NTLT day 3

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

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

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

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

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

Ntlt conference day 2

Ntlt day 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ntlt day 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

eBoards, interactive boards, touch boards, Lenovo tablet running Windows *

Several touch boards at the TICT conference to have hands-on try out. Most are upright, with one on a trolley that allows the height of the board to be adjusted and one configurated as a table top model. 

Boards include Clever touch, and Activ board from ActiveBoard NZ and Mobi-view from Sitech Systems.

Clevertouch from Sahara, The 62” is supposed to be cost competitive and available to run with Windows 7 or 8 multi-touch, Mac drivers are available.  ActivBoards are a Promethean product.

The Sitech hardware are based around the Sharp touchboards.

All the boards are responsive with clear displays. All had safety glass or gorilla glass tops to hopefully allow them to survive classroom use. Advantages of touch board are that there is no need to set up a projector. Essentially, a touch board can is a very large flat-screen TV with touch controls that will run straight off a PC or tablet (attached via HDMI). A glorified extension to a touch enabled device.

Presently costs still high with a 60 plus inch display mounted on adjustable trolley for around $10,000 with the high end products hitting the $20,000 mark.

The tutors who tried the boards out were suitably all impressed. However, I am still awaiting information on how each of the touch board platforms will allow for students to share their work via multiple devices like tablets, smart phones, net books etc. Otherwise, the touch boards become another teaching-led piece of hardware, promoting teacher show and tell rather than active learning through discussion of student generated content.

Also had a chance to have a play with a Lenovo tablet running a pre-launch version of Windows 8. A nice tablet, based around ideapad design. It was small, thin and light with a rubberised bottom and the Windows interface responded well to usual touch gestures.

30th Tertiary ICT NZ (TICT) conference

The annual tertiary ICT conference is being held at CPIT this year. So a great opportunity to try out some of the hardware displayed by vendors and to attend a few of the relevant keynotes. Most of the presentations are pitched at ICT managers of ITPs in NZ so I am not officially registered. Our CPIT IT division has organised for interested staff to attend relevant sessions. Too good an opportunity to miss!

So I have gathered information on smart boards (post to come tomorrow once I have visited all the stands) and also a couple of keynotes.

First keynote from Davin Juusola from infotech. Davin presents on emerging technologies enabling sea change: how IT meets change. A mixture of many technologies now coming together, leading to an opportunity to reassess IT in organisations. likened to changes in the 1970 s and 1980 s from centralized IT systems to personal computers. Mobility driving social media, as accessed and stored on the cloud, leading to big data (growth, assortment and speed - GAS) and need for security are reasons for change within how organisations manage IT. Companies value IT differently, having to change to greater need to manage vendors through to mining business analytic to inform infrastructure and applications. Need for businesses to manage to cross over the innovation chasm. Ability to get ahead of the curve pays dividends.
Personal unmanaged devices (PUDs) creates a challenge and currently forecasted to have 99% of staff in corporations using one. Davin encourages to keep up with play and plan how to work with not against PUDs. Social media now supersedes google searches, need for organisations to install social media monitoring platform (radian, synchase) to understand how social media is being used. In house collaboration software needs to be maximized. Maybe leverage crowd sourcing for problem solving, testing and support, design, marketing and general work tasks. IT in organisations should be an enabler of cloud-based services. Need to secure against mobile malware especially via Android. A risk with PUDs is theft of intellectually property and need to extend network perimeter of security.

Then second keynote with Evan Blackman ( business development manager for window apps based at microsoft Auckland) from Microsoft on microsoft's vision for 21 st century learning: windows reimagined. Windows 8 is app centered. Requiring slight change in how we relate to windows. Windows 8 increases user focus on task minimizing the detractors on current platforms. Provided a preview do windows 8 on a tablet. Bringing up app allows it to be pushed down, out of sight but still available to pull back up when required. Typology uses a clean non serif font and rule of thirds, golden ratio placing content into a grid system. Introduced some of the new apps that will become available through video including many apps now standard on IOS or android. Has an authentically digital framework, not transferring familiar metaphors.

Development of professional expertise – book summary

Title of the book is ‘Development of professional expertise: Toward measurement of expert performance and design of optimal learning environments’ (2009) - Cambridge University Press, and it has 21 chapters organised into 4 sections. With a summary/discussion chapter at the end of each section. The book is edited by K. Anders Ericsson, who has completed a body of work on expert performance and deliberate practice using research methods centred around protocol analysis and verbal reports on thinking.

The Kindle version costs US$18.70 which is a real bargain compared to the hardback version at $109! Have ordered the hardcopy for the library. As yet, there is no preview available in google books. Book review / summary also simplified as I could read on Ipad, take notes on PC and save on blogger. The summary was completed across a series of months, from initial reading while travelling in July. The bookmarking and highlighting function on the Kindle app comes into good use to mark initial points of interest and themes. At work, it was a matter of following up on the bookmarks and notes to complete the summaries of each chapter. 

The book has a focus on studying measurable situated expertise and the unravelling of factors that promote the acquisition, maintenance and on-going development of expertise. The myth that expertise is a result of accumulated experience is debunked. Instead, the need for conscientious deliberate practice is required for both novices and recognized experts to attain, maintain and continually hone skills is required.

      1) A brief history of the study of expertise is provided in chapter one. The chapter also provides background to the rationale, origins (a conference on expertise) and structure / approaches of the book.  The book as a whole, has a focus on measurable performance of expertise in a range of real world work (many within a military training / leadership context) and learning activities with the aim of understanding better, how individuals and teams acquire and develop superior performance. Brief summaries of each of the chapters is also provided.

Section 1 – historical overview covering challenges in the past and contemporary efforts.

2)   20^th century revolution in military training (R. E. Chapman).

This interesting chapter, describes the evolution of training within the United States military. In particular, the move in the 1970s towards using forms of experiential /active learning supported with feedback structures, to improve outcomes of military training. Of interest is the description of the navy’s ‘top gun’ programme for combat pilots, which improved the odds of survival of fighter pilots. The norm of two planes shot down to one enemy plane shot down, improved in the navy’s favour to 12.5 planes for each enemy plan shot down, after the ‘top gun’ programme became the training approach. Top gun training involved pilots training in a simulated environment against ‘enemy planes’ that flew like and used enemy strategies.  A ‘after-action review was then used to evaluate each pilot’s performance, confronting pilots with their errors and forcing them to reflect on their performance.

The ‘top gun’ training programme was then adapted to infantry training and has been adapted over the years. Findings from the many cohorts trained through this programme include that there is a levelling off of the learning curve after initial rapid improvement.  Learning curves can be cumulative. Part task initial learning is followed by simplified whole-task training. Then realistic whole task training is undertaken before actual mission training is undertaken.  Skills also atrophy if they are not being used within 2 – 3 months of training programme.

 3) Developing professional expertise with a cognitive apprenticeship (S. P. Lajoie)

Has a good overview of the cognitive apprenticeship model as it applies to avionics troubleshooting and medical diagnosis. Describes the use of Sherlock – a task- or job specific computer assisted training programme / intelligent tutoring system to help avionics technicians work through troubleshooting airplane component faults. Following on, the concepts used have been developed further to assist medical students and doctors to learn or revise medical diagnostics.

4) Leaderships development and assessment: describing and rethinking the state of the art (M.D., Mumford, T.L. Friedrich, J.J. Caughron and A.L. Antes)

Presents a model of leader cognition as an alternative to mainly business / corporate approaches to understanding leadership.  In particular, that leadership skills are difficult to pin down, highly contextualised and leadership training does not guarantee performance at time of stress / greatest need (as when things ‘turn to custard’ on the battlefield).

      5)  Revolutions, leaders and diagnosticians: reflections on themes in chapters 2-4 (E.B. Hunt)

Not just a summary but a readable critique of the preceding three chapters.  Some historical overview also provided to help situate each chapter into time/place so that findings are taken with caution.

Section 2 – continues with past and contemporary efforts to design instruction, train and maintain professional performance has 4 chapters.

      6) Research on past and current training in professional domains: the emerging need for a paradigm shift (J.J.G. VanMerrienboer and E.W. Boot). The chapter summarises the challenges presented in present day training of professionals and discusses the role of instructional systems design (ISD) in conjunction with technology enhanced learning environments (TELEs) and presents implications for future practice.  The context is training in the military. Provides a good overview of ISD including social constructivist and whole-task design models and how these no longer cope with the challenges of present day military training demands. Also overviews of TELEs including computer-based training, intelligent tutoring systems, dynamic visual presentations and animations, hypertext and hypermedia, and computer simulations and virtual reality. Argues for the need to abandon atomistic ISD and optimise TELEs towards whole-task approaches.

 7) Designing training for professionals based on subject matter experts and cognitive task analysis (J.M. Schraagen). This chapter provides a good overview of the actual task analysis process as applied in instructional design (ID).  Provides discussion on both the advantages and disadvantages of task analysis approaches. Offers the cognitive task analysis approach, using subject matter experts as a foundation and provides a thorough explanation via case study of how to bring about a change and convert from original ID programme to cognitive task analysis. The example uses training in structured troubleshooting in the training of weapons engineers in the Royal Netherlands Navy.

      8) How to help professional maintain and improve their knowledge and skills: triangulating best practises in medicine (D.A. Davis). This chapter is based on a study of medical practitioners need to maintain currency in practice. In the past, the main models have been the update, competence and performance models. The Currency of Credit currently used is critiqued. A new model based on professional self-assessment, competency assessment and performance assessment is proposed.

 9) Advances in specifying what is to be learned: reflections on themes in chapters 6-8 (R.E. Mayer) – A couple of good tables in this chapter (9.1 and 9.2) summarise approaches to specifying what is to be learnt and kinds of knowledge. Need to assist specification of compartmentalised behaviours, compartmentalised knowledge, integrated knowledge, individualised knowledge to determine what the learner needs to know and then determine what the learner already knows and how to teach (what the learner does not yet know).

Section 3 has 5 chapters covering assessment and training of skilled and expert performers in the military

      10) Toward a second training revolution: promise and pitfalls of digital experiential training (R.E. Chatham). A long but useful chapter.  The chapter is a continuation from Chapter 2, adding in the TELE type approaches now used by the US of A military to cope with the challenges of training personnel for modern warfare. As Chatham writes, “everything short of war is similuation” . The chapter provides many examples of using TEL including simulations and games. The advantages and disadvantages of simulations and games are discussed and examples provided. Development of simulations and games is not cheap, so it is important to ensure the $$ lead to learning outcomes, in this case, life and death outcomes for military personnel. Future work on ‘distributed experiential training’ is proposed to end the chapter.

11) Evaluating pilot performance (B.T. Schreiber,W. Bennett, Jr., C.M. Colegrove, A.M. Portrey, D.A. Greschke and H.H. Bell). Here, there is an interesting historical overview of flight simulators. Learning to fly, under combat conditions, provides a good example of the holistic task analysis approach now used to ensure training is situated, experiential and authentic. Of note is that even though flight simulators are able to gather a range of assessment information from learner pilots, there is still a need for an experienced instructor pilot to complete the final instructional evaluation and make the final decision on competence / capability.

 12) Contrasting submarine specialty training: sonar and fire control (S.S. Kirshenbaum, S.L. McInnis, K.P. Correll). Two specialities requiring different forms of skill are studied to determine the efficacy of changes to the training approaches. The descriptions of the specialist skills in each occupation provides examples of detailed task analysis. The chapter details the application of the Kirkpatrick levels of assessment framework, using four levels to assess students’ skill acquisition – reaction, learning, behaviour, results.

      13) Training complex cognitive skills: a theme based approach to the development of battlefield skills (S.B. Shadrick and J.W. Lussier). An interesting chapter on the importance of ensuring soldiers are taught to think is as important as teaching them how to fight.  There is good overview and discussion on the various approaches to teaching people how to be more adaptable, flexible and versatile – the need to attain adaptive performance and adaptive thinking. Example is used of how the Soviets used to train chess players, not only to learn the mechanics of chess but to be able learn the thinking  strategies to ‘think like a grandmaster’. Interesting table 13.1 on the themes of battlefield thinking adaptable to other contexts. Also good summary of principles of deliberate practice in table 13.2. Uses the think like a commander (TLAC) TEL simulation as an example.

      14) Structuring the conditions of training to achieve elite training programs and related themes – chapters 10-13 (R.A. Bjork). This chapter unpacks the many concepts and ideas in the chapters in section 3 and reports on commonalities of the approaches. Summaries of each chapter also included.

Section 4 focuses on development of expertise and expert conference with 7 chapters.

15)  The influence of learning research on design and use of assessment (E.L. Baker).  As the title implies, this chapter covers the implications of learning design on assessment . The chapter begins with recognising that assessments will never be able to capture the inherent complexity of learning. There is also a brief overview of the history of testing including various models of learning  that inform the process of testing – table 15.4. A model based assessment of learning to encompass content understanding, problem solving, metacognition, communication and teamwork / collaboration is proposed through learning design techniques like knowledge maps and ontologies. All in a good overview of assessment.

 16) Acquiring conceptual expertise through modelling: the case of elementary physics (K.Vanlehn and B. Van De Sande). Uses physics as the context for understanding how concepts are learnt and how novices might attain misconceptions. The model assumes that conceptual expertise includes mastery of descriptive based knowledge, applying the knowledge to known conditions and confluences (equations learnt through superficial understanding followed by constructing a semantic version of the equation and eventually understanding through producing a qualitative version.

17) Teaching for expertise: problem-based methods in medicine and other professional domains (H.P.A. Boshuizen). An important chapter bringing the application of some of the ideas through the book, towards ideas of how to better teach so that students are able to learn.  Advocates for the need of horizontal and vertical integration of knowledge required to attain occupational skills and how problem based learning (PBL) may be one approach. Uses examples to explain the advantages of PBL

18)  Enhancing the development of professional performance: implications from the study of deliberate practice (K.A. Ericsson). This chapter provides a thorough overview of the studies from which the deliberate practice (DP) model was derived. There is a good summary of the rationale for the development of DP.  Application of DP to professional training and practice is also covered. Superior performance requires the learning and integration of a range of skills, knowledge and attributes. DP involves the selection of actions, the monitoring of learning as the activity is practiced and control of how the ongoing learning is progressing. All of these lead to incremental improvements in performance.

19) It takes expertise to make expertise: some thoughts about why and how – reflections on the themes chapter 15-18. (J.D.Bransford and D.L. Schwartz). The four chapters on expertise are summarised, critiqued and discussed including the both the learning and the teaching of expert performance.

20) The value of expertise and expert performance: a review of evidence from the military (J.D. Fletcher). In this chapter, the various themes throughout the book are contextualised overtly to the military learning and training context. Themes include self-assessment and self-directed learning; deliberate practice to develop expertise; agility in expertise and professional performance; assessment of professional growth towards attaining expertise; the centrality of cognition in expertise; and the importance of designing learning environments to promote expertise.  Will have a go in another blog to see how similar concept can be applied to vocational education setting.

 21)  Expertise in the management of people: a new frontier for research on expert performance (S.E.F. Chapman). This chapter explores the use of case-based instruction.  Also proposes research agenda for the future.

     Overall, a book that bring together the theoretical frameworks of expertise and reports on application of various studies to range of occupations. The situated and contextual nature of learning is affirmed as is the need for novices to have guided, structured learning experiences to attain expertise in occupations requiring the deployment of a complex range of skills. Well worth the time to work through all the chapters as each brings applicable recommendations towards the improvement of vocational education curriculum development (through ID processes), structuring learning activities to maximise learning and alignment of authentic assessment activities to what is expected in real-world practice.

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.

Google Scholar - alert, updates and my citations

I have been an avid user of Google Scholar. It is a good way to scope a topic before doing a more focused search for articles via out library database (proquest).  The advantage of Google is that it brings up books, journal articles and reports, so providing a quick way to find out who the fields’ most prolific researchers, which often equates to most cited articles / authors.

There is a video on youtube on using scholar,  providing a general introduction with some good tips on searching more efficiently.

One way to keep up with the ever increasing number of journal articles is to use scholar alert via your gmail account. Every couple of days, a list of about 6 – 10 articles and reports, arrives in my gmail inbox, relevant to the topics of workplace learning apprentic* and occupational identity. So far, a few interesting articles have arrived each week for further investigation.

Scholar alerts is now supplemented by scholar updates. Updates brings up articles that match your latest searches, alerts and the articles archived in scholar citations. So far, the articles updates have thrown up have been useful with about half a dozen articles arriving a week and at least one or two being relevant / useful.
I have now also set up my own citations page. I entered a few articles manually and after a couple of weeks, a few have now generated citations, which is all quite a worthwhile ego trip. Most of my article citations have come from work on mobile learning, but a few on apprenticeship learning now also creeping in. Plus you can also set up a scholar alert to new citations, adding excited anticipation everytime you check out your citations :)  All in, a good resource for researchers.

Sums and sentences - learning practical maths

Yesterday evening, attended the session on practical maths for hospitality presented by Cheryl Stokes (bar skills tutor) and Neil McInnes (chef tutor). The sessions focused on strategies used by food and hospitality tutors to embed numeracy in practical work based teaching sessions.

In cookery maths concepts include weight, volume, length, fractions, cost/ price, addition and subtraction. In
cocktail making cost/ price, ratios, volume, fractions, addition and subtraction are required.

Previously maths was mostly simulated learning in theory sessions and there was a separation of theory and practical. For students maths anxiety was high.

In cooking,  maths sessions now completed in 3 hour practical classroom. Students are in chefs uniforms using normal kitchen equipment and real ingredients to work through maths concepts which are integrated into practical session workbooks. Icons or a logo (calculator by ingredients) identify the maths sections in handouts and workbooks and signal calculations are required. Activities include using real life examples like how to share customers tips between staff  - requiring the accurate calculation of percentages.

In cocktail making, there is the need to follow a base formula, add ingredients together and create a visual pie chart of the ratios of each component in the cocktail. Cocktail equation of spirit base plus modifier liqueur plus accents in the form of fruits, herbs food ingredients. Constructivist learning experience as students learn by trying, obtaining feedback, correcting mistakes.

Overall, good examples of how 'mundane maths' is used to provide examples of maths strategies for students and the move towards making greater use of situated learning to embed numeracy into pre-trade trainining.

sums and sentences - "I've read it but I don't get it"

Managed to get to the 'sums and sentences' session lunchtim on Friday. A presentation and participative workshop with Kirsten Riley, adult literacy tutor & advisor and Bruce Morrison, communications tutor and literacy advisor.  Their session summarised some of the strategies useful to help students come to grips with course readings.  Reading is made up of 50% decoding and 50% comprehension.

Learning activities and exercises important Before, during and After reading to work on comprehension. Issues students have with decoding require specialists assistance, so it is important to work out with students, where the difficult lies with reading. A range of activities are available on the NZ literacy/numeracy site and we worked through a few examples during the session.

September sums and sentences - cpit embedding literacy / numeracy month

Attended then first in a series of presentations for CPIT embedding literacy and numeracy on Thursday. The series runs across the month of September with about two or three lunch time of ealy evning sessions offering various glimpses of CPIT teaching practice through tutors work with mainly foundation and trades learners. I will report on sessions I manage to get to over the course of the month.

Lynette Winter presents the first session on how to make better use of the Assessment tool reports, using numeracy as examples. The Assessment tool results  should be a formative assessment tool although the Ministry of Education / Tertiary Education Commission also uses the results  to quantify outcomes by comparing before and after programme participation/completion literacy/numeracy progression levels.

The progression levels are now more simple to understand. Providing information on what learners know or are able to complete at different progression levels and these assist with better interpretation of learner reports. The profiles on Numeracy capability profiles web sites assist with judgement of levels so that tutors are able to ensure there is a better match between the specialist skills learners need to attain and how much scafolding is required

 Using the appropriate tools and information, it is important for tutors to understand how to use the data by reading the data as it is presented in the assessment tool reports and also reading between and beyond the data for each class group and each individual student.

For instance, what does being at a certain step in the progression tell us about the learner 's ability?
The compare group profile to the demands of the course and assess learning needs of the group.
Tutors then need to widen and deepen understanding by not just teaching to meet us outcomes but ensure students have enough understanding to apply these to other contexts.

The meaning of body – book by Mark Johnson

While away last week facilitating workshops for vocational educators in the North Island, I managed to complete close reading of Professor Mark Johnson's book -

Johnson, M. (2007). The meaning of body: Aesthetics of human understanding. Chicago, Ill; London, UK: University of Chicago Press.

This book argues for the recognition of a more diverse perspective on how humans make meaning. The book wends through key philosophical questions like: what is meaning? Where does it come from? How do individuals, groups and societies make meaning? In particular, the focus is on the bodily sources of meaning making and contributions of forms of embodiment to how imagination and reasoning take place.

The book has 12 chapters organised into 3 sections with a preface introducing the precepts and rationale for the book’s argument. There is also an introductory chapter called ‘meaning is more than words and deeper than concepts’ which is very apt.

The introductory chapter argues that the historical (and westernised) philosophical of the divide between mind and body as being unproductive in bringing forward thinking and our attempts to understand how we actually make meaning. The mind body dualism needs to be surmounted and a concept of embodied mind adopted to encompass a holistic approach.

In section 1, bodily meaning and felt sense, 5 chapters discuss the ontogenetical origins of feeling and sensing and the contributions these make to how we see, hear, feel the world and make meaning from these senses. For instance, he uses metaphors as examples of how the body contributes to visualising something like ‘feelings of warmth to others’. Conceptual metaphors being one way we make sense of the world we live and interact in.

The second section, embodied meaning the and sciences of mind, provides 4 chapters to present, rationalise and discuss the corporeal roots of symbolic meaning, the brains role in making meaning and the interconnection between meaning and abstract thought. Examples sprinkled throughout to help make sense of the philosophical arguments underlying the need to bring both the mind and body together when studying how people learn.

The last section is more esoteric, discussing in 3 chapters, the concepts of embodied meaning, aesthetics and art. These chapters use art appreciation and the derivation of meaning from music as examples and application of the way in which the body attains meaning form these art forms.

The final chapter, the meaning of the body, closes the book by completing the argument for how human life can only be relevant and meaningful if grounded in the bodily dimensions of human meaning and value. Divorcing the body from the mind, does not lead to how humans become better people. Being is a holistic experience requiring the entire being to be involved as a concerted whole. Therefore, the implications for studying how people be what they are include understanding that the: mind and body are not two things; human beings are embodied; understanding and reasoning are also embodied; there is no absolute truth, but many human truths; human freedom is modest ; a person cannot survive the death of their body; embodied spiritually is possible as faith, hope, grace and love transcends the finite human experience; and philosophy is an on-going search for meaning.

The concepts discussed in the book are complex and profound and open to discussion and re-interpretation. There is a youtube video (recorded 2007) with Professor Johnson explaining some of the concepts in the book. The presentation is about 50 minutes long with questions taking the entire video up to 84 minutes. The presentation does provide an attempt to clarify the ideas proposed in the book, using philosophical argument techniques to show how each contention in the book is backed by strong reasoning. Probably best to watch the video after a skim read of the book and then after processing the concepts presented on the video, review the chapters of the book that have relevance to one’s own research.

I will re-read the book when I next have a sequence of days away from the office. Mainly to try to derive application for some of the principles introduced and argued through the book to inform my current understanding of learning trades skills.

Book on expertise

Ericsson, K.A., Charness, N., Feltovich, P.J., &  Hoffman, R. R. (Eds.) (2006). The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.

This book has 6 sections with 3 subsections in section 5 and a total of 42 chapters. I have summarised the sections with the most relevance but almost every chapter contains useful information. The book's main asset is the readability of each chapter along with the applied nature of most of the information.

Section 1 - introduction and perspective
Chapter 1 - an introduction to the book: its development organisation and content - K. A.Ericsson
Defines expertise and expert performance - page 3 and provides the historical evolution of studies in expertise - page 4

2 - Two approaches to the study of expert characteristics - M.T.H. Chi
Absolute and Relative approaches and summarises ways in which experts excel - pg 23 and ways in which experts fall short - pg 24.

3 - Expertise, talent and social encouragement - E. Hunt
 Proposes that different types of expertise, make different types of cognitive demands - pg 31

Section 2 - overview of approaches to the study of expertise - brief historical accounts of theories and methods

4. studies of expertise from psychological perspectives -P.J. Feltovich, M.J. Prietula &  K. A. Ericsson
Lists the generalisable characteristics of expertise - pg 46 --
limited in scope and elite performance does not transfer
knowledge and content matter are important to expertise
expertise involves larger and more integrated cognitive units
involves functional, abstracted representations of presented information
involves automated basic strokes
selective access of relevant information
involves reflection
is an adaptation

5. Educators and expertise: A brief history of theories and methods - R.J.Amirault & R.K. Branson
6. Expert systems : a perspective from computer science - B.G. Buchanan, R. Davis &  E.A. Feigenbaum
7. Professionalisation, scientific expertise and elitism: a sociological perspective -J.Evetts, H.A. Mieg & U.Felt
Above 3 chapters provide historical overviews on development and propose theorectical frameworks for study of expertise.

Section 3 - methods for studying the structure of expertise
8. observation of work practices in natural settings - W.J. Clancey
overview of how various methods have evolved - scientific observation in natural settings: visual anthropology. Details se of ethnomethodology's analytical perspective - 'learning to see'
**details units of analysis - pg 136 and methods of observation of natural settings -

9. Methods for studying the structure of expertise: Psychometric approaches - P.L. Ackerman & M.E.Beier
10. Laboratory methods for assessing experts' and novices' knowledge - M.T.H. Chi
Both above more aligned to quantitative methodologies.

11. Task analysis - J.M. Shraagen
Useful background and description of various approaches, for instance Miller - task description and task analysis, Flanagan - critical incident technique and hierarchical task analysis.
Provides 2 case studies - pg 193 - improving troubleshooting - pg 196 - shore-based pilotage - to illustrate how task analysis proceeds.

12. Eliciting and representing the knowledge of experts - R.R.Hoffman & G. Lintern
Presents methods for representing expert knowledge through cognitive task analysis CTA. including methods for critical decision model; work domain analysis; and concept mapping

13. Protocol analysis and expert thought: Concurrent verbalisations of thinking during experts' performance on representative tasks - K.A. Ericsson
Presents the pros and cons of this method.

14. Simulation for performance and training - P. Ward, A.M. Williams & P.A. Hancock
An overview.

Section 4 - methods for studying the acquisition and maintenance of expertise
15. Laboratory studies of training, skill acquisition and retention of performance - R. W. Proctor & K-P. L. Vu
16. Retrospective interviews in the study of expertise and expert performance - L.A. Sosniak
17. Time budgets, diaries, and analyses of concurrent practice activities - J.M. Deakin, J. Cote & A. S. Harvey
18. Histriometric methods -D.K. Simonton
All 4 chapters provide clear descriptions and some examples.

Section 5 - domains of expertise
5A - professional
19. Expertise in medicine and surgery - G.Norman, K. Eva, L. Brooks & S. Hamstra

20. Expertise and transportation -F.T. Durso & A.R. Dattel

21. Expertise in software design - S. Sonnetag, C. Niessen & J. Volmer

22. Professional writing expertise - R. T. Kellogg

23. Professional judgments and 'naturalistic decision making' - K.G. Ross, J.L. Shafer & G. Klein
NDM - requires - perceptual skill; mental modes; sense of typicality and associations; routines; declarative knowledge; mental simulation; assessing the situation; finding leverage points; managing uncertainty; and understanding one's own strengths and limitations (metacognition) - pg 405

24. Decision-making expertise - J.F. Yates & M.D. Tschirhart

25. The making of a dream team: when expert teams do best - E. Salas, M.A. Rosen, C. S. Burke, G.F. Goodwin & S. M. Fiore

5B - arts, sports and motor skills
26. music - A.C. Lehmann & H. Gruber

27. Expert performance in sport: A cognitive perspective - N.J. Hodges, J.L. Starkes & C. Mcmahon

28. Artistic performance:Acting, ballet and contemporary dance - H. Noice & T. Noice

29. Perceptual-motor expertise - D.A. Rosenbaum, J.S. Augustyn, R.G. Cohen & S.A. Jax

5C - games and other types of expertise
30. Expertise in chess - F. Gobet &  N. Charness

31. exceptional memory - J.M.Wilding &  E.R. Valentine

32. mathematical expertise - B. Butterworth

33. expertise in history - J.F. Voss & J. Wiley

section 6 - generalizable mechanisms mediating expertise and general issues
34. a merging theory of expertise and intelligence - J.Horn &  H. Masunaga

35. Tacit knowledge, practical intelligence and expertise - A. T. Cianciolo, C. Matthews, R.J. Sternberg & R.K. Wagner
Definitions of tacit knowledge - pg 615 and practical intelligence pg 616

36. Expertise and situation awareness - M.R. Endsley

37. Brain changes in the development of expertise: Neuroanatomical and neurophysiological evidence about skill-based adaptations - N.M. Hill & W. Schneider
themes in learning literature on brain processing and brain structure - pg 658
learning is localised and very specialised
learning and processing occur in the same cortical locations
learning can produce both increases and decreases in the areas of activity
in some tasks there is a shifting between brain regions
relevant info/objects and other stimuli are uniquely processed by experts (e.g. birds by bird watchers)
learning can produce detectable morphological changes
motor areas can rapidly change as a result of skilled movement practivce and improved performance - pg 671
notable for plastic change with extensive experience and practice

38. The influence of experience and deliberate practice on the development of superior expert performance - K.A. Ericsson
** details the work on delibrate practice

39. Development and adaptation of expertise: Role of self-regulatory processes and beliefs - B.J. Zimmerman

40. aging and expertise - R.T. Krampe & N. Charness

41. Social and sociological factors in the development of expertise - H.A. Mieg

42. Modes of expertise in creative thinking: evidence from case studies - R.W. Weisberg

All in, much or relevance to pick up in this book. It does have a good range of chapters covering the current state of learning on expertise.

Cpit research month 24 august

Cpit research month 24 August

A range of presentations from department of humanities and academic division presented today, starting at 11. 20am and progressing to 2.40 pm. I and to miss some of the lunch time presentations from Te puna wanaga as I had a focus group to conduct for Another project.

First up, Libby Gawith presents on " Christchurch and how we are coping with our earthquakes" based on recently published paper. Canterbury was unexpected, lasted a long time, impacted a large area. Apart from aftershocks also coping with physical financial and workload pressures at home, work, through the community and across social networks. We are now in the restoration and reconstruction phrase requiring long term resilience. 2.6% population lost, divorce rattle up, births down and increased flu admissions. There is still uncertainty and worry. New behaviors due to experiences. Recovery means retuning to normal can be difficult. Rebuilt and positive focus important.

I then presented on the net tablet project " situated technology enhanced learning: using net tablets to help students construct their own eworkbooks".

Hemi Hoskins presented on progress with his masters studies. He uses hunting as a context to study the changes in Maori language. How old terms related to hunting and gathering in pre-European times. How the language had to form new terms for new huntingmprocesss, cultural changes and how language evolves to cope with change plus integration and synthesis etween old words and new uses for the.

A group presentation followed from tutors and students to model the teaching and learning approaches at Te Puna Wanaka. Included revitalisation on kiorahi (a traditional ball game)to learn language; a brief overview of how students and staff used the disruption and relocation to a different learning environment /the concepts of Ako, whanuanga, mana whenua, mana tangata, mana atua ; plus transference of knowledge through waiata and through leadership and personal knowledge.

Dr. Sandra Arnold then reflected on the writing of her book " sing no sad songs" with "writing as catharsis". A creative writing study as part of her PhD detailing her experiences of the death of her daughter from cancer 10 years ago. The power of language to assist with the integration of thoughts and feelings the articulate sorrow on the death of a loved one.

Kerstin Dofs presented on the ongoing project - some supported by Ako Aotearoa, learning and growing as learners : innovative use of strategy instruction to enhance language education. An approach based on developing a set of resources in the form of student work books and tutor guides to encourage self directed and life long learning with students learning English as a second other language.

Martin Jenkins and I then presented findings from the ako Aotearoa project " institutional strategies to support forced change". This is one of several commissioned by Ako Aotearoa in the wake of last year's earthquakes. A summary ofthe experiences of our staff and students through a tumultuous 2011 as a result of the earthquakes.

The last session was with Martin, Robin Graham, Julie Batchelor and Denise Holling with their summaries of presentations from the recent HERDSA conference. A range of presentations on student support, evaluations, student centred learning, assessments and feedback.

LAMs (learning activity management) with professor James Dalziel

Professor Dalziel is professor of learning technology and director of the elearning centre of excellence at the Macquarie university in Sydney. He presented on the topic "pedagogy for the 21st century".

Covered new approaches to teaching and learning, technology and learning, what is learning design? A case study round LAMs and relations between learning and curriculum design.

Argued that lectures are not evil as there are many ways to create lively lectures and have a role in summarizing a range of knowledge and provide forum for cutting edge knoweldgento be disseminated by experts.

Due to explosion of 'new' knowledge there is less reliance on memory but greater need to gain skills in finding, sifting and critiquing knowledge.

Advocates the 'start at the end' approach to learning design i.e. from graduate outcomes /profiles / attributes. Plus focus on skills like teamwork, critical thinking, effective communication, problem solving, collaboration etc. with shift to 'flipped classroom'.

Need for alignment between taught knowledge, teaching and learning methods, development of practical skills, assessment do knowledge and skills and the desirable attribute of graduates.

Used problem based learning in the training of medical doctor as an example of how change in teaching practice provides graduates with work ready skills.

Elearning has unfortunately not made much impact on pedagogy. Learning design has potential through providing students with a sequence of learning activities and a way for lecturers to describe and effectively share teaching ideas. Learning design could include a framework or language to structure learning activities, software system, community of educators and process educators go through to structure learning. It is Not an educational theory, still immature, a small field and should not be reliant on technology.

LAMs ( learning activity management) is a Tool for teacher to plan and run lessons. Each lesson can be seamlessly linked vi moodle to existing LMS. LAMs is open source and now used in 80 plus countries by thousands do educators. Uses templates like - predict, observe, explain; to lay out lessons.

Overall a good summary of some of the focuses now used at CPIT through support the Centre for Educational Development (CED) provides to teaching and academic staff. Not too sure if LAMs will assist the process of constructive alignment but for some staff, the structure provided in templates may be helpful, especially for those just starting out teaching. The important follow up to having classes laid out in LAMs is to ensure there is still a reflective dialogue with students, peers and learning designers to ensure that classes are organic/dynamic as content shifts, student profiles change and learning outcomes are updated. So classes in LAMs are 'work in progress' with clear pedagogical rational provided for selection of various learning /teaching strategies and a cycle of review based on reflective practice is also adopted.

Christchurch research month 21 August presentations

Teaching and learning for technology is the theme for today 's lunch time presentations from department of engineering and the trade innovation institute.

Dr. Yao Li begins with a presentation on the power of Android. Introduced Android including architecture and apps and potential uses for teaching. Android now up to 4.1x called jellybean. Up to 2.3 only on cell phones, from 3.0 honeycomb for tablet only and latest two icecream sandwich and jellybean on both tablets and phones. Architecture has Linux kernel with access to libraries. Apps have 4 components, activities, services, content providers and broadcast receiver. Teaching Android programming with a focus on engineering. Opportunities for research include real-time performance, security, power efficiency and interface with Android accessories including multimeters, oscilloscopes etc.

Dave Maples then presents on "power systems 1 by distance" . Teaching the course with students located at two campuses using Abode Connect And the smart podium. The smart podium used as a whiteboard. Important to preload all teaching material prior to session And have screens pre configured, prepare for session failure - use the chat window, exchange material on cell phone. Should be used in conjunction with Moodle not to replace. Word files need to be PDF and multimedia files as flv. In general students found learning to be possible.

Flip Leijten unble to present, so I presented his findings from the peer learning project, a continuation on a small project (peer learning with welding students) while working on using videos to study trades based learning. Flip's study extended the peer learning intervention to carpentry, electrical and painting and decorating students.

Christchurch polytechnic research month 16 August presentations

This afternoon, a series of presentations from the departments of science (sports and fitness) and broadcasting provide a nice mix of quantitative and qualitative approaches along with food for thought.

Dr. Nick Kimber presents on "health and performance supplementation through using antioxidants" focused on an interim literature review for application into a range of future projects. Athletes seem to have a belief that normal diet does not supply them with the required dietary needs of a elite training programme. However, many athletes ( in USA studies) gain information on use od supplements via informal means - friends, family, Internet etc. Nick provided N introduction to antioxidants and their importance in normal health and well being. In general, antioxidants should be sufficient from well constructed diet and supplementation contribution to enhanced performance still unclear.

Dr. Peter Olsen presents on a study undertaken during the rugby world cup last year studying heart rates while viewing sports. Study of spectators watching on TV and stadium compared. Generally heart rate at stadium higher than at home, heart rate higher when NZ playing and patterns consistent with increase in heart rate whenever any crucial play occurs.

Tina Ryan provides an overview of "athlete career development in NZ" as a summary of a study for her PhD. Provided example that NZ put 180 million into 2012 Olympics there development costs. In addition individual athletes also put in much that needs to also be costed. 2001 Graham report established SPARC and NZAS to encourage high performance sport development through performance based funding and athlete carding system (to track and support individuals with free sport science and medical support). 17 carded athletes from 8 sports interviewed to find out their perspectives. Themes included gratitude; expectations to perform and conform; and need to provide athletes with personal development opportunities beyond sports.

Dr. John Farnsworth presents on " new technologies and the Christchurch earthquakes". Studied how city assembled and disassembled in the face of change and the popular urban voice and presence in the lived city, similar themes studied in how economic, political and technological change takes place within socio technical assemblages. As city recovers from earthquakes,social networking and other forms of media discourse contribute towards how the individuals perceive effects. Used film "when a city falls" as example as being form of visual ethnography to uncover themes of how we view impacts on people and how a future city is imagined out of unplanned / unforeseen event.

Dr. Ruth Zanker discussed the question " is Sky (NZ pay TV) out of control in the NZ media ecology?" presented on the dominance of Sky in the market and the consequences of this on diversity of perspectives and viewpoints NZers have or not have access to. Has almost 50% of market and bought free to air channel Prime in 2006 thus increasing it's reach.

I had missed presentations from these two departments in the past, so good to catch up on the research activity that has been going on and to hear progress on projects.

Cpit research month Tuesday 14th

Lunch time presentations from Department of Business and Department of Computing under the theme of enterprise and innovation.

John O'Sullivan presents on part of his PhD with "using enterprise development stories to understand and encourage Maori entrepreneurship". An interesting use of narrative to explore how different cultures' view mainstream organisational processes. Narratives are apt for use in the project's context as stories are important in oral knowledge cultures. Keegan and Woods (2006) Arrived at key concepts of mauipreneurship by analyzing stories of Maui. John's project undertook interviews with contemporary Maori entrepreneurs to find out if themes would reflect mauipreneurship.

Second presentation with Dr. Juan Pellegrino on "strategy, learning and knowledge in the internationalization process: a comparative study of NZ incremental and early-internationalization SMEs". DefinedSMEs as companies between 6 to 99 employees ( NZ uses under 20). Internationalization literature indicates firms are either born- global or move into international markets incrementally. Study to try to understand how each type of firm goes about learning how to internationalise. Multiple data analysis used to produce comparative case studies.

Dr. Mehdi Asgarkhani from the department of computing presented on " research matters: information systems and IT in business". IT has evolved from being a financial system tool to becoming information management and as enabler to almost every business process within and beyond company's physical parameters. IT personnel no longer just technicians but also contribute to business strategy decisions. changes include rise of social media, IT need to create return on investment and increased consciousness of sustainability.

Cpit research month - Monday 13th - Computing presentations

Department of computing has 3 presentations lunch time yesterday.

Alison Clear on the topic of "creating international research opportunities" discussing strategies and networking opportunities for collaborative research to be undertaken. Covered the 'state' of international computing educational research and that in computing, conferences are main dissemination method rather than journals. Introduced Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Research (ITiCSE) has one forum. Working groups are the main method for collaboration whereby academics propose topics, then group participants are selected (through refereed process), work before conference and then have f2f meeting in 2 days before and across 3 days of conference to write a paper to be submitted as a draft at the end of the conference.

Dr. Ed Correia presents on "virtualization: the future". Presented on the virtual environment used at cpit called techlabs. Used to provide students with a realistic platform to complete projects and learning activities. Resource has been progressively built over several years. Presented on current limitations and plans to work through the technical challenges presented by these.

Armit Sarkar and team (Dr. Mike Lance & Mike Lopez ) on "improvements in teaching software engineering" Mike Lance discussed models including learning models. How are models of learning useful? And are models actually of relevance? Mike Lopez proposes to look at how students come to think computationally with one approach to investigate how students come up with misconceptions/alternaive viewpoints and what it takes for them to unravel their misunderstandings and move back onto the right track. Armit then presented on using loops and patterns to helping students learn programming concepts. A teaching resource produced to help novice programmers learn the different ways loops behave.

CPIT research month - student presentations / pitches

Have been able to get to the lunch time presentation yesterday and today featuring students 'pitching' their projects. A wonderful and eclectic collection of 3 minute presentations reinforces the diverse nature of the disciplines and subject areas here at CPIT. Presentations were from students studying in their Batchelor's programmes (usually in their third year) and from students complete post-graduate certificates. We had presentations from students in languages (Japanese, Maori); Science; Engineering, Recreation, Broadcasting and Business.

Topics included:
- lost of Japanese dialects in Hiroshima
- consequences of 'forced adoption' of Maori children in the past and how to assist these students to reconnect with their family ties and roots (whakapapa).
- the development of a life cycle tool for the assessment of the manufacturing cycle to improve sustainable production, sale and recycling
- a coffee bean roaster temperature gauge that also collects other sensory attributes important to the roasting process
- a 'mobile safety trading unit' that can be brought out to replace a physical retail space should the space be put out of action (e.g. earthquakes in Chch.)
- evaluation of the efficacy of e-cigarettes as an alternative to other forms of nicotine replacement
- study of chorophyll degration in 3000 year old matai (NZ native tree) leaves
- the effectiveness of a cryopreservation process on micro-organisms used in microbiology
- connections to the natural environment, perceptions of hearing and sight impaired and/or disabled people
- why and how we form attachments with the outdoors
- role of assessments in the outdoors when certifying outdoor instructors
- value of surfing- surfing as a medium of play
- youth involvement in sustainability - how they become involved/engaged and why
- how is controversy used as a public relations/marketing tool by the media

Student project pitches are judged by a panel for innovation and presentation. Three $$ prizes are offered as an incentive and it was good to see a wide range of students presenting this year.

Cpit research month day one afternoon

Five presentations this afternoon with the theme of 'Teaching and Learning in Practice' from research staff in the Department of Human Services and Nursing. Dr. Jane Maidment introduced the session.

First up, Raewyn Tudor on 'social work and community development in schools' part of Raewyn's Masters in Social Work studies. What are schools? Study based on increased interest in bringing community-based social support into schools through forming social work hubs in schools. Focus of the project to find out 'how useful is social work and community work in facilitating better community development' and 'what skills social workers need to work with schools'. Using Bourdieu's theory of practice as a theoretical framework.

Next Anna Richardson presents on 'inter-professional learning and working: Public health nurses and economic genograms' -- using the 15 minute interview model with public health nurses and families: a collaborative educative research project. A project led by Dr. Judy Yarwood. Presentation provided on the context of public health inNZ who work autonomously school clinics and home visiting. 15 minute interview includes manners, therapeutic conversations/questions and commendations using family ecomaps and genograms. Ecomap shows family connections/relationships and outside resources used and genogram shows generations including health issues, ethnicity and occupation. Using these tools help public nurses build better relationships and obtain pertinent information efficiently. Ecograms are ecomaps and genograms together to increase effectiveness.

Then, a presentation from Dominic Chilvers and Jane Maidment (plus Yvonne Crichton-Hill from University of Canterbury) on 'promoting learning and teaching about research through collaborative work integrated learning: implications for students agencies and practitioners'. Project came about with acknowledgement that social work practitioners and students lack confidence with research. Use field education as a way to bring students into research. Students involved with projects already going out in their work placements. Project tracked students as the placement progressed. Pre- and post placement research knowledge and confidence survey and individual interviews undertaken along with researcher journal observations. Resources were developed (teaching cards and DVDs) to support the learning of research at both CPIT and UC.

Mel Leinert-Brown on 'exploring undergraduate nursing students' experiences of their first clinical placement in an acute adult mental health inpatient-service: Learning from reflection'. Presented a project that has just started with the rationale for needing to study this area and progress undertaken through the literature review phrase.

Final presentation for the day, Deborah Sims and Rose Whittle on 'researching and using CLES+T: A New Zealand perspective. CLES+T refers to -clinical learning environment, supervision and nurse teacher a scale developed in Finland as part of Mikko Saarikoski's PhD and now also used internationally. The survey useful as CPIT has started using Dedicated Education Units (DEU) for student placements and of interest to find out NZ context data - involving 10 schools of nursing.

Cpit research month 2012 opens

The annual research week now a research month. An interesting range of projects are being presented from today to Tuesday 28th August. Most of the sessions will run across lunch time each day, so I will take notes and post on to blog as I am able to attend since I will be fitting the various activities around the usual work commitments.

Today, at lunch time, the month is officially opened firstly by Dr. Margaret Leonard, CPIT research manager and Kay Giles, CPIT CEO. Kay spoke of the importance of doing research in the areas we have strengths in; connecting with industry and assisting with informing industry on innovations; and using research to update and keep us fresh in our teaching.

A presentation by Dr. Mark Quigley from University of Canterbury, provides a topical beginning to research months over 60 plus presentations (including several other Christchurch earthquake focused ones). Mark presented on 'The seismic story of us: Ongoing research into the Canterbury earthquakes'. Provided a flavour of the range of projects UC is currently involved in to study and understand why/how the earthquake occurred. For instance the probable 8 faults that started things going in Sept. 2010. He presented on - what controls the volume and spatial extent of liquefaction ejecta in major earthquakes; how the earthquake faults behave; and the paleoseismology of the Canterbury plains/Chch. historically. A really interesting presentation of the science underlying the event tempered by Marks' personal experiences as much of the data was gathered in his own backyard of his now red-zoned home.

The first staff presentation is from Andrew Massie, who blogged extensively at the beginning of 2011 about his experiences while on academic study leave with Connectics - a cable jointing company undertaking extensive repairs to Christchurch electrical supply after the February 2011 earthquakes. Andrew presents on 'High voltage academic study leave during the Chch.earthquakes'. With an hour to present, Andrew could extend on his presentation by providing details on the methods he used to collect the photos/videos etc. archived on his blog and provide background details of the cable jointing process before launching into the effect the earthquake had on the electrical supply infrastructure and the processes required to repair.

In the afternoon, presentations from the Department of Nursing and Human Services with a selection of industry, work placement and teaching/learning projects.