This month we have been promoting our project at every opportunity. After contacting our marketing department, Helaine and Cathy had a phone interview and we provided background information and photos. Shortly after there was an article about our project in the inDFEEST newsletter. I was also approached by staff from the Knowledge Tree E-journal http://kt.flexible.earning.net.au to make a contribution to the next edition. This entailed me logging in and providing verbal responses to a set of eight questions about VET Practitioners and E-learning. Most of my responses were informed by my experience of being involved with our project and what we have learned. Additionally, we have also been approached to present at the "Showcasing E-learning" on-line conference 4-5th November http://networks.events.flexiblelearning.net.au . Helaine and Cathy will be presenting our project on the 4th November. We will also be presenting at E-dayz which we are very excited about. Hope you come to our session!
This month we have also been continuing to finalise our evaluation framework in preparation for the delivery phase and again a big thanks to Ian for all his support. So far we have our framework for the evaluation, we have identified the areas we need to focus on, decided the methods for collecting data and now Ian is developing up the questions that we will use. There is a lot of interest in the research we will be undertaking in our project and we are excited by the prospects of being able to contribute back to the e-learning community.
Technology has continued to be challenging for various reasons but as always the issues just continue to reinforce how important it is to plan and prepare for when the technology doesn't work and to use preventative measures as well. A recent example is that Cathy's USB stick became corrupted and she thought she may have lost all of her files for the project including powerpoints, word documents and images. Fortunately she located a recovery program and was able to recover her files. This program can be found at http://www.tucows.com/preview/504783 if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, however, the learning here is to back up your files!
Cathy and Helaine have finally managed to get Helaine's voice on all of the powerpoint resources but there are still some issues with 2003/2007 office compatibility. The solution here has been to save the files in various formats including PDF so that they can be printed off for any learners who prefer a hands on approach.
Communication via technology has also continued to proved to be challenging and this has prompted Helaine and Cathy to develop a reference guide with very basic step by step instructions and hints for troubleshooting Skype, voice in Second Life, local chat and individual messaging. They have come us with the catchy name of 'Can you hear me now? - communication matters' and it has been uploaded along with all the other resources onto the project's moodle.
And now to the 3rd trial....
Having 2 trials under our belt already and a whole lot of learning it was decided that this time all the teams would log into Second Life off campus or from their desks and not be in the same room! The focus of the trial was to test the refinements and to get feedback from the team ready for the start of term. There were again some issues with voice as Helaine was having trouble with her sound card and had to change to another computer which put a bit of a spanner in the works. However, once this was resolved to a satisfactory point the trail moved on to cover:
- Communication techniques including local chat and individual messaging (IM)
- Exchanging of teleport invites
- Adjusting microphone levels
- Finding friends & groups
- Mini-map use
- Flying, sitting and standing
- Adding friends
- Personal inventory usage
- Opening boxes of clothers & putting them on
- Setting Capricorn Cove as "home" for the purpose of the course
This really represents where our learners will begin when they start with us in Term 4, this first introduction and orientation will really prepare them for engaging fully into the Second Life environment. The risk with not addressing these fully is that it will divert attention away from the actual training we want to deliver. These areas really are the basic skills for being able to communicate and interact in the Second Life environment and the are in stark contrast to the basic skills of a classroom based learner.
Overall the trial went exceptionally well, the team have given feedback that it was a productive session. Some team members really enjoyed being able to hear Helaine and Cathy but not having to speak back, but instead use local chat. Others liked the fact that this time round there was more time to sit in one place and just focus on a few key skills before attempting anything. For one team member who was at home with demanding children fighting to get their attention, it was a very real representation of what it could be like for our learners. This member found it hard to concentrate but was able to cope and this is a good indiction that we are on the right track with how we structure this first session and subsequent sessions so they are manageable under different situations the women may find themselves in.
At the end of the day it seems we have gotten both the content and pace right which is fantastic. The trials have really been beneficial.
Stay tuned for the commencement of our project with learners next week and we will try to bring you a journal entry on each session.
No comments:
Post a Comment