Digital Dialogues

** Reminder ** Learning Pathways Webinar **

Just a reminder that if you're intending to participate in the live webinar with Jean Clendinning on Wednesday 29th March - please register NOW!

And remember....it's 3.30pm SYDNEY time - AND we're still on Daylight Savings!
Queenslanders - please note - we're still 1 hour ahead of you!

Members' Musings #2

Peter Calopedos from Qantas Airways tells us about some LMS challenges, the AITD nomination for Excellence sales training program and muses about the future of e-Learning in the organisational context.

No - Peter is NOT calling in from an aircraft - although you could be excused for thinking this....it's more about the audio challenges at the operational end (I broke my headset and all my new ones - yes, there's already been more than one...don't ask...have crappy microphones....) AND not being an audio technician I can't for the life of me figure out how to reduce all that crackle.....sorry... :-(Download peterqf_27mar06.mp3

Daylight savings dilemas....

Are you aware that if you live in the eastern States of Australia that you are NOT getting that extra hour of sleep back this weekend?
Were you also aware that your computer doesn't know this?

What am I babbling on about?
Daylight savings !!!!!
Daylight savings is NOT finishing this weekend (as usual - as scheduled - as your computer thinks it is) - because of the Commonwealth Games (always a sporting reason), Daylight Savings has been extended for 1 week! We now turn our clocks back 1 hour when you go to bed Saturday 1 April....

So - next week - you have an excuse for missing meetings, appointments of any kind, in fact, just about anything you'd like to be late for by 1 hour! Unless of course you change your computer settings...then remember to change them again the following week.....

According to a SMH article - Daylight Savings may muddle computers - there are patches:

"According to Microsoft, the date change will affect Microsoft Windows, Exchange Server and Office which contain pre-set daylight savings information.
Although a patch to fix the date setting was been automatically issued to customers using Microsoft Update, it warns this may not update appointment times that were already scheduled in calendar applications such as Outlook for between 3.00am March 26th and 3.00am on April 2nd.
Those that do not receive automatic updates of Microsoft patches can download it from the company's website, along with instructions on how to uninstall it after the date change.
Apple has also released an update for Mac OS X customers to account for the daylight saving update. For users that don't receive automatic software updates, the company advises them to click on Software Update on the top menu bar under the Apple logo to ensure their computer is set at the correct time."

Doesn't sound very convincing to me...and as an Outlook user...well, I'll just have to dust off the Sun dial!!! But hang on - that will be wrong too - won't it??

If you're in Europe - you're fine - you're not effected by the Aussie sport schedules - you go onto Summer Time - as always - this weekend. Please excuse us southern hemisphere dwellers if we seem a little unsure about things next week!

e-Learning Terminology

I'm currently working with some groups of learners, all new to e-Learning in the organisational context - one of the challenges is getting their heads around all the terminology - so - we look for quality glossaries of terms online as reference points.
I found this one the other day - and thought I'd just have to share this gem of a definition:

Construct Irrelevance:
"The extent to which test scores are influenced by factors that are irrelevant to the construct that the test is intended to measure. Such extraneous factors distort the meaning of test scores from what is implied in the proposed interpretation."

Right...now that makes wonderful sense in plain English to people new to e-Learning (and in this case online assessment) - do you think they mean: Don't ask irrelevant questions in assessment quizzes?
:-)

Global Affiliate webinar

Join the first Global Affiliate webinar to hear about latest trends and applications of educational technology in various countries.
Speakers:
Opening comments from Dr. John Flores, Marcie Powell and Russ Colbert, USDLA
Dr. Deborah Harrison: USDLA, Center for Distance Learning Research, United
States
Dr. Takeshi Tamura: JeLA, Kobe Institute of Computing, Japan
Carol Daunt: LTUG, Executive Officer & LearnTel, Australia/New Zealand
Mike Griffith: UKDLA, Executive Director Global Leap, United Kingdom

Date: 21 March 2006
Time: 9 am (AEDST) (Sydney time)
Register at the LTUG website

Sounds like a must join, brilliant session.

Do a demo - win a Logitech camera...

WebEx have a Logitech camera to be won!
All you have to do is join an online demo before 31 March 2006.
If you haven't seen WebEx in operation, this is a great chance to do so and be entered into a draw to win a camera.

To organise a demo go to: Click here

e-Learning Pathways webinar

Following the podcast from Jean Clendinning, here's the information about the upcoming webinar:
Date: 29th March, 2006
Time: 3.30 - 4.30pm (Eastern Daylight Savings time - Sydney local time)

The Pathways is a flexible framework for developing e-Professionals to accommodate new and emerging trends in learning particularly in "e" space. The Pathways is applicable in Australia, it assists learning professionals and organisations to map and plan their professional development and careet progression by benchmarking the skills, competenices, knowledge, and qualifications required of e-Professionals. The Pathways also identifies and maps appropriate accredited competencies and qualifications from the Australian Qualifications Framework.

The Pathways enables managers and organisations to clarify roles, identify new skills and competenies, develop their learning professionals, recruit skilled and competent e-Professionals. It can be used to design and develop high quality, relevant and cost effective professional development directly linked to competencies and job role.

The Pathways consists of:

• Four e-learning professional roles (e-Assessor, e-Tutor, e-Designer and e-Manager)

• For each e-role it includes – role definition, possible career progression, identifies qualifications and competencies relating to the 3 main performance stages in one career eg entry, performing and progression.

• An accredited learning pathway for each e-role.

• Eight foundation technical competencies – it aligns each foundation competency to each individual e-role.

• Describes standard technical competencies for each e-role – this includes skill, knowledge and experience required, learning opportunities in the form of formal and informal learning.

• Describes and maps additional standard technical competencies for each role – this enables individuals to pick and identify appropriate standard competencies reflective of their particular situation, tasks and e-role.

• Provides resources for learning professionals – books, websites and related courses.

• Provides 3 examples of learning pathways in action – learning pathways of three individual e-roles is provided as a guide.

The Pathways was developed by Jean Clendinning through a NSW LearnScope Individual Project in 2004-2005.  It was jointly sponsored by NSW LearnScope and Insurance Australia Group (IAG). 

Join the webinar and participate with Jean in a discussion about the Pathways.
email me to register!

You've got mail - and we want a reply now...

This article appeared in the Australian Higher Education supplement 8th March: You've got mail and we want a reply now.

"email has brought down the ivory tower. No longer can academics exist on a higher, seemingly inaccessible plane, aloof from the day-to-day worries, real and imagined, of the student body...."

"As more fee-paying students populate the nation's campuses, teachers are becoming besieged by their so-called customers. And with lecturers' email addresses displayed prominently on web page biographies, they are seen as fair game."

It goes on to provide examples and quotes from Aussie academics ( including me) - however, my responses were actually in response to an article that appeared in the New York Times: To: Profesor @ University.edu Subject: Why its all about me (you have to register - for free - to gain access to the NYT)

"One student skipped class and then sent the professor an e-mail message asking for copies of her teaching notes. Another did not like her grade, and wrote a petulant message to the professor. Another explained that she was late for a Monday class because she was recovering from drinking too much at a wild weekend party.

Jennifer Schultens, an associate professor of mathematics at the University of California, Davis, received this e-mail message last September from a student in her calculus course: "Should I buy a binder or a subject notebook? Since I'm a freshman, I'm not sure how to shop for school supplies. Would you let me know your recommendations? Thank you!"

At colleges and universities nationwide, e-mail has made professors much more approachable. But many say it has made them too accessible, erasing boundaries that traditionally kept students at a healthy distance.

These days, they say, students seem to view them as available around the clock, sending a steady stream of e-mail messages — from 10 a week to 10 after every class — that are too informal or downright inappropriate.

"The tone that they would take in e-mail was pretty astounding," said Michael J. Kessler, an assistant dean and a lecturer in theology at Georgetown University. " 'I need to know this and you need to tell me right now,' with a familiarity that can sometimes border on imperative."

He added: "It's a real fine balance to accommodate what they need and at the same time maintain a level of legitimacy as an instructor and someone who is institutionally authorized to make demands on them, and not the other way round."

That's just a short extract - why not read the entire article, then review the Australian one - peronsally, I think the Aussies quoted have a far more realistic approach to the issue - which can be managed very comfortably!!
If you have any thoughts/experiences to add this debate, please add them to the comments of this post!
ABB ;-)

More conferences of interest...

Now - this is assuming you're heading to Vienna for BlogTalk Reloaded 2-3 October. Here are a couple more good reasons:

DREAM - Informal Learning and Digital Media: Constructions, Contexts, Consequences
Date: 21 - 23 September 2006
Odense, Denmark

Learning is distributed across a range of sites and settings, and media and ICTs hold important stakes in this process of diversification. This conference will present and discuss the most advanced and exciting research on informal learning, its mediatized constructions, socio-cultural contexts and educational consequences.
Conference goals:
A major aim of the conference is to bring together an international forum of scholars from a range of disciplines including media and ICT studies, education, pyschology, anthropology, sociology and cultural studies - and to promote dialogue within and across research traditions. We also aim to develop dialogue between researchers, educators and producers of new learning resources.

Call for papers: Abstracts deadline 1 May 2006

Interactive Computer Aided Learning
Date: 27 - 29 September, 2006
Villach, Austria

This interdisciplinary conference aims to focus on the exchange of  relevant trends and research  results as well as the presentation of practical experiences gained while developing and testing elements of  interactive computer aided learning. Therefore pilot projects, applications and products will also be welcome.

Call for papers: Abstracts deadline 19 May 2006

Members' musings podcasts

A number of LTUG members are doing some pretty amazing things in their diverse workplaces - so we thought they might like to share their experiences with you!

Jean Clendinning, Senior Manager Organisational Learning & Development at IAG (Insurance Australia Group) is our first "muser"!

Listen to Jean talking about the development of Learning Pathways for e-Learning Professionals - a project she developed as part of a Learnscope project in 2005.
Jean will also be presenting a webinar:
Date: 29th March 2006
Time: 3.30 - 4.30 pm (local Sydney time)
More details to follow - if you're interested in attending, send me an email!

Download jean_iag_8mar06.mp3