Mobile Technology in TAFE

Kathryn Greenhill (Librarian Matters blog) provides her tips on blogging and blog fodder e.g. ideas for blog posts. Kathryn is a well known blogger who provides excellent blogging tips and this is her presentation from Perth PodCamp.

Virtual Worlds: Promise and Perils presentation by Alan Levine for the WA Elearning Showcase (Oct, 2007). Refer to his wiki for his slides and great his links on virtual worlds from this presentation.

A conversation with Alan Levine on the role of New Media Consortium (NMC), the Horizon report, how technology is changing and advice for people on using new technology. We also talk about his upcoming speaking tour of Australia.

Leigh Blackall (Learn Online) has been running fantastic 10 minute online lecture series in New Zealand for Learning communities Aotearoa and I was fortunate to be invited to join some of the sessions. Unfortunately I missed James Farmer's session but I liked the recording so much that Leigh and James were nice enough to grant me permission to convert the audio into a video. Thanks again Leigh and James for giving me permission. I recommend that you make the time to check out Leigh's 10 minute lecture sessions (there are links to both the Elluminate session and audio).

Here are my tips for podcasting based on my knowledge as a podcaster and from my experience teaching others how to podcast. The presentation was originally put together for Port 80 mintalks . This is the audio from my presentation.

Here are my tips for podcasting based on my knowledge as a podcaster and from my experience teaching others how to podcast. The presentation was originally put together for Port 80 mintalks and I have added my audio to the presentation because sound quality on the night was not suitable.

Humorous look at what happens when you take a person who has only ever used a PC to podcast with and now ask her to teach others how to podcast using a Mac. Macs are not supported in our College so professional development with educators normally is done using Moviemaker and Audacity on a PC. The Mac Diary will be a serious of podcasts to document my journey of discovery of podcasting with my MacBook.

Nick Cowie, from nickcowiecom talks about the problems faced with the mobile web in terms of display size of mobile screens, the number of different mobile web browers, how rapidly the mobile web is changing, how people use the mobile web compared to the Internet on a computer, problems faced using the mobile web on a non-qwerty keyboard and the costs of accessing the mobile web. Sales of mobile phones and PDAs capable of accessing the mobile web are increasing, and will continue to do so. The challenges we face as educators will be how to appropriately tap into the mobile web.

This is our discussion on podcasting in education. Present were Michael Coghlan, Trevor Bennet (Edith Cowan University), David Day (Pilbara TAFE), Jenny Heathcote (Swan TAFE), Stuart Knox (Flexible Learning Framework) and Sue Waters (Challenger TAFE).

Sean O'Driscoll, General Manager Community Support & Microsoft MVP, talks about online communities. This interview includes how he became involved with online communities, how to deal with disruptive online community members and the value of online communities to businesses. We also discuss his Community Group Therapy blog, how blogging has helped his work and other Web 2.0 technologies.

Marcus Ragus (TAFE Tasmania) and Daniel Dacey (New England Computer Solutions explain the difference between barcode, RFID and NFC technologies. For more information on work by Marcus Ragus and Ian Whitehouse on RFID tags go to RFID scoping study. For more information on Virtual Trainer contact Daniel Dacey.

Marcus Ragus (TAFE Tasmania) and Daniel Dacey (New England Computer Solutions explain the difference between barcode, RFID and NFC technologies. For more information on work by Marcus Ragus and Ian Whitehouse on RFID tags go to RFID scoping study. For more information on Virtual Trainer contact Daniel Dacey.

This is Becky Saunders (from Teaching and Learning, WA Department of Education and Training; runs workshops on instructional intelligence), presentation on embedding professional development for Learnscope e-learning Project Planning Day. In this presentation she talks about how professional development is change management (i.e. the goal of professional development is to bring about a change in practises or processes). She explains that change takes time plus conflict and disagreement are part of the process. Becky also explains strategies for maximising the outcomes of professional development. Thanks to Becky Saunders for letting me record her presentation and Ann Odgers (WA Learnscope Manager) for letting me use it. Read more about embedding professional development on my blog

These are my tips for getting more out of del.icio.us, a great social bookmarking website which lets you view your favourite websites online, anywhere using the Internet. In this video I explain why I initially did not appreciate the value of del.icio.us. I show how to set up tags better, why bundles are important, how to use the social feature of del.icio.us and the benefits of using the Firefox sidebar add on. For more information go to my my del.icio.us page on my wiki and you might want to check out my new Mobile technology in TAFE blog.

This is an extract from Euan Semple's online presentation for E-learning Networks Community Forum funded by the Australian Flexibile Learning Framework, © Commonwealth of Australia 2007’ . Euan is a well known writer, thinker and public speaker on the subject of social computing (the use of forums, social networking tools, blogs, and wikis). In this podcast he talks about the use of social computing (online forums, social networking tools, blogs, and wikis) in organisations in terms on how the technology impacts on how we work. He describes the path he followed through his work at the BBC and the way it grew as the tools were implemented. He shares his insight into the consequences of using social computing tools in terms on the impact on their organisation, individuals and how we all work within our organisations. Thanks to Euan Semple and E-learning Networks Community Forum funded by the Australian Flexibile Learning Framework, © Commonwealth of Australia 2007’ for giving me permission to take extracts from the online presentation to create this podcast.

Richard Meagher, from Mt Lawley Senior High School, demonstrates how he uses Camtasia to create audio and video podcasts from PowerPoint Presentations. Camtasia is very similar to Movie Maker 2 (which is what I use to create my video podcasts) but is a bit more sophisticated, and slightly harder to use. The benefits of using Camtasia are you can create audio and video podcasts at the same time, and you can choose from a range of formats, most importantly you can save in m4a format that works on video ipods. If you want to know more about Camatasia check out it out at www.techsmith.com Richard has two podcast sites where he podcasts excellent audio and video podcasts on chemistry and physics using Camtasia (Chemistry - meagher's classes and physics - meagher's classes). Check out his podcasts they are really good.

Adam Frey, co-founder of wikispaces, talks to me about using wikis in education (this is the longer version of the interview). We discuss how wikispaces is giving away 100,000 free plus wilkis to K-12 teachers. He also explains the features of their wikis that make them easy to use with students. He shares tips for setting up wikis & encouraging collaboration between members. We examine the benefits of wikis in education by looking at the excellent work done by students in the flatclassroomproject.wikispaces.com. If you want to learn more about "how to" use mobile devices (such as ipods, PDAs) with students check out my wiki site, Mobile Technology in TAFE wiki

Adam Frey, co-founder of wikispaces, talks to me about using wikis in education. We discuss how wikispaces is giving away 100,000 free plus wilkis to K-12 teachers. He also explains the features of their wikis that make them easy to use with students. He shares tips for setting up wikis & encouraging collaboration between members. We examine the benefits of wikis in education by looking at the excellent work done by students in the flatclassroomproject.wikispaces.com. If you want to learn more about using mobile devices (such as ipods, PDAs) with students check out my wiki, Mobile Technology in TAFE wiki

This video will play properly on a video ipod. Leonard Low's Mobile learning blog site is turning one. So he has decided to have a "Mobile Learning" Gadget Giveaway! competition. So the Sue's decided that they needed to review all the posts on his site while theyr spent their day at a workshop in the country side. This video is the different ways that Good Sue loaded/accessed his posts through different mobile devices. She explains to Evil Sue the different software that is used to do this on mobile devices and you see what each looks like on the devices. Their favourite post was "Mobile Learning" Gadget Giveaway! competition because it forced them to learn more about being mobile so they could access all his posts while doing other tasks.

This is the Good and Evil Sue road test of the Belkin TuneTalk that converts the video iPod into a digital recorder i.e. you can use it to record voice memos, interviews or conferences. Good for recording audio for podcasting. We compared the Belkin TuneTalk to the xTreme MicroMemo and PDA.

Dr Tama Leaver, Associate Lecturer (Higher Education Development), Centre for Advancement of Teaching and Learning from the University of Western Australia talks about how lecturers use Lectopia to podcast their lecturers. He discusses the benefit of having an automated system to capture and deliver lectures in audio or video format as streams or podcasts.

Aquaculture e-learning students study their theory online (WebCT and Elluminate) and then attend practical workshops several times during the year. This is a video showing what they did at their Silver Perch workshop.

This is a video of Sean Waters interview with Sue Hickton (aka Evil Sue) and Sue Waters (aka Good Sue) about how good Sue is lost in this digital age of NetLingo, Emoticons and Leet Speak. They both try to educate her. Please note for the full version of the interview you will need to listen to the audio podcast.

Sean Waters interviews Sue Hickton (aka Evil Sue) and Sue Waters (aka Good Sue) about how good Sue is lost in this digital age of NetLingo, Emoticons and Leek Speak. They both try to educate her. If you suffer digital illiteracy issues then this is a must listen. Visit Lingo2Word and Basic Emoticons and Smilies for help!

This is a video podcast created by me and my son, Sean, to explain my absence from podcasting. It is a good example of why they say never work with kids (also they can be ungrateful!). Thanks Sean for your help (nagging for the computer).

Rowena Melling, Learnscope Project Manager for "Taking an E-step forward" from Swan TAFEWA, talks about their project in terms of the e-learning skills they gain. She explains that the participants had minimal exposure to e-learning and then highlights what was gained from the project. They did a skills audit prior to the commencement of the project and plan to do another at it's completion.

Yolanda MacPherson, E-learning Coordinator from Swan TAFEWA, talks about their learnscope project titled "Taking the mystery out of E-learning Facilitation which involved staff from a range of industry areas. She discusses the different projects undertaken by the participants such as blogs (set up by trainers to allow students to give feedback), induction CDs and videos for staff on PD available in the College.

Neil Griffiths, automotive lecturer from Swan TAFEWA, talks about their Learnscope project. The idea of this project was to create digital resources that would give prospective and current students a better understanding of the automotive industry.

Robert Svanbery and Jane Looker, IT lecturers from Great Southern TAFEWA, explain how PDAs are being used by Health Care trainers. They discuss how PDAs are an integral part of the health care industry and provide excellent information on PDAs in general. They also explain how they have created a database for the PDA using Visual CE that is used for workplace assessing.

Cheryl Galloway, from Central West TAFEWA, gives an overview of their mobile technology project. She discusses the process used to select the mobile devices they trialled. For more information go to m-learning.

This is the audio only to the presentation by Andrew Nicholson (Project Officer: Trades and Rural) from Great Southern College of TAFE at WA E-learning Showcase, 2006. He talks about how trade lecturer's are using PDAs with trainees. Discusses how lecturers went to Nerd school to increase their skills.

This is the audio from interview with Kathy Keay, Great Southern TAFE, where she talks about her College's Learnscope project on "Putting the bigger "e" in management". The idea of their project was to increase the knowledge and skills of their managers so that they had a better understanding of technology and e-learning. Thanks to Kathy Keay and Great Southern TAFE for permission to podcast their presentation.

This is a window media player video of Challenger TAFE's presentation on Web 2.0 at WA Learnscope E-learning Experience. The main focus is how the training was delivered and what the staff gained from the process. Unfotrunately some of the audio was recorded too low.

This is a video that I created using Moviemaker for a presentation on my PDA project. It shows the reasons why I started using PDAs, the types of materials I use on PDAs with students, the students thoughts on using the PDAs and how other lecturers find using PDAs with students. For more information go to using PDAs with students.

I trialled PDAs with aquaculture students in 2006. The PDAs were not used in every session, and were only used when I felt they were appropriate. The material on the PDAs relate to fish health (i.e. how to use microscopes, how to do fish dissection, anatomy of fish, how to diagnose fish diseases, common parasite diseases of fish and include videos that show what fish diseases look like using a microscope. This is an interview with my students, from two different classes, on how they found using the PDAs. Did they like them, if they liked them why and if they didn't why not. I was surprised by the response that majority would have liked more information on the PDAs. For more information go to

This is an interview with Rajiv Singh, maritime lecturer, at Challenger TAFE on how he uses PDAs to enhance his work. He talks about how he uses his PDA as a mobile reference source and the usefulness of PDAs for his maritime students. For more information go to technology and PDA software.

This is an interview with Becky Saunders, who teaches Instructional Design to TAFE lecturers, on her thoughts of using emerging technology, including PDAs, with students. She makes excellent points about how we need to consider the needs/wants of our students when using any teaching strategy with students. If you look further down the page you will see this is also a repeat because of the chipmonking issues.

This is an old episode that does not play properly in the embedded player however if you press download it will view okay I have much better examples of videos that we use on PDAs. However the unique thing about this video is iIt was originally in VHS video format and I used a video capture card (AVerMedia EZCapture) to obtain a digital image which was then edited using Microsoft MovieMaker. This information on how to create video podcasts explains how I created this movie. If you want my later videos you will see my skills have greatly improved.

This is an interview with John Pozzi, a fishing lecturer, on how he found using PDAs with his class of 14 fishing students for knot tying. He explains: How their use benefited both him and the students; Suggestions on how we could optimise the benefit of using PDAs with students; I recommend you listen to his thoughts if you are planning to use PDAs in the classroom. For more information go to using PDAs with students.

This is the first podcast I created. The part I enjoyed the most was working around grabbing people to interview (not sure if they felt the same). I found the PDA recorded the interviews well and gave the recordings a nice out there feel. I did however learn do not place PDA to close to their face as it causes distortion. I interviewed 4 TAFE students using a PDA to learn about how they thought podcasting could be used to enhance their learning. It is 5 minutes and gives some interesting insight which we should consider if we plan to podcast material for TAFE students. The sound quality is poor, not because of the PDA, but inappropriate use of noise reduction in audacity. I have learnt a lot more about podcasting since I recorded this original podcast; check out my information on podcasting in TAFE to learn more!