Today’s forum sessions were fun! There was Wink and wiki and audio, not to mention weird echoes!

Diana’s session on using Wink to capture your lectures and audio was a hit, as was Aaron’s discussion on using wiki in your classroom. Participants began to compile a list of ideas on how to engage learners in discussion on a wiki – a great collaborative activity in itself! I think a very useful guide will develop from this.

Moir’s session on adding audio lecturers to your online course was simple, effective and downright practical!

Image: http://www.tomrafteryit.net/

Sue and Kerry went to town on using ARED(v2) and this is now available for CIT teachers via a quick download to your log-in profile. ARED is a quick way to get your content looking great and is easy to use – no special web design knowledge is required!

Day 2 of the forum looks set to engage as well, beginning with your virtual presence at the CIT strategic planning meeting – jump into VET Virtual and have your say about CIT’s future. Colin will be facilitating the online aspects of this discussion.

Marg Robson presents some tips on getting interactive with VET Virtual, while Anne and Moir tell us about their e-learning innovations project. Following that, David bravely jumps into the world of quizzes, and then we finish up the forum with a look at the national LORN, with Kerry and Sue.

What a great way to see in the semester break, don’t you think!

See you online tomorrow…!

Flex:Ed held it’s first Forum on flexible learning for the year, titled Developing Us…Online!

The sessions were short and sweet at half an hour and we ran these back-to-back over three days – full on! We tried out VETVirtual, the virtual collaborative space developed through the Framework as part of the Access to Bandwidth project.

HUGE thanks to Chris Richter from the VETVirtual team for stepping in to most (if not all) the sessions to see how things were running! Kudos Chris! We had a very annoying echo at the beginning which Chris sorted out for us in no time!

The sessions were facilitated by CIT teachers sharing their experiences in online learning and teaching, using wikis, slideshows, videos, even old man WebCT! We looked at game-based techniques for interaction, Toolboxes and learning design, virtual world (Croquet) and e-portfolios – the list goes on!

A HUGE thanks goes out to the faciltiators for devoting their time to facilitating these conversations! And thank you to all who participated in between their calsses, virtually or otherwise. The VETVitrual sessions won hands down over the face-to-face sessions – it has been a busy time of year too.

We will be running more sessions shortly, after much feedback about when the next forum will be!

Update: There was a slight change of focus in this conversation. Check out Steven’s revised slides. More reflections on the session itself will follow shortly. Thanks to all who attended… and apologies to those who attempted to connect via Skypecast – it seemed the server was playing up!

Steven Parker, Leigh Blackall and the THED network are back with a bang in the New Year with this first conversation for 2008:

The future of learning in a networked world, hive mind or free mind?

Let’s talk about ecological, economic and social/political forecasts, with some educational models in response, then ground it all in real practical educational development for Travel and Tourism Sector and Education. See link to slides for references to key global economists, environmentalists and political scientist and to innovative educational models.

Starts January 22, 15:00 AEST [4am UTC (check your time)]

Check out Steven’s provocative slides: http://tinyurl.com/26ph9o

THED have regular conversations across the state and across the Tasman so if you’re keen to hear what other teachers are doing online and elsewhere, AND want to share your own experiences, then this is your big chance! Jump into the conversations via the THED wiki, or get in touch with FLS (if you’re at CIT) for more info.

The Edublogger has been set up by Edublogs — “the largest education community on the Internet” where you can sign up for a free WordPress-powered blog — and is dedicated to helping educational bloggers with using emerging technologies in education, share their own experiences and promote the blogging medium.

Welcome to The Edublogger!

Sue Waters has joined James at Edublogs as writer of the new blog, The Edublogger. If you’ve yet to delve into blogging, then this would be a good starting point for you – Sue will go to ANY length to get you blogging well and using other great Web2.0 services in your learning and teaching!

As Sue herself says:

As a blogger I’m about — practical application of technologies in education, and most importantly HELPING OTHERS learn how to use these technologies.

We’ll be delving into The Edublogger from the ACT with gusto Sue and the best of luck!

technorati tags:Sue_Waters, edublogs, blogging, TheEdublogger

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Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Why I blog and the perils of perfection paralysis

…why do I blog?

No,
I’m not some perfectly noble, wise, all knowing being. I’m a human
being and goodness knows I have my share of flaws. Many of these
reasons have evolved but they are my reasons. We all have reasons.

Vicki Davis outlines her reasons for blogging. I think they make good sense as a general reflection on blogging motives and focus for others, particularly those who are new to blogging or perhaps have had mediocre blogging experiences (either as bloggers or as readers of blogs).

In short Vicki talks about:

1. creating an archivable, searchable record of herself (something I’d put at the top of my list too)
2. experience being the greatest teacher (you need to experience to ‘know’)
3. the importance of voice (for me, this is important in terms of personal development but also in terms of practice-based research)
4. the power of encouragement (in her example, I think Vicki aptly conveys the message that it really is about connecting with others)
5. the power of ‘being part of it’ (this varies for me, depending on how ‘deep’ and often I choose to be engaged in ‘it’)
6. passion (a personal bent and driver, of course. Whether it’s a passion for teaching, or writing, or for simply displaying your passion through the blogging process/medium!)

Posts like Vicki’s are really useful in making the blogging process (and reflective processes) more transparent. As you’d note in the comments following Vicki’s post, others are appreciative of Vicki sharing her thoughts. Not only that, it’s inspired further questioning from commenters, which really highlights the connectedness blogging supports (and in turn is supported by).

So why do YOU blog (or not)?

PS. Thanks to del.icio.us/dnorman for this link.

technorati tags:blogging, edublogging, reflection, writing, voice, motivation, personal_development

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