Embracing technology in education
In this day and age every Australian – learners, workers, teachers, managers regardless of age - needs to be able to operate effectively and safely in a growing global online environment. New technologies are a part of our daily lives and it can be argued that digital literacy is a core component of any VET program.
The E-Zine team caught up with two TAFE staff who have embraced the challenge head on - friends and colleagues Vivian Evans and Robyn Jay.
Vivian is based at TAFE in Coonabarabran, west of the Great Dividing Range, approximately halfway between Melbourne and Brisbane and about six hours by drive from Sydney. She lives well out of town in a solar powered, satellite connected log cabin. It’s remote and at one stage, working from home, the computer was her connection with the world.
Robyn is currently the NSW Innovations Coordinator for the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework) linking with project teams around the State across all VET sectors, and with internationally based e-learning devotees.
Vivian and Robyn speak with passion about how technology and online collaboration can enrich teaching practice, particularly for learners who have traditionally been disadvantaged within our education system; adults who struggle with written text, early school leavers, second chance learners, indigenous communities, learners who have a disability. You would think speaking with them that they come from an ICT background but it’s not the case. Both come from a school education background but both live new technologies in their working and personal lives. Both spent time in the Top End, and both have drawn strength from the programs and opportunities offered via the Framework since its inception in 2000, and in the case of the now discontinued project, LearnScope, 1998.
Sharing the learning
Early on, they became involved in a state-wide LearnScope project that focused on encouraging teachers to tackle online pedagogy. At the time they were in roles outside TAFE supporting teachers with PD, resources, issues and connections.
We wanted to be mentors - we were amazed that we were given the title ‘champions’. That inspired a spark
They searched and shared a range of the ‘then’ technologies: MOOs, MUDs, Blackboard, MSN Chat and Community Zero. It was good having an online colleague on the same chase.
You had some understanding, you started to build on it – the search for the holy grail was still before us - we were trying to find a good chat room and we trialled and critiqued a range examining the features and their pros and cons. I was always trying to find a better tool for our communication across the State.
At the time, the primary challenge was the lack of accessible and reliable voice communication tools. The perceived disjointed delay in using text chat frustrated teachers unused to the media and Vivian felt that you could easily lose the real meaning with a quick text message, especially when doing activities such as assessment validation.
Success factors
Both Robyn and Vivian know the challenges and the success factors in managing dispersed staff development and e-learning projects:
- Gain senior management buy-in. You need someone that is prepared to give you a bit of space and even champion your cause. Your responsibility to the boss is to communicate and tell them of successes and what is in it for them.
- Know your group, their interests, needs and abilities. Find out what it is that they want to get out of the project; find out what they do in their workplace. It always comes down to (not what sort of tools you have but) ‘if you can get a positive outcome for them, then they will get involved’. Facilitating calls for a certain type of listening and energy. Articulate for participants ‘the big picture’ of what they are trying to do, of what they are looking for.
- As well as web-based connections, include time for one-to-one support, on the phone if necessary. You have to plan and engage people in the program. Vivian emphasises:
“It might give them the impetus to get engaged in the project, to give it another go. I invest a lot of hours and I suppose it’s my personality of connecting people and encouraging people and supporting them. When someone actually engages - that for me is the real buzz that gets me going, and when I can see someone that grabs it, it’s fantastic”.
Once on-board - you get them connected and looking and finding other people.
- Include a face to face component if possible:
“I usually start with a day’s workshop; we meet first of all and we learn about the project. It doesn’t have to be face to face, but there is nothing like being face to face to begin, it helps the online communication process later” Vivian explained. “It builds rapport and gives people a more meaningful online communication.”
- Create some introverted space - you need to block off time to think and plan.. “In TAFE things are always at you and often it’s an open space office. That’s what I find for me. At home in my solar powered log cabin, that my space” Vivian says.
- Be a researcher and filter for busy teachers. You have to be on top of options and trends to know what to choose and to ensure staff get the information that they need.
- Plan the stages so you can compartmentalise the project. Usually, phase one is getting to know each other and the tools; phase two is engaging and piloting; phase three is reflecting and connecting with the team. It helps project planning but also staff to see real outcomes.
- You need to have another person or team mate that you can talk to and practice with. For Vivian, having Judy Gowing as an online partner has been fantastic working in past LearnScope projects together they have a great rapport. “You need to have an offsider for just bouncing off and reflecting and thinking at the end of the session - what went wrong? What did we learn from that?”
- You need to build a network of people who are informing your choices. This includes good relationships with your IT people so that you can ask them to do things. “It’s people that I have built up trust with. There are people like IT guys that don’t know the learning potential of the tools –they know the programs but they don’t know the potential of what you could be doing, and they are not teaching and it’s a different angle”.
- Don’t try to do too much. Think ‘little bit by little bit’. You have to know how to give clear instructions and to do things gradually. Robyn has built up an extensive list of ‘how to’ guides for project teams all freely available on the NSW Innovations wiki - http://nswinnovations.wikispaces.com
- One thing that’s great about online meeting rooms such as Adobe Connect is that everything can be recorded as you go along. Voice, visuals and text. There’s a suite of wonderful, free, easy to use tools out there now. Both Vivian and Robyn model and make full use of these tools that teachers can use in their teaching and assessment.
Technology has come a long way since the early 2000s. Robyn moved from this and subsequent LearnScope projects on to a Flexible Learning Leader scholarship and into management roles with the Framework coordinating the role out of state-wide project funding and supporting teams working on very diverse projects in a wide range of contexts. She’s often asked how she stays abreast of changes and new technologies.
“Firstly I love what new technologies, social networking and media sharing offer us. I live and breathe them; they’re a part of my life. Google me and see!” she laughs.
“You don’t have to be an IT guru; contemporary tools and spaces are so easy to master and use”.
“The world has changed and our education system must change with it; we’re connected globally, we learn from each other and we share content WE produce”.
“Students come to VET with technology in their pocket and social networks beyond the classroom walls, and they will increasingly demand to be able to make use of them.”
“I feel very strongly that our job as educators is to support learners to make effective use of those connections, and to operate safely in an online world; to embrace it head on with ALL it has to offer – good and bad”
“It’s no use hiding behind a firewall, cosseting students, blocking teachers; that’s a sure way to fail as a sector.”