Category: professional development

Get a load of Stephen Fry (madly linguistic podgram)

Michael ChalkLeave a commentprofessional development

I’m listening to Stephen Fry’s podgram on my android phone. And he’s so delightful, as he explores the innards of his linguistic perspective, that i feel the urge to share. But i didn’t take notes, so now i don’t recall anything that he said. Think maybe i need to work on my auditory memory. Oh i’ve just realised from the wikipedia page, that it dates back to 2008. Link to the episode on his webble site, including all kinds of subscribing options. Link to the audio file here:

Let’s get together, and re-focus your mini-projects

Michael Chalk2 Commentsprofessional development, Uncategorized

Hello Amazing North-West e-learning People. Who can believe we’re looking at the final term for these e-mentor projects! (1) Remember your “e-learning plan“? What about this for an idea: depending where you’re at, let’s re-work this into a “mini-project” so that you can present with pride to your peers, and feel you’ve made some progress. It’s possible you’ve done some remarkable things you just don’t recognise. (2) We would very much like to offer you a face-to-face session in term 2 so you can all get together, ask questions, share ideas Read More …

Strategies for engaging with staff and workers in a virtual staffroom

Michael Chalk3 Commentsprofessional development, Uncategorized

Many of the e-learning leaders in the North-West region are searching for ways to engage their staff in some kind of online communication space, or virtual staffroom.  Last year we brainstormed a list of ideas for overcoming barriers and connecting with staff (link to document here). Huge thanks to all who came along to join the discussion, share their ideas and find out how their thinking meshes with others in the wider network.  We had participants from NW and Barwon regions, as well as further up North (thanks Carole, great to Read More …

E-learning at Carlton in focus

Michael ChalkLeave a commente-learning, professional development, Uncategorized

Here’s our latest guest blogger: Sarah Deasey from Carlton NLC. Thanks so much Sarah, and welcome (michael).  Hello this is Sarah. I am the Further Education coordinator at CNLC. There have been many opportunities for development of basic computer and online skills in the last 10 years or more. Past projects include: Skillsnet funding in the Nineties for broad community training; a telematics trust  grant for disability students; and various grants through the flexible learning framework. Most staff have taken up the opportunities with goodwill and a range of enthusiasm.  Read More …

Phone blog your progress here via our iPadio phonecast channel

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, professional development

This post was originally written by Jill Koppel, as part of our North West e-mentor blog. Below is a phone blog posted by Jill to our North West e-Mentors ipadio channel. Phone blogging is very easy to do – once you’re feeling confident with the technology you could even create a channel for your students to use. Please consider joining us here with your first phone blog. Our iPadio channel is open for business: using ipadio you can call a special number (from anywhere in Australia it’s 1800-802569) from either Read More …

A conversation with Sue Braggs

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, professional development

The other week, I opened up the ACFE (LearnLocal) Open House for a repeat session of the introduction to 23 Things, and found Sue Braggs in the room early. (Follow the conversation directly here.) For those who don’t know, Sue was involved in one of the first experiences of this 23 Things approach to learning web2 social technologies, back in 2007. Down East Gippsland way, Denece Sippo from the public library and Jan Roberts from the local adult education provider / community college had joined forces to bring their communities online. Sue started out Read More …

Common threads across the North-West

Michael ChalkLeave a commentprofessional development, Uncategorized

Common strands of e-ndeavour From our perspective, joining a mentor program to improve your understanding and implementation of e-learning (or “e-business”) isn’t just about what happens in house. It’s also about the connections you’re making with the people and networks around you. Many people have been saying in recent years that professional development these days is about strengthening and expanding your “Personal Learning Network” (PLN). So what do you have in common with the other organisations in the North-West e-mentor projects? There are some clear strands emerging from our discussions Read More …

The Ten Step Wiki Plan

Michael ChalkLeave a commentprofessional development, Uncategorized

Now that we’ve nearly finished our round of initial site visits to the 11 centres involved in the E-mentor project in 2011, it seems that the Ten Step Wiki Plan originally developed for staff at Carlton Neighbourhood Learning Centre (CNLC) last year to identify component e-skills has universal and immediate application for a number of centres. If you’re thinking of starting and developing a wiki for students or for staff, or even generally building people’s e-skills for producing internet-ready teaching resources, then this stepped plan will be useful to you. Read More …

Next steps for the North-West

Michael Chalk1 Commentprofessional development, Uncategorized

Wonderful. Thanks to all the NW e-learning leaders for keying in your availability for the site visits and the regular online drop-in sessions. You’ll see from the calendar page that almost everyone has organised a time for their site visit now. Please be in touch if the offered times don’t suit at all. We’ve also decided to set up a regular online drop-in session. This can be loosely structured, depending on the needs of the people who make it along. From people’s input, we’ve decided to go with 3pm on a Friday, Read More …

Motivation, an animation

Michael Chalk1 Commentprofessional development

Great adaptation of a talk by Daniel Pink on what motivates us. i watched this again last night.. and i love the way this group has added so much to the talk visually. According to this talk: The science is “a little bit freaky”. Recent research shows that while paying more money gets good results for physical labour and simple tasks, for cognitive and advanced tasks it can have the reverse effect. Much more important are things like: => autonomy: creative freedom and self-direction, => mastery: people love to feel Read More …