Face-to-face networking

Michael Chalk1 CommentUncategorized

In spite of our need to keep in touch via various communication technologies (telephone, web conferencing etc), it’s always great to get together in the same room at the same time. Face to face. And there are so many people in ACE e-learning doing great work across the North-West region of Melbourne. On the first of May, we were joined by some wonderful educators and managers from: Glenroy Neighbourhood Learning Centre,  North Melbourne language and literacy, Meadow Heights Learning Shop, Djerriwarrh Employment and Education Services, Carlton Neighbourhood Learning Centre (CNLC),  Read More …

“e-learning – why?” Come to a showcase in June

Michael ChalkLeave a commentUncategorized

Registrations have closed now (22May) as it’s completely full. A very popular day.  Looking for ways to integrate technology more easily with your classroom activities?  This could be the event for you.  “e-learning – why?” A showcase for LearnLocal people and organisations.  Hold the date: 22 June 2012 for your diaries. Come and meet your colleagues face-to-face, share ideas, build your networks, ask questions and learn more about the worlds of e-learning.  This day is free of charge.  To register please follow this link. Here’s the showcase wiki being developed: eshowcase12.acfe.vic.edu.au/ ..and Read More …

Using Powerpoint in the classroom

Michael Chalk3 CommentsUncategorized

What’s so special about using Powerpoint in the classroom? Occasionally I read something that really resonates strongly with my current thoughts about teaching practice: what I do in the classroom, and what I’d like to do better. Rob Lewis, writing for the British Council, has encapsulated what all of us could use with very little additional training and equipment. His reasoning: you don’t need fancy interactive white boards nor many more typing skills beyond what you might have with Microsoft Word already, to sit down with your learners (and a Read More …

Evernote Webinar rescheduled to the 8th May

Michael ChalkLeave a commentUncategorized

Here is the link to the recording of the webinar held 8th May. Competing priorities have pushed out this webinar (scheduled for tomorrow) to the later date of Tuesday, 8th May at 3pm, in our ACFE E-mentor Blackboard Collaborate room. Recently I blogged here about my discovery of this brilliant personal and professional management tool: Evernote. I was also very impressed with Trent Bourne’s webinar for the Australia e-series: here is a link to the recording. So I jumped at the chance to share its many strengths with you via our Read More …

“e-learning – why?” Come to a showcase in June

Michael Chalk1 CommentUncategorized

“e-learning – why?” A showcase for LearnLocal people and organisations. Hold the date: 22 June 2012 for your diaries. Come and meet your colleagues face-to-face, share ideas, build your networks, ask questions and learn more about the worlds of e-learning.  To register please follow this link. Here’s the showcase wiki being developed: eshowcase12.acfe.vic.edu.au/ More information as soon as we can.

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 …

Evernote everywhere

Michael ChalkLeave a commentUncategorized

It’s awhile since I promoted a web tool in this blog – but I’ve become a convert to Evernote, not just because the folks at Evernote proudly promote it with a video showing Jack and Jill (Jill’s the smart one with Evernote, Jack’s got sticky notes all over the place and is totally disorganised!). Evernote is widely used for grouping your Notes (free text) in Notebooks (folders of related notes) across platforms on a PC or Mac and synchronised to your Netbook/ laptop, iphone (apparently – I don’t have one Read More …

North West region “community of practice”

Michael ChalkLeave a commentclassroom, community, e-learning, Uncategorized

Victoria Market I’ve just met with some wonderful teachers and managers of the North-West region and Sue O’Brien of the NW ACFE regional office, in at the AMES “Multicultural Hub” opposite the Victoria Market. From the agenda, i was expecting to give a presentation with an overview of blended learning, and some examples of who’s doing it around the regions. Because it was about 10 of us around a table, the session quickly turned into a conversation where i hope most people had some input. We tackled the really fundamental Read More …

Collaborative authoring.. a live session

Michael Chalk2 CommentsUncategorized

Thanks to all who attended this session.We attempted a “live document editing activity” during the session, which went pretty well i thought (michael). Jill was nervous about it, because she was running that activity, and it can be nerve-wracking. From my perspective, she was amazing. It takes a lot of skill to do application-sharing and web touring all at once. Here’s the presentation from the session. Please post any follow-up questions in the comments here, or over on the network “Ning”. Recording link to follow. 3pm, Tuesday 20 March. Learn all about 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 …

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 …