Peeragogy

Thinking through as to a direction for project surface tablet. One of the main ‘success’areas with tablets has been the use of the tablets to take videos of students learning practical skills or learning dispositions through roleplay. Included is the aspect of peer learning and feedback. So students use the videos as a springboard for learning not only the skills or dispositions but important aspects of judgment required to maintain reflective practice.

This bookon peeragogy, via a 2013 posting on Arlington Education Foundation referring to a holistic approach to technology enhanced learning, provides some suggestions for ways forward with regards to enhancing learning through peer learning. Although set in formal school contexts, the ideas and discussions are transferable across to vocational education.

The online book is basically a collection of ideas / resources from various American teachers who seek to improve learning through implementation of peer learning and peer production. It’s the peer production part which we really need to move along with.

So, instead of providing feedback etc. the next step is to perhaps have students develop a how to ‘guide’, using their original videos as source material. The ideas included in the book are ways to organise student groups, activities suitable, organising learning context, assessment suggestions etc. Technology tools suitable like forums, wikis, real-time meetings, MOOCs etc are discussed.

I will try out a few of the ideas with our project tablet teams, to extend on what we have begun and to continue to improve on our learning-centred approaches as supported by introducing ‘situated technology enhanced learning STEL’.

CPIT 'lightning presentations' - embracing 21st Century learners

Attended and presented at today,s lunch time session from Diploma in Tertiary Learning and Teaching and from staff who presented at the recent National Tertiary Learning and Teaching conference. Format is for Pecha Kucha, lightning type presentations of 5 minutes each. So lot of short sharp presentations.

Smoothing the landing: Creating a MOOC for new international students  (Kevin Brennan and Rowan Jeffrey, Learning Services) as per NTLT presentation, introducing staff to a MOOC created to assist new students to study skills and academic literacies. Covered rationale, pedagogical approach as to MOOCs, identification if topics through student forums and staff voices and preview of some of the content.

A model for ‘blending’ a highly interactive f2f course – Lynette Winter and Niki Hannan (Teacher Education) also as per NTLT presentation, bringing active learning approach into Moodle. Covered rationale and approach. Course re organised from scratch to not lose what was already working and to bring strategies in to make the blend work - attend workshop, complete online activity and apply learning to their work.

The positives of negative marking (Steve Tomsett, Engineering). Provided rationale and how it works. Presented marking schedule to show how it works. Negative marking deducts marks for errors and total mark may overlap. Argues negative marking allows relative and absolute importance.

From Lurking to Posting: Encouraging student engagement in on-line course content (Julie Richards, Midwifery). Presented brief background and approach using OB3. What works - connection before engagement, prompt lecturer response, learning activities require individualised response and importance of student created content.

Social Work: introducing flipped lessons  (Karen Argyle, Social Work). Learnt about flip learning from last years session! Talked on strategy used to create content and evaluation used to work out if students have engaged and why. Next year, intends to teach one as flipped and other without to see if any differences.

Using self-reflection and peer review to increase understanding of assignment criteria: the pros and cons (Arifah Addison, Computing). Summarised approach and details of how deployed. Especially to allow introverted students to be in a more comfortable way to provide feedback and scaffold to better attainment of social and communication skills.

Creating models for explaining concepts (Paul McGowan, Electrical Trades). Brought along a physical example to help students understand difficult concepts, especially concepts that may not follow common-sense. Detailed adventures in learning how to create animations (with literature showing mixed impact of animations on learning).

Aligning graduate profile framed qualifications with occupational identity indicators  (Selena Chan, Academic Services Division) as summarised in previous post.

Trades engineering (embedded numeracy for YG students) (Bernie Streeter, Engineering/Manufacturing at Trades). Using teaching techniques to help dis engaged students learn trade maths. Provided background and improvements made, based on understanding of concepts as presented recently at the trades campus by Nathan Mikaere-Wallis.

Presented on a example on learning surface speed formula to move from the concrete to the representative to the abstract. Especially covering how to use physical object to cover representative concepts.

Engineering the write way (Bruce Morrison, Humanities) as presented at NTLT. Provided rationale to integrate technical literacy into engineering fundamentals  first year course. Lab reports used to assist students to learn ways of scientific thinking and communication.

Project-based learning: Making it real (Lynne Coker, Business). Context based learning to develop soft skills. Lynne summarised a presentation from NTLT by Wendy Trimmer & Juliana Korzon from Whitireia. Scenarios were used to assist nursing students learn how to make clinical judgments.

Using One NoteClassroom Creator as a tool for improving students’ report writing skills in engineering (Lindsey Alton, Engineering). Summarised the pilot and evaluation run this semester with engineering students to assist learning how to write lab reports. 

CPIT staff day - 17th April 2015 -

Annual CPIT staff day is held on campus this year in the gym of the new Whareroa building. The day opens with a mihi /  welcome (in Maoris) from Hemi Hoskins. Hana o'Regan leads us in the CPIT waiata. MC Hilary Muir introduces herself and starts the day off. The main purpose of the day is to come to a shared understanding of the 'new' CPIT strategic plan. Gavin Blake from Fever Picture will be undertaking Live Scribing to record what is happening through the day.

Jenn Bestwick, chair of CPIT council, officially welcomes everyone. and sets scene for the day and the 'One CPIT' focus. Introduced the structure for the day as a series of TEDex presentations.

First sessions, on the topic of market relevance. Secondly, theme of graduate outcomes with a series of presentations from present and graduated students. the third theme is around 'alternative' delivery, not necessarily all to do with technology but to do what we now do well, differently. Key focuses of developing and supporting 'modern learning environments' and a way forward into the future.

On market relevance, the first speaker is  Kaila Colbin from Ministry of Awesome 'on staying relevant in an expotentially shifting market'. Provided example of Moore's law as an example of expotential growth of computing power. Presently, we are able to access info. on smart phone / ablets which is greater than information available during Bill Clinton's time as USA president. Computing accelerates developments in all fields of human endeavour - including new fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology, etc. Unfortunately, our brains are not quite wired for the expotential growth of content. Consumer expectations have risen based on potentialities but linear business growth is unable to keep up with predictions of Moore's law. Technologies are onverging with artificial intelligence, robiotics, medicine, neuroscience, energy, nano tech, bio tech and computing - some science fiction of last decade now normal. Used 3D printing as example of how quickly tech. may move and the synergies possible by bringing 3D tech with other disciplines e.g. medical. What does it mean for our students? Are we preparing students for the future? 47% to 81% of jobs now may not exist in 2050. Presently, in transition period, so learning for flexibility important. What are implications? HIgh priority skills include problem solving, creativity, adaptability, future thinking, Need to reimagine Why we now do things as we do.

Next up, Paul Wright on 'customer service'. Used experiences at Harcourts to provide examples of a consolidated approach towards providing customer service. Whole organisation is focused on meeting customer service needs including IT, staff capability etc.  customer service includes treating staff as customers as well - used example of how staff have a phone - birthday message - on their birthday. Mobile agent set up to support all staff to be productive and responsive to customer needs. Staff are recognised though a range of staff awards to incentivise staff with customer service given top priority. Admin staff are included as they are crucial to the customer service process.  Importance of treating complaints seriously. Most important strategy - beating all 'modern' means - is a thank you card! Introduced the inspire foundation and asked for submissions to encourage growth of youth talent.

Beth Knowles from CPIT international speaks on market relevance in a global community. Provided statistics on CPIT international students. top 5 countries for international students are China, India, Japan, South Korea and Thailand but we have 1330 students from 50 countries providing over 600 EFTs. Spoke of thnite reciprocal advantages oref internationalisation.  Not only international students attaining education but for NZ students to also learn how to work with others within global economy. International students high in Food & Hosp. Business (almost 30%) and engineeiting / architecture and humanities (19%).
Need to have student mobility - inbound / outbound exchanges, staff exchanges, study abrou, ad programmes with partner institutes, double degree opportunities and multi country / multi partner institutions like GESA.

Next up Deon Swiggs presents on new perspectives on market relevance as informed by current context in Christchurch. Rebuild Christchurch has objectives to engage, connect and empower the people to contribute to the rebuild. Informed by Simon Sinek's Golden circle connecting why, how and what and to enable people to do what they do well. Provided various example deployed to connect with, consult and work with the community. Tagline - be brave and do things differently. provided example of the 'covered' series as a way to inform people on progress. to ensure organisational progress, leadership is important - thinking to do things differently.

Mike Fields, HOD of Trades, introduces Nick Matthews- carpentry tutor, to present on aspect of his work with iTab and market relevance. Started with overview of how he moved into teaching after career in army and apprenticeship in carpentry. Focused on industry demand and the changing environment with relevance to provision of carpentry training. EFTS increase from 214 to  297 plus campus re-developments provide opportunities to rethink how things are done.  Provided info. on carpentry pathways from pre-trade courses to apprenticeship. During pre-trade - work experience of 200 hours required - tracked with work diary, tutor visits and move into apprenticeship. Need to keep industry informed about pathways. Currently, supporting 320 apprentices ( 2 1/2 times more than inn 2011). Detailed industry partnerships, especially new ones with steel frame industry industry. Maori and Pasifika trades training an important asoect to assist greater diversity in industry.

Short morning tea followed by a slide show on successful 'graduate outcomes' across all departments with accompaniment from a jazz trio - recently completed their programme.
Then a presentation from Scarlett Cvitanovich who completed Broadcasting degree in 2010 and now working as chief reporter for South Island for Newstalk ZB. Colllates news each morning (5am start) for broadcast. Very varied, hectic at times but sometimes, need to be creative when not much SI news! Affirmed degree prepared her well, esp. internship. and present work. Had to come up quickly as she started at ZB a month before Canterbury earthquakes in Sept. and then Pike River mine accident on the West Coast. Ready her for the really big story of Chch. earthquake! which accelerated her career development. importance of internship to 'get foot into the door'. Attitude and passion just as important as skills. Also important to keep up with technology as even in 4 years, broadcasting tech. has increased pace. Speed increases pressure to become timely.

Next, Mat Goodman who completed the degree in sustainability and education. presented via written testimonial read by MC and video - as he was busy working for a company filming a documentary across NZ.  He was able to extend his passion for photography and follow his interest in studying keas' use of tools. A video example of his work also provided showing his work, set in the inspiring SI landscape with wonderful footage of a kea getting into a stoat trap.

Followed by Jason Tiatia, now a tutor and also a coach for Rugby 7s. Jason speaks on hi journey for the Diploma in Tertiary Learning and Teaching (DTLT) and his 'last chapter' returning after a career in professional sports, to teach. HIs teaching founded on 'the one who does the work, does the learning', 'in order to lead you must serve'. Summarised his learning and development as a teacher.

Student presentations consist of panel to provide their experiences and destinations. Include Henri Nelis - medical imaging, Josh Klazinga - computing, Rochelle Perriero - nursing and Simon Wilke - Hospitality.

Then a performance from recent NASDA graduates with 3 artistes giving excerpts from the play 'last 5 program'. Formed theatre company 'Kindle' as part of
final project on programme. Put together proposal and applied for funding through Ministry of Awesome to produce the musical / play. Wonderful singing :0

After light  lunch, another performance from Jazz school students accompanies slide show showing allied staff at their work stations.

Presentation on 'dynamic learning and environments' with Michael Davies -  via Skype from the USA. Overview of what is possible and future. 'The future is here its just not evenly distributed yet'. Proposed presentation to be forward looking, opinionated and iconoclastic! Smart phones, pervasive connectivity, cloud etc. disrupting many industries. Customers are enpowered - affects work . Proposes effect on transportation and retail with next wave with education and health. Nature of work and learning is changing, we need to keep pace. with smart phone, access to data, information, knowledge etc. so what happens with education? In transportation, example used is uber - peer to peer put to work to meet customised needs. implications for work are less conventional full time routine knowledge work, part- time portfolios careers, more meaning. Continuous innovation provides compelling, user-forsed solutions requiring continuous deployment, collaboration and nimbleness. shift in higher ed with need to raise their capability, meet challenges which will come through student pressure and thinking through how to do what currently offered differently.  therefore, important to obtain means to track (learning analytics) what students do to learn. Made the point that digital mmigrants made the shift! so will continue to keep up. Need to work out HOW digital can contribute to each learning context as 'all on liine' does not work for all. Need to commit to continual change!

Next up, an example from CPIT. Mike Field introduces panel including Steve Tomsett  (flip classroom), Ian Williamson (online assessment)  and Sandy Chamnerlain (online resources). Each presented on their approaches - how, why, pros and cons and WHY NOT. Steve ascribes to a 1% a day rule - to make a change a small step at a time to improve teaching (learning for students). need for similar approach with students, how to help them learn 1% at a time. Ian introduces how he uses online assessment (peerwise) to help students complete their own self-directed learning. Selected peerwise as it put the onus of learning on to students. however, less feedback to tutor on student performance- so use 'confidence' assessments with students. adds the questions to confidence based assessments with can we do more> can we do better? Sandy presented on how she used video to improve learning of painting and decorating. Used Simek's golden circle to emphasis the need of students to have the WHY before omethey learn how. Used video to assist skills learning by providing exemplars and revisiosn questions to check knowledge learning.

Hana O'Regan and Hemi Hoskins presented on pilot run since beginning of the year. An immersion, residential 1 month programme, run at marae over January on Te Reo. Map multiple pathways for individuals at different levels to assist them to meet their learning goals - all in a short compressed time. Started from each individual's needs, developed the learning outcomes and then approach enrolments! So many courses but a programme for 80 students. Provided example of using powhiri to help students, all at different levels, begin with what they had and build on these to move to a higher level of Te Reo. ALso included were students who just wanted to learn powhiri protocols, plan / develop, facilitate etc. So one activity customised to a range of learning outcomes (4 courses, 78 students, one event). Not able to 'plan' but have resources available to support a range of learning.. Balance of responsive but also flexible.

Then a session on technology enhanced learning with Adam Hollingworth, Cathy Peck, Murray Scott and Elizabeth Schmidt.  Adam - provided 4 suggestions - Add not replace - teaching, think of the learners' experience, improve the before and after learning experience and future proof your work.  Elizabeth uses blended learning for bioscience section with midwifery students. What the students DO is important. Cathy presents staff development resource for all staff and students - lynda.com - on trial at CPIT for a year. Murray introduced MOOCs, possibilities and direction. Murray provided his experiences using MOOCs for his own personal development.

Russell Graham uses some Russell aerobics to revive us :)

Kay Gilles - CE - presents staff awards. Rising Star award to - out of 8 nominations -3 award - Sela Feltolu, Amber Johnson and George Tylee. Sustainabiliy award with 7 nominations with the winner as Robyn Ellen from early learning centre. Excellence in management 13 nominees with Cathy Andrew winning this year. CPIT excellence awards in teaching in the first 2 years goes to Maz Black and Jane Parker.  Innovative teaching practice awards go to Lindsey Alton and Silvia Santos. Sustained excellence in teaching goes to Cheryl Stokes, Julia Wu. and Daphne Manderson.

Session to feedback on the day followed.  Various management provide their overviews in short minute sessions.  Drinks session follows to close the day.

Surface RT – working with multiple accounts in education context

Back into the fray with project surface tablet. The 12 projects we started out with last year have morphed into 16 with 2 of last year’s 12 moving on to BYOD or to other types of tablets and several ‘new’ projects.

We have learnt much from experiences last year. Chiefly, capabilities of RT surfaces in the various classroom / workshop environments at CPIT, staff capabilities requiring support and limitations of the RT surface to allow the running of video annotation apps. Here is another blog cataloging experiences in the higher ed. sector.

One of our main challenges has been to work out how to best manage accounts on tablets. Although Surface RTs allow for several user accounts to be set up on each tablet there is still the challenge of ensuring the right students accesses the correct tablet with their account set up on it.

A work around has been to set up a class account for each intake of students. We then coach students to transfer, at the end of each session, all their data on to onedrive or a memory stick. So, classes with small numbers of tablets (up to 8) are set up with individual student accounts. Larger classes or programmes sharing tablets (20 plus) are set up with a generic ‘programme’ account and students download the data when they complete each session.

The RTs have only a limited range of apps and in our bid to move to BYOD in the next year, all our projects do not rely on apps. Instead, the main functions revolve around some use of office 365, the video/camera capabilities and accessing web-based platforms including our Moodle LMS, etextbooks and echo350/socratic. One of the projects is working with computing students to develop an app but this is a long range project as each component of the app is developed and tested.

The main objective of surface tablet is still to upskill students and tutors digital literacy. Once tutors (and students) realise the potentialities of using tablets in classrooms / workshops, our role is to support the introduction and deployment. Before full digital literacy occurs, there is still a need to be 'guide on the side' to ease programmes into introducing technology enhanced learning into programmes. 

CPIT professional development day - new city:new CPIT

Today is CPITs second whole institution professional development day. The occasion opens with a welcome from CE Kay Giles. Joe Bennett returns as a popular MC. The theme for the day and following year is new city: new CPIT. Kay commends on the resilience of staff and the institution and how we need to mine the learning to move CPIT forward into the futures. The earthquakes present a unique opportunity. Following last years PD day a catalyst team was formed and 3 key projects identified to increase collaboration across the institute. A video produced by students at Olds College in Canada on gamification and another Victoria University, Melbourne on work integrated learning used as example of whole institute direction towards future proofing the institute. Two other objectives include sustainability and opportunities for all. A scene from the play by the 'no limits group' is presented as a way to illustrate marginalisation and its effects.

First keynote is with Michael McQueen on decoding the next generation. Aims to provide practical suggestions at the end of the presentation for educators to bring back into their teaching. Summarising some of the concepts from his book. Engagement with Gen Y often thought to be difficult. Important to be authentic, not assume gen Y have no moral compass as they possess post-modern mindset and respect is not bestowed but earned through reciprocal relationships. Gen Ys may be 'unreliable' but their post-modern mindset prepares them well to cope flexibility and innovatively with change. If things don't work out they actively seek a different route and that causes them to be seen as lacking resilience. Gen Y are assumed to be technology savvy and also seen to be high maintenance. Strategies for engaging and equipping Gen Y is to prioritize the relationship, embrace new learning formats using appropriate technology and learning activities (check Donald Tapscott book on 'growing up digital') and use stories to make your point.

A staff activity follows morning tea. We broke up into 56 groups of about 12 in each group to work out the values CPIT should hold on to and work out what behaviours and activities would reflect these values. Group suggestions are to emailed into one repository and collated into informing the values development process of the new CPIT strategic plan.

After lunch, another activity to drive off the post lunch blahs.
Rhythm interactive takes through some collective flow activities with drumming, clapping, chanting and singing.

Second keynote from Peter Townsend CE of the Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce. A video 'new city, new Christchurch' is shown to provide an update of rebuild plans for the city. He opens his presentation with a vision of  Christchurch into 2030. Participatory democracy applied to inform the various innovative and future directions of development. For the city to become a centre of excellence that supports NZ and South Island economic, research, commercial and education goals. Currently, there is population and capital inflow, increase of economic activity due to business resilience and the recovery has only just begun. We need to capitalise on the opportunities and to understand the scale of the work coming and the place of CPIT in contributing. He challenged the institution to strategically plan for the future.

Jenn Bestwick, chair of the CPIT council follows with an overview of the day's activities and updates on the council's direction. CPIT needs to continually work at leading innovation and embracing change for the benefit our students. We have performed well but demands for education and training increasing from industry, schools and students. Going forward requires remaining relevant to our communities and stakeholders and continuing with evolution and innovation to meet diverse needs.
The CPIT staff awards are next. There were 19 nominations for the rising star award which goes to 4 people. Charlotte Griffiths, Hemi Hoskins, Natalie Thomas and Jan Connolly. Certificates also to Nick McQueen, Clare Brokelhurst, Marion Peawini and Manu Fata. 10 nominations for the management awards with the winner Bree Underhill. sustainability awards from 6 nominations to Emma Meijer and the outdoor and sustainability education team. The excellence in teaching award goes to the midwifery team. The practitioner award goes to the teaching team of the 'next step' centre who work with women second chance learners to help them re-enter tertiary education and the workplace. The teaching award from the CE goes to the manufacturing team and then front-line management team.

The day closed with the great waiata challenge for the institute to learn the CPIT waiata.

Technology-enhanced learning strategy launch at CPIT

Yesterday evening, CPIT launched its Technology enhanced learning strategy with a series of presentations and a networking function hosted by the Learning technology steering group.

A vision of the future: launching CPIT's technology enhanced learning strategy was opened by Judith Brown, Director for all our departments .Judith provided links to strategic plan and rationale of the TEL strategy to support a more learner centred approach. Including need to go beyond dissemination to provide interactivity, critical engagement, enhanced feedback and closer contact between students.
Video from TV 3 Campbell live on modern learning environments to summarise the future of kiwi learning. Martin Jenkins, Centre for Educational Development manager,  provided summary of the TEL framework . TEL strategy seeks to combine development of existing technologies with innovation in new technologies.

Mark Nichols, Faculty manager from the Open Polytechnic (OPNZ) provided an engaging keynote.
Mark's topic was on CPIT as a bold eLeap. A challenge to staff to view learning as a designed process with support from disruptive learning technologies. Hw provided an overview of Open Poly practice and the challenges they face as a distance delivery institute. CPIT on the other hand has the advantage of f2f and needs to leverage off this. Mark provided an example of a tablet based competency based course in real estate management. Activities embedded into traditional text based content. Then effectively used 'show of hands' on ownership and use of technology to illustrate how much mobile technologies in particular are now mainstream.
Keynote closed with hints on how to progress with our 'bold eLeap Hints were -- do not give up! get serious about it i.e. design for learning and teaching as science (recommended Laurillard' s book - teaching as design science - as reference) and reiterated " you are the important part of it" - to add value, not to be replaced. Don't be a 'lone ranger'. think of it (the TEL strategy) as a licence to innovate and disrupt those infinitives.

Martin then went through the five goals of the TEL. These are TEL used to enhance student learning experience and success; create rich TEL environments; as part of a culture of collaboration both with in and out of institution; used to transform practice.

Current new initiatives like our academic literacies framework, pilot of learning spaces, equella digital repository, moodle 2.4 upgrade, echo 360 pilot, project tablet (microsoft RT tablets) were linked to the TEL strategy.

Video of examples of use of TEL at CPIT with the work of Steve Tomsett (engineering - flippin g the classroom), Katrina Fisher (barista -multimedia to assist learning of difficult skills) and Phillipa Seaton (nursing - blended learning) then launched.

Judith closed to session and networking with drinks and nibbles served at Visions.

Apps for learning at CPIT

Sam Hegarty our ‘star’ learning technology advisor and the library liaison team represented by Brian McElwaine and Meg Upjohn have been running a series of workshops at CPIT. One of the lunch time workshops centres around the use of apps for technology enhanced learning and the library’s session focused on using apps to find resources. All the sessions have been well attended.

Apps we introduce are mostly IOS but we have also started a list of apps that will run across all the various tablet platforms – IOS, Android and Windows 8. With BYOD, it is important we make things easy for tutors to use apps for learnable moments.

The main objective is to ensure that learning outcomes come up first and foremost in planning lesson sessions. With the maturity of iOS and tablet infiltration into classrooms across the education sector, a slew of blogs and sites recommend a large list of apps.Some with focuses on specific areas in educations like project-based learning, a list compiled through crowd sourcing, and higher education. There is also a good site that sorts apps into various categories like grade levels and learning purpose. 

As a way to filter through all the information a taxonomywheel (with iOS apps as examples) provides food for thought and a foundation for discussion during the session.

The apps presented include - in addition to ones noted previously include:

- Haiku deck – an alternative to keynote

- Coach’s eye (just over NZ$8.00) – annotation of videos

- Explain everything – similar to educreations but with a more mature user community spanning the school and higher education sectors.

Ones I have been playing with in the last few months include:

- Inspiration lite – mind mapping.

- Comic life (just over NZ$8.00)- used in our original mlearning / mportfolio projects using phones. This niffy app turns photos into cartoon strips. Insertion of speech bubbles etc. is intuitive and fun.

The library is moving into the use of QR codes. So introduced scan life for reading QR codes. The codes can be generated using Kaywa. Codes provide direct access to ebooks, emails to ask for more information or make suggestions and ease of access to websites with long urls.

The two readers recommended are Bluefire which is compatible with the ebook collections at CPIT library and overdrive for access to theChristchuch library’s extensive ebook collection. Both require membership accounts at each of the libraries to be able to access the e resources.

Cpit staff PD day - going forward together

All staff convene for a one day professional development event at the Wigram event centre. The day opens with a mihi and karakia from Hana O'Regan. Joe Bennett MCs the occasion and begins with a warm up keynote. Then Stephen Collins representing the CPIT council provided a short welcome and acknowledgement of CPIT's staff commitment over the course of the last few years. CE Kay Giles then provided overview of CPIT's efforts over the last few days and the need to go forward together. Reiterated need to move from teacher and content focus to student and learning focus. Individual learning plans, student led through virtual and asynchronous flexible delivery.

To set the scene, a keynote for Dominic Thurbon from chief creative officer from change labs. In times of change, we must identify and challenge our assumptions. Put forward 3 assumptions to challenge and provided examples / case studies (mainly from U S of A) of how those challenges were met. Assumptions included: what if knowledge was not valued? What is sitting down killed education? What if students took responsibility for their own outcomes?
Then a call for all to contribute to innovation through individual transformation and action.

All staff were then organised into groups to discuss how to best go forward. Each group convener then had to collate items discussed and put up on Yammer. Dom and Kay provided short summary of their group walk about while staff groups were discussing.

After lunch, video presentation from Mark Solomon. Call to raise the aspirations and qualifications of Maori and Pacifica. By 2050, over 50% of the NZ population will be Maori, Pacifica or Asian. Responsibility rests with our generation to play a part. Used the earthquakes as an example of how the community can pull together and the importance of keeping the sense of community.

The Loons contributed to the next session, with a series of displays (juggling and hoops) and practice and build up to a mass group activity session. The activity featured an action song - the 'hi ho hi ho, its off to work we go' song from the cartoon Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - and  a passing the parcel sequence. The scaffolding towards the final massed performance will be an interesting 'case study' for reflection in our teacher education courses :)

CPIT excellence awards were then presented by John Mote, CPIT Council member. Excellence in teaching practitioner awards were presented to Tracey Coulhart, Linda Mcketrick, Andrew Massie and John Morgan. Awards for emerging excellence in management award to Jann Lay and Michael Edmonds. Rising star awards for administrative staff went to Sam Hegarty and Mandy Jones. Sustainability awards to Heather Teage, the payroll team and the international admissions team. Excellence in management award went to Karen Te Puke.

Kay provided the summation presentation, thanking the Council and planning committee. In all, a good opportunity for bringing together the whole of CPIT and a bit of a reward for the many trials and tribulations over the last two plus years courtesy of the Christchurch earthquakes. The event reiterates that the institute as a whole is in good heart. All staff are keen to make a contribution, so it is important to provide conduits for crowd sourcing and to support innovative ideas that will make a difference. As Kay put it, we are a small institution but have been put into a unique position to contribute to the major NZ history making role of rebuilding our city. Therefore, Going Forward Together, is a apt slogan. CPIT's major challenge now is to continue on the work begun on Friday, to collate the many good ideas put forward by staff, to prioritise and action the ones that will make a difference to students (and staff) and to maintain momentum of continual improvement in trying times.

CPIT lunch time PD session: Mobile learning apps

The CPIT Centre for Educational Development (CED) and the Learning Technologies Unit (LTU) has been running a series of professional development sessions this term. Today’s lunch time session was on mobile apps. Almost 30 tutorial and learning support staff attended. Katrina Fisher provided some examples of the work she has been doing following completion of the Ako Aotearoa net tablets project. Included is the work on developing video content supported by quizzes and glossaries that students access via Moodle. Shifting content from tablet to Moodle opens access to web enabled hardware.

Sam Hegarty then provided a show and tell of several useful iOS apps.He started with evernote as a good option to upload content on to the cloud and access through a range of devices and operating systems.

Nearpod was met with great enthusiasm. This app allows a teacher to share the image on their screen with other iOS devices. The app includes options for quizzes, sketching, polls and picture/website/video sharing. Something we will need to test with a large number of tablets through a CPIT wifi site. The app seemed to run in a timely manner during the demo when there were about a dozen devices accessing the site.

Socrative was recommended by one of the staff as a multi-platform alternative although it did not have quite all the options that were available on Nearpod. Its main objective is to be a ‘student or audience response’ system.

Educreations allows a recording of a lesson in the form of whiteboard notes and audio. Photos can be attached and annotated. Basically a screen capture plus voice recording of a short interactive ‘learning presentation’. 

By a nice coincidence, Derek Wenmouth’s blog today was on Bring your own device (BYOD). This was one barrier raised by staff – the expense of obtaining tablets and the lack of support for non-windows OS devices at present. Therefore, an important next step is to establish institutional BYOD policy that is visible to staff and students, providing clear guidelines on what is institutionally supported.

Sums and sentences - Adrian Blunt and the restaurant, wine and bar team

Yesterday, managed to get to two sessions of the CPIT literacy / numeracy month sessions.

First up, question and answer in the classroom - measurement calculations with Adrian Blunt, maths teacher.

Adrian introduced the use of mini white boards in conjunction with measurement and estimation. answers students put on to the mini white boards, reveal much to the tutor as every student needs to provide an answer. Students who are struggling, have misconceptions or who are reluctant to answer need to provide input. Generally, better to have two students to maximise peer learning effects.

When asking students to estimate measurements, provide benchmarks. For example a litre of milk or a kilo of sugar. Encouraging students to verbalize concepts means they have to either rationalise or challenge their original understanding or to adopt new ideas that have been discussed.

In the evening, the some of the award winning Restaurant, Wine and Bar team present on embedding literacy and numeracy as a team: how we work together mapping the demands. The team worked togehter to map the rwbs programme literacy demands so that everyone understood what was required of students by the programme.

Katy Fortescue in wine studies starts with what students already know and then provides opportunities to decode contextualised literacy - e.g. NZ and international wine labels, language used by wine reviewers to move on to wine technical specifications. Then, make connections to text using practical wine tasting sessions.

In restaurant studies, Francie Oberg-Nordt presents on applied learning strategies to help students identify learning styles and identity strategies students can use to assist with their own learning. tutors try to match teaching with identified learning styles, what they know and what works best for them.
eventually students critique their original learning styles orientation and also apply what they learnt via students participating in small teaching sessions amongst their peers.
in reading texts for practical purposes, contextualised readings are used to build literacy skills in predicting, scanning, skimming, IDkey works, identify tenses, increase / widen vocabulary, identifies prior knowledge and reading / writing issues. Reading activities include programme handboook, menus and recipes and Zest article on Rotherham's restaurant.

Katrina Fisher provided example of resources on Moodle to help students learn how to steam milk for coffee. A good example of using multimedia / multi-literacies to revise, affirm text literacies.

Returning to CPIT city campus

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

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

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

Earthquake effects and use of technology to keep up to date with aftershocks

Finally back at work, after a week. The impacts of the Canterbury earthquake, 7.1 richter scale, early on 4/9 will still be felt many months into the future. All well, as my home on the North West of the city, is build on relatively stable and solid river gravel. The house had an almighty shake but came through without any damage. I, along with most Christchurch residents will be forever grateful for the foresight of city engineers who set up earthquake proofing legislation just after the Napier Earthquake of 1931.


CPIT, which is situated in the city, came through relatively unscathed. Just a few broken windows. Even the shelves in our library stayed up, when compared to the ones in the University of Canterbury library. The CPIT library shelves were braced top and bottom, there were books on the floor but no toppled shelves.

I got in to work early on Wednesday and experienced the 5.1 after shock just before 8 am as I just finished clearing my emails. Headed under my desk as it was a very hard shake but apart from some white stuff falling from the ceiling, everything kept together. CPIT was closed soon after and I wended my way home on my bike, taking the opportunity to have a look around the areas of the city not condoned off. Many older brick buildings have collapsed and there was rubble strewn through some streets.

Back at work on Friday, where there were a few, relatively smaller aftershocks. CPIT staff who were at work were briefed on plans for the coming week when students would return to class, including a thorough briefing on what to do in the event of a large aftershock.

The week away from work provided me with time to complete final edit of my theses (yeah). Also catch up on reading for the ‘perspectives of first year apprentices project’ and draft the report / guidelines for the ‘multimodal study of apprentice learning’ project. So all, in a good opportunity to have some ‘contemplation’ time and to catch up on things which never get done on my to do list. In particular, to review my research journals to work out anything I might have missed, forgot to do or need to still catch up on.

After the 4/9 event, we had no power for almost 8 hours. I had to resort to using our one and only transistor radio which did not have very good reception, and our neighbours’ reports, to keep up with what was happening in the city. Once the power was up, the internet and TV provided good information. There was a flurry of emails and telephone calls from overseas, concerned at the damage my relatives / friends had seen on the news. It has become a very small world indeed. An article in the local papers reports on how everyone is now a journalist as facebook, twitter and bloggers provide updated news on aftershocks, damage and other events. We have been checking the GNS Geonet site after each aftershock to guage intensity. Generally, I feel most above 4 at home but the need to be at least 4.5 to be felt at work.

Aftershocks have now decreased in intensity and frequency, so hopefully, things have settled down. The experience sure reminds you what the important things in life are, family, friends, neighbours and pets, all living, breathing, cuddly entities.