Wednesday 6 June 2007
I have moved!
I'm following the trend and have migrated to Wordpress here's my new address http://helenlindsay.wordpress.com. I'll see you there.
Friday 1 June 2007
Wednesday 30 May 2007
Peer tutor training course - progress and collaboration :-)
Since my last post the Peer tutor training course in wikieducator has taken on a new look. Leigh spoke to Willie Campbell and asked her if she knew of any NZQA unit standards which may be appropriate for peer tutor training. Willie suggested two, one of which lead us to a very good third. They are units:
7095, Facilitate adult learners' individualised learning
7114 Coach adult learners
7093 Design learning sessions for adult education and learning.
These have been reformatted in the wiki and other content has been moved around to fit with these assessments. The Peer tutoring course is a five credit paper and these unit standards add to at least 15 credits so I won't be expecting students to complete every element of all three standards to achieve the peer tutor training course. However the Peer tutor training will staircase into further teacher training courses taught here at otago Polytechnic. The unit for Time management 12349
is also in the wiki under "Develop skills for tertiary study". I have started creating iDevices like readings, activities and assignments.
Leigh and I spent a bit of time this morning refining the structure of the course bearing in mind the bigger picture for the rest of the Polytechnic and how all our courses can link together. The structure follows Leigh's diagram with the addition of an index page for the activities. I'm very happy to discover that two new people are now interested in the wiki: Peer tutoring (Jim Tittsler and Brent Simpson) and their ideas are discussed on the Discussion page.
(Thanks, I will be trying out some of these ideas soon). Oh and we're going to try to have a skype conversation with Jim and Brent.
Friday 25 May 2007
Wiki is coming along but still a solo effort :-(
I am making some progress on the wiki with adding content but I am becoming a bit disappointed that the collaborative nature of the wiki is yet to reveal itself to me. Despite advertising to my colleagues all around NZ that I am working on a project that could be of use to them I am still the only editor. I suppose it takes time for things like this to catch on. Also I have discovered that most people are reluctant to publish draft material for all the world to see. (Note to myself: Remember to ask Leigh for those names he thought I should contact to get some collaboration going). This week I went through some of my del.icious sites and created links to them from the wiki. I also had a look for useful YouTube videos but the speed of downloading was infuriatingly slow tonight. Serves me right for being so boring and staying home on a Friday night!
Tuesday 22 May 2007
Investigations of Elluminate
Well I have made some progress investigating Elluminate. Thanks to Gary Dietz for sending me this link http://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/event/playback
and Terry, Bronwyn and Leigh for further discussions and demonstrations of this software. I can certainly see a use for it in the Learning Centre to support our distant students. An example of how we may use it would be in working one to one with a student helping them with the proof reading of their essay. The essay can be on the white board for both of us to view and we can speak to each other and talk about things that need changing or correcting. Another use would be to talk to a power point presentation. This presentation could be on any topic at all - say referencing, using a library catalogue, study skills. I would like to practise using it with another teacher at the Polytechnic who also wants (should) learn to use it.
Terry, Bronwyn and I thought it would be a good idea to invite all the teachers here at Otago Polytechnic using Blackboard to come to a meeting on a Friday afternoon (we will entice them with wine) and demonstrate Elluminate. Following this we would like to form a User's /Learners /support group which meets regularly. I am especially keen to do this with staff who are teaching open entry courses where there are higher numbers of Foundation level learners. I see Elluminate as one way of working (almost) f2f and 1:1 with these learners.
and Terry, Bronwyn and Leigh for further discussions and demonstrations of this software. I can certainly see a use for it in the Learning Centre to support our distant students. An example of how we may use it would be in working one to one with a student helping them with the proof reading of their essay. The essay can be on the white board for both of us to view and we can speak to each other and talk about things that need changing or correcting. Another use would be to talk to a power point presentation. This presentation could be on any topic at all - say referencing, using a library catalogue, study skills. I would like to practise using it with another teacher at the Polytechnic who also wants (should) learn to use it.
Terry, Bronwyn and I thought it would be a good idea to invite all the teachers here at Otago Polytechnic using Blackboard to come to a meeting on a Friday afternoon (we will entice them with wine) and demonstrate Elluminate. Following this we would like to form a User's /Learners /support group which meets regularly. I am especially keen to do this with staff who are teaching open entry courses where there are higher numbers of Foundation level learners. I see Elluminate as one way of working (almost) f2f and 1:1 with these learners.
Sunday 20 May 2007
To do list...
Over the weekend I've been thinking about how to support students enrolled in distance science based courses. Some of these courses are moving to open entry next year so there will be an increasing number of students who do not have year 11 science (School Certificate Science). The Learning Centre could offer Elluminate tutorials on relevant topics such as chemistry and the cell to give these students the foundation knowledge they will need to succeed in these level 4 course. These tutorials could be run from the LC website and advertised through the various Blackboard courses operating.
I must investigate the use of Elluminate and similar software more fully. What are the other interactive synchronous tools available?
Comments as always welcome...
I must investigate the use of Elluminate and similar software more fully. What are the other interactive synchronous tools available?
Comments as always welcome...
Thursday 17 May 2007
Revelations from wiki meeting
I hosted a meeting in my office for any staff here at Otago Polytechnic interested in wikieducator and about eight or nine turned up. Leigh has documented this thoroughly in his blog
I will go back and read it sometime. As for what I got out of the meeting, the thing that finally sunk in for me is how Blogs can be used as the interface with students and the wiki is really just the repository for the activities, readings, etc for the course. The Blog will be where I communicate with the students and direct them to specific pages in the wiki for the learning activities etc. I will also use the blog to direct them to other resources on the internet and embed vidoes etc into the blog. So its the BLOG that is the central tool here and everything else flows from that! (most of you probably knew that already - what do they say about learning? - it takes seven times hearing something repeated before you learn it!)
I will go back and read it sometime. As for what I got out of the meeting, the thing that finally sunk in for me is how Blogs can be used as the interface with students and the wiki is really just the repository for the activities, readings, etc for the course. The Blog will be where I communicate with the students and direct them to specific pages in the wiki for the learning activities etc. I will also use the blog to direct them to other resources on the internet and embed vidoes etc into the blog. So its the BLOG that is the central tool here and everything else flows from that! (most of you probably knew that already - what do they say about learning? - it takes seven times hearing something repeated before you learn it!)
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