The other week I received an email to a presentation for school teachers on e-learning, which I agreed without hesitation, at no cost, because:
- Funnily enough it is the high school my oldest son attends (emotional attachment)
- I am responsible for auspicing their aquaculture program at the school i.e the teacher delivers VET qualifications at the school and I keep an eye on how it is delivered and assessed (work attachment)
- Assumed that the presentation was on topic that I have presented on a million times (no preparation required)
Admittedly I keep making the same mistake, saying YES, before realising the true extent of what is involved. Well, guess what they are not interested in my standard presentations, they are interested in the elearning leadership project I am currently doing. The school is trying to get elearning happening more, and they want me to give advice to the teachers responsible for inspiring (leading) other teachers to uptake elearning.
At this point the word BUGGER, springs to mind for two reasons:
- My training wheels are definitely displayed prominently when it comes to leadership and faciliating professional development. Yes – I know a bit about the use of technology and mobile devices with students, teaching aquaculture to students, and faciliating online courses but I am NEW to faciliating professional development.
- Last time I checked I was a TAFE lecturer (i.e. vocational education and training). My continued work with students is invaluable when delivering professional development to other TAFE lecturers because it gives me credibility (relate to their situation and students). But from my work with school teachers in our aquaculture program this credibility is not transferable to school teachers. I know LIKE relates better to LIKE.
So I decided the best solution was to ask for tips from people involved with inspiring school teachers to uptake elearning at their schools.
Here is where I am at so far:
- Brian C. Smith (Mobile Minded) nicely agreed to do Skype interview, at 11.30 pm, his time on how they get teachers involved. I am currently in the process of creating a video from this interview – watch this space!
- Sent email to Darren Draper (Drapes Take) and he created a fanastic video for me. Honestly it was SO FUNNY I had tears running down my face. Darren, forget the blogging, you should be a podcaster. TAKE the time to WATCH THIS VIDEO and encourage others to watch as well! This video desires a SNOW DAY!
Can You Help Me?
Now I don’t want to cause an International incident and I know that other Aussies will realise that I only have interviews by Americans. WHY? Well, I know that Graham is probably really tired from Melbourne (so worried about asking), Jason is snowed under, have not had time to contact anyone else because they only gave me the final details on Friday and the presentation is this Monday afternoon.
But my work on elearning leadership is ongoing!
I would love to hear from ANYONE (e.g. school teachers, instructional technology specialist, TAFE lecturers, librarians etc) who is INVOLVED with inspiring others to uptake elearning!
If you want to do an interview, or create a video – fantastic – but I understand time issues – and comments below would be EXCELLENT! Before Monday = even better!
You can check out my personal progress on elearning leadership HERE – remember this is a work in PROGRESS (and I will be adding everyones tips and advice to my leadership site).
Here is my questions:
- What are your TIPS?
- How do you get OTHERS TO BUY IN? To go the extra steps and actually use what they have learnt outside of professional development workshops.
- What professional development workshops do you find works the best when your participants have limited technology skills?
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