Sydney Institute Report May 2009

April 29, 2009 · Posted in FLN Institute Reports, SI · Comment 

Looking over the kits

image by sridgway

It’s hard to belive 6 month has passed since the Feb 2009 update, the year is flying along.

Personnel changes in the Workforce Development Unit

As most of you all know Julie Collareda has moved to SWSI to take up the position of Manager, Innovation & Technology Based Learning. Julie has been a driving force behind innovation and directions @ Sydney Institute and she will leave a hole, howver she is not far away and given the increasing willingness to share and collaboration in recent times we will no doubt be working with her closely.

Paula Willimas has also moved on to a position outside TAFE NSW in the Higher Education sector. Her energy, innovation and inspiration will be greatly missed @ SI, WI and the wider elearning networks within TAFE NSW. All the best Paula and we look froward to cross sectoral collaboration in the future.

Learning Technology Mentor Program

Our 2009 Learning Technology Mentor Programs kicked off with 13 new mentors being selected and participation in a 3 day induction program. They have commenced their mentoring this week and will continue for 10 weeks.

We modified the program based upon feedback from the 2008 program.

  • induction program was reduced from 5 to 3 days
  • technologies scaled back to 5 core SI elearning platforms

for more information see the 2009 induction program

AFLF elearning innovations projects

Sydney Institute was successful in receiving funding for 2 elearning innovations submissions.

  • Petersham College – Child studies partnership with Lady Gowrie- RPL elearning solution with Adobe Connect. Debbie Zappia and Jackie Goodyear (West St)
  • St George College – Architectural Technology – Lou Martini at Kogarah for Online CAD tutorials called ‘Revit’ access remote learning

Equella Pilot Project

Sydney Institute in conjunction with TAFE eLearning Systems (TeLS) have been involved with a trial of the repository platform Equella and Moodle.

The main objectives of the formal trial are as follows:

  • To configure and demonstrate seamless, simple interaction between LMSs in selected representative TAFE Institutes and the EQUELLA LCMS for storing, sharing, finding and using learning content.
  • To configure EQUELLA to support the workflow and business requirements for content development and publication in OTEN, the Distance Education arm of TAFE NSW.
  • To demonstrate support for business models with complex permissions and sharing requirements (e.g. with my institute, with all institutes, with specific institutes, with some external groups, with some internal groups, etc).
  • To prove that existing content can be effectively migrated into EQUELLA and determine the benefits of the LCMS/LOR for ongoing content management compared to existing systems (i.e. the proliferation of existing content in locations such as local hard drives, shared server drives, USB keys, SharePoint sites and miscellaneous databases, etc).
  • To demonstrate that EQUELLA can operate as an effective repository for curricula and related knowledge objects extending beyond standard, student- facing learning content (e.g. extend to manage curricula materials, etc).

For more information on the prject and the upcoming outcomes see the Equilla Project page

NSW DET (COAG) RPL Promotion Projects – Assessor Networks – Recognising elearning Skill Set

Most of you were involved in the consultation and collaboration surrounding the elearning skill sets earlier in the year.

This COAG funded project will develop a model and set of assessment / recognition tools to be used to enable the recognition of three elearning skills sets with a group of 12 practitioners at Sydney Institute. The tools and processes will then be available to TAFE NSW and other VET providers.

For more information see the project page

Hot Topics and Sunrise@SI webinar programs

Both the Hot Topic Conversations and the SunRise@SI weninar programs have continued with a new programs outlined for the rest of the semester. We experimented with SunRise@SI @ 7:30am but have moved it back to 8:00am.

Wireless Networking Roll out

The Sydney Region lead roll out of wireless access points continues throughout the institute. The long term goal is to have coverage in all covered areas in college campuses wirelessly enabled. We are in the process of developing a communication and PD program across the institute as demand increases.

Connected Classrooms

Arising from a SI regional initiative over the past 12 months connected classrooms and Video Conferencing facilities have been progressively installed across institute campuses. Workforce development has been developing a PD program to support the rool out.

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Sydney Institute Report February 2009

February 3, 2009 · Posted in FLN Institute Reports · 1 Comment 

Its business as usual for the team at SI with some changes

  • Sunrise at SI which will be conducted weekly every Thursday morning for half an hour commencing at 8am. This online session is open to all staff and other Institutes wishing to learn ‘How to’ skills in a range of learning technologies, for example the first session is called wikibasics. One of the new strategies we are using with Sunrise at SI is communicating by SMS to prompt potential participants should they wish to submit their mobile number about the programs each week.This will be a timely way of advertising and for reminding attendees wishing to join the session.
  • We will also be using SMS for the our very popular Hot Topic Conversations,a series of one hour professional conversation held in Adobe Connect on Wednesdays from 1pm-2pm.
  • There is now a connected classroom site at each campus in the Institute. We are waiting for the  installation to be finalised at some sites but we have already conducted a 2 day workshop on how to utilise the sites, with a representative form each campus attending. For more detail go to myLearning
  • Sydney Institute is now fully wireless enabled with 650 points. Staff and students can now enjoy the freedom of logging on without those pesky cables and can use their own devices. Workforce Development will be supporting the implementation by conducting professional development activities and exploring ways in which wireless can be used to enrich the learning experience. More information and resources developed by Steph on myLearning.
  • There will be another Learning Technology Mentoring Program conducted this semester
  • We are involved in a Moodle/Learning Resource Repository Trial with CLI. We are waiting for the interface to be completed and hoping the project will be started in late February
  • We have migrated all LMS delivery to our new Moodle site and preparing to move Janison content to Moodle
  • Updated our myLearning, blog and Moodle skins and incorporated the use of some cool new widgets
  • Finally got the TAFE mediaWiki and FLN blog up and live on the Internet!
  • The team has been working hard at mapping our activities to units in Training Packages and to eLearning skillsets

Lots to do in 2009 and we are off to a great start!

The WFD Team at SI

Steph, Paula, Julie and Paulis

Visit:  Hot Topics and  Sunrise at SI for the list of topics scheduled for this term.

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Sydney Institiute – Ambition in Action Nov 5th Report

October 31, 2008 · Posted in FLN Meeting, SI · Comment 

In many ways 2008 has been a consolidation year for TAFE NSW – Sydney Institute. Since 2006, with the advent of TOL ANT we have put in place a wide range of platforms and technologies Quality Awards 08  eLearning @ Sydney Institute:The Journey

 ”Use technology to do business“ @ Sydney Institute

Combined with the imperative from TAFE NSW 21C  we felt we needed to consolidate and focus on embedding the technologies we had put in place before moving foward into new areas. Capability Development programs myLearning  Matrix.

SIT test

image by robynejay

Arising from this came the inspiration for the Learning Technology Mentor program. The program focused on building Institute wide staff capability to use and embed new technologies in teaching and learning. 12 mentors were selected from each campus and clusters across the institute and provided with a week of capability development in the latest emergent technologies.

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