Last assisgnment submitted….Woohoo….

I’m with you Kerry! What a journey! Informative, stressful, exciting, intriguing, meaningful, confounding, intense…..and everything in-between. Thank you to all and yes thank you David!
Cheers and Good luck everyone!!!
Jane Michele 🙂

kjsblog2

Well, what a journey that was….how good did it feel to hit the submit button and know that I can now enjoy the rest of the year without worrying about an assignment due date.

I just want to wish everyone participating in EDC3100 ‘good luck’ and David, thank you for the informative, although sometimes stressful, journey!

Cheers,

Kerry 🙂

PS: I’m now off to the beach…..

View original post

Another Business topic

A very interesting set of points! (and I’m sure could spark a passionate debate!) ….here is a little reading somewhere close to the same thread! “Nice girls don’t get the corner office” (Lois P. Frankel).

seasidegroup2014

OK I am in the zone of getting ready for Prac so I am immersing myself into the world of business to get ready. This following link is for students and when they are wanting to own their own business and some guidelines on interacting with employees. The following Things Employers never tell their employees but should is an interesting read

View original post

Question: What is your recollection and understanding of the theories/models/frameworks we’ve mentioned?

Here is my recollection of some of the theories/models and frameworks we have covered in the subject ICT & Pedagogy.

Theory	Purpose	Application to Assignment 3/Professional Experience
CLEM Model	Help understand how to learn about a new ICT and how to use it to enhance student learning.	If there are any new ICTs you need to use it might help your explorations. Hence might be useful as a part of the planning process for Part B.
TPACK framework	Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. 3 kinds of knowledge T/P/C essential to building intelligent and useful technology integration.	Could assist Teacher to utilize technology to improve student learning that is pertinent to the content of the course.
Backwards design	Setting outcomes or goals and working back from there to organize the instruction of those goals or outcomes. (Identify, Determine, Design)	As the goals/outcomes are the start, it may be a way of ensuring the instruction is written or designed more specifically to the content and the appropriate outcome.
SAMR Model	A framework of thinking and using ICT and Pedagogy in a way that provides productive outcomes. Substitution (Same task, New technology replaces old) Augmentation (Same task, same technology but increased functionality) Modification (the technology helps redesign the task) Redefinition (Design and create a new task once unimaginable).	A great way to think out of the box, utilizing a familiar foundation as the basis.
TIP Model	Technology Integration Planning: a way an institution can plan to integrate technology	Provides a framework to plan integration of technology into a course holistically for an institute or team
The 5Es	A model to develop quality teaching practices. Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate.	A model that might provide a teacher the questions needed to ensure quality practice.
WALT & WILF	A strategic framework to engage students more actively in their learning. WALT – We are learning too (The learning intention) and WILF – What I’m looking for (The success criteria)	A strategy that empowers the learner to direct their learning.
Connectivism	A learning theory for the digital age.
Bloom’s taxonomy	A hierarchical way of organizing thinking and learning skills in order to meet learning objectives.	A systematic approach to learning and acquiring new skills.
Postman’s 5 things	An approach to ensuring an ICT Rich learning environment	A set of questions/guidelines that provide an in depth approach to ensuring your learning environment is appropriately ICT rich.
Toolbelt theory/TEST framework	To enable students to assemble their own collection of solutions that they collect, access and implement. This collections of tools comes from analysing the task at hand, the environment, the students own skills and what is available around the student to use. It is imperative the student is making the choices. TEST- Task (What needs to be done), Environment (Where, time, how, interactions, outcomes), Skills (Strengths, weaknesses, aptitude for tool integration), Tools (Best that bridges the gap, timeline for acquiring tool/skill, back up tools, critical reflection).	A series of strategies that encourage self help and the ability to broaden ones PLN (personal learning network) and PKM (personal Knowledge Management/Mastery).
PKM	Personal Knowledge Mastery is a personal way of constructing processes to help make sense of our world and be more effective and productive. Jarche suggests 3 main parts to PKM – Seek (observe and study), Sense (Challenge & Evaluate; tentative opinions), Share (participate).	Enables the learner to proactively make forward movements towards self-constructing learning and skill.

All fascinating…..confusing at first as there seemed so many (and I found others) but I am feeling grateful at having something like this to use as a basis for planning, learning, creating  and implementing quality educational environments.

CLEM and My.Tafe – interesting!

Well we are coming to the pointy end and I am now catching up after submitting assessments for other subjects…phew!! As TAFE moves through it’s amalgamationa and changes we are about to take on a new LMS (Learning Management System)…and all I can say is yeay!!

The current system is My.TAFE (Janison) and personally I have found it to be challenging and disappointing.  I was very much excited to use it when I first found out about it.  I attended workshops to learn how to use My.Tafe and although it was a little complex I began to work my way through setting up pages and courses etc.  However then came my workload which as I became more immersed in my position became larger and larger.  Soon there was no time to spend setting up pages for subjects or courses……and soon I began to forget the skills I had learnt.

Over many years I have then moved in and out of using My.Tafe….and nearly every time  it was fraught with problems.  Initially it was difficult to get our students on to the site, then it was cumbersome to navigate, then it became the process that to set up a site you had to work through the ‘epod’ team.  They however had to solicite extra projects to gain income to keep afloate and therefore were not there for the sole purpose of the teachers and their course and inevitably, there became a delay or waiting period in order to get a site developed and set up…..problem after problem after problem.

It was interesting to then look at the CLEM model and identify the answers regarding My.Tafe:

1. Community

There is an active group of teachers within TAFE that use My.Tafe but it is not consistant across the insitute.  In fact it was often used to provide Professional Development for the staff.  We have a few different communities such as student cohorts and staff cohorts that use it, but this is very intermittant compared to the amount of courses and staff we have.  To get help we would need to go to the site itself and navigate through or speak to one of the Librarians or once you were able to book time with the epod team you could get very good help from them.

2.Literature

The literature is all available to teach oneself about My.Tafe however, there is simply no time to spend in doing so.  An argument could be made that one must make time, however we are quite overwhelmed in our everyday systems with either workloads or cumbersome processes.

3. Examples

There are many quality examples of course set up where the set up is slick, user friendly and a cohort of students has been put through, however most of these examples are used for quite small numbers of students or intermittant use.

4.Model

One is able to set up a site that contains a course which on the left hand side has Tabs for each subject and on those Tabs one can place documents or information or links to sites.  There is also the ability for students to work through information in synchronous or Asynchronous time, and also for a student to submit assessment on or through this platform….again….if it works!  There have been many many examples of students saying they have completed work and the system does not register it, or the student simply cannot access the site, the page or a particular document.  I have had all of these experiences happen to me personally so I speak from hands on experience and it is very frustrating! I can only imagine the untold stress this would cause a student attempting to submit work or working on a very tight time schedule.  Although as teachers we become fairly competent at working out technical problems we really do tend to need to go back to the epod team for assistance if their are problems.  Regarding the students and help, there is really only the teacher and obviously with our workloads, assisting a student with a technical problem becomes low priority next to course content and assessment.

Quite the dilemma, bring on the new LMS!

One down…one to go!

I can relate to Amy’s concerns of managing the juggling act of Full time work, children, Uni. (2 subjects in which I find 1 subject hard at the best of times!) and home.
The great part of technology for me is that once I have resources written (power points, digital documents, links etc.), I can use them again and again adding to my resources rather than re inventing the wheel each time.!
You can do it Amy!!
🙂
Jane

EDC3100 ICT and Pedagogy

I keep reading everyone’s posts about the commencement of prac like that of  mrsmckinty, Masons and Sara’s blog (im sure there a lots more) but it got me thinking about the juggling act I am about to encounter again.

So this semester I put in a request to do two prac placements to enable me to be done at the end of next year. It only feels like I just finished my previous prac (2 weeks ago) when I now have to prepare for the next 3 week prac. Its going to be challenging for me, I am very confident in my ability to teach students, although there are a few aspects in which I want to improve on, but I am just very well aware of the challenge it brings in regards to my life. I get very stressed trying to get up with the demands of prac, home…

View original post 93 more words

Five things we need to know about technological change. by Neil Postman

1) Culture always pays the price for technology

2) There are always advantages and disadvantages of new technologies resulting in the impact on individuals to divide between winners and losers.

3) Every technology has a philosophy which codifies our world; how do we think, what do we do now, which of our senses are enhanced and which are dampened.

4) Technological change is not an additive it is an ecological change (Technology does not add something but rather, it changes everything).

5) Media tends to become a mythic, as in it becomes understood as the natural order of things an innate gift or response, rather than something to be challenged or modified.

Postman’s 5 have given me some great in depth moments of thought of which I have not finished contemplating as yet.  They are exceptional questions with regards to approaching a Teaching and Learning atmosphere that is ICT Rich and ensuring you are provide this environment in it’s best possible atmosphere rather than using ICT resources just for the sake of using ICT.

I think these are questions I will use when setting up my Teaching Plans, perhaps once I have written the plans and then reflect again after implementation to see whether my answers have changed.

Jane 🙂

What I know about planning lessons in Adult education environments.

Hmmm …..this is what I know so far:

Students need to be reached where they are at and inspired to then come on the learning journey (assumptions cannot be made as to the stage or level a student is at regarding content or LLN (Language, Literacy and Numeracy) skills and knowledge).

A majority of my students come in with a plethora of learning difficulties from their past (school, courses etc) this can initially cause some learning difficulties as I identify and work through these with students.  Often students are not even able to identify a difficulty for themselves and require assistance and feedback from teachers to do this.

My lesson plans MUST be engaging, as my students (adults) can leave my class anytime they like.

My lessons must reflect and relate to industry otherwise my students will challenge me or disengage from my class.

My lessons must meet the National Training Package requirements and rules, whilst also meeting the standards required for any Registered Training Organization.

I must consitantly update my resources (and my skills and knowledge) to reflect industry and the demographic of students that attend my classes.

I prefer to conduct an interactive and reflective class where input is constantly solicited from me by the students in order to colloborate and provide a reciprical learning environment. (I am not the keeper of all great knowledge, I learn from the students and they learn from me).

Maintain awareness of how my subjects are incorporated within the whole qualification.

Ensure I am maintaining my Personal Learning Networks in order to better educate myself and my students.

Professional Experience…..to know or not to know!!!

As I was pondering on how I would approach my professional experience I became aware of the excitement of approaching teaching classes with a new armory of resources and a new attitude to ICT (ever so slightly).  I am and have always been quite in favour of utilizing ICT in any manner I can.  I am usually the first one in my team to take on new processess, forms or Learning Management Systems.  However there are also some difficulties I have become a little complacent about over my time working at TAFE.  The primary issue is I have learnt long ago to rely on my own resources as it is 8 times out of 10 that the computers, internet, log on, projector and other such items are often not working in the classrooms.  I found this not only frustrating but very stressful as I might have prepared a (what I thought) really great power point presentation with lots of interaction and hyperlinks etc and found that once I arrived at the classroom, there was usually something not working or it was going to take up a large part of the class to get it working.  The silver lining is I have become quite proficient at solving minor ICT issues, AND I always turn up for my classes early!

So as I move into this subject I am currently completing and incorporate the content into my classes so as to develop ICT rich lessons, I realized I must have a change of attitude so that I could freely explore the subject content and ways to assimillate this into my classes.

Below are my answers to one of our forum questions for those who may find Vocational Education a little different from their practical experience:

1. How many days long is the EDC3100 Professional Experience?

15 days (25 hours BVET)

1. How much teaching must you do?

BVET – 25 hours of direct group instruction (fully responsibility under the Mentors instruction).

Day 1 to 5 – 1/3 of each day

Day 5 to 10 – ½ of each day

Day 10 to 15 – 2/3rds of each day with 1 full day.

1. Where is the lesson planning template must you use for all your lessons?

The lesson plan template can be found under forms at

http://www.usq.edu.au/current-students/assessment/professional-experience/forms

1. How many of the lessons you implement on Professional Experience, must you submit for Assignment 3?

You must submit 5 Lesson plans including reflections.

1. My mentor is helping organise the school’s cross country and has to be at school at 7:30am on the day. Do I need to be there?

YES!

1. What feedback on my teaching should I be gathering and what should I do with it?

Weekly Feedback (on template provided) Completed by student and Mentor

Professional Experience Report (on template provided) Completed by Mentor

EDC3100 ICT Statement (on template provided) Completed by Mentor

I should be discussing any feedback given by my mentor, with my mentor and where possible and appropriate, make changes according to that feedback. If not possible to make changes immediately, then note feedback and strategies to implement appropriate changes for future planning.

1. There are very, very few ICT resources in my Professional Experience context, how can I possible develop ICT-rich lessons?

Ensure I am utilizing the resources currently available, fully. Develop a Personal Learning Network to further develop my Personal Knowledge Management in order to source quality ICT resources appropriate to my area of teaching the students’ needs and my content area of expertise.

New Technologies (for me!)

While I have been studying ICT I am also completing another subject Music Teaching 2 (these are my last two subjects before I complete 5 years of study!).  I am required to provide a recording of one lesson that I conduct as part of my assessment. …..Here is where the meltdown came!! Then I thought….:”I can do this, I am learning about ICT and look how much more I know now than when I started”…so I went to our equipment cupboard at work and found a ZOOM Q3, a recording device I can use to record my lesson!!!!

This device has a USB directly attached and can upload to Facebook! I have since had a play with the device and now can see what a wonderful tool this will be for formative and summative assessment! (including the process of RPL, Recognition of Prior Learning).

I can use this device to record students in a verbal assessment, record social scenario’s, and record discussions in class which I can then upload to something like Dropbox where students can access the recording and view at their own discretion! Woohooo!!

Jane

The 5 E’s….& Contstructivist ponderings!

As I ponder the many theoretical perspectives we are learning through the course of “ICT & Pedagogy” at the University of Southern Queensland, I attempt to link and make sense of all this information being supplied to us.  At times insanely confusing and at times thoroughly inspiring!!

As I read through the SAMR Model (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition), the 5 E’s (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate), and various other models and theories, it occurred to me that I see the thread of constructivism theory through out these models.  It also occurred to me that I would see that thread, as I am a learner who needs to make meaning of everything I see and am in contact with and when I am unable to make meaning, I cannot simply sit back and accept.  I will continue to explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate my understanding until I find peace in the knowledge!   This understanding of myself has given me great insight into why I am the type of teacher I am.  My school experiences were very negative and I did not complete my schooling.  I was a different learner, although very compliant and not belligerent and wilful, I just could not stay on track or if I made meaning in a different way I was made to feel that I was different or wrong.  I can now see that I was a product of the knowledge we had at the time regarding teaching and learning.  Now……. we know better!!

I align very much with the constructivist approach, that posits learning draws on existing skills and knowledge to provide a platform from which to develop (and assimilate) new understandings and skills.  This to me….is very student focused: acknowledging where the student is, then inspiring them to further development.

Some well known constructivists are Lev Vygotsky, Jean Piaget, John Dewey and Jerome Bruner, each with their own perspectives on how learning occurs.

I am thoroughly enjoying this process of understanding as it identifies more clearly for me, my modes operandus as a person and as a teacher and how the two intertwine.  This in turn informs me why some ICT’s resonate with me and why some don’t.  I don’t like complete packages….I like packages that allow some individual constructing of knowledge to occur, scaffolding!

Jane