Polytechnic Adventures

Are We There Yet?

2011-09-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

Can we begin to define our approaches to 21st century learning from experience? Developing an eLearning Strategy that takes us to the middle of the second decade has involved looking back to see what go us to where we are now.

In the late 90s and early into this new century we valued flexibility, sharing, collaboration, problem solving, future proofing... Looking at these now they appear to be largely reactive. They were our response to rapid change and the hazy emergence of new perspectives and paradigms; new ways of thinking, doing and being.

Now that we have a little experience of this century can we see trends more clearly and be more discerning and confident about how we respond?

I wonder if we are starting to make more sense of our current times and are more comfortable living with change. We are beginning to explore new possibilities and map new journeys. We are beginning to be more proactive and purposeful. We understand a little more about how to not only live more comfortably but to prosper during rapid transformational change.

Being flexible while we adapt to changing environments is shifting to being more agile - taking purposeful steps on journeys through change.

Future proofing solutions against change has become future building as we leaverage the opportunities provided by constant change.

Solving problems of increasing complexity has led to more systemic thinking and problem prevention.

Questioning one-size-fits-all solutions has led us to question our perspectives, underlying assumptions and world views.

Is planning for learning in the second decade of this century about a shift to include more pro-active strategies such as those on the right hand side of the list below?

Flexibility --> Agility

Future Proofing --> Future Building

Problem Solving --> Problem Prevention

Collaboration --> Co-creation

Social Justice --> Social Inclusion

Questioning Solutions --> Questioning Assumptions

World's Best --> Best for the World

In what other ways have we become more proactive and purposeful?
How else has our thinking, doing and being changed?
How do our new understandings impact on the development of elearning?

Or is it too early to tell?

ITs - Back to Basics

2011-08-20T17:52:00.000-07:00

We've been listening for several weeks to views about online learning while traveling around the State to discuss the development of a Polytechnic eLearning Strategy for 2012-2014.

For some this is just more of the same e-learning rhetoric they've heard for the last decade or more. For others it's about new opportunities or solving existing problems. Some have stories to share of very successful elearning.

As these and other views were shared at a recent State eLearning Strategy meeting what emerged was a little surprising. Out of the extraordinary diversity of experience and passionately held views about urgent needs and potential solutions came the recognition that it was time to ask much deeper questions about the use of information technologies for learning.

What is good learning, teaching and assessment? (online, face-to-face, blended)
Where and when can learning take place?
Who can support the learner and the teacher?

It became apparent that it's also time to question some long held assumptions about eLearning such as

There is one best solution (one LMS, one ePortfolio, one eLearning design method...)
In-house IT Services provides for and supports all e-learning needs
Most students don't have off-campus access to IT
eLearning requires content development
Classes need access to a computer lab
Students can't learn without a teacher
Online learning is a poor alternative to face-to-face learning

Other agenda provide further reasons to question assumptions about how we provide education and training such as

High ownership of mobile devices and the new 4G network due before the end of 2011
The availability of a wide range of cloud-based managed IT services
The current poor financial situation and its impact on resources and support services
High-speed broadband through the National Broadband Network currently being rolled out across the state
The desire for more flexible and agile learning

Can we get back to the basics of what education and training in the Polytechnic is about and think differently about how we might use all available resources including information technologies to give students access to quality learning?

eLearning Strategy Opening

2011-07-05T05:39:00.000-07:00

Today we launched a 3 month project to develop a 2012-14 eLearning Strategy for the Polytechnic. The Strategy will grow out of a wiki as a living plan for eLearning across the state.

The wiki will be open for edit and stakeholders will be able to watch the eLearning Strategy emerge as they participate in a process of co-construction.

Through this openness we hope to engage more people in an transparent process that acknowledges the complexity of the task, multiple perspectives with their underpinning values and assumptions, and the challenge of strategically planning for on-going change and financial sustainability.

We will use a perspective model developed by Dr Sue Stack for a recent Faculty of Education NBN in Education Project at the University of Tasmania. This project examined the challenges of creating connectivity for Tasmanian education through an openly consultative process involving ICT leaders across different educational sectors.

Tomorrow students and the wider community will be invited through Facebook and Twitter to contribute to the wiki pages and discussion. With analytics running on various online resources we hope to be able to build on the most effective communication strategies during the project.

eQuestioning eLearning

2011-06-08T03:56:00.000-07:00

The Polytechnic is embarking on the development of an 'eLearning Strategy' - but what do we mean by 'e' Learning?

Some point out that eLearning is really about learning - which already has e integrated into learning - as it should.

Is e-learning still conceptually the same as e-mail - electronic-mail from the 70s? What is electronic learning?

Should we be developing a 'Digital Technologies and Services Learning Strategy'? Apart from being a mouthful does the term invite us to envision learning for the 2nd decade of the 21st Century?

Derek Wenmoth in eLearnings: Implementing a National Strategy for ICT in Education, 1998-2010 describes recent moves conceptually from connected eLearning to networked Virtual Learning and the development of the 'networked school'.

The Polytechnic also has a focus on a virtual campus and blended online and face-to-face learning.

Would a 'Networked Learning Strategy' be more appropriate than an 'eLearning Strategy'?
Conceptually networked learning appears to have broader connotations:

face-to-face and online networking
personal and professional learning networks
learning communities and communities of practice
national broadband networking of homes, workplaces, community centres with campuses
connecting the physical, the virtual and the mobile
networked cloud computing

It could also refer to how such a strategy should be developed - collaboratively - even co-constructively. Perhaps it could even be massively openly collaborative (following Jane McGonigal's discussion in Reality is Broken).

Or is that a bridge too far? Everyone has just got used to eLearning :-)

Being Present During Transformational Change

2011-05-07T22:35:00.000-07:00

Following my post 'Designing for the 4th Bottom Line' my wife put together a graphic that puts Presence in the centre - and I like it very much. She also used the term 'prosperity' rather than 'profit' and I think that is richer and more inclusive and resonates with Bhutan's 'gross national happiness index'.

4th Bottom Line by Dr Sue Stack

The 4th bottom line has been called 'personal', 'perspective', 'spirituality', 'culture' and 'sustainability' but I prefer 'presence' following Peter Senge et al in the book Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future.

The authors describe the 'U Process' for organisational or systemic change:

Sensing – knowing the whole system as it is
Letting go - of historical processes and perspectives
Presencing - taking time to retreat and reflect
Letting come - allowing new processes to become realised

In re-reading parts of the book today I found the notions of 'presencing', 'letting come' and 'realizing' particularly relevant as we envisage a virtual campus and new online spaces.

From Presence:

"Moving up the U involves bringing something new into reality... but this action comes from a source that's deeper than the rational mind... the magic comes from the capacity to sense something new and act instananeously in accordance with what that felt knowledge dictates."

"Operating from this larger intention brings into play forces one could never tap from just trying to impose our will on a situation."

"At it's essence the U theory poses a question: 'What does it mean to act in the world and not on the world?' "

In facilitating participative change I would also ask in what ways can we co-create what is best for the world rather than (or in addition to) what is best in the world?

State-wide iPad Management

2011-04-28T04:59:00.001-07:00

Click graphic for PowerPoint

Efficient and effective state-wide management of iPads for Health & Wellbeing staff and students has proven to be easier than first thought - with help from a colleague. By using a Gmail account to create an Apple ID it has been possible to provide the required iPad functionality without making management too onerous.

Multiple iPads are set up and updated using the same iTunes account in different regions across the state.

MobileMe provides a service to locate each iPad on Google Maps and to send any iPad a pop-up message, make sound to help in locating it and even lock it from further use if necessary.

DropBox and the DropBox iPad application are used to transfer and share files between the iPads, desktop PCs and with any user on the web with a DropBox account.

Google Reader is used as an RSS aggregator to manage blogs and specialised news feeds which can then be displayed through the Flipboard app on the iPad - along with Twitter lists.

Custom backgrounds are set up on each iPad to assist with identification.

See the iPad Management PowerPoint for more detail.

Designing for the 4th Bottom Line

2011-04-25T15:41:00.000-07:00

Photo by Daniel Voyager

Designing a virtual meta-campus for change may be more like gardening than building. Applying a Meta-Design Framework will probably be an organic process where the meta-campus is nurtured to grow and evolve - sometimes in surprising ways. It may even be like curating large and diverse gardens with local ecosystems and a range of complex challenges related to inputs/outputs, people and the planet.

Perhaps we need to think of the virtual meta-campus as both an organisation and an organism - and even a self-organising system. Many organisations now report against multiple bottom lines - even to a 4th bottom line. How would consideration of four bottom lines influence the meta-design of the virtual meta-campus?

1st Bottom Line: Profit
Learning outcomes, retention rates, financial sustainability...

2nd Bottom Line: People
Equity, social justice, social capital...

3rd Bottom Line: Planet
Ecological sustainability, ecological footprints...

4th Bottom Line: Presence
Personal meaning, fulfilment, being and becoming, spirituality...

How would the meta-campus meet goals, model processes, enable participation and empower users in each of these areas of accountability?

How would each bottom line shape the following attributes of the virtual meta-campus?

Information, places, spaces, processes, services, worlds, story telling, dialogue, challenge and exploration, growth and transformation, experience and reflection, roles and goals, creativity and innovation, imagination and play, partnerships and collaborations, sharing and generosity, celebration and inspiration, courses and special interest groups, connecting and networking (PLNs), help and guidance, citizenship and advocacy, local and global, open courseware and OERs, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches...

Meta-Design of a Virtual Meta-Campus

2011-04-24T16:03:00.000-07:00

"In a world that is not predictable, improvisation, evolution, and innovation are more than a luxury: they are a necessity. The challenge of design is not a matter of getting rid of the emergent, but rather of including it and making it an opportunity for more creative and more adequate solutions to problems." (Fischer & Giaccardi, 2006)

Designing a virtual meta-campus is a complex systems wicked problem. There isn't one solution, technologies are changing, goals are shifting, unexpected possibilites emerge and the results are unpredictable. Traditional elearning design principles may not be the most productive in this type of dynamic challenge where 'perpetual-beta' is often the norm.

Fischer & Giaccardi present a conceptual framework for 'Meta-Design' that addresses design-for-change issues and recommend 'co-adaptive' processes that can be used to develop an agile system that evolves with its designers, developers and users.

Meta-design uses social and technical infrastructure that isn't designed completely before use, is flexible and evolves in the hands of users. At the same time users adapt to system functionality and a dialogue is developed in which the user helps design the design process.

The Meta-Design Framework has several elements:

Design for change - user participation and empowerment
Underdesign - create flexible environments rather than solutions
Open systems approaches - that can be modified by users and evolve during use
Seeding - working components that can be evolved through small contributions of large numbers of people
Unselfconcsious design culture - slow adaption and error reduction

According to Fischer & Giaccardi Meta-Design approaches need to consider:

Interactive Art - focus on collaboration and co-creation, often exploring feelings and emotions
Collaborative synchnocity - allowing 'power' users to interact with the community, the project and ongoing collaborative processes
Social creativity - building a shared user understanding and user voice leading to new insights, new ideas, new artifacts
Balancing standardisation and improvisation - avoiding the disfunctional extremes of both
Consumers and Designers - Some users (not all, not at all times, not in all contexts) want to be designers: "engage the talent pool"
Ease-of-Use Revisited - Over-specialised easy-to-use systems may not be that interesting. Users will learn to operate a system if it has personal value - and is empowering, engaging and fun.
Motivation and Rewards - Users will persist in tasks if the 'design culture' includes simple motivational activities - particularly those that build 'social capital'.

The Meta-Design Framework includes three integrated 'Design Spaces':

Designing Design - higher-order design that allows for change and even transformation
Designing Together - facilitating participatory design processes
Designing the 'In-Between' - supporting and creating social networks and their interaction with technology and systems. Relational, reciprocal and recursive interactions that trigger co-creation.

Participatory design requires new paradigms and cultures. Can we create the design spaces and facilitate the deign processes needed to build the virtual campus? Indeed how can we embed these in an evolving virtual campus?

Virtual Campus Framework

2011-04-22T15:23:00.000-07:00

Regional meetings have recently been held to progress the Virtual Campus Project discussed in previous posts on this blog: Imagining the Polyverse, Building a Sustainable Polyverse.

While the Polytechnic has an 'official' LMS and public website there are a plethora of other online services, resources and environments independently developed by innovative individuals and teams to meet the needs of learners. So much so that it's valid to ask if we already have a 'virtual campus' in the sense of a rich and diverse online capacity that provides required functionality for remote and local students to engage in learning and training.

What is clearly absent however is any sense from a student perspective of a coherent and connected Polytechnic online service/space. Most online students are isolated from each other and from other classes, campuses and learning communities. There is little sense of a 'virtual campus' and navigation between online spaces is almost non-existent.

Rather than launch into planning and building a 'virtual campus' after hearing (for the first time for many present) about the numerous online services beyond the official LMS all meetings recommended:

Defining the notion of a 'virtual campus' for discussion
Listing some guiding principles that might form a conceptual framework within which further online innovation might take place
Develop a model or models to provide systemic views of virtual campus infrastructure, navigation, standards, data flow...

Several people expressed the desire to ensure that any processes put in place to build a coherent and connected virtual campus continued to support innovation within and outside the project, as well as being agile enough to cope with changing technologies, diverse pedagogies and genuine student choices in learning.

At some meetings there was discussion about the use of designs/technologies to connect existing online spaces such as

tagging and meta-tagging
visual ecologies such as 360 panorama
immersive 3D environments
gamification and levels

How does one navigate a complex and rapidly growing virtual campus where anything is possible?

What should we call the virtual campus? The staff intranet is called Phoenix. Any suggestions for the name of an inspiring online meta-campus that blends the physical, the virtual and the possible?

Mix'n'Match Learning Environments

2011-04-16T00:03:00.000-07:00

Teachers are joining the re-mix culture - in a bold way and at their own pace.

While some are thinking about which LMS the organisation should use from 2012 an increasing number of teachers are customising their own learning environments to suit their personal eLearning journey, learner needs and course requirements.

These teachers no longer feel bound to one system and are exploring different combinations of environments - often challenging themselves to take another step on their journey at a measured pace. In this way they are taking control of their own professional learning and having more say in the provision of ICT services for their learners.

In a surprising number of classes teachers are further customising their mix'n'match learning environments with components or services suggested by their students.

Some mix'n'match examples this year are:

Generally teachers have a learning 'base camp' which is often in a Moodle or Wiki with links from their directly to groups, channels or 'secret urls' in other services. Students are required to manage the different usernames/passwords but this has provided an opportunity to discuss password management systems and Open IDs - something many students are happy to learn about.

More tech-savvy teachers are integrating a range of services back to Moodle - usually through one of the many outside hosting services available which have become easier to use and cheaper.

Many of the above DIY learning environments are used for 'blended learning' and take advantage of student access to mobile computing and home broadband. In fact some components of the mix'n'match combinations are not accessible on campus due to bandwidth or firewall issues. This has not been a significant problem because either these components are optional or students access them through wired, wirelesss or USB broadband at home.

Teachers are also setting up student ICT support models - usually somewhere within the mix'n'match learning environment. For some it's a forum in Mahara, for others discussion pages on a Wiki or a closed group in Facebook. While visiting a class last week I over-heard students designing their own 'help network' independently of the teacher.

One interesting change I've noticed in classes where mix'n'match environments are used is in student attitude and ownership. Students are asking questions about the learning environment and the following discussion is often about learning and learning processes. Students have referred to "our" page/site/group and often come up with suggestions to customise it to make it easier to use.

There is also a new respect for the teacher who is clearly making an effort to construct a useful online learning environment and can be seen at times to be stretching themselves beyond their comfort zones - by choice.

iPad Knows What You Did Last Summer

2011-01-04T13:51:00.000-08:00

I've recently enabled MobileMe on a number of iPads purchased for staff and students - because I can. But should I?

MobileMe has enabled me to pinpoint the current location of the iPads to within a few meters. I can also create friendly reminders to return the device that popup on the screen. A very useful service - depending on your point of view perhaps...

One of the iPads has just gone on summer holidays interstate with a teacher while they learn how to use it. It's possible for me to map the holiday travels of the iPad with dates and times.

As we move towards an Internet of Things I wonder about privacy and ethical implications of being able to monitor and track devices, objects, any-thing, anyone.

The MobileMe Find My iPad service gives the option to play a sound for two minutes, lock the device and even delete files. One can imagine that once iPads and iPhones have screen-side cameras the iPad will be able to take some holiday snapshots of it's users and surroundings. I believe this service is already available for laptops with webcams.

I'll arrange a discussion with the teachers once they have returned from the summer holidays. It will be interesting to see if they decide to use the iPad location service. I've decided to use it for my iPhone and iPad - just in case I lose them while on holiday :-)

Knowmadic Existence

2010-12-31T20:47:00.000-08:00

2011 will be the first year in 15 that I haven't had an office on campus. I'll have a desk in a shared space at the Campbell St Campus. With much disciplined sorting my previous office has been reduced to 4 garbage bins, 2 recycle bins and 4 boxes that now sit at home. This move has firmly established what has been developing for some time - my 'knowmadic existence' as described in 2008 by John Moravec.

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This mobility has been made possible through the advent of powerful handheld computing and fast 3G wireless broadband. It has also been supported through flexible workplace policies that recognise the demise of the 9-5 (8-4) five-day working week and the potential for increased productivity and lifestyle choices that this can bring.

My physical location is now determined by project work, classes, meetings and the need to use specialist resources or spaces - and usually changes every few hours. My 'office' (defined as the place you are likely to find me) has become my online presence.

For my 'knowmadic work' to be effective and efficient I have to net-work across many locations - both physical and online. My physical workplaces include staff rooms, campus libraries, meeting rooms, cafes, home and even the car when travelling around the state.

When I go to a workplace I usually pick one of several bags depending on anticipated tasks:

light bag with current papers, iPhone and netbook or tablet computer (eeePC or iPad), and various USB memory sticks with portable apps
laptop bag with current papers, HD camera, various USB broadband devices with router/switch (to set up a local internet enabled networks for up to 6 mobile devices)
AV bag with various digital recorders and cables

My online work environment includes a Polytechnic staff intranet and global professional learning network (PLN); educational resources, environments and applications; working and archived documents. I was recently able to throw away most of my papers because everything is safely archived online.

An excellent ICT infrastructure across all campuses gives me consistent firewalled access to institutional communications, applications and documents. Much of this is accessible off-campus through a web browser.

An equally excellent :-) home wired and wireless network gives me firewalled access to range of shared resources including several Tbytes of storage. These resources are complemented by a growing range of cloud computing services providing communications, servers, applications and storage - shared and private.

Ubiquitous access to files, resources, people and systems is provided through a range of services that work across devices (iPhone, iPad, EeePC, laptop, desktop) such as:

DropBox
Google Docs, WikiSpaces
Evernote, Delicious, Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, AuthorStream, and several more...
LogMeIn, LastPass
Skype, Google Talk
GMail, work email

Informal chat now happens just as much online as face-to-face through:

Twitter, Office Communicator (and hopefully iDialog one day), Facebook
Google Reader, Blogger
Online events in virtual spaces including Second Life/OpenSim

Online communication connects me across learning areas, campuses, educational sectors, state and international boundaries... I'm just as likely to chat and even collaborate with someone from another institution or country as I am with a local colleague.

It also disconnects me from those who are not comfortably online unless I make time for walking and talking. On the other hand I'm finding formal face-to-face meetings with both staff and students tend to be more focused and purposeful.

I wouldn't go as far as to describe myself as a nomad but perhaps it's another role to add to Stephen Downes list of educator roles :-)

Narrow views of broadband possibilities

2010-11-07T23:54:00.000-08:00

Why would you need high-speed broadband in education? That's the question I've been asked a few times over the last couple of months.

At first I had no ready response - I thought it was obvious - clearly it isn't.

The context is the NBN rollout in Australia by 2015 to provide infrastructure that will deliver the bandwidths needed by 2030 and beyond. Tasmania is one of the early 'regions' where work has already begun and the first few towns are now connected. But many are still questioning the expense to the Nation and the need for 100Mbps - particularly for education.

Why do we need high-speed broadband in education?

Current bandwidth (and cost) is so inadequate that schools:

restrict bandwidth (shaping) and volume (quotas) for users
block rich media sites (for part or all of the day)
can't effectively use video (a 2 minute video can take 5 minutes to play)
can't use participative media due to tiny upload limits (asymmetric service)
have established practices to keep file sizes and internet traffic as small as possible - creating a culture of limitation
are limited in the online services they can provide to students off campus

Further discussion with some of those who question the need for high-speed internet connections to schools and homes for learning begins to reveal some deeper implicit assumptions:

ICT is an add-on and not required for effective learning
the Internet for learning is about email and occasional searching for information
most 'content' on the Internet is irrelevant and even harmful for students
most students won't use much ICT for further learning or in the workplace - and if they do they will be trained when required

There are many effective ways to use high-speed broadband for learning.

One way to illustrate how current bandwidths stifle learning is to consider video. Video is useful for demonstrations, tutorials, evidence for assessment, communication and story telling. At the moment however any online use of video has to be:

short
small window size
low frame rate
low resolution

The use of video becomes counter-productive when you can't clearly see what has been filmed - assuming the video plays without so many pauses that users give up in frustration.

When students produce videos that can be viewed online their work reaches an audience outside classroom walls. This makes the work authentic and meaningful. It raises the students' own expectations for quality and effectiveness. It provides avenues for feedback from and participation with local and global communities.

Video production provides engaging opportunities for learning a wide range of digital media skills. Video production for an external audience makes real for students many other complex issues such as copyright, ethical practice and terms of service. Video production that addresses community challenges such as cyber-bullying or de-forestation help to empower students to be active local and global citizens.

And that's just video. And just the video we know now. 3D video has already arrived in some homes. What bandwidths will we need by 2015 nevermind 2030?

How can we not have high-speed broadband?

What do we do in education until 2015?

Portfolio of Questions

2010-11-03T12:50:00.000-07:00

Reflecting on day 1 of the thought provoking #AEC2010 - Australian ePortfolio Conference...

Several speakers noted that ePortfolios are another 'disruptive technology' challenging and sometimes transforming existing learning, teaching and assessment.

I also wonder how they are challenging ICT service provision and support.
Learners and teachers can now find ICT services beyond institution walls and with the increasing availability of 3G wireless access and broadband at home they are choosing from a wide range of ePortfolio options.

In addition ePortfolio systems themselves are evolving as learners and educators look for new features that support user control and customisation. Some learners are also opting for solutions used by professionals in their chosen career area - particularly when seeking feedback from external audiences or establishing a professional online identity.

These rapidly changing technology and educational landscapes (including ePortfolios) are leading some institutions to a 'perpetual beta' culture - particularly in ICT service provision. This can be very positive if it promotes agility leading to increased responsiveness to educational needs. But it is also very challenging and sometimes disruptive to established ways of delivering ICT services within educational institutions.

A few speakers noted the successful use of - or need for - ICT sandpits for innovation. We need to think about sustainable frameworks and processes to deal with the emergent perpetual beta culture.

Because I'm preparing for a presentation ('Wicked' NBN Services for Education) for a Broadband in Society Summit I'm also wondering what the ePortfolio space might look like after the NBN & VEN has rolled out in Tasmania, and then nationally. Perhaps ePortfolio provision is another wicked problem?

What will be the impact on ePortfolios of ubiquitous high-speed connectivity? Will it mean

less concern about storage?
higher resolutions for photos, audio, video?
easier upload of any video format?
much greater use of video streaming from on and off campus?
video journals and comments - speech converted to text and searchable?
integration with immersive environments - 3D virtual worlds?
learners set up virtual world galleries, workplaces, offices, simulations?
intelligent agents take visitors on tours of ePortfolios 24/7?

I think perpetual beta is here to stay - no use putting our heads in the sandpit :-)

Building a Sustainable Polyverse

2010-08-06T22:54:00.000-07:00

How do we build, maintain and innovatively grow a virtual campus that learners, teachers and the community will find easy to navigate, useful and inspiring?

Previous models of ICT provision have focused on a shared services model that provides a walled garden within which learners, teachers and administrators can enjoy reliable, secure and controlled access to computers.

Over the last decade however 'classrooms without walls' have become 'institutions without walls' as learners and teachers became more comfortable using external web services, mobile devices and 3G wireless access on and off campus. Open source solutions hosted on external servers began to appear and have been used by some learning teams (FL & WFS) to provide learning environments and/or services not available from shared ICT services.

More recently learners and staff have increasingly turned to campus libraries (learning centres) for ICT assistance which has become more complex with learners using a larger and more diverse fleet of campus desktops/laptops/netbooks as well as their own mobile devices. In addition learners are utilising a range of external web services and are accessing learning resources almost 24/7.

So... how do we sustainably build and support a coherent virtual campus described in the previous post? Available human resources include

Shared ICT Services staff
Teaching and support staff
Students - as IT trainees, as learners, as content producers
External web and hosting services - helpdesks, forums, service contracts

Students are a largely untapped resource. IT students can provide substantial IT helpdesk services in many forms - physical helpdesk, online assistance and library support. Other students are skilled in using specialist applications or services within their course and can offer additional ICT services through a community of practice and/or project-based models. For example creative arts students can produce components required for a virtual world or graphics for an LMS.

In addition students participating collaboratively in different regions of the 'Polyverse' produce digital content that meaningfully adds to available learning and teaching resources.

In order for this new structure to work as an effective, reliable and sustainable whole, new guidelines will be required. Ideally the whole 'Polyverse' would be more than the sum of its parts - a coherent virtual campus with new affordances emerging to support new ways of learning, working and being together.

Whether a student is on a large city campus or isolated in a remote location they should be able to seamlessly access learning resources, equally participate in some aspects of campus life, and hopefully experience a sense of belonging that has been shown to be so important for continued engagement.

Time now to think about the guidelines needed to build and maintain a sustainable 'Polyverse'...

Imagining the Polyverse

2010-07-26T15:16:00.000-07:00

More thoughts on the virtual campus...

A virtual campus that connects students/teachers/mentors/community and provides opportunities for engaged learning, creative innovation and active citizenship will have

learning & training spaces - wide range of supportive learning environments
design & innovation hubs - stimulating creativity and facilitating innovative research and development
social & professional spaces - social commons, performances and exhibitions

The virtual campus will be designed and built by students/teachers/support staff/mentors/community to nurture and inspire the whole person - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Educational processes will enable holistic learning and assessment, encourage self-directed learning and focus on the principles of adult learning for the post year 10 sector.

The virtual campus will

organise the online environment for easy navigation
provide for learner, teacher and subject centric education as required
connect the local to the global, the physical to the virtual, the personal to the institutional
be playful and surprising, user created and allow user customisation
adapt to change and be proactive with agile development

The virtual campus will be built, serviced and accessed through a diverse range of evolving technologies meeting the needs of learners, teachers and the wider community - a kind of poly-meta-verse or 'polyverse'.

How do we integrate different services to provide users with a coherent and navigable online experience of the polyverse?

How do we build the polyverse so that it is meaningfully and usefully accessible through a range of devices? And in what ways can we blend the physical and virtual environments so that each provides windows and ports to the other?

Virtual 'Solutions'?

2010-05-31T15:17:00.000-07:00

This presentation attempts to map various (mostly current) ICT services in the Polytechnic that support learning with a view to making some sense of what we might mean by a 'virtual campus' or 'virtual learning environment'.

Can we even talk about a coherent virtual campus? Should we expect to be able to integrate the diverse range of services used by learners and teachers? How do we support legacy systems (and legacy pedagogy?) still used by a significant proportion of users while also supporting clear directions in new ICT services for learning, teaching and assessment?

To what extent do we opt for new 'solutions' when it is clear that they will have a short lifetime in the continuing climate of rapid change and increasing diversity in pedagogy and ICT systems built to meet new needs?

What is the balance between hosting organisational systems with full internal support and providing organisational guidelines for users to choose external services with external support?

What will be the impact of the increasing number of learners using their own ICT devices on campus (sometimes including broadband access) and the emphasis on personalised learning and learner centred approaches - and the high proportion of learners and teachers learning and working from home?

Can organisations provide services that enable more openness - open education resources and open courseware - in a climate of security, ownership and isolation?

Avatar Make-overs and Ghosts

2010-05-07T01:41:00.000-07:00

Avatars are going through makeovers in Tourism and Hospitality classes at the Hobart Campus. New bodies, new make-up and hair, new wardrobes... are being developed as avatars find their identity and expression. Avatars then have their photo taken to go in their blogs.

It hasn't all been easy though... Some network issues still need to be resolved that are stopping teleports - no-one can get to the mall yet to do shopping! :-) We have learned that if you become a ghost (white cloud) and lose your body you can replace your outfit from inventory to get your avatar to become 'real' again.

Polytechnic 2.0

2010-05-01T04:52:00.000-07:00

... will help us become more informed, responsive, innovative and learner-centred...

Unprecedented opportunity to achieve more open, accountable, responsive and efficient leadership...

Once information and learning resources are liberated as key organisational assets, possibilities — foreseeable and otherwise — are unlocked through the invention, creativity and hard work...

These statements are derived from Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0 - an Australian Government Taskforce report calling for public agencies and public servants to engage more using the tools and capabilities of the ‘collaborative web’ or Web 2.0.

This comes at a time when there are calls from within educational institutions in Tasmania to restrict and even block altogether access to Web 2 services such as Facebook.

As the Report states:

Government 2.0 requires leaders to engage with what is for many, an unfamiliar and challenging agenda. Are we up to it?

Though it involves new technology, Polytechnic 2.0 is really about a new approach... the existing culture of hierarchical control and direction must change sufficiently to encourage and reward engagement.

The Report has been released under a Creative Commons 2.5 Australia Licence allowing a new document Engage: Getting on with Polytechnic 2.0 to be derived from it - mostly by replacing the word 'Government' with 'Polytechnic' and focusing on learning and the learner.

This derived version outlines a Polytechnic 2.0 agenda in terms of three pillars:

Leadership, policy and governance to achieve necessary shifts in culture and practice.

The application of Web 2.0 collaborative tools and practices to the institution as a learning organisation.

Open access to leadership and management information and to open educational resources (OER).

Polytechnic 2.0 presents challenges to some well established organisational and educational practices and has the potential to change the relationship between our institution and its learning communities.

Getting back to Facebook there are many educational reasons to question the calls to restrict or block access to this and other web 2 services. According to the 2009 Horizon Report:

“Increasing globalization continues to affect the way we work,collaborate, and communicate. Information technologies are having a significant impact on how people work, play, gain information, and collaborate. Increasingly, those who use technology in ways that expand their global
connections are more likely to advance, while those who do not will find themselves on the sidelines. With the growing availability of tools to connect learners and scholars all over the world — online collaborative workspaces, social networking tools, mobiles, voice-over-IP, and more — teaching and scholarship are transcending traditional borders more and more all the time.”

For more see In Defence of Facebook.

Playing TAG

2010-04-24T00:11:00.001-07:00

Many staff and students are using web services for displaying, organising and sharing their work. A number of Creative Arts teachers have been looking at how work might be tagged within these services so that staff and students can search for products created

by Tasmanian Polytechnic students and staff
in the same course or qualification
on the same campus
using the same media

In addition to facilitating searching a state-wide tagging system could allow teachers to easily collate student work for quality assurance/moderation across the state.

One issue to be addressed is the fact that students and staff are currently using a range of different web services for the same function. For example photos are uploaded into Flickr, Picasa, Deviant Art... We can create a single RSS feed from multiple web services by using an RSS aggregator that creates a new combined RSS feed such as Yahoo Pipes - rather than mandate a single web service.

We would also like to showcase student work by tagging items so that they automatically appear in RSS feeds within embedded code set up for our intranet, Facebook and public website. This will be archived by creating a Flickr group (linked to a state-wide Creative Arts Flickr account) where students can display their best work. Some of this work will then be tagged for showcasing - as well as being organised into sets and galleries.

This cross-campus tagging can also be applied to web services for video, audio and other media - any services that provide an RSS feed from tag searches.

Some of the thinking behind the use of tagging is presented in the following slides created for Creative Arts staff considering using Flickr for the first time to encourage student comment and reflection. They would also like to use it to facilitate some mentoring and critique from the arts community outside the organisation.

Learning to Walk...

2010-04-01T03:15:00.000-07:00

Above you can see teacher Hilary Reader making some final head adjustments before taking her avatar to the hairdresser. On the right on the big screen one of her Tourism students flies over Jokaydia in Reaction Grid while on the desktop a Hospitality student walks her avatar through a forest on the Island Campus of the Tasmanian Polytechnic in Second Life.

Over the last week 4 classes (60 students) have been introduced to virtual worlds - well virtually introduced... we had a few technical issues but we are almost there.

The students are from a range of courses in Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management at the Hobart and Drysdale South Campuses. They will explore and work in both Second Life and Reaction Grid - and perhaps some other virtual worlds.

Evidence for assessment including photo's, movie clips and reflective journals will be displayed in ePortfolios that all the students have now set up in the Polytechnic's Mahara. The students have all joined a 'Virtual World' group in Mahara that contains links to help and tasks, and most have added classmates as 'friends', customised their profiles and made comments on each others 'walls'.

Avatars have been registered and some students have begun to learn how to walk, talk, sit down and fly. After Easter they will learn to eat, dance, teleport and take photo's.

Some technical issues with graphics cards and ports meant that some students used Open Sim on USB memory sticks to practice customising their avatar's appearance. To make the USB world more interesting some of our buildings from the Island Campus in Second Life were copied across to the USB world using the Meerkat Viewer.

More classes will be joining these students after the Easter break.

And in news just in... We've heard that funding has been approved for the project: Virtually Here by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. Project descrition:

Virtually Here

"To improve opportunities for collaborative interaction and communication for students who are geographically isolated, using the virtual world of Second Life (for adult learners) and Reaction Grid (for students who are under 18 years of age) as the primary learning platforms."

Web 2.0 Exploration

2010-03-10T13:13:00.000-08:00

40% of Polytechnic teachers are currently exploring web 2.0 or collaborative web services for learning. Many are using online blogs, photo or video albums for reflective learning or folios for assessment evidence or showcasing work.

The graphic above shows some examples of other web 2.0 services being used by teachers for learning, teaching and assessment. The red lines are indicative of the networks of 'friends' that each service may also bring to the 'classroom' giving an outside audience and increasing the potential for collaboration.

The Flexible Learning Team is now making some recommendations about which particular web service to use for specific learning tasks or desired learning outcomes. This will not only guide those who may be looking for a service to meet their needs but also create a critical mass of users within the organisation that can help each other.

Game on for Learning

2010-02-23T23:07:00.000-08:00

Panorama of AppV Games on CleVR.com

Today 60 students were playing networked games as part of the Enrichment Program on the Elizabeth Campus thanks to dedicated problem solvers in ICT Services. Simon and Rob (pictured far left and centre - they were moving fast...) used MS Application Virtualisation (App-V) to deploy 60 instances of legal games across normal student networked computers.

The beauty of this is that the games don't affect the other software running on the network or network performance. While playing the games students have no access to the internet and play time can be controlled centrally.

The test run today proved it worked brilliantly! Game-based learning environments have been used on various campuses before for

developing literacy, numeracy and communication skills
digital story telling
machinima (movies made 'in-world')
modding (building games using commercial game engines)
character design, AI and scripting
3D design and terraforming
problem solving and system thinking skills

Today's session was just about fun and the doors had to be closed after the first 60 students arrived leaving many disappointed!

Simon and Rob's work will mean that ICT Shared Services can provide similar engaging learning environments across all campuses into the future.

Enabling a Learning Commons

2010-02-10T14:33:00.000-08:00

Click graphic for full size

Polytechnic Libraries and Learning Centres have been evolving for many years and now bear little resemblance to the traditional libraries that many might remember from twenty years ago.
This evolution is continuing as we plan to meet the needs of tomorrow's learners, teachers and other clients. The Polytechnic Corporate Plan (2009-2010) outlines a 'learning commons' philosophy that further integrates learning and support services for students and facilitates the flexible-applied-connected-supported learning agenda.

In addition the State Library and UTas Library are changing to meet client needs. The national Re-Imagining Libraries Strategic Plan is indicative of the directions many libraries are taking:

"In collaboration, the National, State and Territory Libraries of Australia and New Zealand will become leaders in empowering people to create, discover, use and transform our collections, content and global information resources."

These directions require more open and connected ICT services than has previously. The Polytechnic Library Online Services Project team has been mapping the ICT functionality needed to meet the above agenda.

The above graphic (click for full size) maps the ICT functionality to enable:

Information and resources to come into the organisation including Open Education Resources, Open Courseware, RSS feeds... (LHS of graphic)
Information and resources produced or added to by students and staff within the organisation including Open Education Resources, Open Courseware and RSS feeds to be shared with others (RHS of graphic)
Online access by students and staff within the Polytechnic via normal logon (LDAP) or Open ID (bottom of graphic)
External access by school students, mentors, local communities... via open unauthenticated access or Open ID (top of graphic)

These needs will now determine the kinds of systems that will be required. Current ICT systems may or may not be sufficient.

E-Portfolios for students and staff

2010-02-06T13:09:00.000-08:00

E-Portfolios are now ready for anyone in the Polytechnic who wants to use them - staff, classes, groups, individual students... As described before we are using Mahara to provide this service. We have two hosted services arising from different pilot projects in 2009 - one is just Mahara and the other is an integrated Mahara + Moodle installation.

Teacher and user guides (video and text) are available and a community of practice has been established across all campuses. It will be interesting to see how many staff and students decide to use E-Portfolios who were not part of previous projects.

Problems encountered during the 2009 projects will hopefully be addressed with recent changes such as

upgrading Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 8
upgrading Mahara to allow for importing and exporting
customised help

Mahara isn't the only solution for E-Portfolios. Some staff and students choose to use

blogs with embedded code from other sites where they save work or links to online file storage
wikis or services such as Google docs and sites
Deviant Art or similar shared galleries
Flickr, Picassa or similar photo albums
Facebook or MySpace for student or whole class folios or online presence with rich media

A survey of staff at the end of 2009 revealed that 40% were exploring so-called web 2.0 or social media sites for use with students. The attraction of Mahara is that it provides some social media functionality within a local learning environment while still providing student control of access to work including external access via a 'secret' URL.

Students can connect with and share work with classmates or friends as well as teachers and feedback from students in the 2009 projects indicated that this was highly valued.

Re-framing the Present

2009-06-01T15:14:00.000-07:00

The current restructuring of Tasmanian public post year 10 education provides a good opportunity to re-conceptualise ICT services to match learning needs. A new ICT network infrastructure has been built from the ground up that supports both legacy and new systems across 16 campuses statewide.

Learning priorities have already been re-framed as the FACS Learning Model - Flexible, Applied, Connected and Supported Learning. In what ways can we re-conceptualise ICT services to enable, facilitate and support the FACS Learning Model?

We have already attempted to map a student perspective on current and planned ICT services, and to map the notion of a Virtual Campus. This post attempts yet another map - starting with learning. The learning priorities on the left are linked to the necessary ICT functionality to support them on the right:

Does it show the important ICT functionality required to enable, facilitate and support FACS Learning?

The next part of this mapping exercise emphasises the need for management processes and tools for the learner, the teacher and the institution .

'Manage MyLearning' is about each learner's need to manage all the processes, artifacts, resources, networks... as they continue their learning journey - particularly as the learner becomes more self-directed.

The teacher needs to manage their teaching processes, resources, classes, students, professional networks... Recently some have done this in a Learning Management System (LMS) - which has really been more of Teaching Management System for most.

'Manage MyInstitution' could be seen as the institutions need to manage facilities, services, staff and students... (Or it might be taking the 'My' trend too far...)

Are there other key roles that should be included here that will inform the provision of ICT services?

The next map shows some of the ICT services that might support learners, teachers and the institution. A brief description of each follows...

Folio & Pathway Management Systems: This is about much more than the provision of efolios. It is about each learner managing their own learning choices, resources, artifacts, networks... on their learning journey (pathway). The learner has control over who can view, access and share their learning resources and artifacts.

Learning Management Systems: This is the standard LMS functionality which is mostly about teacher structures and controls to support learning, teaching and assessment.

Information Management Systems: This is largely about managing and communicating institutional information and resources. Systems such as MOSS have evolved to integrate greater functionality however this requires authenticated access to a closed system.

Learning Environments: These include spaces and structures such as virtual worlds, simulations, serious games, augmented reality... Some of these can integrate resources and functionality from other management systems - eg Sloodle.

Virtual Learning Commons: This is the online component of the 'Learning Commons' that includes additional services to learning resource access such as learning support, client services and exhibition spaces.

Shared Services Management Systems: Finance, Facilities, Human Resources and much more.

Learning and Business Applications & Web Services: Office, specialist and learning tool software and web services. Includes application deployment.

Research & Project Management Systems: This has been somewhat ad-hoc in the past and could evolve to support collaborative innovation and research within and beyond the institution.

Course Management Systems: This could evolve beyond the management of in-house courses to the provision of access to Open Courseware.

What other key ICT services are required to support FACS learning?

Still missing from this mapping exercise are the range of services - including some of the management services above - that exist beyond the institution.

The full map can be seen here.

eFolios for Learning and Life

2009-05-24T18:08:00.000-07:00

This year we are "establishing and implementing a Polytechnic ePortfolio strategy" across all campuses. A significant part of this work will be informed by a 2009 E-Learning Innovations Project 'E-portfolios are 'living' evidence' supported by the Australian Flexible learning Framework.

This project focuses on using efolios (Mahara) as an integral part of the learning process - a process described in the 2008 JISC report as 'e-portfolio-based learning'. Last week saw the first orientation session into Mahara for the group involved in this project.

Graeme and I presented some background information on folios and learning processes and we spent some time playing with Mahara - uploading artifacts, setting profiles, linking with 'friends' and creating views.

Unfortunately the laptop links through a hub failed only worked for a couple of people so we had to resort to external broadband wireless connections through mobiles phones and pre-paid USB modems. Fortunately we were able to get a surprising number working.

I've decided I love my ultra-notebook and pre-paid broadband. No more worries about being able to connect at different locations and no more firewall hassles - I use Telstra services... I can load all my own applications - and they work as expected.

At 1kg the ultra is great to carry around - my laptop is 3.5kg and more when it's in its bag.

I've notice a few other staff going down this path as well - and some students. But I digress...

Here are some of the slides we presented during the day:

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by regor2012

The efolio project is part of a bigger picture of the range of ICT services used by learners - how and where and when they access them - and who provides them. The 'bigger picture' for the new Tasmanian Polytechnic is about flexible, connected, applied and supported learning which can be enabled and/or enriched through

efolios
portals
LMSs
virtual worlds
augmented reality
serious games
communication and collaboration environments
media channels
galleries
open courses
learning commons

More on these later...

Last Thursday I attended an RMIT 'roundtable' on efolios and RPL. It was very useful - partly because we heard that we have been doing what everyone else is doing and partly because I made links with several institutions that are using Mahara. I also got to meet Alison Miller after following her for a couple of years on Twitter and journals. She provides a great channel to what is going on in the efolio world - and other things.

Towards the end we started to talk about the broader use of efolios for learning and life. This is definitely a conversation to continue in the near future.

Measuring Flexible Learning - Breadth and Depth

2009-05-24T00:03:00.000-07:00

We are thinking about how to establish benchmarks and measure progress in flexible learning across the Tas Polytechnic - 16 campuses and 1500 teaching staff. But before we can decide on some key performance indicators we need a common and agreed definition of flexible learning.

Flexible learning is often defined as providing learners with choices about where, when, how - and sometimes what - learning occurs. The goal is personalised learning that meets the needs of each and every student - both on and off campus.

The degree of flexible learning that an educational organisation can provide will depend on a range of factors including:

learning, teaching and assessment principles and practice
facilities and support structures
course and learning designs
learner engagement and responsibility
accountability and quality assurance

Strategies which have been used to increase the level of flexibility in learning include:

eLearning and Flexible Delivery
Flexible/Open Learning Options
Curriculum/Training Package Frameworks
Learning Environment/Space Design
Professional Learning, Sharing and Collaboration
Facilities and Infrastructure for Access and Equity

One objective of the Tasmanian Polytechnic is to "establish flexible learning as part of every teacher's repertoire" - broadening the availability of flexible learning options beyond 'champions', early adopters and specialist areas and deepening the degree of flexible learning beyond the provision of simple content and delivery alternatives.

Flexible learning is not new to the organisation. Many - if not most - teachers already provide some form of choice for learners and there are numerous examples of individuals, teams and learning areas that provide very effective and innovative options for personalised learning, learning spaces and learner support. We need to learn from these and 'mainstream' them.

There are many examples of flexible 'elearning' including some that not only offer content, delivery and communication choices but go deeper to collaboration, reflective assessment and blended learning.

The Australian Flexible Learning Framework suggests a range of elearning indicators that we could adapt for measuring flexible learning. A number of these could use data that is already being collected to establish some early benchmarking.

Does anyone know of any other measures or KPI lists for flexible learning in that go beyond superficial adoption of ICTs?
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Collaboration in Learning and Teaching

2009-04-17T22:47:00.000-07:00

Listening to a recent Stephen Downes presentation and reading a recent education.au report has progressed my thinking around collaboration, personal learning networks, virtual learning commons and efolios - and led me to try something new.

The 2009 Collaboration in Teaching & Learning education.au report is a great read for several reasons. It's well researched, broadly informed and comes at a time when some clear directions - or at least some clear choices - are emerging and is therefore a very timely and useful document.

I also appreciated the format of this Australian Government publication with Creative Commons copyright, references bookmarked at delicious.com and illustrative videos highlighted in the text.

The report's discussion of the options we have for ICT enabled collaboration also informed my thinking in a range of areas including those I listed above.

Stephen's April 16 presentation Providing Learning in Social Networks describes a journey to eLearning 2.0 that I found very familiar having used some of the tools and approaches he mentions including games and simulations, Moodle, Elgg and a range of Web 2.0 services.

Closed learning management systems, closed social networking learning environments and open web 2.0 services all have their pros and cons. How do we include the best of these and transcend - or at least alleviate - the disadvantages of each?

The part of the presentation that I found particularly interesting was the notion of a "distributed online course" and the idea that each student's personal learning spaces and network could be aggregated and re-mixed as a kind of RSS 'class stream'.

Stephen mentioned using Yahoo Pipes to bring each student's course work together and then re-publish them as an RSS feed. I teach a class at the moment (Student-Directed Inquiry - SDI) that uses Moodle as the central focus for information and tasks. Students are using Twitter as an 'activity log', blogs for their journal and various other web 2.0 services chosen by the students such as Flickr, Wikis and online galleries.

Yahoo Pipes enabled me to aggregate the RSS feeds from these various sources and apply some filters to sort the output in date order and remove any items that were published before the course commenced (a number of students have been using their online spaces and networks for some time).

I was then able to publish the 'class stream' Yahoo Pipe on my own class blog as a widget. I also put a link in the class moodle so that each student can not only view the work being published by every student but can also easily subscribe to the class stream in the aggregator of their choice or display it on their own blogs/journals or class websites. Each item retains a clickable link to the source for reading and comment.

In the picture above I have placed the class stream in a Mahara portfolio 'view' - I'm currently playing with Mahara as an option for student efolio publishing. This 'view' has my personal class journal on the right hand side and the class stream on the left. My next task is to create another pipe that will aggregate all the comments that students make on each others journals and other places.

Towards the end of the presentation Stephen suggests that the re-mixed and published class RSS feed might have other timed content automatically injected into it. This sounds like a fantastic idea - although it might be beyond Yahoo Pipes... Hmm... actually perhaps I just need an RSS source with items that are dated for publishing in the future... a little clumsy perhaps but it might work until I find something better - or Stephen and others make one :-)

Is email dead?

2009-03-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

A colleague recently suggested that email within our organisation is not looking at all healthy and may be on its last legs. At 40 years of age email is not that old in human terms but for many staff email is well past its use-by date and often feels like this video clip with most staff receiving serveral hundred emails each month...

A full inbox is a dis-heartening sight - particularly if you spend hours emptying it one week only to discover it full the next. For some (many?) the email ritual has become one of 'quick-scan' - 'select-all' - 'delete'.

Unfortunately this process can result in missed opportunities, lost student work and low response rates.

For an organisation with over 2,000 staff across 19 campuses communication is vital but it can't always be face-to-face. And we realised some years ago that it can't be all paper-based - the large bin used to fill very quickly as staff walked away from their pigeon-holes.

So... where does that leave us? We have the telephone which is now mobile and therefore more convenient - and more intrusive. And mobiles are rapidly becoming PDAs that beep every few minutes as emails arrive - in addition to calls and SMS.

We are flooded with information but starved of what we need to know and what we would like to know.

Are there solutions? I think so... Provided we can first agree on what is best done through a particular mode of communication and how best to use the chosen mode - and then share those guidelines across the organisation.

We have many choices...

Face-to-face: Meetings don't always have to always be state-wide, or formal, or filled with information...

Email: Can be auto-directed to folders, compiled into digests or newsletters, flagged and prioritised, auto-forwarded to preferred addresses... Email should not be 'just-in-case you needed to know' information or bulk mailed when it doesn't concern the majority of users.

Portals/Websites: Can be organised to locate information just-in-time, be RSS enabled and be up-to-date.

Online spaces: Can be used for collaborative editing of documents (eg Google Documents) or more complex collaboration (Wikis or Google Groups)

Aggregators: Can be used to receive and organise and share what each person wants to know from websites, portals, newsfeeds, multimedia channels, blogs and micro-blogs, wikis... (eg Google Reader)

Podcasts/vodcasts: Can be used to broadcast or narrowcast audio and video.

Blogs/micro-blogs: Can be used to share stories, collaborate and create personal and professional networks - locally and globally.

Mobile Phones: Can be used to send reminders and information to individuals and groups - as well as get feedback.

Online meeting spaces: Can be used for communication, sharing, collaboration, simulation depending on the space chosen (eg Elluminate, FlashMeeting, Second Life...) Sessions can be recorded for playback or broadcast or narrowcast.

Paper: Can be newsletters, magazines, pamphlets, stickers, posters, cards, books...

Existing services: There are many online services, directories, channels... that are provided locally, nationally and globally for educational institutions, educators and students. (eg edna)

What else do we need to consider before deciding on guidelines for communication, collaboration, dialogue and networking across a large multi-campus organisation?

Which combination of these is likely to provide the most efficient and effective communication solution?

Is it possible to 'save' email or is it too late? :-)
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Still Smiling :-)

2009-03-12T01:13:00.000-07:00

I've been asked how I feel about the new changes associated with the Polytechnic.

I realise I'm now feeling very positive. I think it's something that has crept up on me.

"Why?" I'm asked.

Good question - possibly because:

I recognise and appreciate the huge effort many are making to get things working in difficult circumstances.

I do what I can and work around what I can’t.

I seize opportunities in the confusion of change.

I manage my own time and resources as much as I can.

I document and dialogue my progress.

I see 2009 as a bridge to somewhere else.

I hear and tell new stories about what is and what will be.

I see students and staff smiling.

Does that mean everything is rosy? Not at all.

But I've relaxed into the uncertainty... let go of what used to be (well mostly)... and built new relationships.

And people are starting to smile :-)

Learning Technology Surprises

2009-03-09T01:07:00.000-07:00

There were a few surprises in last week's survey of just over 2,000 Polytechnic staff.

10% responded to the survey and most did so in the first day.

Full Size

For me some of the surprises were:

61% of staff access ICT for their work from home
77% have used Google Earth
45% use Facebook
24% have used computer games with students
60% use mentoring/coaching with students
61% use self/peer assessment with students

The requests and comments at the end of the survey highlighted several issues for staff including the need for efficient and effective communication and dialogue across multiple campuses. This will be covered in the next post.

Connected Learning Across a Large Organisation

2009-03-01T14:02:00.000-08:00

2,000 staff, 18 campuses, 400 emails in one month, meetings, meetings, meetings...

The Tasmanian Polytechnic values 'Connected Learning' but how does this happen for staff across a new large multi-campus learning organisation? Fortnightly meetings have become monthly meetings, inboxes and message banks are full and time runs away...

Perhaps we need to expand our communication toolbox beyond meeting in person, mobile phones and email. There are a number of well developed services that are specifically designed to supplement traditional ways of connecting across distance and time.

The following PowerPoint looks at some of these focusing on the need to establish sustainable communities of practice that span multiple campuses and connect globally.

View full size.

Given that many staff are already beginning to feel "overwhelmed" or "out of the loop" or "without voice" the need is great...
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On a Role...

2009-02-23T02:15:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking and talking and listening and planning around my new role 'Flexible Learning Facilitator' - which is about flexible learning and communities of practice - and making some progress...

I've decided to map my journey into the role and its projects using Google Sites...

Conversations with Kirsty and her recent post have greatly helped to clarify directions - as has my reading coming through Google Reader - like this from a post by Jay Cross a couple of days ago... 'eLearning is not the answer'

Jay says "Facilitating pull learning requires building learning ecosystems that bind workers together instead of developing courses and events. Replacing instructor-led events with living networks yields astounding gains in productivity." [CC 2.5 License]

Much food (choc biscuits?) for thought...

Blended Campus Tour

2009-02-15T02:50:00.000-08:00

Here is a Google Earth Tour that you can download (unzip and open in Google Earth) that visits each campus in the Tasmanian Polytechnic for 2009 - including our vitual world locations in Second Life.

Or you can watch the video of the tour below - it includes scenes from Island Campus and Jokaydia Campus in Second Life. The Jokadia Campus has been cleared of last year's projects in readiness for 2009 - although there is a crocodile by the water... and look out for some some seals and a turtle just off shore.

If you have an avatar come and visit... here is the Jokaydia SLURL.

Second Life has many educational uses and some large international educational communities. A number of flexible learning projects will use Second Life in 2009 that were planned and tested in 2008.

Students over 18 will be using Jokaydia and the Polytechnic Island while those under 18 years of age will use Skoolaborate - a secure virtual world used by schools and colleges in the Asia-Pacific region.

Click to play - and watch the high quality version - link under video.

Signage of the Times

2009-01-08T16:03:00.001-08:00

I thought I should record this event - new signage going up today.

No more 'Hobart College'. No more 'TAFE Tasmania'. Is it a sign of the times? Changed students, changed workplaces, changed technology, changed expectations, changed world...

Is it a sign of an appropriate response? Time will tell...

Stages of Organisational Development?

2008-12-17T18:07:00.000-08:00

Bill Torbet et al in Action Inquiry list 7 developmental stages for organisations – useful reading since we now have a CEO, a Board, Directors… and soon 35,000 students.

Is the fledgling Tasmanian Polytechnic about to enter Tolbert’s fourth stage: Experiments?

The stages are:

1: Conception – Dreams, visions and informal conversations about creating something new to fill a need not now adequately addressed. Critical issue: Timeliness.

2: Investments – Champions commit to creating the organisation; early relationship-building among future stakeholders. Critical issue: Authenticity and reliability of commitments.

3: Incorporation – Recognisable physical setting established; tasks and roles delineated; goals and operating staff chosen. Critical issue: Display of persistence in the face of threat.

4: Experiments – Alternative strategies are practiced, tested in operation, and reformed in rapid succession. Critical issue: Truly experimenting.

What happens next will be interesting because 4 more educational institutions join the organisation after 2009. Does this mean the organisation will remain at the Experiments stage longer than it would have otherwise? Or will it go back to the Incorporation stage as new staff join the organisation? Or will it move on to the next stages?

5: Systematic Productivity – Attention is focused only on systematic procedures for accomplishing predefined tasks; marketability or political viability measured in quantifiable terms is the overriding criterion of success.

6. Social Network – Strategic or mission-focused alliances formed among a portfolio of organisations.

7. Collaborative Inquiry – Explicit, shared reflection about mission; open interpersonal relations with disclosure, support and confrontation of apparent value differences; systematic personal and corporate performance appraisal on multiple indexes.

How quickly should the new organisation develop to the Collaborative Inquiry stage? 2010? 2011? 2012? Does the organisation need to move through these stages in strict sequence? Can stages overlap a little?

Should a large multi-site state-wide organisation like the Polytechnic operate concurrently at stages 4-7? Or even stages 1-7 with a focus that cycles through the stages depending on growth and environmental factors?

Can Flexible Learning be Agile?

2008-12-15T00:42:00.000-08:00

The book Leadership Agility (Joiner & Josephs, 2007) makes the point that today’s managers/leaders need to be more than flexible and adaptable in rapidly changing environments. They need to be agile.

Agility is about being proactive, making strategic choices, developing collaborative partnerships, making the most of sudden opportunities… with a clear direction and purpose in mind.

After my previous post I wondered if flexible learning helps to develop ‘agile’ learners… And to what extent is the provision for flexible learning itself proactive? Is flexible learning mostly about playing ‘catch-up’?

Much is written about learning, teaching and assessment being responsive to students, being responsive to business/industry, being responsive to changes in technology… being flexible… But are there proactive as well as reactive elements to ‘flexible learning’? Do we need to talk about ‘agile learning’?

I think we already know about proactive forms of flexible learning. We have action research, action inquiry, self-directed inquiry… We have transformative learning, futures learning…

Have we integrated these more proactive elements of learning into our conception and implementation of ‘flexible learning’? What would flexible learning look like and feel like if it was both responsive and proactive?

Flexible Learning - Mapping the Territory

2008-12-13T11:44:00.000-08:00

Click for expanded view

Learning in the new Tasmanian Polytechnic will be "flexible" - but what does that mean?

Principally it's about being 'learner centered'. Learning needs to be responsive to students - most of whom are adult or near-adult learners. Learning must cater for the needs and interests of learners and the differences between learners in areas such as learning styles, culture, gender and current life circumstance.

But learning also needs to be responsive to the needs of business and industry who require learning to be available in appropriate places, times and forms. Learning must adapt to provide the skills required where there are shortfalls - and for new industries. Higher-level skills in thinking, innovation and collaboration are also required.

And there is a bigger picture. Learning needs to be responsive to global change - environmental, economic, technological, cultural... Sustainable, productive and purposeful lifestyles can no longer be lived in isolation from global events.

To achieve the above in the Tasmanian Polytechnic learning needs to be personalised. Learners need choice and control over the time, place, content and products of their learning. Learners need to have their existing knowledge and skills recognised - and any missing essential learning identified and supported.

Learning, teaching and assessment principles need to be based on contemporary educational research and underpinned by 21st century worldviews. Structures to support learning need to be adaptive and fit for purpose.

Hmmm... no problem - we know how to do most of this. Well we can map some of it... and see what others have done...

We just need to coordinate educational provision across a large state-wide organisation in such a way that it can change and grow while setting up structures and processes to support flexible learning :-)

Flexible Learning - Asking the right questions...

2008-12-10T16:41:00.000-08:00

What are the needs of learners in the new state-wide post-year 10 Tasmanian Polytechnic? Before jumping to possible answers - and just as quickly to tools and strategies - it might pay to take some time to ask more questions...

As Jamie McKenzie says: "The question IS the answer."

Who are the learners?

Students as learners - full-time, part-time, on campus, remote, Gen Y, Gen X, whole-person - with current competence and new goals

Staff as learners - teachers, support staff, mentors and leaders/managers - with expertise and new challenges

Organisation as learner - the Tasmania Polytechnic is a new institution - with much to learn and many relationships to build.

What kind of learning?

Adult Learning - in the Tasmanian Polytechnic students and staff are young-adult and adult learners - they require choice, personalised learning, self-directed learning and support for transformative learning.

Quality Education - applied learning, connected learning, supported learning and flexible learning - for students, staff and the organisation as a whole.

Futures Focus - new jobs, global challenges, creativity and innovation for the 21st century.

How will relationships be formed?

Building Identity - social and professional for students/staff/organisation - face-to-face and online.

Communities of Practice - work, inquiry, special interest - physical, augmented and virtual spaces.

Folios and Workspaces - individual, group, learning commons - for working and showcasing.

Finding Voice - active citizenship, advocacy and leadership for students/staff/organisation at local, national and global levels - through face-to-face, traditional and online media.

Where will learning happen?

Blended Learning - Informal, classroom, workplace, home, simulated, virtual, play, distance...
Learning, Teaching and Assessment - values, principles, journeys, desired outcomes...

Communication - information, consultation, collaboration, co-construction.

Evaluation - benchmarks, research (quantitative, action research, research partnerships...), publication/presentation/celebration.

What other questions should we be asking before we look at ways in which we might facilitate flexible learning in this new institution?

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Polly Waffle

2008-12-04T12:31:00.000-08:00

The shape and size of the new Tasmanian Polytechnic emerged as a whole for the first time yesterday as we filled the Tailrace Convention Centre in Launceston.

CEO Belinda McLennan and a bevvy of Directors introduced themselves and their vision for the new post secondary educational institution for Tasmania. Much was said but for me some of the points that stuck in my mind were:

Challenging existing paradigms and cultures

This is possibly the biggest challenge of any organisational change - the more things change the more they stay the same. We are involved in a significant systemic change and while we may solve the logistical challenges unless we question our worldviews, assumptions and values little will change for students. While many are frustrated with the present lack of clarity in the roles, structures and processes of the emerging Polytechnic I see this as a positive sign that the nature of systemic change is well understood by those currently leading it.

Consultation - Collaboration - Co-construction

Several Directors spoke of entering a new phase of change now - one where the processes are more collaborative than consultative for most staff. As this happens more people are likely to begin to explore the possibilities and hopefully co-construct new ways to meet the educational needs of students and the community.

Applied, Supported, Connected and Flexible - Learning, Teaching and Assessment

It was good to hear new educational metaphors as Belinda and other Directors speak of connected learning and learning ecologies. This language and its underpinning 20th/21st century worldviews are essential if we are to move from an educational system founded on 16th-19th century materialism and reductionism.

Belinda also asked that we adopt a futures perspective and consider for example the jobs that are yet to be invented - or indeed have just been invented - that lead us forward into healthy, creative and sustainable lives at a time with many global challenges. I think this futures perspective deserves further exploration: How can we help students develop skills in problem prevention and problem posing as well as problem solving? How can we ensure social foresight informs our thinking and actions?

Adult Learners and Adult Learning

Ron Nash reminded us that we are dealing with adult or near-adult learners and that we now know much more about how adults learn and the flexibility and support that they require. We also need to address transformative learning which is a key element of adult learning that is being addressed in many leading tertiary educational institutions.

ICTs and Learning, Teaching and Assessment

Belinda noted the need for Web 2.0 and LMS technologies to enable and support learners and teachers in the new institution - something that resonated with me since it has been an important aspect of my work over the last few years. Of course I would add Web 3.0 - not that everyone needs a 'second life' but it has become clear that there are significant learning and employment opportunities in virtual worlds and serious games that are just starting to being realised.

Someone with a sense of humour convinced the organisers to give out Polly Waffles as we left - a treat and a challenge!

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New Role, New Institution - Same Desk

2008-11-21T14:06:00.000-08:00

I have a new management role for 2009 - in a new institution, the 'Tasmanian Polytechnic' - with new colleagues - at the same desk :-)

My yet to be confirmed role is a 'Flexible Learning Facilitator'. The main duties listed in the draft position description are:

Facilitate the provision of library and learning services across the state...
Provide a resource development service for teachers...
Develop and implement programs which foster the use of online learning... by all polytechnic teachers
Liaise with Shared Services re the provision of appropriate technical support and equipment for teaching teams and students.

The position should be confirmed in the next week or so.

In the meantime much has been happening to set up the infrastructure for the two new statewide institutions that will replace Hobart College at Mt Nelson and a number of other year 11/12 college and TAFE campuses around the state - the Tasmanian Polytechnic, the Tasmanian Academy and Training Tasmania. The legislation to set up these institutions has recently passed through parliament and students have enrolled.

I had some good meetings with TAFE colleagues early in the year and am looking forward to meeting many again soon at a state Tasmanian Polytechnic workshop. In the interim regular updates on progress have been made available.

Physical signage on campuses will change in January so I've been making a list of the needed digital signage changes. This is no small task because in addition to our website and portal Hobart College has a presence on Flickr, YouTube, delicious, MySpace, Facebook, hosted Moodle, Blogger, Second Life, Google Earth, various hosted wikis...

Time to get out the digital paintbrush.
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Beginning a Transformative Journey

2008-05-09T11:56:00.000-07:00

Oxygen and Hydrogen combining to form water was the metaphor chosen by the Minister for Education, David Bartlett MP to convey the transformative aspects of the government's new agenda for post-compulsory education in Tasmania. He was referring to the integration of year 11/12 colleges and TAFE to form the Tasmanian Polytechnic which will open its doors to students from January 2009.

Transformation of learning and training to provide holistic education for all students was a frequently repeated theme in the 2 day conference the Minister was opening. The conference was skillfully organised to canvas the educational imperatives, to point to some new possibilities and to reflect the nature of the transformational journey required.

Presenters including Caldwell and Sidoti gave the consistent message that today's educational institutions will only fall further behind if they attempt to meet 21st Century needs within even the best 20th century learning institutions. What is required is educational transformation not just reform. They called for

new educational thinking and curriculum
new educational structures
new educational cultures

Now this might sound like a difficult task for a state system - and an impossible one by January 2009 but we are not starting from scratch... nor are we asked to complete the transformation by that time...

We already know how the transformed system should begin. We have known many of the educational imperatives and some aspects of the solution for at least a decade. In fact some conference delegates had flash-backs to 2004 and even 2000 when much of the same data and educational directions were made clear at presentations opening the Tasmanian State of Learning and Learning Together reform agendas.

But we are not going round in circles... Our current level on the educational change spiral is about systemic structural change. Previous spirals have been about curriculum (eg PY10, ELs, Training Reform Agenda), community (eg partnerships), authentic learning (eg applied, enterprise and project-based)...

We are now more informed, more experienced, and perhaps more adventurous... when it comes to educational change. The current spiral is about personalised learning (student at the center, pathways).

To achieve this goal Caldwell believes we need to align our intellectual, social, financial and spiritual capital. Can we integrate our current expertise in engaging pedagogy, meaningful curriculum and working partnerships in the post-compulsory sector to create new possibilities with new cultures?

When hydrogen and oxygen combine in a test tube you can hear a loud 'pop'... Plenty of pops were also heard in chat sessions held following the presentations! But there were also the first tentative signs of water - new possibilities - new structures, new curriculum, new partnerships, new educational cultures...

Water image: CC Solkoll and ocean.flynn Capital image: Adapted from an image by Caldwell

( This post was originally posted here. )