Category: ace

Exploring online surveys

Michael Chalk4 Commentsace, professional development

We had such a great group session in February. I love it when – in spite of the session plan – people make it really clear that they’re interested in something different. From the teacher survey I’d sent around, it seemed that people were most interested in digital storytelling and recording student voices. So we started the session by looking at this teacher survey, a combination of online form and spreadsheet containing the results. And boom! People were suddenly interested in the possible classroom application of this kind of software. Read More …

Michael Chalk appears on television: A House around the Corner

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, e-learning

So, recently I was on television, in my role as an ‘e-learning specialist’! (channel 31) Being interviewed was a bit scary, but the wonderful team at “A House around the Corner” have edited the whole thing very well. Definitely worth following their youtube feed, as there’s plenty of other great stories about LearnLocal in Victoria. (Edit: the site seems to be down in 2017.)

Context is everything: e-learning face-to

Michael Chalk1 Commentace, e-learning

“We’re so far off online learning,” said one manager to me, implying that it was so difficult we shouldn’t even bother. My first response was to bring it all back to the classroom. “Online learning is only one part of e-learning,” I replied. I think people still see the two terms as identical, which is a problem. E-learning, step 1: some kind of technology in your face-to-face situation. For example, taking photographs on an excursion, or recording audio from student presentations. Having access to a local network drive folder for Read More …

An interview with Carmen Harris

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, adult literacy, e-learning

Recently I spoke with Carmen Harris from Yooralla adult education. Carmen was involved in the North-West e-learning mentor projects back in 2011. She told me all about the amazing work they’ve been doing with literacy and technology over there, including blogs, facebook, email lists and zines. You can listen to the interview right here. I was aiming to edit down to 5-8 minutes, but Carmen just kept on saying interesting things. Highly recommended for an insight into creative classroom practices. [Tech notes:] We spoke over Skype and I recorded the call using Read More …

What apps do you use for image work?

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, technology

Good discussion on the ACE Network Ning, started by Lynne Gibb the e-mentor for Eastern Metro Region. Like Lynne, I used to be a big PaintShop Pro fan, as i had a free licensed version from one of the computer magazines. Now I use XNview for browsing through my image collection, and also for those times you have to quickly re-size, adjust colours or optimise an image for the web. [Here’s my video screencast about it.] Screenshot captor is my choice for screengrabs (similar to Carole’s Snipping Tool.) I’ve loaded Read More …

What learning brings you joy?

Michael Chalk1 Commentace

Found a lovely conversation on the Adult Learning Australia (ALA) Linkedin page, started by Sally Thompson. It was great to see so many joyful responses 😉 [You’ll need to join the conversation group to follow those links.] I must say Junita amazes me with her constant sense of bubbling joy in her work. She’s a real inspiration in the way she’ll organise a network of educators and draw them into connecting. Above and beyond! Junita spoke of a small group of collaborative educators who would get together

Live web conferencing – the skills you need to facilitate a session

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, professional development, technology

Last year, a few of the Victorian LearnLocal e-learning mentors put our heads together to think about the skills that people need when they want to run a live web conferencing session. I think it’s really crucial, if you’re thinking of running a live web conferencing session, to get as much help as you possibly can. We came up with the ideas in this document below.

New e-learning mentor projects underway

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, e-learning

Exciting news. The next round of Victorian ACE / LearnLocal e-learning mentor projects (aka “e-mentor”) have begun. Projects are conducted according to adult education regions around Victoria**. And because each regional mentor team has their own online presence such as a blog or wiki, we’re looking for ways to tie all the headline threads together. So i’m conducting an experiment with a Yahoo RSS joiner called “Pipes”. Here’s a scrolling feed of the latest headlines. Now to see if i can display multiple headlines without scrolling… [rss-news-display setting=”1″]   I’ve Read More …