Evaluation Questions

2008-05-27T20:01:00.000-07:00

I've now created some Evaluation Questions for my VLE Assignment. They appear at the bottom right-hand side of this blog and also in the assignment: UCMS Academy Professional Development Wiki, on a page called Evaluation.

I've been experimenting with Vizu Web Polls to create the survey questions and am still unsure how they will function. Only time will tell.

For more description about my VLE, look at the post on this blog: Assignment 2 Virtual Learning Environment - The UCMS Academy Professional Development Wiki

Cheers

Ammendment to Assignment 2 Description

2008-05-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

I have ammended my Assignment 2 Description to include more detail i.e. a rationale and additional context.

Please check it out!

Cheers

Check out Ben's Blog Music

2008-04-29T05:04:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. I wanted to find out how to add music to my Blog so I visited Blogger Help and found 'How do I post audio/music to my blog?'.

Blogger Help explains that you are required to embed code from a Third Party site; walks you through the steps on how to do this (as I have no idea about code), and includes a list of recommended sites, which Blogger has no affiliation with:

I chose Last.fm to trial and have embedded a random radio playlist in to my Blog based on Miles Davis and similar artists. If you don't like the track you can press stop, forward to the next track or select one of the similar artist links below the Play button.

Assignment 2: Virtual Learning Environment - The UCMS Academy Professional Development Wiki

2008-04-26T21:28:00.000-07:00

Assignment: UCMS Academy Professional Development Wiki

UCMS Academy (the place I work) is the Learning & Development arm of United Customer Management Solutions (UCMS), predominantly a telecommunications outsourcer i.e. We manage call centre's for companies like Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, AGL and Amex. UCMS Academy personnel include training managers, instructional designers, e-Learn designers and training personnel. UCMS Academy has over 45 staff servicing over 2 and 1/2 thousand employees, and external clients. We have a policy of recruiting our training staff internally wherever possible. Most of our prospective trainers come from the call centre environment. There are varying levels of knowledge and capability within our team therefore it is paramount to our business that we manage their professional development.

Aim
The aim of this assignment is to encourage all members of UCMS Academy to build a digital resource (i.e. wiki - although I'm not too sure if this is replicating my PLE) dedicated to their Professional Development (i.e. Adult Learning Theory, Creative Training techniques, Writing for training, Training resources etc) - a largely organic resource contributed to, collaborated on and used by all trainers. Based on the completion of simple tasks (which are optional), new digital resources will be provided ovcer time for them to connect to and collaborate on (i.e. del.icious, blogs etc). The hope is that they start to explore other tools as well that can be interconnected. Ultimately, the aim for UCMS Academy is to have a vibrant professional resource and networking tool that will be used frequently as a powerful compliment to other professional development endeavours.

The Rationale

As mentioned previously, I want this resource to occur organically - it is optional for all members to participate. The demands they face daily include, but are not exclusive to: workload, client expectations, performance measures, assessment, and needs analysis which do not allow any allocated time frame to dedicate to the Wiki. In addition, I am very wary about making the wiki too formalised. If I 'force' members to use it, I am of the opinion that most will come reluctantly as it is just another 'task' they have to address in an already busy schedule. The quality of contribution and interaction will suffer. In addition, the very essence and success of Web 2.0 tools such as wiki's occurs because of their informal nature. Selwyn (2007), contends that young people’s forms of ICT use (p. 6), and at least 30% of UCMS Academy is under 25 years of age, should not be simply transposed wholesale into the classroom as “young people resent having their cultural forms (mis)appropriated into schools” (p. 6). Even though Selwyn is referring to schools in this quote, the comment, in my mind resonates across the educational spectrum, and is certainly applicable in our context.

Tool

Wiki using WetPaint.

Audience
UCMS Academy Training Staff.

Learning Task/s
The major task: Build a digital resource dedicated to Professional Development

Small tasks might include, but are not exclusive to:

Upload a picture of yourself
Write a comment about yourself (Your role, your experience etc)
Find an article that relates to Constructivism, Humanism etc
Provide a definition of Web 2.0
Make a professional Comment on someone else's contribution
Add a website related to Professional Development
Upload a video
Record a podcast and upload it to the Wiki
Find another digital tool that can be connected to the wiki for the purposes of Professional Development
Share a training story

There will be some basic structure around layout of the wiki to guide learning materials. Outside of this the hope is that the UCMS Academy Professional Development Wiki will develop organically and be used by all as a valuable training resource.

Access & Review

The UCMS Academy Professional Development Wiki is by invitation only. I will invite those who who have been asked to review the resource as well as those who are interested. Please leave your email address in the comments if you wish to gain access.

All members of the UCMS Academy are aware that students from the subject will be entering the wiki.

A link to the assignemnt description you are reading now will added to the Praze Peer Review.

Evaluation questions have been added to the wiki and this blog. The appear on the right-hand side. For more information, check out the post: Evaluation Questions.

Reference

Selwyn, N, (2007). Web 2.0 applications as alternative environments for informal learning - a critical review. Paper for OECD-KERIS expert meeting - Session 6 - Alternative learning environments in practice: using ICT to change impact and outcomes. Institute of Education, University of London, UK. 1 -10.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to leave a comment

Look forward to any feedback you'd like to provide.

Cheers

Posts & Comments on the Blogs of Others

2008-04-25T05:47:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone.

You can check out the latest posts on the Blogs of Others at the bottom of the page. Although I didn't find an RSS Feed Julian or Tay. Are you able to direct me guys?

Welcome to Ben's New Blog

2008-04-23T05:46:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Ben's New Blog - designed to replace the old blog. I started replacing my Blog with a template from Edublogs, but I'm such a visual person that I wasn't satisfied with the templates available, so I've gone back to Blogger with the same template. It's too late in the piece to repeat what I did on the original site so I'll just build the blog from today.

Cheer