English Raven

Screencasting to rehearse and review presentations

 

 

The previous post on this blog features a series of screencasts I prepared for a presentation/workshop I hosted for an institute-wide PD Day last Friday.

 

Given that I was so flu-ridden on the day I was wondering if I was going to actually be able to stay up on my feet for the whole session, the screencasts could have come in very handy in the event of a presenter collapse... From a prone position on the floor, I might have been able to just click on play and let the attendees watch the presentation up on the screen while I crawled feebly for the exit.

 

However, what really struck me with this experiment was just how beneficial it can be to "perform" your presentation or workshop in advance via video or screencast.

 

For one, it's an excellent way to rehearse your material. Sure, you could do this in front of a mirror, but actually recording it gives you that very real feeling of a live performance, on the spot, and you can go back and listen/watch your performance, get a feel for the timing, delivery, etc. It's a confidence builder as well as (to some extent) a bit of an early warning system!

 

Once you've screencasted your whole presentation, it then makes for great review material to follow up a live, in-the-room workshop. This review mechanism is facilitated in multiple ways:

 

- Attendees can relax, go with the flow of the actual presentation on the day and not worry about extensive note-taking or handouts (they can review the material later at their own leisure);

- Your pre-recording means that if something goes horribly wrong on the day (for example: you're allocated a room without a beam projector despite your specific request for one), you can still refer workshop attendees to the screencast version;

- It's really interesting, for yourself as the presenter (and possibly for your attendees as well) to compare the live in-the-room performance with the recorded version, especially in terms of how well the presentation ended up wrapping around the actual needs and influence of the audience on the day;

- If you pre-record your presentation in specific parts or segments, you might look at playing one or two of them during the actual workshop so you can give yourself a short break, move the eyes off you for a little and give you a chance to wander around and see what people are doing;

- As per the parts/segments idea above, if the parts all have targeted ideas or examples, you might be able to cherry pick from an overall bank of screencasts to put together future presentations.

 

Beyond all that, I guess, screencasted versions of your presentations or workshops allow you to share your work or ideas far more widely. If your material is worthy enough of an audience of 40 on a given day, why not make it available to 4000 other people on any day of the year?

 

If workshops and presentations are things you do regularly (or want to do more) I really recommend considering some screencasting for a bit more of an edge when it comes to rehearsing and reviewing your ideas.

 

 

;-)

 

 

Exploring a DIPA(CT) approach to teaching and learning

 

 

This is an online workshop resource I have put together, both as support/review material for attendees at a recent PD session I did at Gordon TAFE but also for people completely fresh to the notion of DIPA(CT) who might like to utilize the tutorials below for some personal professional development or just exploration of ideas.

 

DIPA(CT) is a personal and rather simple approach to teaching and learning, and while the examples provided here are meant for a vocational education context I daresay that the basic principles are at least reasonably relevant to almost all subjects and teaching/learning contexts.

 

For the sake of convenience, I have broken the workshop into separate parts, in order (though of course you may like to pay more attention to some over others).

 

 

 

PART 1: Introduction and Warm Up

 

 

 

 

PART 2: DIPA(CT) Defined and Explained

 

 

 

 

PART 3: DIPA(CT) in Action - Manufacturing Technology

 

 

 

 

PART 4: DIPA(CT) in Action - Applied Literacy

 

 

 

 

PART 5: DIPA(CT) in Action - Carpentry

 

 

 

 

PART 6: Wrap Up and Final Reflections

 

 

The two references at the end there are to this actual blog post and the extensive step-by-step tutorial I made some time back for screencasting - available here.

 

 

 

Hope DIPA(CT) gave you a few things to think about... thanks for watching (and thinking), if you did! And don't be shy in dropping any feedback or impressions in the comments section below.

 

 

;-)

 

 

 

 

 

Avoiding the burn after reading reaction

 

 

I read an interesting article today, fed to me via my tweetstream, about what a massive risk Facebook's IPO could represent. Basically, the writer pointed out how seriously over-priced the Facebook stock was/is and how the only way for it to hold its value was for Facebook to maintain some very steep revenue growth rates with almost no major asset base. The general thrust? Another dot.com boom on the cards, but in this case on a scale that could threaten the world economy. It struck me as being a bit on the scaremongrish side of things, but some of the facts (comparing Facebook to Google, for example) made for pretty freaky reading. Personally I can't quite understand the high price of the Facebook stock and it worries me how unflinchingly people seem to be clamouring to get on the wagon.

 

What I've just told you there about that article is pretty much along the lines of what would happen if I were to meet you today and chat about this. You might present some of your own opinions or questions, or tell me about something else you read on the same subject.

 

I think it would be fair to say that I covered most of the main ideas or points from the article, even if the summary was through my eyes and what I personally respond to as being interesting or important. I think I've got a bit of a grasp about the overall purpose of the article, some of the supporting details, and I've certainly got my own (however uninformed) opinion about the general issue.

 

I daresay, if pressed, you would conclude I'd actually read the article and grasped most of it. I also presume it would take you and I about five minutes - give or take a few minutes based on how interested in the issue YOU were - to work through this process. And, this exchange would (or could) commonly happen through a casual conversation.

 

Okay Raven, what the hell are you getting at here?

 

Basically, this is how so much real world reading happens. We find and read the stuff that interests us, and if it is particularly interesting we may choose to discuss it with others we know who are (at least to some degree) interested in the same broad topic.

 

Why then, when it comes to reading and school, do we usually step completely away from this very natural process and put so many of our learners through the torture of demonstrating their reading comprehension by (a) choosing the texts for them, (b) having them 'talk' about them to an audience of 1 (as in, the teacher), and (c) making them write out laborious reports going over every nook and cranny of the text, whether or not it is of relevance or interest to the reader or anyone else within paper plane throwing distance?

 

No wonder so many learners are probably inclined to burn something after they read it at school - especially if it meant somehow that they could escape the mindnumbingly boring process of writing a big long report about it - that only one other person in the room is likely to read (and then only briefly, with the grading pen hovering above it, dripping threatening trails of red). 

 

One of the reasons we do this is because we are following a time-honoured tradition of making reading at school as laborious and uninspiring as possible. Another reason is because so many of us overlook or ignore other assessment tools available to us.

 

As a VCAL teacher, there is an assessment tool available to me for reading that I haven't made nearly enough use of. It's called an oral questioning tool. Funnily enough, combined with learner-selected readings (as I demonstrated in the post here), a casual style oral questioning tool comes incredibly close to the ambience and exchange I attempted to describe above for something I read today.

 

Here is an example oral questioning tool I developed for VCAL Literacy, adapting some excellent templates provided by the QA team at The Gordon TAFE. This particular one addresses the outcome Reading for Knowledge:

 

 

Basically, the learners source their own texts, I negotiate and verify for them if they are long and complex enough for their level as well as meeting the defined range of text types for VCAL literacy. They read them. When they're ready, they call me over and I bring my folder full of pre-prepared oral questioning tools meeting all the different text types and VCAL reading outcomes. We have a chat and I complete the checklist. They go over it with me afterwards and we both sign and date it. I do random recordings of these chats using my phone mic, just to back up my evidence if it becomes necessary for auditing purposes.

 

What this almost ridiculously simple and accessible process has done for my VCAL classes is genuinely hard to put into words. 

 

One, it could take up to 3-4 classes for my learners to prepare a written report for one text they had read, and even then there was no guarantee it would emerge complete or accurate. The oral questioning tool takes somewhere in the realm of 5-10 minutes, following (on average) 10-15 minutes to read the text.

 

Secondly, the learners enjoy it. They chat/talk better than they engage with formal report-style writing. We sometimes get 'banked up' (with 3-4 students waiting to check a text with me at the same time), end up sitting around a table together and suddenly we may have 3-4 people discussing the text and its content/issues (hey, they do have common interests as it turns out, both as teenagers but also within their trade groupings). Sometimes I don't even need to ask questions - the chat/banter draws enough out to demonstrate competence with the outcome elements and I can simply complete my check list.

 

Finally, and this is possibly the biggest development, the learners are naturally gravitating to more extensive reading. They shop around more texts looking for ones that really strike them as being 'talkworthy'. Not only does a 5-10 minute chat about the text remove the angst involved, it seems to motivate them to look for texts that are genuinely interesting to talk about. They're not interested in spending 10 minutes talking about a text that is utterly boring or irrelevant to them. Based on this engagement, many of them are happy to go above and beyond the 'minimum number' of texts or demonstrations of competence required for each outcome. 

 

I'm truly an idiot for not paying more attention to this assessment tool option in the past.

 

It changes everything.

 

It sort of, well... seems a lot more like reading (and what happens after or through reading) in the real world.

 

Fancy that!

 

 

;-)

 

 

 

Moodle Tutorial: Checking grades or activity in group mode

 

 

In a previous post I demonstrated how to set up basic groups within Moodle courses, and mentioned that one of the advantages of this set up was that it becomes easier to check or track grades and activity according to specific groups (for example, individual classes of learners) rather than having to wade through the results of an entire cohort.

 

When you go to check grades or progress, two of the most common routes are via the grader report or user report. Here's how you can check results for designated groups for both of those report settings:

 

 

 

 

Just note that if you're having trouble seeing those group options in the reports (drop down menus), you may need to go back and do a tiny bit of tinkering with your overall course settings:

 

Settings > Edit Settings > Groups > Group Mode > Visible Groups

 

 

Trust me, when you're doing a lot of checking and tracking across a number of different classes, having them set up in groups and accessing the grader or user reports in this way can save you a lot of time.

 

Hope you found this useful, and if you're after more Moodle tutorials the entire bank is here.

 

 

;-)

 

 

Moodle Tutorial: Setting up groups within courses

 

 

If you have a course with a lot of users enrolled, you might like to consider setting up groups within the course. You could do this to designate class groupings, levels or other groupings according to your needs.

 

There can be a lot of benefits of having groups within the course; key among them to my thinking are (1) the capacity to monitor and check grades by group rather than entire cohort, (2) allocating specific tasks or content to particular groups (facilitating customisation), and (3) setting up collaborative tasks or projects to be handled in designated groups.

 

Here are the basics involved in sorting your enrolled users into specific groups in Moodle:

 

 

 

In a follow up tutorial I'll be demonstrating how to quickly check grades and activity by group rather than whole cohort, and other practical uses for group settings will be added in due course.

 

You can see all of my Moodle tutorials at the central resource page here.

 

 

;-)

 

 

English Oz: The Reluctant Patient

 

 

The movie Kenny is, in my opinion, a masterpiece of Australian cinema. It is one of those mockumentaries that is so well done that, unless you knew better, you could be easily forgiven for thinking it is a real documentary. The realism of it also makes it perfect for exposing your ESL learners to everyday Australian conversation in action. Oh, and it might just give them a bit of a laugh as well...

 

I got the idea for the following clip after a recent stay in hospital for an operation. During the pre-op, I had to lie in a bed and listen to an old fella carrying on in rather similar fashion to the way Kenny's dad does here.

 

 

 

Activity sheets for learners and teachers:

3_VPAU502_EL1_The_reluctant_patient

3_VPAU502_EL1_TG_The_reluctant_patient

 

 

Cert III ESL (Access) Documentation:

 

Unit C21 (VPAU502): Engage in casual conversation and straightforward spoken transactions.

Element 1: Interpret a casual conversation on everyday topics

Performance Criteria 1.1: Identify context/situation and relationship between speakers

Performance Criteria 1.2: Outline main topics, and opinions or attitudes expressed

Performance Criteria 1.3: Locate supporting details and implied meanings, where apparent

Performance Criteria 1.4: Identify emotional state/attitude of speakers where apparent

Performance Criteria 1.5: Identify some conversational strategies used 

Performance Criteria 1.6: Identify requests to clarify misunderstandings and ambiguous points 

 

 

After seeing what your learners can glean and learn from the exchange, there are lots of different ways you could generate conversation and discussion with your class (for example, hospital experiences, opinions about hospital costs or doctors, dealing with older people, etc.). For discussion, your learners may benefit from the conversational strategies outlined here.

 

See more English Oz.

 

 

;-)

 

 

English Oz: "I know what my family is worth"

 

 

There would be some teachers out there who would tell me this isn't ideal material for an ESL classroom, citing the need to be sensitive to different cultural values and beliefs, etc.

 

Bollocks to that, I say. Gay marriage IS a big issue not just in Australia right now, but also in the United States and in many other parts of the world. It's an issue all of us need to think about, whether we were born in this country or are recent arrivals.

 

Penny Wong (Australian Federal Senator and Finance Minister) appeared on the popular program QandA on Monday and was caught by surprise at the end of the segment by an unexpected question. Given she is gay and a gay parent but has famously refused to campaign publicly about same-sex issues, her response here is being held up by many as a potential watershed (there's a good word to explain to your ESL students!) moment in the debate about the fundamental rights of gays and lesbians in Australia.

 

 

 

Here are my English Oz activity sheets to go with this discussion input:

3_VPAU502_EL1_I_Know_What_My_Family_is_Worth

3_VPAU502_EL1_TG_I_Know_What_My_Family_is_Worth

 

 

Cert III ESL (Access) Documentation:

 

Unit C21 (VPAU502): Engage in casual conversation and straightforward spoken transactions.

Element 1: Interpret a casual conversation on everyday topics

Performance Criteria 1.1: Identify context/situation and relationship between speakers

Performance Criteria 1.2: Outline main topics, and opinions or attitudes expressed

Performance Criteria 1.3: Locate supporting details and implied meanings, where apparent

Performance Criteria 1.4: Identify emotional state/attitude of speakers where apparent

Performance Criteria 1.5: Identify some conversational strategies used 

Performance Criteria 1.6: Identify requests to clarify misunderstandings and ambiguous points 

 

 

You might like to also support this with the following article from the Sydney Morning Herald, which includes the video footage above and all of the key dialogue as written quotes, but also builds some context and commentary around them:

Wong's affirmation of gay families 'a watershed'

 

I think the following video is also brilliant material, not just for demonstrating that, for all her quiet and firm determination, Ms. Wong is not afraid to stand up to the conservative bully boys in Australia's parliament; there is also the prickly issue of gender equality and attitudes towards women in general in this country:

 

 

 

An amazing lady. I personally reckon she should be the country's Prime Minister, but that's just my opinion. See what your ESL learners make of her!

 

 

;-)

 

 

 

English Oz: Australian Intonation(?)

 

 

Adam Hills makes a very good point? About the way Australians inflect up at the end of many sentences? To make it sound like a question? 'Coz we're kinda insecure? And we need your approval? Or we just like to ask questions that don't actually need answers?

 

 

 

 

I think this is a brilliant resource for ESL learners (though Dutch students may not like the stereotype joke at their expense). Aside from the pronunciation/intonation points, there are nice opportunities to draw on the content for chats about Australian history, particularly the discovery of the continent by Europeans, and to have a bit of a larf along the way...

 

Activity resource sheets for learners and teachers:

3_VPAU503_EL1_Australian_Intonation

3_VPAU503_EL1_TG_Australian_Intonation

 

 

Certificate III ESL (Access) components targeted and tracked through the activities:

 

Unit C22 (VPAU503): Give and respond to a range of straightforward instructions and informational texts.

Element 1: Interpret an informational oral text

Performance Criteria 1.1: Identify the context, topic and purpose of an informational oral text

Performance Criteria 1.2: Outline main ideas, opinions and attitudes expressed

Performance Criteria 1.3: Locate supporting information or details

Performance Criteria 1.4: Identify the tone and register of the text, and any inferred meaning

Performance Criteria 1.5: Express an opinion about the ideas or issues raised

 

 

Brought to you by English Oz.

 

 

;-)

 

 

English Oz: The Rainbow Serpent

 

 

This is a beautifully simple and accessible telling of the Rainbow Serpent story which is so central to so much of Australia's indigenous dreamtime culture.

 

 

 

 

Here are some activity sheets to go with the oral text:

3_VPAU503_EL1_The_Rainbow_Serpent

3_VPAU503_EL1_TG_The_Rainbow_Serpent

 

 

Certificate III ESL (Access) components targeted and tracked through the activities:

 

Unit C22 (VPAU503): Give and respond to a range of straightforward instructions and informational texts.

Element 1: Interpret an informational oral text

Performance Criteria 1.1: Identify the context, topic and purpose of an informational oral text

Performance Criteria 1.2: Outline main ideas, opinions and attitudes expressed

Performance Criteria 1.3: Locate supporting information or details

Performance Criteria 1.4: Identify the tone and register of the text, and any inferred meaning

Performance Criteria 1.5: Express an opinion about the ideas or issues raised

 

 

Just note that there is also a nice written text accompanying the video which gives some interesting background information about the dreamtime notion. It could make for a reading outcome as a natural extension or follow up from the oral text.

 

 

More English Oz stuff here!

 

 

;-)

 

 

English Oz: Smartphones and Parenting

 

 

 

This English Oz reading resource draws on the online article located here.

 

It's an interesting article because of just how true many people will find some of the warnings, as well as a poll that has been conducted and attached to the end of the story.

 

Here are the associated learning activity resource sheets:

3_VPAU505_EL1_Smartphones_and_parenting

3_VPAU505_EL1_TG_Smartphones_and_parenting

 

 

Certificate III in ESL (Access) element/performance criteria:

 

Unit C24 (VPAU505): Read and write a range of straightforward informational, instructional and other texts.

Element 1: Analyse a range of informational texts

Performance Criteria 1.1: Scan informational text and identify the context and topic

Performance Criteria 1.2: Identify the main ideas or issues

Performance Criteria 1.3: Locate supporting information or examples

Performance Criteria 1.4: Identify conventions of informational texts

Performance Criteria 1.5: Analyse the structure and discourse features of the texts

Performance Criteria 1.6: Respond to the text, outlining any opinions expressed, and state own opinion about the topic

 

 

English Oz homepage on this blog.

 

 

;-)

 

 

Meet the Cypher - Teen poetry in motion

 

 

 

This is a local group of lads calling themselves Geelong Cypher. My Year 11 VCAL student Caleb Toohill is part of the group and his part starts at 2.20. He's good!

 

Based on this, I'm going to give him an Oracy for Self Expression outcome in his Literacy program, and a Writing for Self Expression outcome as well if he goes ahead and puts his verses down on paper.

 

I'm also looking at embedding a new unit in our Intermediate Literacy online page, so the rest of the cohort can use this as an optional unit with a variety of VCAL outcomes (reading and writing for self expression, reading/writing/oracy for public debate, etc.). For Caleb, this unit can extend in all sorts of directions (for example, if he reads and writes about what he knows when it comes to rap/hiphop, how to build lyrics, etc).

 

Great stuff.

 

 

;-)

 

 

 

English Oz: Grandparents bear greater share of childcare duties

 

 

This is a current article in Melbourne's The Age newspaper and I think it could be an interesting one for ESL students to engage with. Aside from the growing number of families having the grandparents mind the children so that both parents can work (more) in Australia, this is very often the traditional way many families operate in many other countries (quite possibly ESL learners' own home countries or here in Australia as well).

There are also some interesting general statistics about childcare and costs in the article - plenty of good discussion points to explore.

 

Here are the activity/resource sheets I've developed to go with the article:

3_VPAU505_EL1_Grandparents_bear_greater_share_of_childcare_duties

3_VPAU505_EL1_TG_Grandparents_bear_greater_share_of_childcare_duties

 

 

Certificate III in ESL (Access) unit/element/performance criteria:

 

Unit C24 (VPAU505): Read and write a range of straightforward informational, instructional and other texts.

Element 1: Analyse a range of informational texts

Performance Criteria 1.1: Scan informational text and identify the context and topic

Performance Criteria 1.2: Identify the main ideas or issues

Performance Criteria 1.3: Locate supporting information or examples

Performance Criteria 1.4: Identify conventions of informational texts

Performance Criteria 1.5: Analyse the structure and discourse features of the texts

Performance Criteria 1.6: Respond to the text, outlining any opinions expressed, and state own opinion about the topic

 

 

You can find more English Oz materials and teaching ideas for ESL here.

 

 

;-)

 

 

Professional Development and the hidden power in short-distance travel

 

 

Almost ten years ago, as the Director of Studies at a medium-sized language institute in South Korea, I coordinated a regular series of professional development workshops with a staff of about twenty across two campuses. After a couple of sessions I can vividly remember the reaction of one of the local Korean teachers. She talked about how tremendously useful and relevant the workshops were for her, how lucky she felt to be getting this professional development right here in her workplace, how much better they were than the big fancy conference events, and how frustrated she felt about having spent six months and thousands of dollars to travel to Canada to get an ESL qualification that was "absolutely useless compared to what we do here in these workshops."

 

What this teacher was realising was the huge potential of local, in-house professional development.

 

I realised it too, via a number of in-house teacher development programs I facilitated but also when I began to organise small-scale conferences and symposiums featuring predominantly local 'at the chalk face' experts. Based on experience, I eventually came up with a sort of balance rule about professional development, which I called the 80/20 rule.

 

That is, for the best overall professional development results, 80% of it needs to come from the local context and 20% from outside experts.

 

The 80% part there isn't just about keeping things contextually relevant. In every single teaching team or organisation I have worked with there have been numerous deep wells of talent and experience. It's mind-blowing how little of that talent and experience is truly drawn on in many companies. In fact, the bigger the company the more numerous and deeper these wells tend to be, but as companies wax they almost always seem to fall for bigger splashes of cash on more remote experts based on a misplaced belief in paper qualifications and CVs that mention something about being a 'conference presenter' or 'motivator' or something like that.

 

Don't get me wrong. There are some outstanding speakers and experts out there that can bring a lot to a PD program. But there are many ways to 'access' expert knowledge now (beyond scheduled at-the-podium appearances) and drawing almost exclusively on outside experts, fanfares and stage lights at the expense of your local talent is just plain wasteful.

 

With an organisation-wide Professional Development Day coming up next week, I was really happy to see a line up which applies something very close to the 80/20 rule. This is in stark contrast to the PD Day I attended this time last year, which was big on big names (well, they weren't actually THAT big, but I'm constantly astounded by how fishbowlish and rather self-inflated the Australian education sector appears to be on this front) but had very little local talent featured.

 

Given I was pretty vocal in my opinions about this via a variety of channels, when my boss sat me down and 'asked' me if I was willing to offer a session at the upcoming PD Day, I'd pretty much backed myself into a corner, hadn't I? :-)

 

But in all seriousness, I'm really happy to see so many local colleagues leading workshop sessions this time around. It recognises the talent at the next desk, or in the office down the hall, or across the campus. It means greater chances of practical contextualization. The people involved aren't here today (this hour) and gone tomorrow or until the next big event; they're a short walk or quick telephone call away. They haven't decided to present or facilitate based on a sales pitch and an 'appearance fee.' 

 

It's called being collegial, and it's a meaningful, motivating and highly practical investment by the organisation in its own development.

 

 

;-)

 

 

 

Certificate IV in Training and Assessment/ Education (TAE) with Cengage/ Open Colleges

 

So, that's all done then... My final online report card upon completing the Cert IV TAE

 

 

If you intend to work in any sort of vocational education training role, in Australia the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (or Training and Education - things seem a bit fuzzy about the exact terminology since the earlier TAA was upgraded to TAE) is a baseline qualification you simply must have.

 

Coming back to Australia after a decade teaching abroad, I was rather frustrated to find that not only was this certificate mandatory as part of any ESL or other vocational training role, without it you couldn't achieve even the baseline salary offerings.

 

So when I took up a VCAL Literacy teaching role at GTEC at Gordon TAFE, I enrolled in the TAE as part of the position requirements but also to help me climb a little higher up the pay scale. It looked like I would be able to apply for RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) for rather large portions of it, but in the end I decided to challenge and renew myself a bit. I took the entire course from the ground up, doing every module and task, challenging myself to apply everything to new areas or in new ways. I wanted to take on the 'newbie' perspective again, and see what I was capable of.

 

I enrolled in an online TAE course with Cengage, which during my course went through an expansion and name change to Open Colleges. I had an opportunity to do the TAE with a range of local providers, but (to be frank) hadn't heard a lot of ringing endorsements of those particular programs, but most of all I didn't relish the idea of doing the course face to face twice a week at night time after work (or on weekends).

 

The online Cengage/Open Colleges course was excellent. It was delivered via the Moodle LMS with a very tidy interface and nice organisation of resources and materials for each unit. This was actually really interesting for me, as I was building courses in Moodle for my own learners at the same time and got to engage with the LMS from both a teaching and learning perspective.

 

I had to complete ten units to get the certification, and while there is mention of 'core' and 'elective' units, in reality as a Cengage/Open Colleges student the whole course is already pre-set and mandatory (in other words, the 'electives' apply to the training provider - not to the learner). This pre-set/mandatory unit selection alongside the mode of material delivery struck me as slightly ironic, given the very sharp and very regular reminders throughout the coursework to get to know learners' needs, learning preferences, contextualize, etc. The course (the way it is selected and structured on paper/screen) didn't exactly find out or take account of any of my particular needs or preferences...until the online tutor flexed her influence - more on that slightly later.

 

From the start I looked for ways to deeply embed the course units into my work role and made up my own learning plan based on a careful look over the official unit documents and guidelines (the ones provided for the training package on the central training.gov.au website, that is). It ended up looking a bit like this: 

 

 

TAE Unit Code	Unit Title	Typical GTEC Applications
TAEDES402A (core)	Use training packages/accredited courses to meet client needs	Unpack trade-related training packages to better understand integration of GTEC/Trade School Better understand VET/TAFE sector Foundation for documenting VCAL in TAFE context
TAEDES401A (core)	Design and develop learning programs	Design and document VCAL courses so they are interpretable and applicable in a TAFE context
TAEASS401A (core)	Plan assessment activities and processes	Develop VCAL assessment plans so they are interpretable and applicable in a TAFE context Improve GTEC/VCAL assessment documentation and processes
TAEASS502A (elective)	Design and develop assessment tools	Develop specialised range of properly documented assessment tools (by subject/stream) for VCAL and GTEC cohort
TAEDEL401A (core)	Plan, organise and deliver group-based learning	Improve ability to teach/apply VCAL with GTEC student groups AND/OR Pass on specialised (skill/subject/stream) knowledge to GTEC teaching colleagues
TAEDEL402A (core)	Plan, organise and facilitate learning in the workplace	Guide and facilitate learning for GTEC students on work placement AND/OR Pass on specialised (skill/subject/stream) knowledge to GTEC teaching colleagues
TAEDEL403A (elective)	Coordinate and facilitate distance-based learning	Create online/distance-based applications for regular in-class VCAL programs Build more integrated bridges between GTEC class work and learning at home, Trade School or work
TAEASS301A (elective)	Contribute to assessment	Improve ability to gather quality evidence for assessment Improve the validity and reliability of GTEC’s assessment procedures Facilitate a better team/collegial approach to quality assessment
TAEASS402A (core)	Assess competence
TAEASS403A (core)	Participate in assessment validation

 

 

This plan mostly came off. I was able to negotiate almost all of the units with my tutor and really contextualize them so they were deeply embedded and relevant to my day-to-day work role.

 

The exception was the first unit (TAEDES402A - Use Training Packages and Accredited Courses to meet client needs), where I was forced to roleplay my way through unpacking a range of training courses and units for... a funeral park! It was interesting, in a way, but gosh - I'm not sure how many people enjoy starting a course making training arrangements involving units to do with gravedigging, etc. 

 

However, the flexible contextualisation more than worked for all of the other units. Here are some of the things I built/designed/applied and got credit for during the course:

 

• Detailed Delivery and Assessment Plans (DAPs) for the subjects I am responsible for teaching, which also managed to integrate VCAL (traditionally a secondary school program) with the more vocationally and adult-oriented TAFE documentation requirements
• Comprehensive assessment plans and a range of highly detailed assessment tools (for example: portfolio, oral questioning and observation of demonstration)
• A series of professional development sessions targeted screencasting skills for the whole team I work with
• Individual workplace learning plans and documentation (oriented around developing e-Learning design and application skills with various members of the teaching team)
• Extensive documentation for one of the online/blended learning programs I developed in Moodle
• A portfolio of assessment tasks, evidence of assessment and an extensive assessment validation process

 

 

Quality Assurance and auditing are big (and getting bigger) in the TAFE context in Australia - part of an important strategy to help TAFEs differentiate themselves from private RTOs on the quality and reliability fronts. The Gordon was going through the process of introducing a highly detailed Teacher Toolkit at the same time I was doing the course, and I found myself well ahead of the curve. Admittedly, that's a nice feeling - to know you are delivering above the documentation requirements ahead of time.

 

But here's the rub: the reason this course worked so well for me was purely and simply because I had an outstanding tutor on this course.

 

Megan Funston epitomised everything that is is excellent in both a course tutor and an e-moderator:

 

• She knew her stuff (as a trainer and guide through Australia's Qualifications Framework) forwards, backwards, sideways, upwards and downwards.
• She provided a wealth of supplementary material via the forums that made a lot of the main/official dense booklet-style content suddenly comprehensible.
• You never waited more than a week to get things graded.
• You didn't just get grades -  you got comprehensive targeted and motivating feedback.
• She bent/molded the course to the needs of the trainee - the reason I got so much of my 'work at/for work' done was because Megan took the time to get to know my needs and context.

 

 

I've worked with and had more than my fair share of teachers over time, and this lady was just amazing. I really looked up to her. She made the course what it was - not the materials, not the curriculum, not the LMS... it was the tutor.

 

So all up this was a great experience for me and I got a lot out of it, beyond a pretty bit of paper qualifying me for a pay rise.

 

Actually, that's the only thing that's missing now...

 

I finished the course almost a month ago and still don't have my certificate or transcript. The company took four seconds to accept my online payment when I was enrolling, but four weeks afer all the work has been completed and graded they still haven't given me my very important paperwork.

 

Cengage/Open Colleges:

Ditch the funeral park unit at the start, offer more electives the students themselves can choose from, keep Megan Funston, pay Megan Funston more than you do (whatever amount that currently is, because quite honestly she is the heart and soul of what is a very good course based on her presence/influence in it) and:

 

SEND ME MY CERTIFICATE!

 

 

;-)

 

 

English Oz: Beds are Burning

 

 

This was an interesting resource to research and develop. It presents two different versions of the same core song - Beds are Burning; the recent version produced as part of the Tck Tck Tck Campaign to promote awareness of climate change in the lead up to the Copenhagen Summit, and the original version from the band Midnight Oil, which was inspired by the Pintupi tribe and their move in from and then back out to the isolation of Australia's Western Desert.

 

Two very different 'causes', and it is interesting to look at how the lyrics are different for each version according to their purpose. 

 

To best showcase this, I've built a webpage featuring both music videos and the lyrics for each in a scroll box beneath, side by side for easy comparison. In addition, for each version I've added a series of key words and links to graded (or gradable) texts on Google Search that explore a variety of issues or topics relevant to each rendition of the Beds are Burning song.

 

You can access the page here: http://www.englishraven.com/bedsareburning. html

 

For ESL application, just listening to and comparing the lyrics can be a really interesting exercise. The main ideas and 'roots' in each set of lyrics make for clear comparisons, but at phrase level there are also some great opportunities to explore language (for example to take a stand versus to say fair's fair, or  turning back versus give it back).

 

These texts are also well set up for Certificate III in ESL (Access) and the following element/performance criteria:

 

Unit C24 (VPAU505): Read and write a range of straightforward informational, instructional and other texts.

Element 1: Analyse a range of informational texts

Performance Criteria 1.1: Scan informational text and identify the context and topic

Performance Criteria 1.2: Identify the main ideas or issues

Performance Criteria 1.3: Locate supporting information or examples

Performance Criteria 1.4: Identify conventions of informational texts

Performance Criteria 1.5: Analyse the structure and discourse features of the texts

Performance Criteria 1.6: Respond to the text, outlining any opinions expressed, and state own opinion about the topic

 

Learners could be encouraged to tackle both texts as part of this outcome, or the one that interests them most. Alternatively, they could follow the links featured alongside each set of lyrics and source their own reading text on a more specific topic (anything from climate change to The Pintupi Nine). This is a great way to marry extensive reading with some basic tech skills oriented around particular themes.

 

 

Learning resources:

3_VPAU505_EL1_Beds_Are_Burning

3_VPAU505_EL1_TG_Beds_Are_Burning

 

Besides reading, there are plenty of opportunities to have classroom discussions or negotiate writing topics feeding out of the content available on the web page.

 

One or more of the texts available through this resource could also build towards any of a number of ESL Framework Elective Units (for example, Current Issues, Indigenous Australia, Environment of Australia, Australian History, etc.)

 

 

See more of this these sorts of resources over at the English Oz section of this blog.

 

 

;-)