Investigative Teachers at Community West

A wonderful project at Community West in St Albans, where Dinna Tayao has invited teachers to join a weekly session of exploration and sharing.

I went out to visit Dinna and her team of investigating educators. They have been running a fantastic in-house exploration of all kinds of e-learning.

Each week one teacher explores a new strategy, software or other resource, evaluates its usefulness in class with students, and then reports back to the other teachers. 2 hours a week. They've had visiting expert speakers as well. Brilliant work from Dinna and the teachers at Community West. What a great job they are doing.

One teacher had researched the idea of using powerpoint to engage students in the colour, language and meaning of signs. What impressed me most was the way she had given such close attention to noticing how the students responded at each stage.

*Question of the Week*

I showed the teachers at Community West how google docs/ drive can work for collaborative writing. There was some enthusiasm around its potential, and also some reservation around the complication of requiring a login (too challenging for lower levels).

And a great question from one of the teachers: tell us who's been using this, and how?

[Oh no, did I really turn up without any case studies in hand? Yeh, I don't think they were too impressed actually, and fair enough.]

So who can tell us of some great examples or case studies of teaching and learning with google docs? Please add your thoughts in the comments below.

best regards, michael

What's happening around the region?

Here in the North-West, we've met with some inspiring educators from 8 different organisations.

It always intrigues me when i meet people who say, "We're real beginners with e-learning, we don't really know what we're doing," and then you find out they're already experimenting with all kinds of engaging practices in their classrooms. So often, people in adult education don't recognise what's already happening in their teachers' practice.

Here's a very brief overview of what people are working towards on these e-learning mentor projects. So far, people are looking to:

• find a way to enable the trainer to support many people at different levels of information and communicative technologies (ICT) awareness in the one "drop-in" session (RCLC),
• build up resources to share across English as a second language (ESL) classes using online storage & discussion space (wikispaces) (Yarraville, Laverton),
• employ presentation software to engage low-level language and literacy students, and expand techniques of using data projector in the classroom (JSS), 
• set up networks of students between different organisations, using "keypal" strategies (students email between classes) (Glenroy),
• engage staff via virtual staffroom to explore and share strategies for engaging learners (Lalor LLC), 
• build or adapt a model for blended learning across the organisation (Glenroy, AMCS), 
• explore ways to overcome student fears of technology (JSS), 
• find a learning management system (LMS) that suits learners at very low levels of technology confidence (AMCS). 

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Credits for photos in the presentation: Urban Don, Pixel Addict

Let's start at the very beginning - new projects!

Great news everyone. There's a new round of e-learning projects about to be underway in the North-West LearnLocal region. Some organisations are returning, while others have been participating at the edges, and a few are complete newcomers to our network.

Welcome one and all. Here's the list of starters:

• Australian Multicultural Community Services
• Community West Inc
• Glenroy Neighbourhood Learning Centre
• Jesuit Social Services trading as Jesuit Community College
• Lalor Living and Learning Centre
• Laverton Community Integrated Services Inc.
• Richmond Community Learning Centre
• South Kingsville Community Center
• Yarraville Community Centre

It's always a good feeling at the beginning... the hope that you'll make new mistakes instead of the same old ones. Mistakes are necessary for learning, right? The enthusiasm that comes when people meet for the first time.

We're inviting all the participants to come join us for a face-to-face get-together, an "induction" to use the bureaucratic language. 

Either Tuesday 11 Sept, 9:30-12:20 or Thursday 13 Sept, 1:00-3:50pm. Both sessions at the Centre for Adult Education (CAE) at 278 Flinders Lane: Mezzanine Room CM12. Yes i left the location off the invitation email. Whoops. 

At the face-to-face get-together, we'll open up discussion on topics like these:

• Overview of e-learning - what do people do already?
• Goals of the project: trial something with learners.
• What activities can work with your learners?
• What do you want to learn, and how?

We'll tackle some technical skills, explore some communication tools, and talk logistics of how to connect, coming to visit you and so forth. 

Photo credit: (creative commons at flickr) Thanks: Pixel Addict.

Let's get together, and re-focus your mini-projects

Hello Amazing North-West e-learning People. Who can believe we're looking at the final term for these e-mentor projects!

(1) Remember your "e-learning plan"? What about this for an idea: depending where you're at, let's re-work this into a "mini-project" so that you can present with pride to your peers, and feel you've made some progress. It's possible you've done some remarkable things you just don't recognise.

(2) We would very much like to offer you a face-to-face session in term 2 so you can all get together, ask questions, share ideas and network**.

Here are the dates we're looking at (what's your preference?):

• 26 April, 1.30pm – 4.30pm (CAE 278 Flinders Lane) 
• 1 May, 1.30 - 4.30pm (CAE 253 Flinders Lane) 

The menu could include:
=> How to "find the amazing" in what you've done already,
=> Assist each other with your mini-project work,
=> Hands-on workshopping,
=> Tech focus: Powerpoint in the classroom and/or optimising your photos for publishing in online resources.

Please tell us your thoughts As Soon As You Can (asayc):
1) Will you join us in a face-to-face networking workshop day 
    (a) Yes (b) No (c) Please visit me instead.
2) What else does this menu need? (It needs your input).

Please respond via email, a comment reply here, or via the iPadio.