Modern Professional Learners' Toolkit

I have followed Jane Hart's blog for many years. Her Top 100 Tools has been my go to and recommend to others site for a comprehensive list of elearning tools.

Of late, Jane's focus has been on 'learning in the modern workplace' with the book - ' learning in the modern workplace 2017' summarising much of her frameworks and approaches.

This year, a series of articles on the modern workplace learning magazine provide for contributions from other consultants in the field.

So far, articles include:

4 articles by Jane with relevance for me in these two - 'why organisations need to empower employee-led learning'; and 'the modern professional learners' toolkit'.

The former has a good diagram on how individual workplace learner's personal learning space may be constructed.

Two other articles of relevance are by Clark Quinn on experimentation and reflection and by Harold Jarche on mastery takes time and effort.

So, a site with worthwhile resources to follow into the future.

Ako Aoteoroa Professional Development facilitators day - Friday 27th Jan

The facilitators' 'Day' began with the evening before with a meet and greet session, dinner and after dinner session with Dr. Marc Wilson from Victoria who presented on "passion and excellence in teaching".

On Friday, the day officially opened by Dr. Joe Rito, Deputy Director Maori with welcome from Helen Lomax Deputy Director - sector services - who also set up the scene for the day. 

There is a quick round for participants to set up their workshop goals.

Dr. Stanley Frielick, Director, set the scene with update on where the P D portfolio is likely to move and develop towards. Referred to 1999 article in Higher Education whereby the author takes on the persona of Machiavelli to 'speak' to higher ed. leaders and managers. Shared his own journey as an educator to discuss how the concept of Ako contributes to the NZ context. Is 'just being good enough' sufficient and a goal to try to get to the entire sector? What is the contribution of requiring all of sector to be 'registered' with proviso for the completion of a qualification? Can professional development form a 'badging' component? And the who develops the professional developers? Should there be better contextualisation of PD to meet the needs of the diversity of the sector, discipline specific pedagogical approaches and diversity of learners? What other modalities can be useful beyond F2F to engage with PD participants? Especially the components unique to NZ including biculturalism and Pacifica. 

Session to unpack 'my teaching method'. An opportunity to share and learn from others. Main themes were using appropriate activities (active learning), application to practice, synchronous feedback through twitter tags or answergarden which creates wordle in real time . Groups reported back on similarities, active learning increases engagement leading to better possibility of participants adopt new practice, a 'product' to work on to bring back into future teaching practice, flexible learning to meet participant needs, astute observations - safe learning spaces, learning is universal across levels and disciplines, post workshop followup required to continue the beginnings of a community of practice formed during the PD session. 

Guest speaker Derek Wenmoth from CORE eduction provided insights on PD and strategies that work with educators. Summarised the CORE approach as developed through experiences from working with the compulsory schools sector. Discussed contemporary professional learning demands and how CORE meets these. Importance of ROI, return on investment. Principles include opportunities for pragmatic in-depth learning, sustained over time, contextual, linked to practice, grounded in theory and research and connected to others as part of a network of others working towards similar goals. Advocated using the concerns based adoption model (CBAM) from awareness (what is it), information (how does it work), personal ( how does it impact on me and what is my plan to do it), management (how can I master the skills and fit it all in), consequences ( is it worth doing), collaboration (how do Others do it) and refocusing. Presented on how CBAM applied at CORE across f2f, online and blended (all courses and used the most). Used the course - modern learning curriculum- as an example. A 20 week course build around a cohort with challenge based focus, content is support to activities, assessments are transparent and there is opportunity to link to qualifications. Encourage students to co-construct content through the course. Rubrics for assessment are available from the beginning so learners know what to work towards. 

Then a forum on growing sector capability: barriers and enablers. 3 groups shared discussion on how to move PLD forward in the NZ tertiary context. Themes included continuing mentoring and coaching - how to support, blended learning challenges, issues of transition from school to tertiary, are we ready for the different learner profiles and expectations, engaging with reluctant learners on directed PDL, using competency learning in a workshop context to frame, how to support participants after the return from workshops, PLD options across personalised learning journey, surveying to find out what is required.

After lunch, two sessions to discuss themes arising from the morning's presentations and discussions. In first session, a master chef show format used for creation of course to be innovative, have impact, be blended learning, embed literacy and numeracy, with Kaupapa Maori approach. Second session to collate tips to add to how to improve facilitation in workshops. Each facilitator providing one tip used before, during or after session.  

Closed with Stanley providing reflections for the day and Joe with poroporoaki. 

NZ COOL - elearning from home for school kids - impact on tertiary education in NZ

A flurry of activity in the NZ blogsphere and slight reactions in the news media from NZ Minister of Education's recent announcement. Minister Hekia Parata advocated for schools to keep up with 21st century learning and the use of technology to allow students to complete schooling from home called COOL - community of online learning.

NZ has a history of distance education at the school level due to it's small population and geographical spread. The NZ correspondence school - te aho o te kura pounamu has a history going back almost a century of providing distance education to students living in remote country farms.

Generally positive reaction was provided by Derek Wenmouth from CORE ED and Dr. Steve Maharey, vice chancellor at Massey University. Both cautioned for the need to be circumspect. COOL should not just be about shifting to a different mode of learning. 21st century learning is to ensure students gain knowledge and skills to allow them to participate and contribute to the society they live in.

Critiques abound, with opinion pieces from education journalist, overviews from opposition parties and a summary from the Science education sector. Overall, good to see actual discussion on the topic.

In tertiary and vocational education, elearning has been percolating for two decades. There are some excellent examples of good practice in the NZ ITP (polytechnics or community colleges / further education) sector, but they are small when the scale of things is considered. The MAIN observation from my point of view, as an observer over the last 20 years and a contributor to the cause, is the following. NOT all vocational / applied learning is suitable for conversion to on-line learning. To work well, both students and teachers require digital literacy / fluency and learning to learn skills before on-line learning is embarked on. Careful selection of the types of learning that will work well for on-line learning is a key. Then, its a matter of 'listen to the learners', building confidence and capability with teachers and continual monitoring and support. Only then, will outcomes from on-line learning match the ones we currently meet with f2f delivery.