recognising learning

porgress up and down

2011-08-05T00:35:00.000-07:00

I have recently been involved in a serious and important discussion around how to assess experiential learning and match it with taught stuff. It is like copmparing apples with oranges, BUT if you shift up a conceptual level they are "fruit".
SO how do we recognise Fruit? can we allow distinctive varietal differences? or do we have a must have and might have list?
are the critical definitions of fruit sufficient? or do we need a flavour of each specialty (major) fruit?
quite a challenge really, AND very important when prior/exepriential learning is presented to assess.
I'd love some comments on this from you all.

workbased learning

2011-08-01T00:15:00.001-07:00

I wonder often if the world recognises some of the "hidden" aspects of learning at work. oh yes, there is the skill demonstration, and sometimes the "you would be wise to.." mentoring, but aside from that?
If all workers were required (under the most dictatorial regime you might imagine) to document thoughts/feelings/learnings what would aprear. I suspect that something we might see as Grounded Theory might emerge. then the challenge is to support the working learner to compare their groundedness with the formalities.
So how does the wolrd recognise the learning? maybe the world has to challenge its own assessment practices.

2010-12-10T01:23:00.000-08:00

Today was Otago Polytechnic graduation. The section in which I work -CAPABLENZ -that works with experienced people to promote critical reflections of that experience towards a presentation to a panel of expert assessors, had 100 graduands. The qualifications included tertiary teaching; Apllied management; Youth Work; Business administration; Building surveying; Counselling;career practice; Construction management;Design (Fashion); Design (Product).

It is an affirmation of the value of experienced people and their timely links to reflection on their experience.
It is also an affirmation of the value of intentionally supportive practice for those who have not been part of the regular education system for some time.

This is what makes the work worth while.
AND the challenge is how to work well with distance people.

2010-10-28T01:32:00.000-07:00

I wonder if what we see is what is there? I have brought many biases and interpretations to education and my work with learners that I'm sure have been slightly off-focus. It is in the listening to the learner that the lens is recalibrated.the mini conference topics will allow this focussing to happen I'm sure.

restraining (retraining) Tweets

2010-10-03T02:58:00.000-07:00

I have had a Twitter account for a month now. In that time I have followed several people and learned some personal and some professional details of their lives. (I have also connected with a relative and that is a bonus.) the meeting I attended didn't do it for me, as my tweets got lost somewhere and so didn't gain traction.
I have decided that for the moment my on line personality and the platform that Twitter affords this is not of sufficient reward to continue.
I'm interested in the recent work on Web3 presence and wonder if we are simply working through a period of web2 stuff to get us all to be without a computer at all?

which system,which tool?

2010-09-23T00:10:00.000-07:00

having experienced several platforms for connecting and found most of them rather frustrating, (including Boldchat that the NZ Career service uses), I'm wondering about the whole notion of having an e-learning prescence.
I find the cautions of Synapsis rather helpful. certainly Plan B is an omnipresent imperative.
alas, we don't always have one.
So we are left with the notion that the technology can (and often does) drive the pedagogy- a situation I find almost intolerable.

beaking out all over

2010-09-10T21:52:00.001-07:00

and no it isn't only spring that has broken out.

the breakout time in Elluminate has shown our collective wish to have:
1)timers showing in all the rooms- well the wonderful Jo Hart says yes you choose the "seen by all" option and that will happen.

2) screens loaded in each room. again JoHart gives us plenty of answers and more besides. Thank goodness for such people, as the material from Elluminate itself is really only promotional- what you can do rather than how.

The other suggestions from Sarah around room leaders or what we had called guardians or kaitiaki in our planning, the summaries at the end etc are indeed all real group facilitator musts aren't they? I was so reminded that it is so easy to be tipped off a well balanced perch by technical malfunctions.
and yes it is Spring. so all those blossoms, tulips, dafodils, etc are showing purpose and hope in our gardens.
May you and yours be well tended at this time.

the microwave experience

2010-09-02T03:28:00.000-07:00

well I think of todays time in Ellmunate as the "microwave" session.
Jane Scripps analgy for that new appliance in the kitchen is so apt.
This appliance,Elluminate and the possibilities inherent in the use of Breakout Rooms is very seductive and "now", but like all appliances it needs tinme to learn and test its subtleties and for all the contributors to be functiong.
We suffered in that Karen's connection from Canada was highly intermittent both visually and in sound.
In addition we had needed a sample group to try various ways of assigning spaces and the functioning of those spaces.
I think what we did have was a most interesting learning experience from a developmental trio who worked to keep interest and input alive.
Thanks to all those in the group for their careful and thoughtful contributions.

technology tools for sound pedagogy/development

2010-08-20T02:13:00.000-07:00

In the last two weeks I have been excited by the Elluminate sessions with Nancy White and Greg Walker and also the blog notes of Jo harte's tips that I can see how this online tool of Elluminate can carry such sound pedagogical and developmental practice.
I am in awe of those who seem to be able to wear the four shoes of e-facilitation.
For me the technological shoe is the challenge and I guess it is much the same challenge as having legible and interesting whiteboard script. just different tools for the visuals.
I have been so heartened by the message that the pedagogy is the important thing and the tool simply supports that to happen. several of our network have reinforced that message.
The educational issues that Sarah finds are much the same as ours in NZ, so we are an internationalo netwrok of people trying top make sound eeucational and develo0pmental sens of the use of online techn ology.
Our endeavours in this course are very valuable. Rayna Dickson acknowledges the value, excitement and motivation of discovering online experiences.She sees the making of connections as a valuble activity and experience,and the "light bulb" happening when a door is opened through this.
I believe we are on the cusp of a new set of learnings and I look forward to those.

communities, networks, links,

2010-08-03T18:05:00.000-07:00

An African proverb tells us, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Nancy White distinguishes between the network, a collection of people who link in meaningful ways, but retain a focus on the needs and benfit to the self, and the community where people surrender something of the self in order for the greater good to benefit.What sits between is always something of a dilemma. The identity issues around Social Networking sites and the theft of identities through unsafe levels of disclosure are probably where much of the tension in being involved with those sites will sit.

I have recently happened on Melinda Blau's blog in which she explores the idea that we live in a lonely society and we have encounters with people who seem incosequential to us, but for various sets of human social needs, are in practice consequential. Some of these will be strangers we pay for services (eg. massage therapists, clinical supervisors)others those that have regular role or proximity space in our lives. Further she suggests that we need to seek out these opeople and build ourself a cirlce of consequential strangers. I find her ideas compelling and think it helps explain the popularity of social networking sites.

online groupwork

2010-07-26T00:36:00.000-07:00

this is a really delicious jigsaw of online groupwork processes. I'm really simply doing my technical practice and I can't get the insert image tool in the new post box to work at all, so have gone back to HTML and found this worked.
I find each of these components quite a challenge and can see why each might be needed.
Group work is possibly one of the most complex pieces of online work and I would love to know how others have managed it.

Willie

dfiagrams get all the votes.

2010-07-24T20:51:00.000-07:00

Well it has been reinfoced again today- diagrams are so powerful.
I've just met two that really fascinate me:

1) a look at Sarah Stewart's Personal learning Environment It is well worth a look and a ponder;

2)Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive demands JeanJacoby's attention to tools that promote particular level;s of learner functioning.

Each of these has made me realise that my major goal for this course is to increase my toolkit. (Yes I know I'm then supposed to put measurable etc statements, but I'll leave that for now).
Stay cool and well.

strengths and networks

2010-07-24T00:34:00.001-07:00

well, what a network with great strengths and resouces.

I am very mindful of three things:

1) the way Sarah has fed in information to us over a period of time-a process of warming us up to the main event- the course;

2) the reminder we have been given that we do need to be practising the skills as we move through the theoretical and infmative materials- for to wait until the grand finale is a bit much- we wouldn't do it anywhere else would we?

3) the need for me to refresh many of the micro technical skills such as hyperlinking, uploading images etc, as they6 are not at all intuitive to me and I need to find sets of instructions.

In terms of the micro technicals, there are help pages available-for blogger support

and also wordpress has a similar, also a private site an active Q+A communitythat is very useful.

I look forward to ongoing engagement.

already winter and midyear

2010-06-29T02:52:00.000-07:00

this is how I would like to spend my winter- snuggled into some space that I can conform to and if needs be listen to.
Instead I spend mornings that are really dark pretending they and I are light and awake and also evenings that are misty and still, are bught and energetic. What a challenge.
I wonder if the role of the online facilitator might mirror this as international dates, seasons, academic years etc create mismatch, OR are we on the "line" above and beyond that?
I would love peoples' ideas on this.
Stay warm.
Willie

really- is this 2010

2010-05-22T22:15:00.000-07:00

As you can see I have neglected this blogspace shamefully. I am looking forward to being one of the memebrs of this group after July, as I need to have a reason to work in this way.
Also, I'm delighted to see that skill in the use of wiki will be developed- I'm very much in favour of open learning resources and wiki is a space for that to happen.
Look forward to meeting you all.
Go well.
Willie

reflection of academic year

2009-12-09T23:51:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-11-22T23:48:00.000-08:00

What is it about Elluminate that so many of our institutions can't/won't host it? Are the choices they make so cautious as to allow nothing other than the microsoft colonisations to enter the institituion? Last year visiting TAFE colleagues carrying out Skills Recognition (RPL) in the state of Victoria, they couldn't understand why we didn't all use Elluminate routinely to help people prepare evidence for RPL and to carry out interview type assessments.

The pedagogical move to diversity of learning facilitation as shown in the open education resource movement on Wikieducator and the possible use of digital tools used routinely by students (Facebook/mobile phones/Skype etc) keeps being subverted by the IT policies we function with.
A tension indeed here for us to grapple with.

cairn terriers

2009-11-15T14:43:00.000-08:00

alter personas

2009-10-30T01:11:00.001-07:00

I have been intrigued with the names people have chosen for second life- I see so many Jungian archetypes there as to be unfuuny. BUT also it has been brought home to me this week, the parallel nature of some of these activites. I have had one of my granddaughters for a sleepover and we worked on selecting names for ourselves if we were to be Disney Fairies.

I suspect that many second life avatars are really Disney Fairies.Do they ever age?

the considered choice of technical platforms

2009-10-11T23:46:00.000-07:00

i am conscious of the constraints and affordances of any platform you use to work with others in an educational way. Doesn't matter whether or not it is digital or manual. SO choose wisely- is this piece of digital technology able to be accessed, understood, interpreted by your group of learners?If not, then why are you choosing it?

surface or deep online environments.

2009-09-24T10:43:00.000-07:00

I am interested in the discussions on groups and blogs- have listened to the last meeting. I think that George Siemen's comments around what style each environment encourages is so apt- the groups tend to short chatty pieces, while the blog both allows for and encourages longer, moire reflective work. As for where the "community" happens, I suspect that Sarah's idea that the blog groups that spring up spontaneously around a shared interest have more motivational pull and real purpose for existance than the managed ones- I guess my comment to Rachel on the hospitality blogs is to do with that. They always seem to me to be thinly disguised advertising.

Willie

Discussion groups

2009-08-31T00:37:00.001-07:00

I am currently a member of 6 different discussion groups- all have education and/or politics as their focus.

Those connected with an identified course tend to be rather more both facilitated and moderated than the others. Summaries etc appear that help you keep track of things and pose development questions.

Those that are interest groups have a very loose and flexible structure. I think with them the idea that you have the interest at heart i.e. "passion"- is taken to mean that you will make sense of all of that for yourself.

My son belongs to 3 discussion groups that are open and unfacilitated and he says that often he finds it very frustrating that threads seem to be left hanging.(I did ask him why he didn't do something about it, but that was not well received!!!!)

Moderation is an essential aspect of all these groups. the moderator checks posts and comments for libelous/vulgar etc contributions And in one group, requests for membership are put out to all members.

politics discussion group

2009-08-29T20:55:00.000-07:00

This is an open discussion group on US politics that anyone can join and where messages from new members are moderated.

I found it quite difficult to find open groups really- many that interest me seem to be closed. I wonder if the Blog is taking over from the open discussion group.

I do notice though that webpages such as the e-portfolio page will often have what amounts to a discussion for people who are trying technical things in the application.

Also the Communities in platforms such as the AkoAotearoa one must surely be discussion groups.

scratching or is it hunting?

2009-08-14T22:50:00.000-07:00

you can look at Nan's Blog for several interchanges about teacher,facilitator,moderator. Is this one the hunter?

Goodday.

2009-08-13T18:31:00.000-07:00

Some days just seem like this don't they? some of us wandering with heads out of view, some scratching around on the baseline. An ideal online day is one in which all the images match all the perceptions, or is it? Which of these creatuires is the teacher? which the facilitator? which the moderator?

community online?

2009-08-06T14:17:00.000-07:00

Community carries for me notions of shared purpose, some reason for relating, some suitable level or frequency of contact. We have work communities, geographical communities,communities of interest, and in this instance a community of learning and possibly also a subgroup- the community of practice.

Online is simply a community- a group- that functions in the ether. (or doesn't as the case might be. I have just spent several minutes trying to establish a hyperlink to a 2007 presentation by Stephen Downes around access to personalised technology with no success at all, so here is the URL and you will have to find it for yourselves. http://www.downes.ca/post/42521 )

There is much discussion (often quite heated) around the use of technology to create or inhibit community and I found Michael Wesch's ethnography of YOU TUBE quite compelling. He uses (as you could expect an academic to do) his discipline to interpret the phenomenon of user driven and generated contirubtion, filtering and editing, distribution control. He points out that a significant portion of the material on You Tube is personal and targeted at a domestic or family audience. Issues of authenticity and identity get posed. I was interested in the "looking glass self" a concept from psychology www.allacademic.com/meta/p106150_index.html
being invoked as a way of looking at identity where context that we are used to collapses. I wonder if this both inhibits and encourages a sens of community to those who are comfortable inhabiting the ether.

I guess for me there is an professional imperative to learn to move in this environment as I have to relate at a distance to people I work with and will not meet f2f. chromatic writes in O'Reilly that online communities develop a sense of ownership of their space and develop a shared history and culture. I'm curious to observe this community and myself in it in this regard. (He? also remarks that the first visit needs to be successful to encourage return visits. How many times is the technology not what it promises on a first visit? OH my.)

Stay strong people.
Willie

memory lapse

2009-07-28T01:18:00.000-07:00

I have forgotten how to edit a post.my saluatation shoudl read ka kiti ano.
it means be strong. (and don't we need to be!!!!:) )
Willie

facilitating online learning communities

2009-07-28T01:08:00.000-07:00

Well folks.
I'm Willie Campbell, a staff member at the Otago Polytechnic's Centre for Assessment of Prior Learning.
WEll yes????? (there is usually several questions in there )
We work with people to explore and reflect on their experiential workplace and lifeplace learning. THEN to shape that into a presentation targeted to the profile of a qualification to a panel of assessors.
We work increasingly with folk away from Dunedin, so need to become skilled in working online. hence my prescence here.
You won't need to have done the mindreading course to know that I am fairly basic in the use of digital and online tools, so forgive any blunders.
I look forward to the presence of you all in my current life.
Kw kiti ano.
Willie

learning through experience

2008-12-19T20:41:00.000-08:00

I have neglected this site shamefully, so apologies to both Sarah and Linda.
I kept faithfull to the connectivism and read many valuable papers. I'm still unclear that connectivism, through neural psychology, chaos theory and advanced constructivism is a new theory of learning.

I have been in Melbourne, Australia recently, connecting physically with colleagues in the vocational sector (TAFE) who have strategic government support for Recognition of Prior Learning through a Skills recognition programmes, the development of neighbourhood Skillstores, work allocation for RPL co-ordinators (who could be either adminstrators or academics) and training of assessors.
What is being acknowledge is that not all learning comes through formal accredited training programmes. (and this links with the connectivist notions around individual searches etc). However, the publicity is targeted at not only those who forward for this process but also their managers, on the grounds that it makes good business sense to have staff credentialed.
For the staff in TAFE it is allowing some interesting spin-offs.Those who have an interest in this way of recognising excepriential learning can have it included in their work load and they, through the number of completions, appear highly productive. It gives them time to develop resources and particularly online teaching materials. Also, the work satisfaction increases. What a thought.
Are there areas where this might be a siky practice? (I Australia, Nurses, electricians and plumbers believe it is so).

learning theories- place of connectivism

2008-09-26T00:17:00.000-07:00

I have been mightily entranced by the management of this connectivism course run by Seimens and Downes. The most valuable aspect for me is the Daily e-mail that gives guidance to resources. On the 24 September Daily -

CCK08
Thursday - September 25, 2008 3:08 AM
To:

Subject:
The Daily
Attachments: -->
Mime.822 (20893 bytes)
[View] [Save As]

there is a superb diagram that attempts to compare various learning theories- behaviourism, cognitivism,constructivism and connectivism. I'm curious about the way cognitivism is summarised. I had always thought of cognitive activity as an active brain and mind function. This description makes it seem very passive. I woudl like to know what others think that a cognitive theory of learning says about those engaged in it, and how we might assess it?

(I'm not sure how to make a secure link to the post, but have put lots of indicators for you.)

mentoring without meeting

2008-08-28T02:14:00.000-07:00

I have this week had a real professional challenge around a mentoring relationship with someone you haven't met. I come from a background that values face to face multi-sensory signal interaction.Without that the relationship seems lacking.http://www.socialworker.com/onlinesu.htm
offers in sights into social work supervision in a chat room, BUT they still say need to meet and have a sense of the other first.
Does anyone have a feel from experience of how this intense professional realtionships are managed successfully without ever meeting?
I would be most grateful.

linking and connecting

2008-08-20T23:18:00.000-07:00

Here I am trying to make practical sense of interconnectivity- the theory fascinates me, but without the technical knowhow it's a bit remote.

The idea of social networking without much paper, postal costs and months of sea or air travel is magic. I can remember party line phones where you had to listen for your own morsecode ring signal to know whether or not the call was for you.I'm sure LeighBlackall wouldn't like that at all.

The connection I have with thos trying to establish blogs along with me seems quite strong and I particulalrly like Craig's layout and Emma's very rich and full prettypages.

I hope I remember how to do these links in the cold light of day.

who is watching my learning? and yours?

2008-08-14T21:36:00.000-07:00

last night as I explored options for useful links, good old FortiNet informed me that Del.icio.us was not an option for me. Oh yes?I wonder what gave them that idea.

Then today I was unable to open my blog on my work computer as it was outside my privacy settings. Interesting that Fortinet can not afford me any privacy.

Now at home, going into a regular email posting from George Seimens, I found it tagged by the said Fortinet and had to convince it/them/(large sibling)that this wasn't so and they seemed to believe me, so all go now. (Have you read David McQuillan's blog on spying and security- worth reading -find it onthe OP wikieducator list ,again see below).

Try the Workplace Learning link I have added, as this came in with the Seimens material and looks very promising.

as usual- technical hitches

2008-08-08T02:00:00.000-07:00

no it isn't the weather, or the fact that three people cancelled meetings today, simply frustration with these blogs. two in particular and any help would be much appreciated:
1) in google reader, the full beautiful blog to which i have subscribed doesn't appear, only the actual post as text. so I miss Emma's beautiful Oamaru,Helen greave's wonderful interactive cat etc and it makes a mockery of bothering to attend to the aesthetics of layout. Nor can I see the comment record-how many and I can't read anyone's comment. I guess the e-mail function allows me to comment, but that is a very 1:1 thing, and counterproductive to social networking function of blogs, so advice someone?
2) the googlegroup e-mails are irritating. I tried establishing a rule to divert them to a folder, but seem unable to get a full statement in the rule properties box, so ALL of my e-mails went into the folder!!! again, some help.
On a brighter note- trust you all have wonderful movies, craft projects, food and drink for the weekend. and of course zillions of olympic footage to view.
'Willie

new venture

2008-08-07T00:55:00.000-07:00

tonight in class, this creation emerged. what an excitement. we'll see how this unfolds.