Glogster

Knowing what I don’t know!

I think this is going to be a real possibility now. I’ve listed my lesson’s or topics and realise that the 2 Safe@Work assessment tasks, the Virtual Hotel assessment task and the OH&S signs and symbols would be perfect using Glogster so now it’s just working out how to transform all the talking a teacher does in class into an interesting format that the student feels involved in.

I don’t really like the idea of having a microphone or video of the teacher delivering the class as there would be things captured that may not be relevant such as classroom management/ discipline. I’ve also had experience of having classes taped before and both the teacher and the students don’t relax or feel as comfortable which is not really fair for those students who do attend the face-to-face lessons.

As a teacher I use answers or brainstorming activities to provide an understanding of the level of knowledge the students that the students being with them so I can gauge the level of the class and make a decision about where to start the teaching from. I’m not really sure how I’ll be able to achieve the same thing using technology apart from a forum and I think that might become a bit boring for the start of every new topic.

I think I’d like to create a character to guide the students through their lessons, offering advice, giving instructions etc. I’m guessing that would involve

I’ll include the list of topics as I would like to use this blog in the future as I turn the remainder 15 VCAL units into a blended delivery format. I’ve based it on 30 topics as we generally deliver 30-35 sessions per unit and normally face-to-face delivery would include a couple of catch up sessions.

Work Related Skills (Foundation) Unit 1 – WRS011

Overview of Topics Covered

	Introduction to unit, icebreaker, teamwork activity, employability skills Rate your employability skills
	Industries – what are they, explore the various types and the careers within them
	Industry visit and review
	Career Navigator (on-line career quiz)
	Position Vacant ads – what are they asking for, what type of jobs are currently available, where to source job ads
	Complete Career Investigation Booklet and Report
	Presentation of Career investigation
	Intro to OH&S, What is OH&S, what is a hazard, what is a risk
	Risk & Hazard identification, what is the role of the employer & employee
	Risk & Hazard identification , OH&S signs, signals and meanings
	Create safety sign brochure (poster)
	Complete Safe@Work General Module (on-line quiz) and print certificate
	Complete Safe@Work Industry Module (on-line quiz) and print certificate
	Purpose of a Resume, good and bad examples of resumes
	Create a Resume
	Purpose of an Application Letter
	Create an application letter in response to a position vacant ad
	Industry visit and review
	Book appointment with teacher for them to visit you in your VCAL industry
	Complete Virtual Hotel (on-line quiz) and print certificate
	Intro to Work Placement, what is structured work placement, expectations and roles of employee and employer, case scenarios
	Planning potential employers
	Preparing and practising the phone script
	Making the call
	Organising and attending work placement interview
	Work placement report: where, when, anticipated roles, anticipated issues, how was the interview, review own performance and first impression
	Board Game – what makes a good board game, sample and review other board games
	Create OH&S Board Game
	Rate your employability skills and compare with start of the unit
	Industry Visit and review Unit Review

Overdue Homework!

So I haven’t followed direction and blogged about my e-scholarship as yet…time to start.

Thoughts about e-scholarship – I initially applied for the scholarship thinking it would be an interesting and exciting way to fill my load (as I find myself very busy but not fully allotted as yet this year). That didn’t quite work out as planned but I am reasonably interested in technology and have found that I have some students who are really capable (in terms of intelligence) of obtaining a VCAL certificate but for travel or health reasons may not be able to attend campus – either at all or the 4-5 days per week that a full time student is required to attend.

I decided WRS011 was the best unit to blend or adapt to an on-line unit as it is foundation level and has specific and easily achievable outcomes. I have only delivered this unit once and am not delivering it in 2010 but as the VCAL PAL, I believe, it is an easy place to start in an attempt to eventually have all 18 core VCAL units available in a blended program.

I initially thought that I was going to create an on-line package, but after attending training sessions and meeting with my mentor, I have altered my changed my plan to creating a blended course – hopefully with the options for each class of either attending face-to-face class or doing it on-line.

I’m looking forward to learning about various programs but can’t quite imagine how my course will look or how it will be interesting enough to engage 16-22 year olds.

Learning to embed….

Assessment Matrix

So I thought I should get this started and became inspired after a staffroom chat on Friday…..

VCAL is designed to be project based; hands-on learning and we teach 4 subjects in our area: Literacy, Numeracy, Personal development Skills, and Work Related Skills. A lot of the assessment tasks the student’s complete could be used to cover Learning Outcomes more than one subject. We currently have no effective communication method or easy method of working together on this and I think there could be a blog (perhaps with RSS feed) or some other technology that could assist us.

A few of the issues/ or factors to consider:

• Casual Staff are on campus of a Monday and Friday only and teach for the majority of the time.
• Some staff are not technologically savvy, although all use Outlook and Staffnet.
• Staff are all very busy and don’t want anything that increases their workload.
• It would be great to have links/ quick access to the Learning Outcomes and an Assessment Matrix.

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