convened by Nick Ford.
An example of 21st century elearning was presented via case studies of virtual schools. This was defined as primary and secondary school students being able to learn from a teacher who was not situated geographically in the same school.

Case studies were presented on the Florida virtual school, Iowa learning online and an example from the UK called ‘not school’ convened by Anglia Ruskin Ultralab (now disbanded). Each virtual school had different organisational and funding structures and met various objectives. What most had in common was the ability to provide access to specialised teachers who were recognised as leaders in their field.

Many virtual schools are set up around video conferencing facilities so that a teacher is able to teach more than one class at a time, one in physically in front of them and another linked to them via video conferencing. This provided opportunities for students in smaller schools and in rural / remote areas to study subjects they were interested in. The UK example catered to students who had been removed from the school system or who had reasons that prevented them from attending school (eg. Victims of bullying).

All in, interesting to learn about the diversity in virtual schooling, be provided with examples of teachers who exemplify good elearning practice and view the technology currently in use.

Mindmapping tools #2 & timeline tool

These came via Jane Hart’s great blog.

First up, personal brain. This provides for the construction of a traditional mindmap. It is very user friendly and intuitive to use. It has comprehensive features which allow you to link to your files, webpages etc. so that it becomes an extension of your usual filing / folder system on your desktop. A guide to ways to use personal brain is a good summary of the uses for mindmaps.

The other was dropmind which is available as a web version or desktop version. This is a more visually exciting platform & the web version allows multiple users to edit and share a mindmap. Presentations can also be generated. The user guide is a pdf file (compared to personal brains series of videos) but the interface is intuitive and user friendly and should not be difficult for students engage with after a short introduction.

Another interesting concept is xtimeline. This nifty site has a collection of timelines ranging from the history of tea to economics to notables like Steve Jobs and Beethoven. There is also a history of the internet which is open for public editing. You are able to make use of the timelines posted by other users as a resource or built ones yourself. Each node in the timeline is a link to more information including pictures and videos. Individuals or groups can work on each timeline so this resource is ideal for use in education.

All not suitable for mobile use as yet but xtimeline has potential due to it's ability to organise a lot of information into a small start up page & then provide the links greater information depth via each node.

Blogging good practice and with youme

This week I am facilitating a discussion forum with a group of tutors enrolled on the ICT for education course. My brief is to introduce the concepts of blogging & start discussion on how to use blogging in either their own personal development or as a teaching / learning tool.

There are guidelines to corporate blogging which mirror the CPIT guidelines for staff who maintain blogs. What I needed to find is guidelines for educational blogging. Found a good overview by Jeremy Williams via Google Scholar which also includes an appendix on resources on blog methods and blogs in learning.

So far, the uses of blogging proposed by course members were to make use of blogs to improve on student reflection. I wanted to move the tutors beyond this so that blogging could be used in a more synergistic manner for students to record their learning journey; network with other people (not in their own class) studying in the same area; share, discuss & evaluate their learning with others in the class; archive the resources that they find & record their initial reactions so that they are able to compare these with later perspectives. In short, guiding students towards the left hand bottom corner of the matrix proposed by Scott on post about matrix of some uses of blogs.

Also, this week, Tricia Lewis (with Stephanie Roberts) presented a session on using blogging to help students learn English as part of the School of Humanities sharing of good practice series. Trish & her brother set up youme to encourage students (familiar with social networking) to practice their English via blogging. 300 students now use this site although not all are blogging regularly. The site has features with are user friendly to use including allowing students to blog, chat & take part in discussion forums. Groups of students can be brought together in clubs. This makes it easier for the teacher to work with students as they engage with blogging & for the students in each class to share their work. Great stuff & good to see most of the tutors in the language area taking up the challenge to make use of blogging to enhance student learning.

ITF presentations now online

All presentations described in previous two blogs now available online. I browsed through a few of the ones I did not attend as I was attending the other session running concurrently.
The most useful ones were:

Literacy & numeracy or qualifications – which matter more in employment, and does participation in upskilling differ by industry group by David Earle, Elliot Lawes & Paul Satherley of the Ministry of Education which came out of the ALLs surveys now summarised.

The ETITO development of industry relevant strategic training plans by Dr. Dominic Madell & Dr. Heather Lees.

ITO literacy & numeracy good practice from Dr. Nicky Murray of the ITF, Helena Parsons from Quartz Clarity & Dr. Gene Kumekawa from the TEC.

ITF research forum day 2

Day two began with a presentation by Dr. Karen Vaughan on conditions & strategies for making the most of workplace learning. Understanding challenges presented by workplace learning presents the opportunity to work on strategies to improve learning in the workplace. Workplace learning defined as on the job + off the job + integration with business strategy. 21st century workplace learning needs are impacted on by speed of adoption of technology, globalisation etc. challenges include the tensions between knowledge & skill, hierarchies & roles, and learners & motivation. Others include how workplace interactions are enacted, the complexity of the task, what regulations cover the business, how much technology needs to be introduced or utilised, how market forces impact, the workplace culture, suitable learning strategies, involvement peers, mentors & learners in goal setting, availability of feedback & knowledge sharing (reflection) and opportunities to practice & take some risks.

Concurrent sessions follow the rest of the day. First one I attended is from Helen van der Werff, from the Horticulture ITO on increasing the impact of industry training investments in the horticulture industry. Based on qualitative nation wide survey of 19 businesses & interviews with 4 ITO training advisors. Harvey & Harris (2008) 7 drivers of productivity used to access productivity & learning to performance process (Brinkerhoff, 2002), logic of training, a high impact learning management (Brinkerhoff, 2001) used to inform the study.


Second presentation from the Department of Labour on skills in demand: past, present & likely in the future from Dr. Ram SriRamaratnam, Richard Manning and Xintao Zhao. This covered brief overview of skill concepts (types & measures), employment skills (their mix & content), high level skills categories and skills demand (2003, 2008 & 2013). Demand also include additional / expansion demain, replacement / retirement demand. In summary, still a need for ‘skilled workers’ into the future due to forecasted replacement & retirement demands.

After lunch, first session up was from Paul Mahoney from the Ministry of Education on factors associated with success in industry training and modern apprenticeships – what the data tells us. Over 180,000 industry trainees / apprentices in 2008. Analysis at the moment focuses on credits & national qualifications completed as proxies of success. Two reports, one of industry training & one on Modern apprenticeships just produced. In industry training, 35% of students entering complete their full course within 5 years. Similar levels of completion to polytechs / private providers & rates in UK (27 – 40%) & Australia (45%). Females more likely to complete than males. Some industries in NZ have higher levels of workplace based training completions for both trainees & modern apprentices. Older workers more likely to complete.

Then attended session on a comparative analysis of stakeholders’ evaluation of NZ industry training strategy within the tourism & public sectors from Lois Parkes of Victoria University. Lit review reveals, interest in skill from publick policy & business perspectives, assumptions that skill = qualification, investment = outcome, many economies have fallen short of the high skill = high wage vision. Evaluation was based on a positivist bias therefore stakeholders perspectives & experiences are not taken into account. There is a research gap as not the whole range of stackholders perpectives have been collected, collated & compared.


Last session of the day was on embedded workplace training: benefits for the health & disability sector by Liz Stephenson from Careerforce & Rose Ryan from Athena Research. Embedded model of training is defined. Features of how organisations obtain maximise, support & evaluate cost effectiveness. Learning and assessment were part of workplace practice, support provided by Careerforce workplace advisors to assist trainees in using workbooks, learning resources & trainee verification. Embedding requires a high level of commitment & resourcing but costs are offset by reduced turnover / recruitment & improved quality of service. Embedded model helped to overcome barriers to learning amongst non-tradtional learners.

The conference ended with a plenary session for questions & answers facilitated by Jeremy Baker & with questions from the floor to the three keynote presenters, Professor David Ashton, Dr. Johnny Sung & Dr. Karen Vaughan.

ITF vocational education research forum Day 1

The annual NZ vocational education & research forum was convened by the ITF (Industry Training Federation) over two days this week. It is heartening to see vocational education research flourishing in NZ, in part via the provision of contested funding from Ako Aotearoa to conduct research in the tertiary sector. This year almost 200 people attend the 2 day conference compared to about 40 at the first conference 6 years ago.

This year, the conference was held at Victoria University’s Rutherford House. Conference opened with a warm & pertinent welcome from Hon. Anne Tolley, Minister of Tertiary Education.

First keynote was from Professor David Ashton, from SKOPE at the University of Cardiff & the University of Leicester. He spoke on the topic of the global auction of skills: implications for sector approaches to workforce development. Two main arguments were put forward. One that there should be (but is not) a relationship between how much money is put into training & the returns on investment. Secondly, the influence of multinational organisations on training direction which is not in synchrony with national interest. The study was based on surveys / interviews etc in seven countries & four core sectors. Presentation started with a good overview on labour markets etc over the last couple of decades related to changes in the organisation of production due to globalisation. He presented the idea of ‘skill webs’ & how they have evolved from low skill (high skilled work remained in home country, dependent on quality of national ed. system & rewards determined by national internal revenue) to strategic skill webs (global supply of skills, internationalised skill strategies). This presentation provided much food for thought as to how a small country like NZ is going to be able to contribute, utilise & ameliorate the effects of globalisation. With the advent of ‘virtual R & D teams’ working via ‘digital taylorism’ the world is ‘flat’ & participation by NZers becomes easier but also more challenging with competition from countries like China, India & Russia.

Concurrent sessions then ran. First up motivating learners to complete qualification through workplace leanring by Karen Moses, R & D senior advisor for LearningState (the ITO for state sector organisations). Concern on low completion rates of tertiary learners (including apprentices & trainees). 70% of learning happens through work & life experiences, 10% through training & 20% through coaching and mentoring. A workplace assessment model based on Cheetham & Chivers (2005) model of professional competence. Examples of how this model works was then provided. Key motivator was relevance of learning, learning that may lead to future careers, learning which was challenging & provided social opportunities for interaction, qualification a form of legal tender, RPL & RCC available. Self direction was a sign of motivation in learners & readiness to learn emerges from the need to learn.

After lunch, I attended the session with Dr. Peter Coolbear , Dr. Kirsty Weir & Dr. Warren Sellers from Ako Aotearoa on enhancing the value & impact of research into voc. ed. & training. Ako Aoteoroa is funding 18 million a year on various projects to tertiary education. The presentation was on how to ensure the research leads on to best possible educational outcomes for all learners. An inventory of voc. ed reseach in NZ from 2003 – 2008 reveal 118 pieces of work but much of this is not widely disseminated or known by practitioners. Pasteur’s quadrant was used by Tooley & Darby (1998) to identify type of research needed to improve practice. Integrity of method suggested as most effective way to ensure research outcomes are effective and have impact on practice. Ako selected 40 projects & mapped these against the quadrant for methodological integrity & potential impact. 21 of the projects were ‘health sector’ based with the other 10 spread across other types of workplaces. 70% were in the quadrant indicating low methodological & potential impact. Limitations included unclear results, work not build on previous literature, little triangulation, quantitative research measured perceptions & lack of generalisable findings. Ako will work together to help foster user generated research and to support & encourage practitioners to take advantage of use-inspired research,

Then a session from Dr. Johnny Sung, University of Leicester on the varying nature of industry-led VET training. Instigating ‘sector skills councils’ may not lead to actual industry –led training. Four broad types of industry led VET systems were examined. Analysed via nature of employer / industry led varies hugely between systems, way funding channelled through sectoral system, way employers may influence qualifications & training content, employers role in creating training places. Into the models of employer involved, employer modelled, employer owned & employer driven. An associated paper on the role of employers in sector skills development provides background & good information.

My session came after afternoon tea. I presented on a small part of my thesis, the concept of ‘proximal participation’ in helping young people ‘belong to a workplace’. The apprentices in my study ‘fell into the trade’ after working in the bakery as cleaners, dishwashers, retail assistants and catering assistants. These support / peripheral jobs provided the opportunity to ‘belong to the workplace’ by building relationships with the other workers in the bakery, trying out the baking lifestyle and viewing the practice bakery work. As proximal participants, they could adopt an identity as an observer. In order for proximal participation to be effective, time span of the engagement with the work had to be long enough to allow relationships to build.

Last session from Elizabeth Valentine, CEO of ATTTO & Steve Hanrahan, CEO of HSI. They spoke on career maps & pathways into the tourism and hospitality industries. Project revolved around providing career maps, articulating career paths, national map of provision and defining a process for “lifting the bar” funded by the TEC. Project was to assist with preparing the two industries for the Rugby World cup in 2011 & then the Cricket World cup in 2015. Example of the career mapper database for baristas was presented as how the career maps were constructed.

Blackberry 8110 usability & suitability for mlearning

I have had a week to play with the Blackberry over the Easter. Mobile access was patchy (as expected) but I could still assess the other PDA functions. It took me a couple of days to become comfortable with the one handed / left handed use of the trackball cum blackberry key to access various menus. Using the ‘sure-type’ keys with each qwerty key providing access to two alphabets took more time to get used to. The prescriptive text entry system tended to be quite good at working out what needed to be inputted. So my typing speed did increase over the 4 days of practice. Use of camera, video etc. was also easy to learn. Picture quality was OK. Photos could be viewed easily with zoom, rotate etc. available. Voice recording was also good & easy to use.

The GPS was limited so will need to source google maps & upload for better capabilities. What was available was easy to use including the ‘where I am’ function. I also read up a recent ‘wired’10 uses of GPS article on the uses of GPS in daily live. I found some of the applications to be invasive of my personal privacy but can also see many useful adaptations that can be taken for using GPS in educational settings.

The form factor (size) & price of the Blackberry, makes it more accessible to the student market. However, due to the Blackberry being marketed to the business sector, it will not be on the radar of most apprentice learners. However, it has capabilities that make it suitable as a corporate mobile learning tool due to ease of use & ready linking to corporate email systems. This means that content dissemination (text, slideshows, photos etc) along with discussion forums etc. can be based on email. This makes mobile learning easier to institute as all tutors are familiar with email. Incorporating social networking sites like twitter for ‘chat’ type synchronous sessions is also much easier to introduce. So there are possibilities worth exploring which I will discuss with our elearning team.

Blackberry 8110

The powers that be at CPIT have changed telecom providers which means a change in the mobile phones supported by the institute. So my trusty Treo 700wx (which I have been allowed to keep for it’s PDA functions) has now been replaced with a Blackberry 8110. None of my students will have a Blackberry L but the Blackberry seems to be making inroads in to corporate mlearning. Blackberries interface with Blackboard LMS but we have shifted to Moodle. However, it is always good to be able to trial mlearning on a multitude of mobile phone OS & the Blackberry will be added to our collection.

I will be spending much of the Easter break getting to grips with how to make the most of the Blackberry. Will be away tramping so it will be a good opportunity to find out what sort of mobile phone coverage the Blackberry has, test out the GPS / camera / video & assorted PDA capabilities and work out how long the battery charge will last J The West Coast is aka as the ‘wet coast’ for it’s damp climate. Although the forecast seems to me mostly dry, it will be a good test of my ability to keep the phone dry & to see how well it works under non-ideal conditions.

As a first impression, the size & weight is much better (from the trampers point of view!). The Blackberry is about 1/2 the weight & 2/3 the size of the Treo. The trackball which runs most of the menus on the Blackberry is pretty intuitive to use. Without reading the manual, I figured out how to access email, SMS, web browser etc. practiced using the ‘suretype’ system as the phone does not have a full qwerty keyboard but an adapted one with two alphabets to each key (laid out as per qwerty). After that sending email, SMS was simple although slower as I am used to using both thumbs on the Treo. With its smaller size, the he Blackberry handles better with just one thumb and my left hand is always not as easy to coordinate as my right.

Voice dialling was quite nifty but I have yet to get the media manager on the desktop manager to work, although backup, synchroniser & application loader (loaded mobipocket reader) all work OK.

So will report back on progress next week.

Pockets of potential report

Here is a great report Via Derek Wenmouth on using mobile tools from the company that brought us Sesame Street .

This is an American report to try to nudge the American government into greater support for mobile learning. It provides a good overview of projects that have taken place in Europe & Asia along with many guidelines on how to leverage mobile learning into education along with the reasons why. Most of the projects reported use handheld devices (pdas, game consoles) instead of mobile phones but the overall intent of the project is to provide greater access for learning opportunities to all children regardless of the digital divide. Handhelds are one way to provide access to the internet & learning objects without having to set up the infrastructure required by desktops.

It provides a succinct (albeit American viewpoint) on mobile learning & its promises, pitfalls and real potential. Key & challenges in mobile learning are summarised. There is an ‘update’ on the relevant market trends and innovation that have brought mobile learning closer.
There is also a good summary of the goals of mobile learning including “understanding that mobile learning is an unique element of educational reform; developing mobile learning by building learning interventions; promoting mobile learning by engaging the public and policy – makers in defining the potential of mobile devices for learning; Preparing teachers and learners for mobile learning by providing training on how to incorporate mobile technologies; and stimulate mobile learning by generating new support for digital learning.

That an organisation that has promoted pre-school education for decades is now involved in advocating mobile learning is really a promising sign that mobile learning is becoming mainstream. President Obama has been reported as being attached to his Blackberry & his election campaign made astute use of mobile technology to connect with & involve his supporters. All of which leads to better appreciation by naysayers of the power of mobile phones to bring about social change. Is education then not about change in attitudes as well?