Di\’s blog

I have decided to do a course on learning Italian. Many years ago I worked mainly with Italians and would like to do some visiting of that beautiful country when I have finished this degree.

The course will give me conversational Italian which will be an advantage when not only visiting Italy but as it is a Latin language I will have some idea when I visit other countries like Spain etc.

This course should take me the full 4 hours if not more as I was trying to see if there was a timeline but there isn’t.

I have the advantage of working in Petersham so it is only across Parramatta Rd from Leichhardt so I will hopefully be able to practice a little. Oh no! Does that mean I will have to eat Italian more often and I thought I was going to lose weight!

Ciao, Ciao.

this has been an interesting opportunity to work with the rest of the team. I have found that we basically all think along the same lines and once the ball starts rolling we just want to get moving with it. I have discovered for myself that there are definate opportunities with it to have group work as long as there is respect of others efforts. The respect within this team has been a pleasure to work with.  Other peoples ideas about how they are going to incorporate  e-learning into their work  and what PD  they have had till now. One of the team talked about training with the det portal and I would like to add that our institute at present has a part time CLAMS help desk, which in regards to our wiki was one of the things that came up in my article was the ’support’. We are trying to be proactive by keeping up with technology but the organization is  not supporting our teaching strategies. We  struggle to make our lessons as interesting as possible but at one stage there was not even a lap top in our college to attach to a light pro to deliver a power point presentation. What hope do we have?

Why didn’t I get to this sooner? That will teach me to do as the teacher says!

This reading brings to the attention the problems faced with open and distance learning. Where most think it is a good idea there hadn’t been a great deal of evaluation of these methods. Some of the issues that she writes about are what we are facing.

(I was trying to check all dates of this reading as it was kindly printed for me.)

The resource availability is directly linked to the cost of implementation. In TAFE, the separate departments other than IT find that they have to fight tooth and nail to be adequately funded for the required resources.

On top of the resources it is another hurdle to jump to get staff development funded. I realise that different institutes work independantly but some are quite mean with funding when it comes to SD. This directly links to the organizational aspect of problems.

This directly links to the wiki that we are doing on ‘trainer readiness’ as some teachers in TAFE will not move out of their comfort zone when it comes to new innovations.

‘The tried and true has always worked for the  last umpteen years, so why not now?’

Once  over these initial set up problems Robinson then addresses one of the more ongoing issues of ‘expertise and technical support’.This is linked in the reading with the design of the project being a successful learning experience for the student.

One can only hope that we keep up with the innovation of new technology and accept the change and mould it to what suits us.

In the first place I found that I was going along the lines of most as I started my trek into the bachelor degree at CSU. Yes, one of those that transferred. I was one that was delivered a great bundle of readers to sift my way through. This suited some as they found that wiht young families they could fit all in around children etc. For myself I found that the MOTIVATION,  yes that dreaded ‘M’ word got in my way.

The introduction to CSU was quite good it taught me how to navigate around some sites and it was a case of hit and miss which took all day.

Now i have discovered that there is a big world out there in e-learning land and that i would need the guidance to get there.

In my opinion, (then I can’t be wrong) I am enjoying the whole experience when I have time to go and sit and digest all that has wizzed in front of me. As most the pace is a fast rate of knotts. But Hey, why not live on the wild side.

what a great surprise to find that when I got home that I am now the proud owner of a flat screen monitor! Won’t I be able to work wonders now!

I have found once again that the time factor has been the biggest issue. I think that all are time strapped. Hopefully that by the time that the holidays are up I will be able to catch up. It is a different mindset that takes a bit of adjusting to. I have not explored the whole wiki thing as yet and I am sure that it will be a good learning tool given half a chance.

I cannot tell a lie I have not spent a great deal of time on this area! I am going to spend this weekend . Trainer readiness is something that I think is relevant to all of us.

At last I am into my blog! This seems to be my experience as not having my password on me that doesn’t help. Once in it is a juggle to make sure that the computer is working in the first place.

TIME! TIME! TIME! Where do I find it to do my surfing as it swallows it at a great rate of knots.

I am finding that to use it in my everyday work I have not worked out how to link it to my email so that it is easily accessible.

What a trip into the minefield this is! This is really hair raising as the buttons keep getting pushed and away we go.

I hope to set up some more visual entertainment (in the most tasteful way) later on in the course

Welcome to  Di’s Blog!