Monday, July 26, 2010

Adult Learners

September 6th-10th is National Adult Learners Week www.adultlearnersweek.co.nz including International Literacy Day on the 8th. ALW and ILD are UNESCO initiatives which mean we can expect signs of life in adult learning in countries UNESCO is active in. Today I met with withered remains of the ACE network to discuss how we would promote this week. I say withered as we have gone from 26 members to 3 as a result of the National Government's cuts last year.

As an adult learner I need to be stimulated, stretched and challenged in my learning, already this course is providing these 3 in spades, unlike a literacy and numeracy course I have recently finished where I found myself moving to the role of a 'naughty student' disruptive, noisy, and overyly contributing.

When thinking about national Adult Learners Week and perhaps the results of the Goverment's chainsaw action far fewer adults will be stretched, stimulated and challenged, oh and we rarely have the type I was for a little while (then I started to behave myself, ie grew up.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

flashmeeting versus elluminate

Interesting this morning to be part of this on-line community. I really just wanted to sit back and listen to gather in the culture and protocals of the 'old hands'. This platform [on this take] seems more stable, with flashmeeting I could readilly see who was talking but there were far fewer people involved, with this group there are many more and as you indicated Sarah even more can be involved.

I have called my blog 5 tomorrows because it will include not only how I use these new tools in my tomorrow, I will also offer up some of the wonderful tomorrows others are planning around me.

Here is a starter. here in sunny Northland (NZ) there is a community with very strong links to its sea and Scottish settler past. It is a tight and highly articulate community with many resources in the people who live there and are prepared to put energy into it.

The proposed project is to restore a clinker settler's boat, to do this Adult Community Education funding hopes to fund a boat builder to teach locals the skills required to do the job, at same time developing in them new skills, hopefully through the Men's Shed concept sharing these with younger men, senior school students and (this it where it gets even more powerful) identifying where literacy and numeracy gaps lie and filling them through 'in community' teachers. This is the kind of project that Goverment funded ACE is perfect for, and if we can excite some school leavers and older learners to enrol at the polytechnic for full-time courses as a result our 'powers that be' will be even happier.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

I give myself 8/10 for perseverence

Finally I on the wiki page but without a number, hopefully someone will take pity on me.
I am looking forward to this paper for a myriad of reasons that include creating a new future. My first heavy dose of on-line learning started with Waikato University and moodle. What suprised me then and still does today is the difference a person makes in their managment of a moodle based paper. For me that underlines how important the way we write is. I must review my posts with as much objectivity as possible before posting.
My first appreciation of blogging's impact was during the film Julia and Julie.

Monday, July 19, 2010

First Steps

The challenges of blog set-up have already set in, having just completed my Nat Cert in LLN I can readily see a new literacy is upon me.

I have already enjoyed taking part and facilitating an on-line discussion using Flashmeeting, which demostrated the probably value of this paper. Here's hoping and expecting, plus more besides I suspect.