Experimenting and Organising

Today I have spent some time documenting my elearning website links and access to these.  Thanks for the tip Christine! 
Used wiki to upload a couple of documents for my class.
Looking outside at the wild weather, thinking today that it would be nice to be cosied in my pj's working tonight, instead of in a classroom, so that motivates me to learn about more eLearning tools and teach remotely!
Will get cracking on my Google docs project over the weekend.

Sorry to have missed the last session!

As some of you may be aware, I was hospitalised during the last session.  An unfortunate injury caused by a rogue nail in a piece of wood.  Ironically, I was clearing up the yard because our son was having friends over and I didn't want them getting hurt by....well, standing on a nail!
Hopefully, I will be able to take part next time, accidents permitting!  Can anyone remind me of when that is?

Thanks for the webinar last week on google doc. We are going to try conducting a policy sub committee meeting using google docs. Will let you know how we get on. Christine has also given us some information about Microsoft Skydrive for us to look at in relation to our project.

First blog! Thanks to EMR ementors.

Yesterday I enjoyed the "Collaborate with Google Docs" webinar and appreciate the patience and clarity of moderators Christine, Lynne and Karen.  I was initially introduced to Google Docs last year in a very basic way by using a spreadsheet to enter student attendances.  This was not set up or created by me, however I did have a Google account, so the first step was easy.  I had no inkling that docs could be shared or worked on collaboratively, so I am now busy thinking of ways to use them in my training.
Ideas so far: depreciation worksheet for my bookkeeping classes, worksheets for my trainees, adding my training forms so I can access them easily if required.
Have a lot of experimenting to do!

Faciitating online session Monday 15 October

We had a few difficulties at the beginning of the session and while Christine sorted them out I was able to show Ruth a few of the features of the online classroom.

Christine and Andrea joined us with Christine doing a review of the features available which I have already covered a few times. All good review though. We viewed Christine's PowerPoint for facilitators and were able to download a file via file  share from Christine.

I appreciated the opportunity to practice features available to the moderator and to work in such a small group.

Finally here!!!! :)

Special thanks to my patient eChampion Karen for finally getting me set up on this blog.
After our initial meeting we have established a plan for tutors to upload worksheets, tutorials and information sheets to our wiki.  Students can access these activities from home and not need expensive hard copy handouts.
We are very excited about the prospect of supporting our learners remotely and are very happy to participate in this project.

Making a start....

The good news is that I have successfully recruited three of our pre accredited trainers to participate in our project. Each of them is going to explore ways in which to create one pre accredited course for 2013 that will be delivered in a blended mode. Once the ACFE conference is out of the way we are going to meet to toss around ideas for the types of courses and the sorts of technology that would be appropriate to use. I'll get our team signed up to the blog so that everyone can meet them soon.

EMR Online PD Session 2 - Blogging

My apologies to everyone for not attending this PD. Special apologies to Lynne and Karen who ably stepped in to facilitate the session in my place. I know it is difficult to use the ppt that someone else has created when you do not know how they intended to use it.

Feedback I have received tells me that they did a great job as I expected even though they only had 10 minutes notice.

My 94 year old mother in law was rushed to hospital.  It wasn't the heart attack we suspected. She is still in and hopefully they will be able to sort out her problems.

Once again my apologies to everyone and I look forward to reading your blogs and comments.

e-Mentor Project 2012 Getting Started

On 18 September I joined my fellow mentees at Coonara Community House to meet our mentors and to gain an understanding of what to expect this year as part of the e-mentor project.

It was interesting to hear what other Centre's intend doing and to meet up with colleagues from other ACE organisations.

Reviewing the meeting I felt comfortable with what Pines Learning had indicated on their application as to how we wish to use the e-learning support and I will be following the projects of other Centres with interest.

The on line classes on 24 September and 9 October provided a worthwhile refresher for me. I was able to participate in the on line classroom and use a variety of tools. It was fun participating in the little activities Lynne and Karen had organised for us as well as interacting on line with fellow mentees.

Yesterday, 11 October, I participated in the on line class which showed us how to Blog and outlined the expectations of blogging as a mentee throughout the project as a form of reflection - which is what I am doing now! I use personal reflection all the time in my teaching practice as I believe it helps me not only with planning lessons but with improving delivery and staying motivated.

One key benefit I am gaining from participating in the on line classes is picking up tips and teaching strategies modelled by the three mentors which I hope to use myself in the future. Small things like reminding students to turn off their microphones, asking for regular feedback via happy face to check engagement, as well as fun ice breaker activities which set the tone for the remainder of the class I hope to use in the future to keep on line learners engaged.

Sample Post

Normal text - this post has been created for the EMR Online PD session 11 October 2012
Please add a comment to it after the session 

You may have a heading

A Subheading

A minor heading

You can insert a link or a video
EMR Ementor Wiki

or a picture

Face to Face with Lynne

Here I am at my face to face with Lynne having our photo taken - how embarrassment!
We have had a good discussion about our project  and I'm feeling pretty positive. We have a group of students with ABI who have participated in the Global Art for Peace Project early in 2012 and were partnered with a community health organisation in Toronto, Canada. There was great excitement when they sent their work off and received the pieces from Toronto in return. The aim of the project is to establish an online community for the students which hopefully will continue the link they have made and expand to include lots of new people with whom to share their talents and new e skills.
This afternoon I will start discussions with the tutor and students about the vehicle to use and their vision for the future of the project.
This is the exciting part. Then comes the carving out time to make it happen.

Google Doc Here We Come

It all starts with baby steps!

Meet with Christine this morning and have fleshed out our project. We plan on introducing google docs to our accredited course participants. We will start with one group and hopefully spread it to the remainder of the House.

Off We Go

We are excited about our project. We are planning to introduce Google Docs to some of our students, we will need to do some further tweeking about which group to choose. Meet with tutors who are excited about this as an option to expand our participants digital knowledge.