Busy week

Last week of term is always busy but I have managed to catch up with all my e-leaders for a brief chat.

Pines Learning: as Jenny is using the wiki she is developing for her uni course, I suggested that she use a new wiki and restrict access to her and her assessor. Automatically started to make it for her when I got home then thought that it would be better if she made it. So, emailed instructions to her to make it. Not a good idea that I am the only one who knows how to create new wikis at Pines Learning. What is that bus gets me ...

Avenue NH Colleen rang me as she hasn't updated her blog and has now forgotten her password. i must follow this up and get back to her. Great to see her enthusiasm. Also asked if she could add another e-leader from her centre for the second semester. I am happy for her to do that.

MDLC Had a chat to Celeste in passing. She is very busy at present but intends to get some work done on her wiki during the holidays. Once again I forgot to remind her to respond to the Doodle and to tell her about the obligation to blog. Will have to schedule a session with her early next term to see how she is going and explain about the blog.

I am proud of my e-leaders

And we're off.........

I met with Judy & Frank from Wavlink today. Judy had informed Frank of his involvement in the project only 3 hours before my arrival. That's the community sector for you - lol.

Frank volunteers at Wavlink helping with their computer class on a Friday. His students have a wide range of skills. We thought it might be an idea to set up basic wikis for those who needed a little more of a challenge. They could tell the class a little about themselves, add pictures etc and when I mentioned they could upload youtube, Frank's eyes lit up although with it came a caution. One of their learners likes 'questionable' sites. I told Frank about the difference between organisers and members and what it meant in relation to monitoring these sites. Delete is a wonderful thing!

I suggested that we start up a wiki for Frank so he could have a bit of a play with it before introducing it to students. I took him on a short tour around the wiki. I  showed him how to start a few pages to work on and he seemed pretty keen. Judy also decided after the time we spent together that she would be giving it a go too.

During the discussions they mentioned a group who are gaining skills for employment and I suggested e-portfolios. Simple ones, but it will give them computer skills and confidence. They liked that idea too.

I will let Frank have a play and see how he manages on his own. I made sure I added a disclaimer for Frank........"That I wouldn't be held responsible for the late hours he would be awake playing with his new toy".

I think they were both inspired and keen to get students involved as another tool but we will be taking small steps to begin with so they feel confident in using them with others.

I will be returning to them after the holidays to catch up and get them onto blogging. In the meantime, Judy will be sharing Frank's email with us so he can attend the PD sessions.

Starting over

This morning, I met with Judy from Wavlink. It had been a while since she even thought about the project and seemed a bit overwhelmed with getting going again. She had her old notes from previous meetings with ideas but it was dated early December. Christmas came and went and the new year began without having the time to go back and think about what to do next.

It seemed starting fresh was going to be the best way and when I asked who was involved, she pointed to herself. We then discussed who else at Wavlink would benefit from getting involved. She's pinpointed the person. A real "Aha!" moment. He helps out with their disability computer class as a volunteer. We have made another appointment to talk together this Friday to make a firm plan.

Judy felt much better after we talked as she is very keen to be involved herself but moreso by working with another person. I think things will roll a little smoother and will take the pressure off Judy herself.

This afternoon I met with Karin & Lisa from Orana. Leeann (manager) was ill unfortunately but they were still keen to meet. Who was I to argue? Orana hadn't started anything on the project so far so it was another blank canvas to work with. Lisa has been managing the Orana website for at least 12 months now and has been doing a brilliant job :)

Orana have a private label wiki which is currently under-utilised but that is set to change. The plan they came up with is to make a wiki to house the tutor's A-Frames, and any other documentation they may need to access if they are working offsite. They also wanted to add a calendar, listing the room bookings so if they wished to add another class, they could see what rooms were available. I think I might pinch that idea :)

Their aim is to have the tutors involved in the process so I am hoping that by learning how the wikis work, they could be utilised in their computer classes.

In the absence of Leeann, we came up with a good plan to present to her when she is well and plan to meet after the holidays.

I also showed them the elluminate room and how it worked, including how to set up their audio. A few funny things happened on their computer but in the end we got there. They have been given the link to the ementor wiki and the recordings so they can see what's happened before.

In both cases, we are starting from scratch but it won't take me long to get things happening.

Gotcha!!

I spent last Thursday & Friday at the ANHLC conference. Day one, presented a basic introduction to Twitter and Day two presented information on the Vic Govt Volunteer Portal.

The twitter presentation turned out to be a time to inspire others to take their first steps into using social media. It's not much different to what we are doing in this project.........getting people to take their first steps.

Unlike those who are involved with this project, many have already made the decison. My audience weren't all convinced that social media was for them.

My first question was, "What brought you to this workshop?".

A couple said they wanted to know the basics so the basics was what they got. Such as...what is twitter, what's a hashtag, what's a retweet and and what's a tweet and who's a twit and who on earth were tweeps? They also benefited from the conversations that followed.

One person was told to attend the session by her organisation and by the end of it, she was excited and couldn't wait to give it a go.

There is always one who is difficult and needed to be convinced in a variety of ways. She hadn't decided to attend any particular session on the day and simply followed the crowd.

We talked about twitter being an instant way of getting news. The statement I made to her was..."Who said we can't be part of that news?". I suggested she use key words that people  may search for and she became silent and thoughtful. I think I had her - lol.

We also talked about the need to have our ducks in a row, so to speak, before engaging in social media. Was their website effective and up to date for people to find out more about their organisation? Which, ultimately, that's where we want them to go. Did their twitter description lead them to the website and explain enough about their particular organisation? I personally think that social media needs to be part of a holistic approach to marketing. Everything needs to compliment and support the other to be effective.

I gave them plenty of simple handouts and utilised Coonara's website, twitter and facebook accounts.
We tweeted, used hashtags and watched tweets show up on the screen as we chatted.

Another big concern was time. How long did all this take? I encouraged them to link their facebook & twitter accounts so it was a single job, rather than two and that neither of them took any longer than sending out an email to their network. When you relate it back to something they are already managing, it made sense. I think this is also a factor in this current project ....time.

Of the 8 attendees, 8 planned to give it a go in some way. Some asked for help along the way and I mentioned this project as a way to link into their local e-mentors for some initial support. Hope that was ok.

Jenny is a Star!

I was greeted by Jenny yesterday with 'did you get my email?'
Well I had not checked my emails and I don't have a fancy phone so she had to explain.

She had made a video!! and uploaded it to her wiki!!!!

But...

It didn't show - just a black screen!

Help!

On investigating this we found that her .wmv file was not viewable. Converting it to a .flv file solved the problem.

Jenny's video welcoming her learners and explaining the course is a great addition to her wiki

Well done, Jenny!
A nice mix of formal and friendly

She has inspired me to create a video to add to my wiki

Guilty of not blogging

Shame
One of the e-leaders (I think it was Lisa) today at our online PD put me to shame - she said that she blogs after every session. She has set the bar for us all to aspire to. Great work!

On-line PD
Attendance was disappointing again but it was great to have 3 enthusiastic attendees. I enjoyed our get together lunch last Thursday where we planned todays session and I met Karen. We got some good work done while we ate.
The session went well and seemed to be appreciated. We gave a showcase of a number of different e-learning tools. Forgot to file share the glossary that Karen had obtained but we can do that next time. Colleen did a great job with an ice breaker and so did Karen.

A lot of things have been happening with me and mine.
MDLC
Wendy is extra busy at present preparing a qualification to add to scope so she is not attending PDs but I see her regularly and address any problems she encounters. She is using the wiki with her Cert IV TAE students.
Celeste has come on board. I had a lively interview (chat) with her and she is keen to use the wiki with her VCE Studio Arts students. We tossed about a number of ideas and she is very keen. She has been unable to attend the last 2 online PDs as she is in the city on Tuesdays. She has tried to access the recordings but has had problems. I saw her again last week and will keep in regular touch with her.

Avenue NH
Caught up with Colleen again last Friday and saw the wiki she has set up for ANHCHA - it looks fabulous! She has done a great job! Now up to inviting participants. She is keen to learn to facilitate in Elluminate for ANHCHA meetings. She has attended the last 2 online PDs and was blown away by what we can do in Elluminate.

Pines Learning
Have been having fortnightly meetings with Jenny. She is going great guns. She has created 4 Jings for her blended delivery Publisher class. She has also used Hot Potatoes to create multiple choice tests for the learners. In fact, I came home today to an email from her asking about Wordle. So when I see her tomorrow I expect that she will have created a Wordle to add interest to her wiki.

bestchance
Unfortunately bestchance have had to withdraw due to pressure of work. This is a great pity as Nooraini was very keen. I am sorry to lose Nooraini. The pressure of work in this industry is becoming crippling.

Me
I have had a wonderful time. The great thing about being an e-Champ is that you are continually reminded about tools that you had not found time to try.
Wordle - I had a go at this and now my Access and Excel class wikipages are adorned with Wordles. So is our Cert IV in TAE wiki.
Quizlet
Found the address written on the first page of my e-learning book so I went in to look at it. Now I am creating flash cards and scatter games of medical word parts as extra resources for my medical terminology students, these will go with the iSpringFree flash movies and Hot Potatoes crosswords I created a couple of years ago.

Getting to know you

I have just visited Patricia from Waverley Adult Literacy in Chadstone to find out her progress. Gloria unfortunately didn't make it to the meeting but I hope to catch up with her some time soon.

Patricia & Gloria had already started a wiki and the aim was to use it for students and tutors. To date, not many tutors have accessed the site and it seemed one person was in charge of updating. We spoke about others uploading information so that it was managed by all and not just one...sense of ownership.

The wiki had a page to be used for the students to get their homework. Homework consisted of downloading an image to their computer and then cropping the image. The cropped image could then be uploaded to the site or link to Flickr, her chosen method of keeping the photos 'in the cloud'.

We spoke about linking to individual student pages from this homework pages to separate student work for their records. She seemed to like that idea :)

There will be meeting with the tutors next week to go through a new course for getting photos to email and the wiki would hopefully become part of that. I offered to go in and talk to the tutors to encourage some enthusiasm. I do hope they take me up on the offer.

Patricia asked about the next blackboard session. Hopefully she will manage to attend our session this afternoon and gain more information about the technologies out there on offer.

I also phoned Karin from Orana to ask if they would like to re-engage in the project. I am yet to receive confirmation from the Manager but if Karin's enthusiasm is anything to go by, I think we'll be working together very shortly!! We came up with a few ideas over the phone and she even emailed me with more........embedding a calendar listing the room allocations! It was something I might even adopt for Coonara :) She was quite keen to use it for tutors to remain in contact about things.

It's really nice to finally get out there and meet with these people who are taking these steps into the E-world.

The Journey Continues

New Year - 2012
A new year and we have given our e-leaders time to settle in - now it is all go.
Lynne, Karen and I have a f2f meeting scheduled for Monday to plan the program. We will still customise training and advice to e-leaders' projects.

Elluminate Session
Lynne sent out a Doodle so that we can time our Elluminate session next week to suit as many of our e-learders as possible.
This session will be a get together, review session and where to from here with a bit of facilitating in Elluminate thrown in.

F2F
I have had f2f meetings with 2 of my e-leaders:
MDLC
Had a chat to Wendy and Rowan - Wendy is flat out busy and Rowan is not too keen. Wendy asked me if we could swap Celeste for Rowan. It is fine with me.

Had a chat to Celeste and she is keen to use the private wikispace with her VCE studio arts students. I did suggest to her that if she sets up the wiki for her students and they use it then it may contribute to her evidence for Facilitate e-Learning which is one of the electives for the Cert IV TAE that she has just started this week. She was delighted and is very keen.

Wendy has been working on a new wikispace for the current intake of Cert IV TAE students and also the proposed Cert II in Desktop Publishing.

Pines Learning
Met with Jenny today. Showed her Wordle which I have been having fun playing with. She has created a great Wordle for the home page of her Certificate III in Business Administration wiki.

She has decided to concentrate on creating learning resources for the on line component of her blended delivery course.
We will meet again in a fortnight by which time she intends to have created:
- 2 Jings
- 1 iSpringFree

I have promised to look into on line quizzes and make a recommendation. She intends to use her existing quizzes on line - a good use of existing resources!
I look forward to our next meeting to see what she produces!

I have also been working with Board Chairman, Julie, helping her with Pines Learning's Board of Management wiki. I will contact her early next week to see how she is going and if she needs any help at present. She is very keen and is doing a great job with the wiki.

bestchance training & Avenue Neighourhood House
I have been in email contact with these e-leaders and will ring them tomorrow to have a chat, see where they are and plan the next steps.

So it is all back on again - I am looking forward to meeting Karen next week and also looking forward to catching up with Nooraini and Colleen.