Tag: change

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 …

Great walls of fire

Michael ChalkLeave a commenttechnology

i’m currently working in a very large country north of Australia, which is renowned for having a “Great Firewall”. i should begin by acknowledging that this is a tremendous cultural experience, and i’m thoroughly overwhelmed by the sense of opportunity. However, sure enough there is no access to => facebook or twitter, => google docs, => anything on blogspot. (So Dale, if you were thinking of exporting your free ESL club to the good people of Szechuan.. think again. The international blog community only extends so far, ironically blocked by Read More …

"Skills" Victoria – one bite of the cherry thanks!

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace

Certificate of General Education for Adults (CGEA) level 3 is considered “foundation level training”, under the new regime. However, Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) Intermediate is considered “Skills Creation”, and comes under a different set of funding criteria. The fact that i’m struggling with here is that intermediate VCAL is based on CGEA level 3. In many respects they are the same. If you already have a Certificate 2 in Anything, the Victorian government will fund your study of the CGEA 3.. but they will not fund you to Read More …

Jumping Ship.. microsoft begone!

Michael ChalkLeave a commenttechnology

Well the organisation may be upgrading to windos7 and ms office ’07.. but i’m jumping ship. Migrate to “The Ribbon“? Send people “docx” files that word’03 can’t open? i say no. (Ironically Open Office can open these word 2007 files, even though microsoft office 2003 cannot.) For operating system, i’ll try Linux and apple. For an office suite, i’ll continue to learn Open Office and google docs. Open Office has a portable version i can run from the USB drive. Every time microsoft upgrades, they try to make life easier Read More …

Turn the page

Michael ChalkLeave a commenttechnology

This help desk episode has been very “viral”: it reminds me of a good article on the future of the book, “The Book is Dead, Long live the Book“, from Priscilla Murphy. People have predicted the demise of the book for a very long time. In 1894, one writer predicted that the phonograph and the kinetograph would rapidly substitute paper-based text with audio. Murphy explores and questions three themes, rivalry between media, that they are competing for limited public attention, so every dollar spent on new media = a dollar Read More …