Category: professional development

(cck08) Nancy White on .. appreciative change

Michael Chalk3 Commentsprofessional development

The fabulous choc-o-Nancy White was speaking about all manner of things today, including: how to facilitate in a massive online course, and the implications of trust in large networks; the range of identity and boundary from the personal, through communities to networks; new and emerging roles and practices; the value of “appreciative change”, which is related to the appreciative inquiry championed by Marie Jasinski and Maret Staron in ’07 research. Recognise people’s strengths as a starting point for the learning process. Ideas came up around the responsibility of adult learners Read More …

CCK08: Power to force involvement in a course?

Michael Chalk2 Commentsprofessional development

Link : CCK08: Power and Auto-Subscribe (the connectivism forums, week 08). In week 08, Stephen decided to exert his power over the masses of people involved in the massive OOC known as connectivism 08. Through the flick of a switch, he drew many back into public conversation. People who know the forum software called “Moodle”, will know that you can “force” your enrolled students to receive copies forum posts via email. Stephen flicked this switch, and hundreds of people around the world started to experience Inbox Pressure from all the Read More …

mm, the 'ease' of screencasting

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, professional development

So, Lisa was having some issues finding a straightforward way to incorporate audio technologies into her classroom. i suggested some ‘preparation-free’ activities such as : recording the presentation live in class (audio only) recording the screen demonstration live in class (screen and audio) We thought this might work, and i’d had some fun using “jing” for making a screencast. Looked easy to me. So i turn up at Lisa’s workplace, laptop at the ready. What could possibly go wrong? my laptop can’t connect to the Moreland network, and Jing will Read More …

catching up with the connectivist crowd (week1)

Michael ChalkLeave a commentprofessional development

So it’s week 6 already, halfway through the course, and i must sheepishly admit i’ve been ignoring my responsibilities as a student. i’ve been following some of the forum discussions, and some of the connected bloggers, and Stephen’s dailies .. i’ve even made some notes and saved up a few delicious bookmarks. But i haven’t posted any reflections or readings here on the blog. Oh blimey.

Australian ACE e-learning network

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, e-learning, professional development

Great to be involved in a national e-learning network for Adult Community Education (ACE). Mary Hannan from Adult Learning Australia (ALA) has taken on the role of bringing together some e-learning people in the community sector. Just got together with some people around the continent, in a meeting where Josie Rose told us all about the Victorian ACE e-mentor project, a regional approach that’s emerged from the ’07 Access ACE research trials; Georgina Nou (of Deadly Mob fame) showed us around Second Life, and inspired me to have another go Read More …

Guest speaker rocks the audio house

Michael ChalkLeave a commentprofessional development

Ah, delight! The technology worked! For our Can You Hear Us? project, we were lucky enough to get Michael Coghlan on our wavelength as guest speaker. He was in Adelaide, and we were in Melbourne. It was all done with the smoke and mirrors of skype. i love that! Michael told us about many wonderful tools for getting audio online, from voiceboards to podcasts and live conferencing. His slideshow is online on the project wiki .. and if we can get the recording to work, i’ll post that too. Actually Read More …

[cck08] initial connections .. on the map

Michael ChalkLeave a commentcommunity, professional development

So i’ve listened to some audio/video recordings, i’ve read a couple of articles, i’ve finally made it into the forum areas .. and most importantly, i’ve put myself on the map. Rodd (the Clever Sheep ..from Canada i think) set up a shared map within the google-o-sphere, and created a neat screen cast to show the rest of us how to join in. Yay Rodd. (Yes i did have to watch the video to work out how it is done.) A few fellow Australians already there, including Howard Errey, Alison Read More …

Massive connectivist hook-up

Michael Chalk2 Commentsprofessional development, technology

Well this is extraordinary. Nearly two thousand people involved in a massive online course on Connectivism; a course that will go from now until November-ish, and takes place on thousands of different sites around the world. Have to join in, don’t i! Stephen and George are among my favourite writers, and yes, i’ve missed a couple of courses i wanted to attend this year (eg Leigh on facilitating).. so it’s time to dive in and experience. Got no idea what connectivism is really .. well it’s somewhere in there with Read More …

Pacific CALL Symposium

Michael ChalkLeave a commentcommunity, professional development

Michael has been invited to represent PRACE, and speak at “The First CALL” in August. Should be a terrific event, with Uschi Felix opening, and James Farmer, of edublogs.org and The Age blogs, as a keynote. The “Inaugural CALL Symposium” hosted by the Monash University English Language Centre and the Pacific CALL Association: Saturday, 18 Aug from 12 noon – 4.30 pm, Monash University, Clayton Campus. From the publicity: “CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) practitioners join global professional communities online, yet they often do not utilise the wealth of expertise Read More …

Conversations in ACE: New ways to get audio and video online

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, professional development

Have recently been working with the Conversations in ACE conference, Eastern Metro Region of "Adult Community and Further Education" (ACFE). Kerrin Pryor was presenting on her research into "New Literacies", where they are using "Squeeze Text" (or mobile SMS language) to explore literacy for young people.