Community Engagement

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

Last week Mary and Josie co-presented with the 2005 Bundaberg project and the 2006 Northern Queensland Small Business Project at the Learning Communities Conference in Brisbane (24 - 27 September). A brief overview of the Community Engagement project was followed by case studies very enthusiastically presented by Sandra, Tony and Andrew.

It was particularly pleasing to hear Sandra talk about how the project in Bundaberg had moved forward into 2006 and how ‘IMPACT Make Your Mark’ as a training organisation was embracing the e-learning environment as a result of their 2005 project experience.

After the presentation a stimulating conversation between the presenters and the participants around some of the key issues participants had been asked to reflect upon during the session:

• Harnessing the power of technology as a tool for learning, job creat, social capital and more?
• What is the power of e-learning? What are the benefits? Who knows about it, who uses it? And how is it used?
• Who is in, who is on the margins or out and what strategies are in place to modify this?

resulted in some interesting responses and challenges. Overall this was a great opportunity to promote the project and showcase some of the great work and fantastic results our 2005 and 2006 projects are achieving!

For more information on the ALCN Conference go to the Learning Community Catalyst, at lcc.edu.au

Very exciting news for the Milang Old School House Community Centre - they are the winners of the South Australian Adult Learners’ Week (ALW) 2006 “Learning Community of the Year”.

From the MOSH news site at byte-on.org.au, “At the Adult Learners Week Launch and Awards Dinner at Regency TAFE the Milang Old School House Community Centre was recognised as the Learning Community of the Year.  MOSHCC coordinator Karyn Bradford received the award on behalf of the Centre, its staff and volunteers.  She indicated that lifelong learning is encouraged through all programs at the Centre and that its a real thrill for everyone’s hard work to be acknowledged through the award.”

Congratulations to everyone involved in the Mosh projects.

Earlier this month the national project team had the good fortune of visiting the NQ Small Business Network project in Townsville / Thuringowa.

Project manager Tony di Santo was a fabulous tour guide and took us to see some of the sights of Thuringowa and Townsville whilst we were there. As we came from much colder climes, it was fabulous to be enveloped by a warm tropical blanket when we got off the plane. Our stay was further enhanced when we found out that one of our bookings in the Holiday Inn ( locally know as the sugar shaker) was being transferred to a suite in the Jupiter’s Casino!

Our time there was spent at the offices of the NQ small business network , where John Larkin, the manager, introduced us to the tenants of the small business incubators. They were many and varied - ranging from a young mum selling second hand baby goods to a cabinet maker, graphic artists and many more.

The small business network is currently delivering a short course in business operations to 35 small business owners across Northern Queensland. The delivery is being supported by their partner, Barrier Reef TAFE - who are making a contribution through use of their i-learning space and their online conferencing system. We attended an evaluation / focus group session where 12 participants, who had just completed their first module, discussed their online learning experience.

The evaluation was conducted using a set of predetermined questions and software called AnyZing. It is a form of collaborative / brainstorming software which uses a multi key / multi cursor interface - i.e everyone has a keyboard and can type in asnwers simultaneously on to a computer screen attached to a datashow.

If is a very effective method of gathering a lot of information very quickly and worked well on the day- participants had plenty of opportunity to elaborate on their statements and discuss common themes. The quieter members of the group had a way of participating too!

If you would like to know more about this project, contact Tony on email at: tonydisanto[at]nqsmallbusiness.com (replace [at])

This week, two of the Creative Community projects give us their perspective on engaging learners with new strategies and e-learning tools: Georgina Nou from Deadly Mob, and Tony Di Santo from the Townsville Small Business Network will be presenting tomorrow morning, at the Framework September Online Event “Tapping into Resources for e-Learning“. Other projects will join in the threaded discussion too.

We’re also looking forward to Edayz in Adelaide, where the two South Australian groups will join together to showcase examples from Milang and the Murraylands.
Plus, our Victorian teams from this year will be presenting at ConVerge, the Victorian conference for the Framework. Details coming up soon.

Last week Mary and Josie had the great privilege of attending the launch of the online meeting place of the Gap Youth Centre Project in Alice Springs. The centre has created a vibrant online meeting place for their students to continue their learning journey where ever they are … in town, out bush or online at either!

The launch was ambitious, as Georgina and Linda opted to do it both online and in the internet cafe. Many guests in the cafe also logged in to Elluminate and could join online guests from Brisbane, America and all over the country.

Guests included representatives from DEET,DEST and the Desert Kowledge Centre, and well as many teachers, students and interested community groups.

They also launched their promotional video made using images and music of young people at the centre.

Well done to everyone - we look forward to seeing the development of the online meeting place.

Just the other week, in mid-July, leaders from the e-learning Creative Communities projects gathered in Melbourne for two days of intensive professional development, celebration, collaborative problem-sharing, and “high performance teamwork”.

Creativity was the theme, for the two days - to explore the creative side of our projects. Josie Rose set the scene, emphasising the extraordinary processes that can emerge when people pool their talents and draw expertise from many different fields, (aka the “Medici Effect”).

Delia Bradshaw invited each project to tell the story of their progress so far by illustrating or celebrating a “significant moment”. Community leaders showed their flair for imagination and improvisation, by drawing on theatre as well as television genres. Stay tuned for audio excerpts from these presentations.

Speakers during the sessions included Jim Cavaye, who led people to explore how learning is crucial to the vitality of communities everywhere.

People also learned about

• the usefulness of the Framework media department (Hayley Beck),
• a huge benchmarking project (which has shown the uptake of e-learning rise significantly in the last five years, Ian Phillips),
• the inclusive e-learning projects (Mary Schooneveldt), and
• the role of EducationAU (Kim Edgar), as well as
• “High Performance Teamwork” (Marie Jasinski).

Huge thanks to all the community leaders, presenters, and others who attended, for your energy, warmth, inspiration and generosity.

In Murray Bridge, on Monday the 3rd July, Stacey and Shane led their community through an exciting and innovative project launch, on the “Captain Proud” steamboat, paddling along the Murray River. Members of the community joined our leaders on the boat, to share their views.

On top of that, this launch was ambitious: people from local community centres were invited to attend via the internet. Live conferencing software (known as Elluminate), enabled others, faraway from the boat, to give their opinions on how e-learning could make a positive impact with the people in their centres.

The day coincided with the local launch of NAIDOC Week, so Shane was run off his feet, orchestrating multiple occasions.

Another highlight for Josie and Michael was seeing Shirley and Stuart, from Milang Old School House (MOSH) give their new and improved presentation to a packed room on the second day.

Their audience was definitely impressed with the combination of community involvement, hand-out CD-rom, and open-source-driven communicative web sites (at byte-on.org.au).

At the start of May, Josie and Michael went across to Adelaide, to join in the “Connecting Up” conference, from the organisation known as CISA (Community Information Strategies Australia Inc.) There was genuine interest from the audience, in the range of projects from 2005, and the Barkly Arts project movie was a great way to grab people’s attention. Fortunately the sound in the room was good enough to hear the fly buzzing at the start of the movie, and people were able to enjoy the terrific Tableland Drifters’ backing music (find out more about the Tableland Drifters from the Barkly Arts project web site; you can even download some of their music).

One other conference highlight was the keynote by Joe Baker, who spoke of several occasions where technology has been useful for community initiatives around the world. For example, the food voucher scheme in the US, where people had to stand in line for hours, until a passer-by came up with a database scheme, and later extended this to include barcode swipes and internet access too. You can find his keynote on the conference website, or via this direct link (it’s an mp3 file, 13.5mb).