Community Engagement

On Tuesday the 22^nd November the 12 Community Leaders of the 2006 projects met for the final time in Melbourne for an evaluation/ sharing day. The venue was colourful, made more so with the use of flowers, balloons and colourful cloths used at the induction workshop.

The day started with some music from Louis Armstrong, and an exercise developed from ARED, where participants were asked to reflect on the song titles chosen and how this represented their e-learning journey. Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off saw a few nods in the room!

The day was facilitated by Delia Bradshaw, a good friend and valuable contributor to our project this year.

Delia asked the projects to reflect on a key achievement for both learners and teachers. A key theme was quite clearly one of awareness raising in the community, and having created a manageable, sustainable demand for e-learning in their communities.

Teachers reported on changing teaching methodologies and a growth in confidence, knowledge and the development of a whole new repertoire of skills.

Community leaders also reported back on their partnerships by discussing their collaboration charts. Each project created a chart at the beginning of the project in April and again yesterday.

They also discussed sustainability, partnerships, stakeholder interests and strategies to help the projects towards sustainability into the future. We also discussed their on going professional development needs, and how this could be supported.

The day ended with Ron Anderson, ACE member on FLAG, presenting each project with a certificate of participation.

Our sincere thanks to Delia for her support and input in making the day such a success.

If you would like to see some photos of the day, please visit our wiki at elearnala.wikispaces.com

The E-learning Creative Community Partnerships projects have been busily preparing for their final showcase at the Adult Learning Australia (ALA) Conference, which will be held in Melbourne on the 24^th and 25^th November, at the Hotel Ibis.

This year’s presentations have two main themes; focus on learners and creativity/ partnerships. As our project teams hail from as far as NT, SA, Vic and Northern Queensland, we have been able to use online conferencing software such as Elluminate, to discuss themes and plan strategies.

In fact, online conferencing software is shaping up as THE most interesting software development within the 2006 projects. Three of our 6 projects are using a dedicated Elluminate room in which to conduct their online courses, with The Gap Youth Centre, Murraylands e-reach and Harnessing Rural Skills in Wodonga all having access. This is largely due to the excellent access and support we have received through the Framework Networks project.

In a further exciting development, Wodonga TAFE has offered us the use of their wireless AnyZing brainstorming software (see Postcard from Thuringowa for more information re the software) to raise the bar regarding audience participation at our end of year showcase presentation.

We will be working with the project teams to develop some questions, which we will pose to the audience before the presentations. The audience will be able to respond to the questions, make comments and ask for clarification using the software.

This will be valuable feedback for ALA and the national project team in gauging the participants understanding of e-learning and their level of interest in the specific models and strategies of e-learning engagement that will be presented on the day. If you are interested in more information about the conference, please visit the ALA blog or website at:

http://alauser.edublogs.org/

http://www.ala.asn.au/conf/2006/natconf2006.htm

Mary and Josie hit the road again last week to Western Australia and South Australia to promote the  E-learning Creative Community Partnerships  project, as well as participate in consultation session with ACE in WA and SA.

The consultation session in WA was held at the offices of WestOne with Ian Kenny and Ros Howell hosting the session. The session was chaired by Janice Mason from Learning Centre Link. We learned that there are some 75 ACE providers in WA, with the bulk of the delivery being non- accredited. There is a small pocket of accredited delivery happening in community settings, all in partnership with an RTO.Participants had an opportunity to hear more about the Framework, and its funding opportunities, as well as discuss e-learning in and its potential benefits for communities in WA. 

We also had opportunity to catch up with old friends, such as Ros McPherson form Challenger TAFE who was funded in 2005, as well ad Sue Thompson, who was a 2000 Flexible Learning Leader with Josie. Sue is now heading up the ACE department at Central TAFE. We were also able to talk to a representative from the 103 telecentres that operate throughout WA. These centres are multidisciplinary support centres and all in non – metropolitan areas. An informative and interesting session. Thanks to WestOne for hosting us!

We then moved on to SA where we met with Sue Ross, who heads up the ACE department at DFEST. We were also able to meet up with some old friends of adult learning and our project, including Rita Bennink, a past ACE rep on FLAG. We also met with Dr Kaye Bowman who will be conducting research into the outcomes of the project in 2007. All in all a very productive journey!