"Are we starting a Revolution?" asks Bronwyn.

Yes, I believe that I will if that is what it takes. I agree with Bronwyn in the discussion email that by " everyone working too hard they are doing themselves and others a disservice, and the managers in actual fact because they get a false sense of what is achievable. "

So ... I need to stand up and be counted and give straight and honest feedback about what is possible and what is not regarding time. I have a good Head of School who is reasonable - and - I am aware that there are constraints he is dealing with.

And I need to be prepared with evidence to back up whatever stance I may need to take. Mmmm... need to reflect further on this as there is a project looming as I mentioned in the email discussion.

Behind the 8 ball

Not being a "natural" blogger I am way behind with keeping this up to date. Sometime ago we were asked which two ELGs suited our context. The two most relevant for me right now as I start to plan my Needs Assessment project are

SO 8 Do students get guidance on study skills for the e-learning environment?

TD 10 Is good e-learning practice available to staff in a way they can adopt and adapt their own work?

Milne,J., & Dimock ,e. (2006). eLearning Guidelines. Guidelines for the support of e-learning in New Zealand Retrieved 1 August, 2010, from http://elg.massey.ac.nz/Guidelines

We are in the learning design phase of our re-development of the L4 Certificate in Social Services and it is clear that we are responding to a mandate handed on to us to ensure that there is 20% elearning in our courses. It feels a bit like "cart before the horse" as we are up against a time pressure to get the blended courses written in readiness for delivery in Semester 1 2011.

I think it is imperative to do a Needs analysis around the digital literacy levels of our students and more particularly our staff. There is a sense of crash course learning for our staff with little time being made available for the necessary PD. The willingness is there but the usual time constraints are upon us as we juggle aleady full teaching loads with course development.

There has been discussion in the blogs and discussion emails around this time pressure. There is the mandate to update our digital literacy skills, the willingness to comply but very little understanding of whatis really required in terms of time. And I feel a certain pressure to come up with the goods and guide the others as I am up to my 3rd paper in this Grad Cert. I am only the edge of a fingernail ahead of the others but I do have enthusiasm and willingness to learn.

I read a paper about learning in the 21st Century and the thing that stuck in my mind is that students still need to know the 3 Rs but they need to know the 3 Fs of learning moreso than ever now that we have moved away from the "sage on the stage" concept. The 3 Fs regarding information are Find, Filter and Focus. Critical skills for all of our students if they are to safely drive on the information highway.

So all of this is a preamble to me saying that I can see a need to sort out what range of digital literacy is required for our students and our staff and how can we ensure that we are providing them with the relevant tools to succesfully achieve on our CSS.

Evaluation - what is it and why do it?

What is it?
After grappling with trying to create a definition for myself, and deciding it was a bit like trying to stuff a wriggling octopus into a small box, I gave up and consulted Wikipedia (as one does). The following quote helped me to see that I clearly was not alone in trying to pin it down to a definition that was “one size fits all.”
Davidson (2005) argues ‘evaluation is not a discipline that has been developed by practicing professionals over thousands of years, so we are not yet at the stage where we have huge encyclopaedias that will walk us through any evaluation step-by-step’, or provide a clear definition of what evaluation entails (cited in, Hurteau, Houle, & Mongiat, 2009, p. 307
Hurteau, M., Houle, S., & Mongiat, S.(2009). How Legitimate and Justified are Judgments in Program Evaluation?Evaluation.15(3).307-319.
So, using Davidson’s argument it became clear that a key problem that evaluators face is the lack of a clear definition of evaluation. That lets me off the hook from formulating a definition and led me to consider
Why evaluate?
The generic, simplistic response is that we evaluate to gain feedback. In my situation where we are training students to become counsellors we are constantly evaluating our programme in terms of course design, our delivery, student understanding, student performance, student satisfaction. At the end of the day I, along with my team colleagues, have to stand with hand on heart and declare that each student who has gained their diploma in counselling is a safe and effective counsellor who at the very least will do no harm when let loose on the general public.

Late starter - newbie blogger!

Hi,Folks, finally I have seen the light and found the blog I set up with Bronwyn's help on the first starter Elluminate. It seemed to disappear into the ethers.

Bronwyn stayed on after the official session and talked me through the set up process. It is a while since I had felt that nervous but I am not a Social Communicator- I do have a Facebook page but never write on it.Have become a "friend" on other Facebook pages and that is about the extent of it. I do subscribe to Edublogs but only as a reader.

So- drumroll-I am ready to embark on this journey of recording my participation in Evaluation of eLearning for Effective Practice.

First up, I have partnered with Meena to attend to our joint task. I love the synchronicity that comes with partnering - we are starting to feel like "old friends" so now we are focussed to the task at hand. We are focussing on the Career Development scenario.