I registered for a four week program that I have wanted to do for some time – “Personal Knowledge Management” with Harold Jarche, via the Social Learning Centre.  After registering though, I had some long days at work, the kids were back at school, and I was immediately ‘behind’ and felt more and more overwhelmed each day if I thought about getting into the program.

This is an important learning experience for me – I was/am motivated and yet…. I am letting the flow of emails into my Inbox, and the feeling of being lost, block me from getting into the program.  I know that the structure of the discussion forum does not particularly suit me.  It is not threaded in terms of topic, so I find it laborious to go through all posts and comments to work out what has been discussed.

Still … I should be able to get over that!  And I will – today – cos I have injured my knee and have a day off work.  So I am going to take advantage of the change in pace (see earlier post) and get myself sorted out!

TPACK Model – shows the interrelationships between knowledge of technology, content and pedagogy

I read a post tonight on the blog – Dreaming Weaving Learning – entitled “The Fallacy of Being a Facilitator“.  The post explored the TPACK model, which looks at the elements of knowledge that a teacher needs to consider when approaching the learning process – technology, content, and pedagogy.  Reading this prompted me to think about the model from the learner’s point of view – so how does their learning incorporate knowledge and skill in not just the content area, but also in the areas of technology and pedagogy (learning to learn).

It has again been a long time since I have posted.  I have drafted many posts in my head but not put pen to paper, or fingers to keys.  Sometimes you just need to wait for the right time.

Since my last post I have graduated.  My mum, husband, and daughters all travelled with me to the graduation ceremony.  This was the first face-to-face contact I had had with the university – isn’t that amazing in itself!  The ceremony was so well organised (congratulations to University of Southern Queensland) and I felt like I drank in every second of it.  For me, it was like being a part of something big – really for the first time during these most recent studies.

When I studied at University of Queensland, I was surrounded by the buildings, many quite old, by thousands of people, and you knew you were a part of something.

Don’t get me wrong – I have felt a part of something during my online studies – just a part of something quite different.  There was a sense of scale due to the international student population in every class, but I think that the connection with the University itself was pretty loose.

It has been some time since my last post.  The learning has continued but the head space for posting has been exhausted!

My formal studies with University of Southern Queensland have finished, and I graduate in a couple of weeks!!!  While it is certainly a relief – the last semester was particularly difficult – I miss the anticipation of a new semester, wondering about what interesting people I will meet, and where the study might take me.  Studying for me was like a compulsory creative outlet, and a source of affirmation that there are like-minded people around.

The last few months have taught me that learning is not always something that is valued – certainly not formal learning, or enabled informal learning.  All the research in the world does not matter if decision makers don’t care about evidence.  Building a positive culture can quickly become a focus on sustaining survivors and victims alike in the face of unprecedented job cuts and vanishing budgets.

Well – it took an extension, and weekends of not moving off of the computer chair, and late nights/early mornings when I really should have gotten decent sleep – but it is done!  Now another assignment due this week for my other course. Oh why why why did I enrol in two courses this semester!!!

Connected Learning Infographic

Found this via the diigo group for CCK12:

http://groups.diigo.com/group/cck-12/

Jane Hart provides a great resource on online learning and social learning.  This post on “10 things to remember about social learning” highlights differences between social learning and training, and gives me a lot of food for thought about how I approach design and delivery of training in my work.  I have been working on shifting from formal training to supporting workplace learning – how do I do that in an environment where the design is being moved to another unit and I am only supposed to be about delivery….. need to think deeply about this challenge…

I was reading about infographics (should be working on an assessment paper) and came across this example where a face has been created from 7000 human figures, to represent the world’s population.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/age-of-man/face-interactive