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.
Yes, we were all shown up by Tricia from WALP who blogs after every session. She is a triumph isnt she! I agree that the session went well. However, reflecting on things that could have gone better - we did not start until well past the 4 pm start time and consequently, went over the finish time. This could be remedied by setting the timer to count down to the start time which would remind everybody.
ReplyDeletePositives - Giving Colleen the option to let me role-model the ice-breaker before she did it was a good idea. She went on to do it herself later on quite confidently.
Choosing some tools to showcase and giving examples to let people see how they had been utilised by tutors etc really sparked a lot of interest as people said that they were sparking off ideas as we talked. That's what its all about!
To allow people to really see how the tools work and how they can customise them for their own purposes it might be a good idea in future sessions to give them homework to pick one of the tools, create something from it, reflect on the process in their blog and give a brief feedback in the next online session. However, would this put too much pressure on them and maybe put them off attending sessions?
Asking them for permission to share their blogs in order to feedback and support each other went down OK - however, there were only a few people there so will have to email the others and run it by them before sending out all email addresses to everyone.
Just some random thoughts!
Lynne
Yay for Tricia. Good on her for blogging.
ReplyDeleteI think the thing is, when you use technology to the level we do, we have so many gadgets to play with and monitor that the blogging is just one more and, in my case, can go on the backburner. Once I sit down though, I tend to write a lot.
Giving them ideas to go away with as we did yesterday worked really well I think and I was quite fascinated as to what they would find useful but that's what is great about this, the difference in how we and what we are using. Not sure how the homework suggestion would go down Lynne but we can always suggest it - lol. Perhaps some of them will be inspired by yesterday to just give it a go.
I think sharing the blogs is good. It's always nice to see how others are coping with their challenges and enjoying their triumphs.
May also give us ideas for further PD if there is a recurring theme.
I like your random thoughts Lynne. They start my random thoughts off too :)
Hello Christine. Reject the shame!! Don't be too hard on yourself.
ReplyDeleteI'm like you, i think i should but don't always get around to it in time. We had a face-to-face session for the NW region on Tuesday and i promised i'd blog the notes as soon as possible.. but people are still waiting and it's Thursday already.
Having said that, it's a bit like transferring your hand-written notes to a computer file: the sooner you do it, the better for memory and flow etc ;-)
Hang in there,
michael