Liz+Packer



OK Up up and away...

Well, well, well...

31st October 2009 The projects I'm involved in are:
 * Professional writing (mine)
 * Indi Productions with Cassandra Backler (which is a Certificate IV in Stage Design to be developed online for blended e-learning)
 * and to provide support and assistance to some Visual Arts people who are developing individual small scale elearning projects

Thanks to Ruth Robinson's funding, we are well underway with my main project - getting the core subjects of the Advanced Diploma in Professional Writing online (using Moodle). This is a different group of people (8) than those who participated in the trial (although there are a couple of crossovers). Several completed Faciliate Online last year.

We are having 10 hours of professional development, followed by one-to-one support as required. The project is due to be completed by 15th January 2010 ready for delivery in Semester 1 (based on sufficient online student numbers).

We decided that it would be most effective to use the Moodle training time to get them working on their own course page. It's a good incentive for progress, plus it's quite galvanising! Since Moodle is relatively easy to use, it quickly becomes a methodology matter.

It's definitely not a content uploading exercise - its a methodology development exercise. Though we've had guest lecturers (Thank you Michael and Mel) to get people started using Moodle, the issues are all around "how am I going to create interactivity online?"

We are keeping our print resources which contain content, activities, and formal assessment - so that all students - no matter what mode of delivery - are guaranteed a base level of tuition (or quality). The modes vary the additional benefits we can offer, for example: We trialled the elearning process in first semester and it went quite well. There were a few problems to solve but we got through all that. The students who participated were keen for us to continue with development (we surveyed them). We learnt that it's important not to overload them with extra work online. It's always a temptation for (generous) lecturers to try and impart all they know - our students have lives and jobs and families and friends and they have as little time as we do... if they feel swamped, they'll just give up. This needs to be avoided as much as possible - for them and for us.
 * A Fundamental Precept**
 * F2F gives students the benefits of our HPIs who are all professional writers and bring a depth of experience to the classroom, and where students can interact directly with them and with their peers.
 * Online gives students who might be remote or otherwise isolated from their peers an opportunity to connect and communicate with people who share their passion for writing AND gain the benefits of interaction with the professional writer/facilitator.
 * External, the old snail mail mode, is still attractive to a number of our students, who may for example have very poor internet access in the bush or who may be incarcerated or otherwise uncomfortable with computers. We can offer these students some additional mentoring when they start the course, and brief but regular contact as they progress through the program. They get the option of working by themselves in their own time at their own pace (within system requirements)
 * Trial**

This time, based on feedback from the HPIs, instead of leaving the structure and design completely open, I've set up a template to get them started. Everyone has the same thing - they'll need to change and individualise it.
 * The new project**

We know that a couple of short activites is quite enough for them to connect and communicate, and to guide and develop their learning in addition to what already exists in the print materials. But how and what will work online? We are grappling with these questions...

It's important to stress to the HPIs that they don't have to create something perfectly - like a book - the medium we are all so familiar with! Moodle allows for change and adaptation. For correcting mistakes quickly. For adding new interesting things at the last moment.

We are striving for function in the first instance, then we can go for aesthetics, and then we can aim for perfection!

It's an iterative process. As they become more confident with Moodle basics, and after they've run their subject once or twice, they'll become responsible for enrolling students and making more and more refinements. They'll do more of the trouble shooting. (As they are HPIs, I do this at the moment because they are contracted to facilitate and mark.)

It's a big adjustment to shift from being a "lecturer" / expert disseminating knowledge to the "facilitator" who enables students to discover for themselves where to find and how to evaluate information or how to build their skills and monitor their own learning - under the guidance of a more experienced but not all-knowing person. To adjust to asking the questions, more than giving the answers. But it's worth the difficulties and challenges!

More later...

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Check these out: [] (aggregator)

[]# (Participatory Media Literacy - Howard Rheingold)

Henry Jenkins et al.