Classroom Practice

During my time at Community College I kept a Reflective Journal of my Journey into e-learning and how I Incorporated e-learning it into my classroom practice. Reflection on professional practice is not new to me and I demonstrated what I was doing with my reflective wiki to my peers on numerous occasions.
As well as reflecting this journal gave me an opportunity to demonstrate how my students adapted to this new medium and 21st century education. Community College East Gippsland gave me the opportunity to teach my students about creating there own reflective Journal and develop a small e-portfolio about the things they were taught. Most of my students were disengaged and the use of technology in the classroom sparked imagination and they became  keen to produce a body of work. This worked well and all my students attendance for my classes was excellent although they dropped off in other classes throughout the college.
Their poor attendance was not obvious in my classes and I felt the use of a blended approach help in keep the students engaged and interested in their study

e-Learning

As educators we need to demonstrate and raise awareness with facilitators and management that e-learning is the way forward, that it will build sustainability and add to the organisations infrastructure .

Embedding e-learning into an organisation can develop and link partnerships in business, government and social networks
By establishing a network of teachers and managers to provide leadership will enable a cultural shift
It is not difficult to step out of one’s comfort zone, and develop an inventive and e-learning strategy.
The difficulty is changing the way people think.
Building e-capability at the organisational level is the first step finding out how to do this is easy. You must conduct a reality check of what the organisation would need to achieve e-capability.
ACFE model of e-mentors who guide e-champions who then in turn instruct e-leaders on the benefits and tools needed to build their personal development towards e-learning is a model that has worked well.


One of the many tools available is Wallwisher a fun  tool for adding sticky  notes, it allows you keep tally of the tasks you need to keep up to date with. You can create more than one wallwisher and they can be embedded into to your personal blogs and wikis as reminders notes of tasks you need to perform.

ACFE e-Champion 2010 Gippsland Region

I have been a trainer and assessor for a number of years predominantly Hospitality,in 2007 I started my e-learning Journey. It has inspired my ideas and imagination and improved my delivery and the way I now approach my training sessions.
At present I am undertaking a role to help organizations in the Gippsland Region to build e-capability as an ACFE e-champion Community College East Gippsland invited me in 2007 to implement a training cafe for students undertaking Vcal ,Esl and Connections Program
Timing was perfect as I had just started learning basic computer skills and was invited by Jan Roberts to be part of a project Learn scope and AcessAce.
This encouraged me to deliver the Cert II in Hospitality as a blended form of delivery.
The café was 3 days a week and the introduction of blogs helped in the e assessment process.
The flip video, camera and voice technologies were used to provide evidence of the students work skills for part of AQF .The students were trained in all aspects of the Hospitality work ethos and job tasks by implementing a café where they sold lunches for cost.
The program was a success right from the start, It is gave students the opportunity to learn new work skills and ICT skills that enhanced their abilities and opportunities for employment
My Students became interested in the blended learning approach and were happy to engage so a media studies class was developed to accommodate the interest and added extra learning outcomes.
It was enjoyable watching the students develop their wiki's and blogs and to have them attending my classes when attendance was low across the college.
Certificate II students were able to source information online at a purpose designed website that they were able to put into practice in the café environment.
The use of blogs were fantastic for evidence gathering in the kitchen and students happily blogged about the day’s events.
As well as a diary of the days tasks the blogs were used to answer food safety questions.
The evidence gathering with the blog can show photos of the job tasks, audio recordings and customer feedback.
I was given this wonderful PD opportunity by my mentors, Jan Roberts from Community College East Gippsland and Josie Rose from ACFE.
I am still being trained by facilitators that have the knowledge, wisdom and foresight to see the positive use in education of blended and online training.
This AccessACE PD helped me develop and deliver a fully online class for safe food handling which was implemented with students from Bendoc and Benambra taking part in the trial.
This went fantastic I enjoyed developing the program and the interaction online in synchronous time was beneficial to us all.
All critera was met for assessment purposes.
Work books and assessment were sent to the students to complete in their time. Some assessments were developed as polls and surveys and completed and saved to word.
Live classrooms are an excellent tool, we have moved to elluminate which is also user friendly .
The functions in the live classroom are vast and easy to use.
This online course is now implemented at Community College East Gippsland and is part of curriculum

Artifact Selection

Why Personal Learning Networks?

Creating a personal learning network is essential for engaging people and tools that you use to enhance your learning and helps build on line communitys.

Social computing applications provide new platforms where people can connect, share and create together and become members of  networks and communities. There are a number of teacher community of practices, both closed and open, that allow teachers to network and share. Every educator today should know the best ways to access content online to develop e-learning strategies enabling educators  to participate in different types of online collaborative activities,

Connecting with other educators can help improve your online practice.
Developing a PLN can be time consuming but well worth the effort.
Why?  

• learn from content e-builders
• Locate resources for your classroom, such as free websites and software
• informal learning like mentoring
• Adult learning in a community of practice
• Get lesson plan ideas from others
• Learn about new technologys to integrate into your teaching
• Find collaborative solutions
• New opportunities for observing and reflection
• Allows different social contexts for learning with active peer support
• Enables  individual lifelong learning
• Find interesting links to education news
• Join communitys
• Network
• Share
• For Professional development

My Personal Learning Network for the Gippsland Region e-Leaders

Developing my own PLN has been a rewarding experience.

It is a feeling of satisfaction when you see that your members are using this site to develop their skills further.

Developing a PLN is time consuming but rewarding.

How do I know what I am contributing is the right information?

By concentrating on focus tools that are common in e-learning and keeping up with trends and advice from web developers and educators.

I have been developing this Personal learning Network for my e-leaders over a period of months.
 My PLN is directed towards focus tools and current information that I have investigated to be of use to my Network members. I have established a site that members can use for there personal e-ideas.
This has been created so that the members do not waste time in finding the most current and useful information in developing and building e-learning capability.

By connecting and creating an online presence with my members in my  PLN it helps us develop at a similar pace. Sharing is paramount in developing a PLN it gives everyone the same oppurtunity and allows for those that have more knowledge to pass on that information.
Each person has their own goals and e-ideas so the PLN must have a mix of information that allows members to make an effort to learn at their own pace.
Inviting  members to add to disscussion forums helps them share their goals and develops an online feeling that they can work together.

By making myself available to members in real time in my Vroom or at the PLN enables my members to feel secure that they have someone to turn too if they feel a bit overwhelmed or need to discuss a problem.
When you visit my PLN you are visiting me and I am showing you everything I am learning as well.

Personal learning Network

Operating within the Code of Ethics

How I see Workplace Ethics should be conducted

A Code of Ethics is a statement and guideline of the company's principles and values and assists management, staff and participants in understanding the difference between the issue of right and wrong. The effectiveness of the code of ethics in the workplace depends on whether management or the business owner supports and follows specific behavior standards. Effective leaders should set the tone for how things are done. All staff should be accountable and responsible for what they do and how they behave in the workplace. How we personally deal with ethics in our everyday life determines who we are as a person.

All staff should have access to opportunities that will encourage growth and understanding
Everyone in the workplace must be treated openly and honestly with respect, equality, justice and not discriminated against. All workers are entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religious expression as long as it does not hurt or interfere with the rights of others. When creating an inclusive fair working environment you must make sure communication is open, clear and friendly. Respect for each other is important when people work together to complete a task. People generally apply themselves differently on their own so they need to develop a working relationship that is positive and friendly to help them work together.
Working in a positive environment helps develop values, attitudes and behaviors that influence reputation and business outcomes and give the workplace a competitive edge.
All staff should be offered written instructions about the organizations code of conduct that is informative and easy to follow. It is best to ensure everyone working in the organization reads the information before they start their employment. This should be checked to ensure that everyone understands the work place ethics and standards.

Decisions and actions should be based on the best interests of the workplace and not based on personal relationships or benefits, or any activity that might lead to a conflict of interest. Conflict of interest is a misconduct issue. Where a conflict exists it should be dealt with in a transparent and accountable way and all relevant information should be considered.
A conflict of interest policy should be available that details reporting procedures that give staff the opportunity to have their say when they feel they have been undermined or treated unfairly or are a victim of the conflict of interest. Management should appoint a key person to interview staff and to collect information about any major issue that happens in the workplace. It is best to verify all information before it is shared with anyone else and if management is involved then an offsite advocate should be invited. In many organizations especially larger ones often a person is employed who has already been trained in matters of ethics in the workplace, particularly about resolving ethical problems.

Work place bullying should not be tolerated and any reports of this happening should be investigated fully. Identifying and defining workplace bullying is not always easy as the bully will often disguise the behavior in public and will victimize the person in private. Workplace bullying can occur when an individual uses verbal intimidation, and lies that often has a gradual wearing down process on the victim. The worse bullying is when its management and the victim is forced to resign from a well paying job that they enjoy because they are backed into a corner of fear and intimidation and feel they have nowhere to turn. This abuse of power and position can cause such anxiety that people gradually lose all confidence in themselves and can end up suffering physical ill health and mental distress as a result.

Community of Practice

Community Of Practice

A "community of practice” refers to a group of like minded practitioners who have a similar goal in developing a knowing and learning e-community. It develops a collective learning space in a shared domain. It is centered on collaboration and accessing relevant information, resources, focus tools and helps practitioners develop common practices.

It is instrumental in developing a community of colleagues that share the same common interests and goals and helps improve personal development.
A growing number of people and organizations from all sectors now take part in communities of practice. These communities have become an important platform for shared material.
An online community of practice in the educational sector gives the practitioners an opportunity to read and research data that is offered by their online colleagues. It also gives them an opportunity to submit and share their own information and knowledge. It helps develop trust in the instruction given and offers advice and feedback about a specific subject of interest.
In a world of so much choice it enables all those involved the opportunity to keep current with trends and practices. An online community of practice is perfect for the practitioners that may work alone on a specific project in an organization and feel isolated. It helps develop essential benchmarks and offers ideas about ongoing practices that are already being implemented.
Belonging to a Community of Practice may help solve hurdles and problems that may arise when working alone. It can also give the practitioner the opportunity to develop new skills and build reputation in the online world.
All practitioners are in the process of learning when involved in a COP they have the ability to contribute their own knowledge and experience, this creates empowerment and a strong learning environment.

A COP fulfills a number of functions that help keep organizations and focus groups healthy.

• Establishes communication and helps the community develop at a similar pace.
• A place to share and discuss current instruction and makes it easier for those who are involved in development
• learn from content e-builders
• Locate resources for your classroom, such as free websites and software
• Offers Informal learning like mentoring
• Get lesson plan ideas from others
• Learn about new technologies to integrate into your teaching
• New opportunities for observing and reflection
• Allows different social contexts for learning with active peer
• It helps with problem solving
• Find collaborative solutions
• Develops collaboration amongst peers
• Shares goals and interests
• Helps organize learning through social communities
• Enables individual lifelong learning
• Find interesting links to education news
• For Professional development
• Network

Elements of a community of practice are

• Domain: The Domain is the identity of the area of shared interest that is developed for the professional needs of the practitioners. It brings people together who are seeking knowledge and skill about a specific subject and common ground. It is the meeting place that allows the community of practice to take place.The domain is the place to find inspiration and help enhance ability.
• Community. The community is the people who give their own time to participate in the Community of practice. They can come from anywhere at any time and participate at will. Practitioners that are part of the community generally join to develop social relationships and engage in collaborative and joint activities. They may often never meet face to face but still develop online professional relationships that can last many years. .The community is the people who are interested in each other’s ideas and practices
• Practice The Practice is the work that is done by the practitioners to enhance professional development and further the community’s goals. It gives an opportunity to share and communicate relevant information and implement professional ideas or plans.

It helps develop new skills for individuals and helps create an ongoing collaborative network of ideas by allowing the community to take part in contributing the correct knowledge and skill to the community

ConVerge 10

I have just returned from an experience that has validated the last 3 years of my journey, It was great being around such clever and innovative people although at times I felt a bit out of my league.

This conference has given me the oppurtunity to come up with a new action plan I hope to develop over the next 12 months.

What are some of the quotes that resignated with me?

• Making training more accessible students will demand a more tailored, learning experience.
• The more you learn the more you want to learn
• A PLN is personal,practical and pervasive
• Mahoodle is the buzz word
• Twitter can be used to your advantage
• Skills reform need partnerships
• Change perpective when neccasary
• Encourage acceptance
• Overcome reluctance
• Wiring a place for technology is easy Wiring people to technology is hard
• Beware of Content trap
• Change your practices to 21st century education
• Students seek out e-learning when not happy
• Assessment measures learning it is not the reason for it
• Gen Y have a need to connect to everyone all the time as educaters we can take advantage of this

The importance of developing Mahoodle became obvious to me and I see a trend towards these tools. My focus will be directed in this direction for the next few months as I attempt to become competent with in these tools.

It was great to meet face to face, the many inspiring people I have met in elluminate or followed on line in Twitter, Blogs and other forums.
There was a real sense of sharing at ConVerge a sharing of e- ideas and talent. It was inspiring to see how the use of Twitter kept everyone informed throughout the confrence and to see the many people who I follow already on twitter participating.
Two of the most embrassed key note speakers were Joyce Seitzingerand  Andrew Douch  there talks inspired and connected

Feedback

Feedback, written or spoken, is a good guide to see how your work is progressing. It should tell you what you have done well and how you can improve and develop successful outcomes.  It’s best to not make excuses about your work when the feedback is given.  Absorb it, and try to understand what is being said and also the person’s point of view. Read your work and think about what the feedback refers to pay attention to positive and negative comments. After you have reflected upon the feedback try to come up with ideas to improve. Think of feedback as you would compliments and suggestions. Feedback can help a student fully appreciate their strengths and weaknesses which can help them develop further.

Providing Feedback to students

• Praise in public, criticize in private
• Always give feedback as close to the event as possible.
• Encourage positive actions by giving positive feedback.
• Give clear instructions if you need some revision on what has been written.
• Be sincere when you give a written feedback.
• Feedback should enable a student to see the gap between their performance and the AQF    
• Giving feedback to the student helps them realise their strengths and weaknesses
• Giving a student regular feedback can help them to develop their workskills 
• Feedback can tell you where you went wrong and affirm what you do right.
• Feedback is essential in developing our skills,

Feedback is not a regular occurrence in the majority of workplaces. The reason for this is 

• People generally find it uncomfortable to confront each other about performance issues.
• Most people aren’t quite sure how to give the feedback effectively.
• Very few people like accepting negative feedback and see it as fail

Doing feedback on a task in written form means teachers are responding to ideas and information written by the students. Tutors can focus initial comments on what the student does well. In verbal feedback teachers are responding to the language and knowledge that students produce. 

You can use closed questions to build on a students ’thinking. You can use open questions that invite multiple answers and encouraged the student to discuss and negotiate a final answer.

Bubble us

View more presentations from Junita Lyon .

When my Students were introduced to the idea of blended learning I was thrilled to see the excitment that it generated, they embraced the whole idea with enthusiasm and were keen to begin.
The students were sent invitations to join a disscussion room in Ning where they could  discuss, menus, upcoming events and ideas for improvement of our cafe .

The accreditted students spent time in the resource room, finding ppts and movies that  instructed them in communication , health and safety and the job tasks needed for kitchen operations.
I set students who had no email address up with a Gmail account
They spent each cafe day with a small window of time working on there wikis and blogs sucessfully.
http://junitalyon.wetpaint.com/
http://marieormiston.wetpaint.com/
http://deonbaxter.wetpaint.com/
http://esltrainingkitchen.blogspot.com/
http://trainingkitchenlakesentrance.blogspot.com/
A resource center was established for the students to access each unit and made the training process easier for the individual student.
Each page of the wiki covered one unit and all links and information is contained on that one page it made it easier for the student to develop an learning strategy.

e-learning

E-learning has been playing a large role in my life, and I am enjoying every minute of it.
This Journey I am taking has inspired my ideas and imagination.


Where did my interest come from and why?
From 2007 till September 2010 Community College East Gippsland allowed me to implement a training cafe for students undertaking Vcal (Victorian certificate applied learning)2008/9 ,Esl (English as a second language)2008/9/10 and Connections Program 2008/9/10 during this time I set up students blogs and wikis and we started on the road to a blended delivery.


During 2008/09 my media studies students, became interested in the blended learning approach and were happy to engage.
It was enjoyable watching the students develop their wiki's and blogs.
Certificate II students were able to source information, they were able to put into practice in the cafe environment.
The use of blogs were fantastic for evidence gathering.
For 2010 I worked with a new approach towards gaining evidence with the use of more blogs.
As well as a diary of the days tasks the blogs were used to answer food safety questions and discuss the days activities.
The evidence gathering with the blog showed photos of their job tasks, audio recordings and customer feedback.