Ementoring for the Hume group
Some reflections from another space, another time about experiences with the coordinators and managers of community centres in the NE Victoria. The text below reflects on my learning that took place during the project.
Date: May 24, 2008
This page will display some of my reflections over the duration of the ‘step into an elearning journey’ project with the ACFE Hume group.
This page can be viewed as an exemplar for personal reflective styles.
Date: May 26, 2008
‘Taking your first step‘ discussion forum created to invite participants in to share their visions of where they want to be at the end of their elearning journey.
Workshop outline document created to provide a framework for the tasks, events, learning, reflection and mentoring that will take place for the duration of the program.
Planning for the first ‘live blog’ event to incorporate collaboration, instruction, discussion, facilitation, imagery, required reading and viewing in preparation for the suite of workshops to follow.
Date: May 29, 2008
Great excitement this evening as I welcomed our first new member to the site, Josie Rose. As each new member arrives I plan to send them a Request to become a friend and a Message of welcome.
I have also prepared a draft outline of the content for each of the activities listed in our Workshop Schedule and will send that out to participants in the ACFE Hume program for their approval, then attach it as a Word Document here in the wiki.
Date: June 04, 2008
The last week has seen great progress in getting the ementoring projects underway. There are nominated ementors for each ACFE region in Victoria and they are to be announced soon. I am proud to be one them.
The ementors will meet f2f in Melbourne on the 1st of August and we are each asked to prepare a 10 minute presentation about our progress with our teams.
The workshop scheduled dates have been approved by the Hume office and I’ll present those at tomorrow’s live blog with participants. Invitations for this event have been sent out and so far two people have responded. I expect that some will just drop in. Now we can get down to the planning aspect for this program.
Date: June 05, 2008
A group of six participants met online in a Live Blog this afternoon and we were able to collaborate on the structuring of our journey together. For some it was a ‘first time’ experience of synchronous communication and others said that they preferred a virtual classroom like Elluminate. The Live Blog intro enabled a simple first step as there was no download requirement or the need for special equipment. Participants could choose to contribute in text or watch. For me I found that it provided a gentle start to our building of trust as a group and I was able to gauge to some degree how to plan for their elearning experiences.
One important action for me came out of the Live Blog, I need to provide a Glossary of elearning terms in this wiki.
Date: June 11, 2008
This week I plan to make further communication with the group and to send out a simple survey for them to complete. The survey will ask them about their elearning capabilities and their workshop attendance, along with some questions about their innovative practices at their organisations. The purpose of the survey will be to determine how best to structure the ‘step into’ program for them and to enable their collaboration on the components they wish to explore.
Date: June 14, 2008
Today I have made some preparations for the first workshop to suit both the f2f and online participants. This is intended to demonstrate how a ‘blended’ approach might be applied. So far there have been 3 responses to the survey and 8 participants have agreed to join the program. 4 of the group have now joined this wiki and 2 have created their own pages.
I think it would be sensible to follow the tours and tasks available in the newly renovated ‘Designing and Implementing Elearning’ website at:
http://designing.flexiblelearning.net.au/index.htm .
Date: June 26, 2008
It has been one month since I began this ‘blog’ page and so many things have happened – as you can see from the above comments – we’re off to a fine start. Today I made contact by phone with as many of the group as I could and was able to provide some personal assistance, advice and tutorials. The telephone is still a good strategy. 
Follow up emails will advise the group about our planned online meeting in Skype on July 7th and to choose a suitable time to suit everyone. This is scheduled during Term Two break when time is a little freer for us.
We now have 11 participants ready to go, 4 members have created their own ‘blog’ page, and 6 participants have completed the online survey.
Date: July 1, 2008
Rescheduled my trip to Mt Beauty today to see Yvonne, as the wet weather and windy conditions put me off that drive. Planning to stay indoors today instead and catch up with my e-learning. If anyone is reading this today I’ll be online in Skype. My identity there is coach.carole
If you are just setting up Skype please add me as a contact and let me know your Skype identity.
Date: July 14, 2008
We have successfully scheduled two Skype chats – one in text on July 5 and one with voice on July 14. Once again I was reminded to check if all pieces of technology are working for everyone – e.g. check that audio is not muted on PC or on headset!
I member has dropped out due to workload and time issues and I have not heard from one or two others recently – must give them a call this week.
Several personal ‘blog’ pages have now been created in our wiki and the group is feeling more comfortable in the navigation and purpose of our wiki. Planning for workshop 2 at Benalla is now complete and we look forward to meeting the group members for this f2f meeting.
Date: July 17, 2008
Yesterday’s workshop no. 2 was a real buzz for me as I watched the group enthusiastically using their new tools in this wiki with confidence and ease. I was apprehensive about which of our ‘virtual classroom’ tools was going to work. Repeated attempts with Elluminate Live failed; as did our access to DiscoverE – unfortunately this meant that we were unable to link up with our guest presenter Dot Waterhouse as planned. We then opted to try the Wimba Live Classroom and we had more success with that one. We stumbled through the various ‘blockers’ in the network we were controlled by and eventually gained access to ACE Room 1. No audio unfortunately – needed an IT technician to sort that one out – another learning curve. We were able to practice using all other functions and tools and it was a useful experience for our group – virtual classroom were seen with great enthusiasm as methods of enhancing learning for their students in remote locations.
We have planned to step the group through the process of creating their own Elluminate Live V room during our next Skype chat on July 21.
Date: July 27, 2008
Our Skype activity on July 21 brought together a number of the group members successfully to meet virtually with the ‘core group’. Once everyone was online in a Skype conference, I walked them through the steps of creating their free Elluminate V room then how to access and enter a shared Elluminate room. For many this was there first look at Elluminate and they were impressed. They decided that the Monday morning meetings should take place in there. (Some of the group wish to explore the use of Live Classrooms as part of their elearning plan – especially knowing that opportunity is offered by ACFE free of charge.)
Note: it was important to step into the virtual classroom slowly and to make sure that everyone could see its potential as a component in their ‘blended’ learning model.
The next focus for the group will be on ‘blended learning models’.
Date: August 15, 2008
Today we met at the beautiful facility at Mooroopna and Leeane was our hostess. We met Michael and Jill in the flesh for the first time and our group drew them into the community as friends on the same journey. Some initial round table discussions really enabled the group to air their concerns and to enthusiastically talk about their plans. A brainstorming session enabled us all to identify the critical benefits in using a collection of e-learning tools and strategies – these we put on the whiteboard. See below for the digital image of this.
We followed up by updating our pages in the wiki and then learning about some really cool social bookmarking tools: we all now have a Delicious account and we’ve shared these with everyone in our own pages. Click on anyone in the Hume Gallery to find their page and their shared bookmarks.
