E-learning in the Trades
Last year, completed an investigation into the use of e-learning in the trades. Although there was less evidence of its use in the trades than other industries, we discovered some excellent cases of usage. It seems that digital video is very popular in demonstrating trade tools and techniques. Teachers said that the data projector was the most useful tool to their teaching in the classroom, and at one TAFE college, they had installed interactive whiteboards. We have created an e-learning trades web site that provides all the case studies and lists the most popular e-learning tools.
comments

Podbank
The binary blue Podbank is now up and running. This has been designed specifically for secondary school teachers who teach VET in VCE. The Podbank acts as a repository for uploading and managing podcasts, and assigns the appropriate metadata as you go. It's very easy to use.

For the purposes of the school podcasts, I made a single hour or so presentation or interview, and then broke this down into 3 to 5 minute episodes. The Podbank allows you assign the date of release for each episode, so you can schedule them in advance (rather than having to upload each time). This is a neat feature. There is also a comprehensive tutorial on the site on how to make podcasts.
comments

2006 blogging thoughts
Welcome to 2006! Time to reflect on the year past, and to endeavour to post with more blog consistency. For the record, used WordPress (open source) in a writing for the web course which worked a treat. Able to load the exercises and each student complete and then edit their contributions on the basis of the comments I made in the "comments' facility of the blog. I was able to feedback on the run; the students had personalised training. This was conducted in a computer lab, but next time, it will only require one f2f session; the rest via the blog.

On writing, visit to wwwtools for teachers where they list some articles from various experts on the speciality of web writing.
comments

SCOOP released
Permission has been finally granted for SCOOP - the media journalism training resource - to be published. This is a CD-ROM based resource - full of drama, storytelling, gameplay and excellent graphics. You can view a short sequence (it is a Shockwave file because it was authored in Director). You can also on this page register your interest in purchasing a copy.


comments