Session

Just came back from delivering a session to a group of first year youth work students. Went well and showed off the podcast. I reckon we will have a few subscribers. Cool

I only put this picture in cause I'm ready for summer. Thats my son at Pt Elliot.

sti podcast

Here is the latest of our podcasts. They are slowly getting better as we learn the equipmentpowered by ODEO

Long time no Blog

Let me see: I'm just trying to get my thoughts in order. Its been a long time since I have made an entry. Here is whats been happening.

Since my last post (except for the oh shit) I have
Run several Sexuality Expression and Exploration courses. These course are of a blended format and I reckon of the things I have learned from sastartup to now -in this learnscope project; runing a blended learning course using a moodle (vetsa ) classroom has been the best for myself and the course I run thru SHineSA.

As an example let me put in a comment from one of our 'relfection' forums.

I have been thinking on and off about the guest speaker for the last week. I know words are going to fail me when I try to describe this/explain it - but I'll give it a shot. Firstly, I am still amazed by the guest's incredible bravery and integrity in speaking to the group. I can not actually comprehend the enormous inner strength and...'authenticity' is the only word I can think of (I want to say 'integrity', 'strength', 'dedication', 'bravery', 'inner light', 'compassion' and 'love' - and bravery - bravery and courage keeps coming to mind). I am also humbled and moved that the guest has chosen to speak in a way that educates, enlightens and inspires. This is extraordinary at the best of times, but given all the barriers that I can only imagine must have been/or be in place that makes it very hard to speak out, the ability to speak in such a way and be heard, and to make people genuinely comprehend what may otherwise be only foggy understanding, is remarkable. I don't think I could do it (in fact I am sure I couldn't!). I am also staggered that the guest was able to speak to a roomful of strangers, of workers, and single-handedly guide and teach. It was a significant process that is hard to word and I feel very priveledged, (emotional), and humbled to have been a part of that.I will be honest and say that I was rattled/shocked by some of the content. As a worker (and human being) part of me doesn't want to believe it gets that bad, but I know it does. As I have been thinking back on the guest's talk over the last week or so, I have had moments of frustration, disillionment and despair re: the current system(s) that just don't work. I just don't know what to do about it, but I know it has to change.Personally I want to say 'thank you' to the guest speaker. The talk heightened my awareness and drove home the importance of listening to every little thing - even the smallest words clients mention in passing are all important and can be so significant. A part of me wants to apologise, for all the times it (the system) didn't work. And I am humbled again, that the guest was able to shine so extraordinarily and be our teacher. Thank you.

As you can see this is a fantastic reflection but also has provided so much space for other students to reply and inform each other. Having a safe space for this to happen is soooo important when covering issues in sexual health and particularly topics like assault and abuse.
If you would like to see more of this you can go to www.vetsa.net.au and search for the Shinesa SE&X course. It does not require a key so you can browse if you want to. Please do NOT reply to any postings tho.

What else.... Had to go to Brisbane (I got a surf in a Byron Bay small but fun)
Have had 4 planning days.
Atended the Learnscope mid way Reporting day. For me this was great. I was re energised and also so impressed with the energy that the teams and individuals are putting into thier projects.
The hilite of the day tho was Michael Coghlan videoing a session with his mobile phone and having it posted to his blog within minutes - without touching a pc or laptop. So cool and I can see applications already for SHine.

Oh yes.. Have also run two professional development sessions for this project. One on podcasting and one on webquesting.
The podcast session was a bit of a downer because we were using odeo ( a free podcasting studio with its own recording device - -sooo easy) But at the wonderful technology school of the future the firewalls prevented using odeo. No amount of quick work by the technos would allow us to use it. Oh well. If any body wants to tell people what a podcast is the askaninja podcasting on podcasting is quite funny go to www.askaninja.com/news/2006/03/07/special-delivery-1-what-is-podcasting

Also have been lurking heaps on the edna netwroking group and on the TALO group. I feel that I am learnign lots just observing what other people are doing. Also if you like pachelbels canon go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjA5faZF1A8 and listen to this hot young guitarist play an awesome version. BUT while you are listening to him have a think about the ability to reach enough people using technology to have this guy viewed over 8 million times. Its funny , I went to this site after lurking in an edna discussion regarding teaching/facilitating and our role in all this . The discussion centered around this kid and what it means for teaching/learning and the future.

Let me seeee , oh yes I have also been busy providing information on our project to various people around the country. Stay tuned.

AND of course working on developing our monthly sexual health podcast. We are going to start doing a 'frequently asked questions' version next week. If you want to subscribe go to
http://www.odeo.com/channel/115838/view

I reckon thats all for now.

SHIT

I just made a huge post that took me 2 hours and the bloody thing wouldnt save. Said the url was too long.
I'll try again when I cool down.
Lud

Mid Way reporting

Our team has had several ideas about how to report about where we are. What we have learned, and where we are going. We have thought about putting together a digital story; maybe a podcast; maybe maybe maybe - In the end we decided to make THIS the last post on this blog before the mid project report and include links to all the creations of our team (that havent been blogged already). Below is a list of our accomplishments with some links for your pleasure.

We have 9 people that have made a digital story (some are already in this blog).
1 person that has created a website: http://ashnasa.tripod.com/
3 people that are blogging (this blog) and : http://warmil.blogspot.com/2006/07/have-look-at-this-article-and-i-would.html and http://disabilityandsexualhealth.blogspot.com/
2 people that have facilitated blended professional development sessions (Lud and Andrew)
1 person that has developed a podcast (see previous entries)
All participants using a vetsa classroom www.vetsa.net.au (new ways to shine)

What have we discovered: So much is out there --- keep on looking and trying. You dont need to know everything, there are lots of people willing to help. Some people love some tools. Some people love others. Some people dont love any.

Lud

Podcast 2

I think I have made a podcast and figured out how to have it hosted and subscribed to. We'll see.
This is the address anyway.
Lud
Luds Podcast

TOE

I watched something on TV last night that was trying to explain string theory and a Theory Of Everything (TOE).
I got so excited listening to what was happening; and the potential to unravel so much of how our universe operates that I started thinking about teaching/learning and how people make sense of thier world. I was wondering how the makers of the show decided on a format that would make string theory understandable to me ( I got a U for physics at highschool). Unfortunately they made it understandable for a little while but by the end of the show I was floundering in weak and stong fields, magnetic fields, theory of gravity, particles, extra dimensions etc etc.

The reason I write about this is that I have been follwing the edna groups discussions on m learning and have been so excited to learn of ideas that I didnt know existed BUT then I have started floundering. The terms , the applications, the sheer scope of m-learning has got me confused. Soooooo I wonder how people are going to learn about using m-learning technologies? As some of the participants have said " m-learning is just another tool to engage and reach our learners' (I paraphrased).
But it is also just another set of tools to provide the teachers with (teachers being anybody that knows and is able to motivate others to know.
I am still stuck on the ancient ideas of blogs, digital stories and podcasts. Until I get these under control I wont be able to stretch my mind to encompass a learning theory of everything (LTOE)
Lud

player

First podcast

podcast

wonder ihttp://www.odeo.com/flash/audio_player_standard_gray.swf" quality="high" width="300" height="52" name="audio_player_standard_gray" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="always" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" flashvars="audio_id=1598529&audio_duration=36.0751&valid_sample_rate=true&external_url=http://media.odeo.com/2/2/7/SHINEPOD3.mp3" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" />
powered'>http://odeo.com/audio/1598529/view">powered by ODEOf this works.

2nd session

This is being written as the 2nd session is occuring. This session is on digitaltorytelling and as expected, people love the ease of photostory. At this moment small groups are creating a small tory as practice. Giggles, fun and exploration. Isnt that what this is all about????
Lud

Journey so far

After trying to find ways to describe my Learnscope journey so far I decided on a quick digital story.
Here it is if you want to have a look. (What I did find out is that using images that you cut and paste from the net isnt a great idea - you will see why when you watch this).
Lud


http://www.shinesa.org.au/index.cfm?objectID=7F4E2015-E081-51EF-A781EC21000AE372&flushcache=1

Digital Story

Here's what one of the SHine LearnScope people did using Photo Story 3...
http://www.shinesa.org.au/download.cfm?DownloadFile=19D926D8-E081-51EF-A72B364331EF53FA

Bloody Hell

Where to from here.

So much happening. I have been travelling doing my normal job, organising new bits at work and trying to keep my mind ticking over in relation to this project. Lets see,

Joining some of the EDNA groups has been great. Even though I am a bit of a lurker I get to see lots of whats going on AND by getting posts straight to my e-mail I can keep up with things as part of everyday life in front of a computer.

One of my roles in this project has been to ensure that all of the newbies to learnscope have a mentor to work with. This has worked really well. Instead of always being ME that people come to they can approach thier mentor and develop skills and a relationship.

I am learning (at the moment) more about modifying toolboxes. This could be really fun but is a bit of work........

More later

Bring it on

Tomorrow is our first professional development session for this learnscope project. We are holding it at the technology school of the future. (this enables all participants to see and feel technology in action).

Part of our learnscope project is to use a blended learning environment to expose participants to an e-environment as students; and to expose the facilitators to an e-environment as a teacher. Needless to say I have been busy doing all sorts of things such as:

• Registering another vetsa classroom ( I thought that this would be just a matter of course since I already am running one classroom thru that site - not so)
• Planning teaching and learning materials.
• Developing the classroom - believe it or not I forgot how to put links up, rss feeds, calendar dates etc.(So I had to familiarise myself with these things again).
• Just like anything - if you dont use it -you loose it.

Anyway - heres hoping tomorrow goes well. I'll put up another post later this week outlining my experience of that session.

Lud

The classroom is called 'finding new ways to shine' on the vetsa website ( www.vetsa.net.au ) if anyone wants to have a look.

Elluminate conference

I am overwhelmed! I attended the tapping into social networks for e learning and wow. I really didnt want to attend this. I thought that my skills would make me look silly. That I wouldnt get anythng from the conference! That it would be a waste of my time.
HOW WRONG CAN I BE??????

Regardless of the speakers (just like any other classroom/conference - some are engaging and others arent) I now have so many ideas to look at for fyrther development. My only other exposure to elluminate was not a positive one so I shelved it as something I might be interested in as a teacher. Well now .........

Learning more about elluminate and how to use it may end up being a priority for our learnscope project even though it is not even scheduled and in our plan. Talk about being flexible.
From here I guess I will talk to the rest of the team, try and get them to feel some of the magic that I do and see if they are interested in seeing a demo.

Here are the componants that made me feel so positive :

• The visuals - the screen was very easy to figure out.
• The names of all participants clearly displayed
• The ease of chat at the same time as listening an/or watching (so often at conferences I wanted to say something but cultuarally this is a no no at a conference)
• The clear sound and ease of mic control/use
• The whiteboard
• the ability to use break out rooms
• The ease of coming and going/getting a coffee/listening without needing to sit still.
• The instant feedback from moderators etc etc.

We have our first professional development workshop comiong up in 10 days. I cant wait even though it doesnt include elluminate - I can now see a clear link between ALL that we are learning and how that might feed into a virtual classroom like elluminate.

Just what we need if we are going to reach our remote but motivated workers.

Lud

First meeting DONE

Well we had our first meeting. Its always a surprise to me that no matter how much you plan or try to anticipate what people are going to say/question etc something unexpected comes up. For example people from other organisations wanted to know 'would this cost' them even tho' we had gone over all of that in emails and phone conversations. (Never assume anything).

The meeting went very well - (except for the printed folders that I had made with lots of info inside only printed single sided so we missed half the content).

I kknow we are encouraged to get team members to participate in online events etc BUT.... we will see how many of this team do. Because we havent started the project proper yet many of the members are still quite scared, shakey, sceptical - - THAT WILL CHANGE (I HOPE ) Anyway now its to more planning and organising tralala.
Lets see ...I've got training all this week, next week I'm in Port Pirie training, then training here al week again. I feel a bit like a white rabbit.

So much to do

I just read the learnscope newsletter thatMarlene sends out. Bloody hell: Just when I had started to sleep again - out comes all this OTHER stuff to do. I know its not compuslory but there is just so much stuff out there. Every time I see the words 'free' and 'easy' I want to have a look (I wonder what you think of when you hear the words free and easy)??

First Entry

Well... SO far things have gone exactly as planned (not). Trying to organise everyone has been a hassle. Trying to find good rooms and meeting places a hassle. Trying to find time has been a hassle. But....
All the team in the 'Finding new ways to ShinE project are excited so thats good. Marlene has been helpful and is going to be a guest speaker. Sean has been helpful and is going to be a guest speaker. The Technology School of the Future has been helpful and supportive.
We have our first meeting with the whole team in one place next Monday the 29th May. This means its really kicking off and I am starting to get a bit queasy (read SICK). At least this is just a pre project meeting so I dint have to be tooooo organised.
Here is a copy of our first agenda.
I'll do another post after our meeting with more info including the outline for the next several weeks.

Lud

Finding new ways to SHINE 2006
Introductory Session – What is this project all about




AGENDA:
SHineSA
17 Phillips St, Kensington
Monday, 29th May, 2006
1:00pm – 3:00pm



1. Welcome to the team


2. What is this project?


3. Whos’ who in the project?


4. Responsibilities


5. Up coming events


6. Project Outline


7. Conclusion