The Learning Technology Team

I teach in General Education and am the Workplace e-Learning Contact for Ballina and Wollongbar campuses.

I’m still working on the Connect Confidence course with my buddy Cheryl Rosenberg. Thanks Cheryl! The Connect Confidence course is giving me valuable real practice and definitely building my confidence. Without it I would be fine as a participant but wouldn’t attempt to be a host.

Having my own room means that as my skills grow I can see myself using Connect in my WeLC role to share information and provide training to other staff across campuses. For me Connect is great to use with colleagues and other teachers.

It is not so appropriate for use with my current students as they are low level literacy and/or computeracy. I can see it would be great for higher level courses. I find the Connect sessions with the Learning Technologies Team extremely valuable and interesting. Go Connect!

Here’s my very cheesy Voki talking about Connect:

 

Get a Voki now!

Who am I ?

Good question it depends on what hat I am wearing. (This lady (me) should be dancing!)

1. ICCLO- Institute Correctional Centre Liaison Officer
2. LLNP Language Literacy and Numeracy Coordinator
3. Preparation for Work and Study Cordinator
4. Teacher Lit/num
5. Kempsey Campus First Aid Officer
6. WeLC Kempsey Campus (most challenging, but great fun!)

I am enjoying the connect confidence course in which I participated as part of the Learning Technology Team for North Coast Institute TAFE NSW.

At the same time I find it very frustrating as Kempsey’s bandwidth makes it difficult to fully participate in adobe connect sessions. Other staff members are finding this very frustrating as well. I have shown staff how to find the recordings of some PD’s but it is like everything else the intentions are there but we are all very time poor. The best way for Kempsey is to do a PowerPoint presentation

My connect buddy is Julie Robins I can’t believe how patient she is and really keeps me on track. She really encourages me to set time aside and do it. I can do it.

1. Who are you, what’s your role and where are you located?
Hi! my name is Neal Aitkin, I am a part time teacher of Information Technology at Kingscliff Campus on the far North Coast. I am also the IT Faculty e-Learning Contact.
2. Was this Connect Confidence course beneficial?
The Confidence course did exactly as it was named – build my confidence in using Adobe Connect. I have been a particpant a number of times but it is a lot more “challenging” being the Host. With one other person in the room (ie my buddy) it was manageable but having several people to deal with could be a real test!
3. How could you apply the skills to your teaching/support role?
I plan to incorporate the use of Connect to simulate a distance training/instruction environment where a student (presenter) will instruct the class (participants). The presenter will be in another part of the campus.
4. How useful was having a Connect buddy? Who was your buddy?
Urshula was my buddy and she was great to work with. Having a buddy really helped getting through this very “taxing” course!

Who am I?

My name is Linda Johnston and I am a Community Pharmacy, Retail and Beauty Teacher. I am one of the two Community Pharmacy Coordinators for North Coast TAFE and the Faculty eLearning contact. I am celebrating three years now at North Coast TAFE and loving it!

Was the confidence course beneficial?

Extremely !!!! It was great having Annette Griffioen as my buddy during this learning experience. What I enjoyed the most is we learnt from each other. Annette knew things I didn’t and viceversa.

I now have the confidence to demonstrate Adobe Connect, as a flow on effect, I now have another teacher using it in Community Pharmacy for delivery to workplace trainees and flexible students. I have also showcased it to our industry partner and it looks like this may lead to new opportunities for us.

It’s very exciting!!!

Who am I? I’m currently Acting Head Teacher of Business Administration based at the Taree Campus as well as the Faculty E-Learning Contact for the Business Faculty.

Was the Connect Confidence course beneficial? Absolutely. Plus having a room to ‘play’ in has been great so that I can gain confidence in being a host as well as a participant. I’ve already been playing around with having some selected students participate in connect conferences and several of the faculty teachers have been able to conduct meetings within the adobe room. One of the uses I can see for Adobe Connect is in assessment validation where small teams can come together to work on the validation of assessments for units which are being delivered throughout our geographically large Institute. I’m also looking forward to using adobe to set up contact with a group of distance tvet students in the near future.

It’s great to have an Adobe buddy – and mine has been Julie Robbins who has been a wonderful support. Julie was not my original buddy but she very kindly agreed to take on the role.

Lexie

MY SHOES

Who am I?

My name is Helen and I’m the eLearning contact person for the Community Services and Health (CS&H) faculty of the North Coast Institute, TAFE NSW. It’s a thrill to be included in some of the projects that are going on.

Even though I’m still travelling steeply up my (e)learning curve, I’ve got my head around a few pretty cool technologies. These technologies are fun. Crazy. Legal.

Was this Connect Confidence course beneficial?

I found the Connect Confidence course beneficial as a way to determine how far I’d come on my eLearning journey. And also how much more I need to learn.

So it’s a 2-way thing - feeling good about what I’ve accomplished, but it also made me feel that I need to keep reaching out for more learning. Which is a good prompt. It’s managing where to put prompt though. Luckily the guys at the Hub are so supportive and aren’t afraid either.

How useful was having a Connect buddy?

Kate Jones is my buddy and she’s the best!!!!

She’s very patient with me and if I hit the wrong button, she doesn’t mind. I think it works between us because we both approach it as learning. And learning isn’t a competetive process (well, I think it shouldn’t be anyway). For me it’s about discovery, it’s about application, it’s about reflection, and also a bit about fun.

Bye.

I am currently Head Teacher for Information Technology based at Port Macquarie Campus with responsibilities for Wauchope and Kempsey Campus. I have been in this role since 2003.

I am enjoying the connect confidence course in which I participated as part of the Learning Technology Team for North Coast Institute TAFE NSW. Having my ‘own room’ was an advantage as it allowed the opportunity for practice and playing around with no one watching! (Unless Des was lurking somewhere in the background).

I have already applied the skills I have learned through:

presenting and recording my own sessions on various topics
being able to link with staff at other locations from my desk without the constant travel
working with distant/online students in working through problems they are having

I have the ‘best’ buddy as everyone seemed to want to claim him (at the beginning Paul was the only male member of the team). Paul Venn is my ‘buddy’ for the tasks we are set and he is based at Coffs Harbour. The best part of having a buddy is:

being able to share the learning together
encourages you to set time aside to work togetner
the networking that takes place
the fun we have!

I’m looking forward to what’s next!

Annette Griffioen, WeLC (Workplace e-Learning Contact) for Grafton, Trenayr and Maclean campuses.

The Connect Confidence Course was was great.

After doing the course I feel I am now able to assist others with this program, the course demystified what happens and how to do things in Adobe Connect.

I know that if anyone from the Campus wants to set up a conference I can say to them “don’t be afraid” of giving this new technology a go. Having a Connect buddy was great. I found that what I didn’t know, my buddy did, and vice versa.

Linda Johnston was my able buddy and we had a great time.

Hi!
I’m Urshula the Kingscliff campus WeLC (Workplace e-Learning Campus) located on the beautiful far north coast of NSW. I’ve found the connect confidence course a great way to get more comfortable with connect and having a “buddy” just makes it more fun.

What I’m doing now…

I’ve started to record my classes through connect for students to review although sometimes I still forget to share my desktop and or start my voice and camera pod which is pretty durrrr but hey I’m only human.

I’ve also used it to record short instructions when staff members ask me for help via email which has been really useful.

Welcome to the LTT Blog.

Getting started on the team blog…

Hi LTT’ers.

With so much information and so many links to share, so much knowledge we need to capture (including data about your Adobe Connect Confidence course), and in an effort to reduce email, we have decided that this team blog could be the solution.

So, can I request that you all join edublogs, if you haven’t already!

Steps for joining edublogs

1. Go to edublogs
2. Click > Sign Up Here
3. Enter your TAFE email address.
4. Choose a username and password (don’t forget the PURL)
5. Click ‘Just Gimme a Username”

Let me know when you’ve joined up and I will add you as a contributor to this blog.

How did you find the Adobe Connect Confidence Course?

Download this document for steps and instructions on how to create a post about your Adobe Connect Confidence course, this will help us capture the learning the team has embarked on this year.

Once you’ve done that, please ask your buddy to leave a comment.