reflection of academic year

this is the time that we reflect on our work during the year. Over the last two days I have attended several "boutique" pre-graduation events and witnessed the power of success. Tomorrow is our Polytechnic Graduation. We will walk in procession through the main street of Dunedin and many folk will stand to applaud our graduates. Post school education is taken very seriously in this city. BUT one of the more powerful events was the pre-graduate evenrt for Maori graduates. Many were distance people working through blended learning courses and the Assessment of their Prior Learning through our unique facilitated process.Powerful because their communities need these people to have qualifications and are prepared to travel from one end of New Zealand to the other to support their folk at Graduation. The process towards success will include engagement through Moodle (a learning management system), Mahara (a digital portfolio tool) and/or the commercial Skype as well as regular phone and e-mail. The challenge of the distance candidate for APL is an ever present one and those of us who facilitate their progress towards assessment need to be constantly upgrading and practisign our computer and digital skills.