an interview with Carmen Harris

Recently I spoke with Carmen Harris from Yooralla adult education. Carmen was involved in the North-West e-learning mentor projects back in 2011. She told me all about the amazing work they've been doing with literacy and technology over there, including blogs, facebook, email lists and zines.

You can listen to the interview right here. I was aiming to edit down to 5-8 minutes, but Carmen just kept on saying interesting things. Highly recommended for an insight into creative classroom practices.

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Find out more about Carmen's work over here at their LitnTech site.
 

Tech notes:

We spoke over Skype and I recorded the call using a thing called "Amolto skype recorder". Really impressed with the sound quality.. but it was interesting that the Amolto app gave no warning it was recording. Just so you know.. it is possible that someone could be recording you in a Skype conversation without telling you.

I've used soundcloud to host the audio files, which is a very impressive app used by musicians and podcasters around the world. The free account gives you 200 minutes of sound files.

North West region "community of practice"

Victoria Market

I've just met with some wonderful teachers and managers of the North-West region and Sue O'Brien of the NW ACFE regional office, in at the AMES "Multicultural Hub" opposite the Victoria Market.

From the agenda, i was expecting to give a presentation with an overview of blended learning, and some examples of who's doing it around the regions. Because it was about 10 of us around a table, the session quickly turned into a conversation where i hope most people had some input. We tackled the really fundamental questions too, for example

• "What is blended learning?" 
• "Just give us the easiest thing to start with, not too many options", 
• What are our main issues and concerns, as well as 
• explain the jargon!  

Here's the presentation, with notes that came up during the session.

E-learning at Carlton in focus

Here's our latest guest blogger: Sarah Deasey from Carlton NLC. Thanks so much Sarah, and welcome (michael). 

Hello this is Sarah. I am the Further Education coordinator at CNLC.

There have been many opportunities for development of basic computer and online skills in the last 10 years or more. Past projects include:

• Skillsnet funding in the Nineties for broad community training;
• a telematics trust  grant for disability students; and
• various grants through the flexible learning framework.

Getting started

Consider your e-learning needs

First thing to do is take a look at your own teaching/learning or centre/course management practices and decide where and how you may want to improve them using e-learning strategies such as:

• networking with others in your field
• communicating in real time online
• storing and sharing resources
• creating or sourcing innovative learning resources
• exploring relevant web 2.0 tools for specific purposes
• getting help with an e-learning project
• setting up a learning management system