New people on the 23 Things adventure

Michael ChalkLeave a commentUncategorized

So we’ve dusted off the learning materials and brought them out for another zoom around the block. Just started off a new round of 23 Things adventures with a new bunch of people from all over the shop: Laverton, Glen Waverley, Mirboo.. and more. This time people arrive via the 2011 ACFE e-learning mentor projects. From the North-West region, we have Alex J,  Eastern region: Christine D, Southern: Kerrie S and Rani.  As soon as i have people’s blog address, i’ll post a link to you in the sidebar here. 

Mindmapping tool

Michael Chalk5 CommentsUncategorized

As you work through your e-plan you may want to mindmap some of your ideas to assist with the layout or design. There is nothing worse than starting the site and changing your mind half way through or forgetting to insert a page! Ann likes mindmapping as a technique as it is essentially creating a storyboard where I create connectors that will become my pages or external links. Michael has been using the free tool called FreeMind Portable. This is a mindmapping tool that allows you to effectively brainstorm your 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 …

New way to book equipment

Michael Chalk1 CommentUncategorized

Hello to all the Wonderful Teachers and Staff at Preston Reservoir Adult Community Education (PRACE). We’re moving to a new system for booking equipment like cameras, laptops and so forth. Essentially it’s a spreadsheet, and it’s online so you can access it any time you have internet nearby. No more looking for that piece of paper in the office at Merrilands, or having to ring Maria in the office. You need to login to google.com/docs*, so you’ll need to remember your PRACE gmail ID & login. [No i’m not putting any Read More …

Red Dog, the PageTurner

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, adult literacy, technology

Anne Dunn wrote a story called “Red Dog” a few years ago for the PageTurners series of books for beginning adult readers. I don’t know why she’s not getting any royalties from the movie. Apparently someone else wrote the same story for a different audience. Anyway, both books are based on the true-to-life story of a dog who travelled the highways of Western Australia for many years. This dog would hitch a ride quite regularly. This is one of my favourite PageTurners stories, and i’ve heard the movie is good Read More …

September 15 and 23 Induction sessions: ideas for possible projects

Michael ChalkLeave a commentUncategorized

Jill starts:  I really enjoyed meeting the new project participants today, and, of course, seeing a few who are continuing from last year. In the short time available to brainstorm the vast realm of everything ‘e’, we mapped our different students and contexts, identifying immediate needs and a range of ‘wish list’ skills and possible projects. Centres and course covered: vocational and pre-vocational certificates, VCAL, ESL Certificates and a range of short courses (too numerous to mention). Needs included: communication technology for web conferencing (online staff meetings, verification meetings, VCE Read More …

Getting started

Michael ChalkLeave a commente-learning, Uncategorized

Consider your e-learning needs First thing to do is take a look at your own teaching/learning or centre/course management practices and decide where and how you may want to improve them using e-learning strategies such as: networking with others in your field communicating in real time online storing and sharing resources creating or sourcing innovative learning resources exploring relevant web 2.0 tools for specific purposes getting help with an e-learning project setting up a learning management system Then consider how you are feeling and what you are currently doing in Read More …

e-learning adventures in the North-West

Michael Chalk3 CommentsUncategorized

So it’s time to set off on some new journeys and adventures. Here in the North-West metro region of Melbourne, we’re welcoming a huge nine new organisations and two continuing organisations on board for the 2011-12 e-learning mentor projects.The organisations are: Australian Multicultural Community Services Carlton Neighbourhood Learning Centre (CNLC) * Carringbush Adult Education Inc Djerriwarrh Employment and Education Services Lalor Living & Learning Centre Inc. Laverton Community Integrated Services Inc. Living & Learning Nillumbik Meadow Heights Learning Shop Inc SPAN Community House * Wingate Avenue Community Centre Yarraville Community Centre * Centres continuing from 2011.We’ve decided to establish this blog as a platform for sharing resources and for e-leaders and e-travellers from each organisation to reflect on their progress Read More …

Updates and work changes

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, community, technology

So, it’s clearly been years since i’ve posted in this place. There’s been a whole lot going on in the meantime, including pandemic etc. Since 2017, my teaching has focussed mainly on technology aka “digital literacy” within adult community education (ACE), and i haven’t done much in the way of language and literacy teaching at all. I’ve been working as a “learning facilitator” aka Tour Guide at the Polly Woodside Museum, with the National Trust. For those who didn’t grow up in Melbourne, Polly Woodside is an old sailing ship, Read More …

Writings Reclaimed

Michael ChalkLeave a commenttechnology

I decided to bring posts to this blog from other projects, such as: Digital Learning at PRACE Digital Learning at Lalor Living and Learning ACFE Learn Local Communities of Practice the North-West e-mentor projects from ACFE Learn Local iPad for Seniors at PRACE the 23 Things project from ACFE, CAE and PRACE.   Having written nearly all the text in those places, i wanted gather it all together. It was relatively easy to export from Blogger, and then import into WordPress here. Unfortunately, now i’ve discovered several roadblocks, namely: the Read More …

Mark Hopkins’ story translated into many languages

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy

You remember Mark Hopkins, the adult learner from PRACE who told his story so well, not only in our publication, but also on the SBS Insight tv program last year? Well, some of the stories from this Resilience collection have been translated into other languages for the EPALE* site, and the first story to be translated was Mark’s. *EPALE: Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe. https://goo.gl/XqROOX

Adult Learners in Conversation – “A Fuller Sense of Self”

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, adult literacy, community

Last night Tricia Bowen spoke about her experience of reconnecting with the adult learners who have shared their stories in this volume. I talked about how great it was to join with Tricia and Lynne in the whole creative and collaborative process of editing. Then Lynne Matheson invited us to launch the video into the world, so we all made rocket-launching sounds, and the champagne flowed. * It was such a good experience filming and editing these stories with Tricia. I would love to hear any feedback, especially related to Read More …

Reading between the Lines – SBS Insight focus on Adult Literacy

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy

If you think Australia is a highly literate nation, watch this recent episode of Insight from SBS. This powerful and moving episode features Mark Hopkins one of the students from PRACE. I spoke with Mark as part of the “Stories of Resilience” project, and it’s really heartening to hear his voice in this national forum. All these adult learners show real courage and vulnerability, as they describe their experience for people who have no idea of the extent of this hidden problem. Over 40% of Australians experience some level of difficulty Read More …

Dark Side of the Comment Section

Michael ChalkLeave a commentcommunity, technology

If you’re involved with any kind of online facilitation, you may appreciate this article from The Guardian. They’ve done some research into the comment section, finding that much more abuse is directed at female writers than male. (Also, for web designers, some really good layout effects, especially the way they’ve integrated the graphs and the “how would you moderate this comment” bits.) There’s a whole series around this research, articles interviewing people who have experienced the maelstrom of massive online shaming and bullying.. and articles on ideas for making things Read More …

PageTurners has a new online shop

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, adult literacy, community

Just sent out the latest PageTurners newsletter, letting people know that the new shopping-cart style website is up and running!! It’s taken me much time this year to get the site all updated and e-commercey, so i’m very happy that we’ve finally launched. Woot. You can read the newsletter here. Take a look at the site, tell us what you think. Oh, we need a feedback form don’t we. If you’re not subscribed to the PageTurners email list, you can join via the website.

iPad apps especially for Seniors??

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, technology

I wondered if there are any iPad apps that would be especially useful for people over 55, so i searched the web for  “best apps for ipad for seniors“. Sure enough, there are many many lists: “16 helpful apps for seniors”, “27 bet iPad and iPhone apps for senior citizens”. But are any of them useful.. and how many of these apps are FREE..? Well, some of them are designed to help people by improving things like: Visual accessibility: Silver Surf is a web browser with “large navigation buttons, dynamic text Read More …

Some help files for blogger

Michael ChalkLeave a commenthow to

Here’s a basic intro that Michael made – for low level students really (link: pdf stored in google drive). GCF LearnFree don’t have an intro to blogger, but they do have a great section talking about blogs in general, and an intro to Tumblr instead. Tumblr is much more visual than blogger, which can be text-heavy. Google themselves have a fairly decent help section. Grovo has a few videos showing the basics, including this overview. But they’re a commercial mob, and they’ll want you to pay for more. What good Read More …