Community Engagement

During the month of March, twenty leaders -past and present - as well as a few invited guests, participated in an online facilitation course. This course was funded by and specially designed for the Community Engagement project, and highlights the project’s continued commitment to providing practical and accessible professional development opportunities for past community leaders and their partner organisations.

The course was delivered through Gippstafe and facilitated by Frankie Forsyth and Josie Rose.

Highlights were the fabulous support provided by Vanessa and her team at GippsTAFE, the enthusiasm of the participants, and the expert facilitation - particularly Frankie’s fabulous modelling of good online facilitation in a range of online tools, but specifically, Elluminate. Although we are still waiting for the outcomes of the evaluation - we are confident that all the participants, who hailed from as far away as NT, Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and Victoria, not only had a great time, but also found it a valuable and productive learning experience.

Participants were able to explore a wide variety of topics in the asynchronous discussion forum which ranged from why lurkers lurk, to online conflict, designing online activities and many more. They were also able to explore the potential of voice boards through having Brad Beach as a guest speaker talking about his flexible learning journey, including his experiences in the virtual world Second Life. Every week they participated in a synchronous activity, first a teleconference, then a text chat, and the highlight of the course - an Elluminate session.

Frankie took participants through the functionality of the room, explained the intricacies of WebCT through the desktop sharing tool, and then took participants to the e-learning on a shoestring website as a web tour. Everyone had plenty of opportunity to get to know each other and have fun - a choice of chairs being a particularly engaging ice breaker activity. Needless to say the lounge chairs of varying descriptions went first!

Although the course has only just been completed, initial evaluations indicate that it was a great success. The project team plans to conduct a further Elluminate session in a a few weeks’ time to discuss how participants are implementing these online tools and newly gained knowledge and skills in their course delivery. We are particularly interested in how professional development like this is contributing to their ongoing sustainability.

Well done everyone!

The Community Engagement project will fund six new projects in 2007. Application forms can be downloaded from the Framework website at flexiblelearning.net.au/ communitypartnerships. Already the Project Manager, Mary Hannan, has spoken to over twenty potential applicants who have discussed their proposed models of e-learning, their target clients and the potential input from a range of community partners. All suggested proposals have been innovative, exciting and importantly have clearly articulated the needs of their individual communities.

Let us hope that all these potential applicants take that final step and apply! Applications close at 9.00am AEST Friday 23 March.

Dr Kaye Bowman has been appointed to conduct a Community Engagement project evaluation. Kaye recently met with members of the project reference committee with whom she discussed the strategy she will undertake to measure the success of the projects funded in 2005 and 2006. This will also provide an opportunity for Kaye to consider and evaluate the project as a whole.

A new staff member joins the Community Engagement project team. Janie McOmish is presently the Public Relations Officer for Adult Learning Australia and will support Mary for one day week. Janie before commencing with Adult Learning Australia, coordinated the ACT Adult Learner’s Week and supported the ACT Adult and Community Education Council. In earlier years Janie has been a High School Teacher. She will bring to the team a great knowledge of the adult and community education sector nationally.

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!

Another session from the eDayz experience - very useful for people working with young people.Our favourite agent of chaos and creativity, Marie Jasinski, this year worked with the staff at TafeSA, Regency Campus, to find out what was going wrong in their attempts to teach the “next generation”. Research had come out of the USA, but they wanted to verify some of the results themselves.

Who is Gen Y?

• Born/grew up in late 70’s - mid-90’s
• had ‘programmed activities’ from an early age, grew up in relative affluence - choices
• media-saturated, visually stimulating, connected, always known digital technology
• always lived with accelerating change
• personal relations with adults, involved in family decisions
• constantly rewarded, “seen and heard”
• “self-esteem on steroids” (P Sheahan).

Results of their research

These people:

• expect to be treated with respect and as a peer in all situations, and by all people, no matter what the relationship (79%).
• Say NO to lectures and boring presentations, say YES to collaboration and working with peers.
• Love variety, and expect to have choices; they expect that their opinions will matter, that the teacher will support them always, no matter what. They prefer to see and discuss, rather than read.
• Like technology, problems to solve, support of others, challenging levels of thinking, opportunities to be innovative and creative when learning, as well as levels of risk.

So, what happens? The teachers give them everything.

They do however like clearly defined tasks, and ongoing, immediate feedback.

An interesting feature of this project was the way it was conducted. The institute gave all staff Monday morning off .. to sit around and talk. No classes Monday morning, and an optional “Conversation Cafe”, so that teachers could brainstorm problems and solutions every week for a whole year. Reportedly a huge success. Teachers are not going to abandon lectures, but discover ways to make them more interactive.

More info about Gen Y, in Research from the Dusseldorp Forum, here.

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

Over here in Adelaide, at “eDayz”, where three of the Community Engagement projects are presenting, keynote speaker Bruce Sullivan opened the proceedings with a very enthusiastic and heartfelt session, reminding us to focus on the outcomes, not the “time and effort”.

“If you really want something, you’ll do whatever it takes to achieve your outcome,” Bruce assured us. Knowledge workers need a lot of mental space; however, if you focus on the time, the effort, the difficulty and the distractions, you’ll find your energy drained away. One of his mottoes was “Do things poorly, until you (learn to) do them well.”

His follow up workshop gave some strategies for managing transitions, tackling relationship and environment, when you deal with people’s resistance to change. People often acknowledge the physical aspects of transition, but fail to notice or attend to the emotional side of things. When you plan your transitions, plan to manage the emotional transition too.

Because of the emotional response, resistant behaviours are normal, Bruce assured us, when change processes hit. When people resist or sabotage change processes, “don’t tackle their behaviour”. Bruce urged us to focus on improving relationships and the work environment, as well as the ‘bright future’ of your hoped-for outcomes.

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])