Jocylyn

Sloodle – integration of Moodle into the background of Moodle – ‘simulation linked object oriented dynamic learning environment’ http://www.sloodle.org/moodle/ Jos is just starting to explore will let us know what she discovers.

Draw Anywhere – online drawing tool, build components together, output as pdf, flowcharting examples http://www.drawanywhere.com/ Jos’ example http://www.drawanywhere.com/live/78fa29802c841.aspx

Poll Everywhere  – as highlighted by Roger, publish results from Twitter, SMS etc into Powerpoint presentation.

Wolfram Alpha -not a search engine, but rather finds knowledge immediately.

Kate

Experimenting with Slide – embedding a Slide presentation into the banner area of WebCT as a simple embedded banner - gives the impression of a Flash banner that is achievable by a moderate skill level – looks like it would be harder to do than it was. Overcomes the ‘flat look’ of a typical WebCT course.

Deirdre

Showed us through the back end of the new Taroona Community Site – looks like a great content management system – straight forward and with enough controls to make it individual. http://taroona.tas.au/

Kirsty

Portable Apps

Jacquie

Podbean http://www.podbean.com
Wanted a site for storing video and being able to access it elsewhere. Using webcam to record video, edit/ convert on computer and then upload flv file to site. Backend looks like it runs on WPMU.

Peta

5-6 Es Poster being thought about with Bruce and Damian. Thinking about how useful it would be for teachers – some people get diverted by jamming lots of content in, 6 Es would be a good guide for people in early discussions about resource planning. A poster to catch people’s eye as a talking point to help people focus their effort. Referral to website and Professional Learning Team for further assistance.

And…

There are some sticking points. As the team which supports eXe amongst other tools for the organisation we have had to learn the workarounds and limitations of the application. We’ve learnt where to push eXe past it’s limits, and where to leave well alone. Some workarounds we only show those people comfortable with html coding.

So, rather than looking for another/ an additional tool, I spent some time thinking about what we could feasibly do to make eXe ‘better’.

Ideas thus far:
- Get new styles rolled out. This is in hand. There are 2 more to come. We commissioned these last year.
- Perhaps develop/ decide on a new default template that is more modern (eg 3d buttons, gradients for header bar, ‘would look at home on an iphone’ look and feel)
- investigate/ develop iDevices that are more VET oriented. See below for one.
- do some documentation about which style in which stylesheet controls the look of a page section (there are 3 that, combined, control the look and feel of an exported exe resource). This should make it easier to make custom styles. We’ve talked about this for a while and never got around to doing it.
- see if we can get an ARED/Captivate embedding iDevice programmed. (We use ARED quite a bit in house as a simple interactivity builder and we like the activities embedded in the page rather than just linking to them but it isn’t a quick & easy process)
- see if we could have a YouTube embedder made to simplify the process.

Initial concept for a new iDevice.

Now I’m off to catch a Python programmer!

Me, I have ‘found files’. Came across these questions prepared in a handout for a long forgotten workshop.A Used to start thinking and discussion around learning design by scoping out the landscape.

Purpose: To get a picture of the Learning Design currently in place and how it relates to the external environment and any planned/needed changes

Describe your industry – what is important to them – evidence (skills demand/ changes, regulation, history, future, what does a new entrant need? What does an experienced person need? Large – small business dominance?)

Describe your students (educational background, motivations for being at TAFE, working/not working, age, tech capability, career dev or career change, selection process)

What are the desired outcomes from the course? Global and specific.

How do you check to make sure you’ve achieved those outcomes?

What are the freedoms and constraints that you have? (on what basis have you established this?)

What is the general learning approach to the course now? Approaches used for practical and underpinning knowledge?

How are people assessed?

What resources do you use to support learning? How do they fit together? Any tools or equipment you use specifically to support learning (in addition to industry specific equipment)?

Download link What role will your learning resource play? wmv file only at the moment, sorry!

Bringing four new staff members into a team (or what was left of it) is an interesting task and over the break I was musing about how best to explain the nature of the role on a day-to-day basis. Let’s see, I could have:

• passed out a copy of the Statement of Duties
• written a list of common tasks
• talked about workflow
• concocted a story about her week, or
• asked one of the existing RDAs to describe a typical week

When doing my planning I did write some notes down and got the content I wanted to convey about both what Pippa did, and also how she did it. OK information but not very exciting in that form. It all got a bit ‘listy’ and I felt it might come across as an overwhelming to-do list to some of the new staff.

And then I had a brainwave!

I quickly found a DIY diary page generator (thanks to http://www.diyplanner.com/node/6210 ) and mocked up a handwritten week of diary entries.

Pippa - Click for full week view (pdf)

I believe this was a good way of showing this information in a very human way. It enabled discussion about working hours, dedicating time to your own professional development, the way that ‘drop-ins’ can use chunks of time very easily and more.

So often we go to a computer to generate ‘tidy’ looking info but sometimes there is real value to be gained by using imagery that is very much human-generated.

It seems like a long time since I have made the time to get out the pretty textas for a mindmap – whiteboard markers on my office whiteboards and scrappy bits of lined note paper have had to suffice recently. I’ve got to say this is one of the things I am truly looking forward to – having the time, making the time and working with the time I will have in different ways.

Friday was final day of resulting – so lots of autographing of “non start” forms for staff who enrolled in the Cert 4 and Diplomas of TAA and promptly disappeared.

Here is a mindmap about how I see my new role in 2008 (ef_role.pdf, 904kb)

Hmmm, back in a moment when I see how to upload the pdf into the new version of wordpress….

UPDATE: found the solution – the theme I was using for some reason meant I could not see the Add Media button in the Post editor.