e-stellablog

2006-10-19T08:29:00.000+10:00

During the first week of the October school holidays we conducted a 2 day workshop with our VTE Child Care Teachers as well as 3 of our e-Learning Staff. Stella Maris Institute is fortunate enough to have its own Childcare facility which doubles as an instructional facility for on the job training. With this in mind it was the obvious environment to record the audio and video required for the online Childcare module we would be developing.

Over the two days the unit of competency we would be covering was examined carefully and a strategy for delivering it was developed. It was decided that Vodcasting (a combination of streaming video and audio similar in concept to podcasting) would be the vehicle for delivering the content part of the course.

Story boards were created as well as a script based on the workplace scenarios being developed. Child actors in the form of some of the staff’s children were organized, one of them a 9 month old baby! We are fortunate enough to have access to decent camera equipment and the skills to operate it.

A day’s filming was required and all things considered it went fairly smoothly, at least until towards the end of the day when some of the child stars became a little tired. Over the following week the childcare staff (Jo and Lindy primarily) created some quizzes based on the competencies and the footage. The e-Learning staff created the Online material using the footage, audio recordings and quiz material and embedded in an LMS. The results can be seen at http://www.e-learning.com.au/lms/login/index.php using the password learnscope and username learnscope.

I should mention that in the weeks prior to this an online course was created based on our breakfast club about Podcasting. This will be added to over the coming term. This can viewed using the same URL as above.

Final Breakfast Club

2006-09-08T13:17:00.000+10:00

We concluded our 5 week breakfast club on Podcasting this week. All the participants were required to bring in some written material that they would be recording in the session and then podcasting.

Prior to the workshop we set them all up with a Podomatic account with their normal school username. All the participants were then emailed to ensure that they collected their Podomatic password after it was emailed to them automatically and also to explain the concept of a free podcasting account.

We also prepared step by step instructions on the entire process of recording and podcasting to Podomatic as well as providing a pre edited audio clip for them to add to their voice recording.

With limited time we moved quickly through the process of recording the voice in Audacity and adding in the audio clip then exporting as an mpeg. The teachers then logged on to the Podomatic site and logged in with the details that they were emailed earlier in the week. This process went surprisingly smoothly and nearly all the participants were able to upload their audio file to their Podomatic site and thereby become ‘Podcasters’.

The session concluded with a recap of the process and some ideas for how they might use this with their students. We will send out a follow up email today with some suggestions and the offer of help for any ideas they might have. Three people have already begun work on podcasting projects relevant to their teaching area which is very exciting. An online Podcasting help site will be set up later next week in our LMS to assist teachers who want to use this technology.

Breakfast Club Week 4

2006-08-31T09:54:00.000+10:00

Week 4 of the Learnscope Breakfast club focused on learning how to edit and create sound using the free windows software called Audacity.

The majority of teachers are new to this type of software and in fact the whole concept of working with sound, many of them found it quite a challenge.

The teachers were able to record a piece of spoken word and combine it with a short intro music clip. They learnt how to fade the music into the voice and export it as an mpeg ready for podcasting.

Next week they will be uploading their finished podcast to a Podomatic site ready for their students to download!

breakfast club week 2

2006-08-16T11:35:00.000+10:00

Week 2 was a challenge but also a success! We had the teachers subscribe to MyPodder and podcastready, and once all the technical jargon was absorbed, they were subscribing away like old timers!

breakfast club has started ...

2006-08-15T10:30:00.000+10:00

We have started our breakfast club on podcasting and digital video. The teachers are very excited about the idea of bringing sound and video into the Certificate III in Children's Services. We are filming this weekend so the enhanced competency is beginning to take shape!

It's all such new technology, but the teachers are embracing it well. We are using MyPodder, Podomatic and Audacity for recording.

We will be in touch with more progress soon... and some photos.

Learnscope Workshop - Beyond Text!

2006-08-03T12:15:00.000+10:00

At the recent Learnscope Workshops (August 3), I attended a fantastic session run by Michael Coghlan, called "Beyond Text". This session fit perfectly with our Learnscope project - enhanding the Certificate III in Children's Services with podcasting!

We learnt an enormous amount about sound technology and publishing sound online! It was great.

This is a pic of me recording my audioblog. I took the pic from my mobile and sent to my laptop via infra red. I then uploaded the image to my blog! Mobile learning at its best!

This is my test blog that I recorded at the Learnscope Workshop, using "audioblogger".

Childcare goes interactive!

2006-07-25T14:22:00.000+10:00

Today we met with the head of the College's VET sector and started really fleshing out the course. We have chosen the competency from the Certificate III in Children's Services that we are going to 'liven up' and offer online. We've all come up with some great ideas for creating a competency that is fun to complete!

e-Learning Team on Children's Services

2006-07-12T14:01:00.000+10:00

The e-Learning team involved in this year's Learnscope project are far from knowledged in Children's Services! but we are really excited about bringing this qualification alive with enhanced content. We met with the Executive Manager of the College's VTE department and a few of the Children's Services teachers to choose an appropriate competency that would lend itself well to a blended delivery of learning. This Introductory session helped clarify where video and pod casting would fit into this subject. Learning to change a nappy will be a lot clearer via video footage than pages of text with 2D diagrams!!

The e-Learning team have also engaged in the task of researching for appropriate subject-related public podcasts. This is proving a little difficult, as it's hard to know where to look, but if anything, we are learning more about the technology and its capabilities!

Our most successful PD initiative at the College is the Breakfast Club, and this term, it will be focused on the Learnscope 2006 project. This 5 week course will involve all project participants plus any other interested teachers and is set to begin August 9th. We had planned on having a 2-day team workshop before the Breakfast Club, but we are thinking now that we should get the teachers comfortable with the technology first, before we really nut out how best to enhance the present course content. We will therefore run the 2-day workshop and the online workshop concurrently with the Breakfast Club. That way, it's all fresh in everyone's minds and hopefully some fantastic content will be produced as a result!

A pod casting and digital video specialist will be engaged with the team to lead them through the process of digitally capturing audio and video resources. Until the next post, we are busy looking for public podcasts relating to anything from first-aid around children, to the latest legislation in the industry! Any suggestions are more than welcome!

Stella works with Learnscope once again!!

2006-07-12T13:21:00.000+10:00

Learnscope 2006!

Stella Maris College (SMC), Manly has been extremely fortunate to once again receive a grant from NSW Learnscope to engage in exciting e-learning initiatives for our VTE students.

SMC is an all girls, Catholic school on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. We deliver 43 VTE qualifications through 11 training packages to both internal and external students. Through in house and online training, the aim for Learnscope 2006 was to improve and recontextualise the delivery of online content for the Children’s Services students.

We thought we would start by taking one competency of the qualification and enhance it with media rich content using digital video and pod casting. Ideally, all competencies of the qualification will eventually be digitised, allowing a much improved learning experience for external students, and for students who miss lessons.

Pod casting and the use of digital video will allow students to listen to lessons in their own time and view lessons streamed over the College's LMS - WebCT. The issue of finding suitable, credible pod casts is certainly a new experience for us! Also, recording lessons and pod casting these audio files is foreign to us. Our team has the opportunity to offer a more diverse and broad lesson base to the Children’s Services students. We have the chance to make the lessons more equitable for all students and minimise the limitations of distance learning and we really look forward to this challenge.

breakfast club on educational games

2005-08-18T16:53:00.000+10:00

our industry professional is working with our e-learning manager to create an interactive learning object template. we hope to incorporate this into our VET courses in 2006.

we found that to create our own "reusable" game-based learning objects in flash was going to be far too expensive, so we have directed our energy into teaching the VET staff how to access and use reusable freeware games, with the eventual aim that they will be embedded into the learning object template that our e-learning manager is creating.

we ran a team workshop over 2 days on the topic of game-based educational learning. we researched the freeware games available and started creating our own games with such programmes as "hot potatoes". we then communicated to the group in an online workshop, trialling each other's games and posting new finds.

we are half way through our breakfast club, aimed at utilising the freeware educational games in a lesson sequence. the pd skills taught at the breakfast club have been a success already in our vet courses. those involved have already shared their game-based learning sequences with their department.

our e-learning manager is planning to participate in the 2005 Australian Flexible Learning Framework’s online event on 12-14 September.

so far so good!!

Learnscope Project - Game-based Learning Objects

2005-07-28T03:56:00.000+10:00

the e-learning team at Stella Maris have been awarded a Learnscope grant for 2005. we hope to develop and implement game-based learning objects within our VET courses.

the project is coming along well. we have met with an industry professional and have devised a plan for implementation within our courses.

we are about to start a 6 week Breakfast Club, to show our VET teachers how to use the objects.
it's an exciting time...

this is my first ever blog!

2005-07-28T02:23:00.000+10:00

welcome to my blog.

i am currently studying a diploma of e-learning through the stella maris institute. part of the course involves the research of various learning and teaching mediums... hence blogs!!

if you are interested in the diploma of e-learning, check out the details at http://www.e-learning.com.au

thanks for visiting my site!!

... amy