Resource Sharing continues in '06

Groups of teachers from PRACE, Olympic and Glenroy have continued to work together in the new year, after their LearnScope project in 2005. The "Resource Sharing" project has focussed on:

• Literacy/numeracy for people with (mild intellectual) disability
• Low level ESL learners - gathering tubs of materials
• ESL in the computer room - gathering activities / "teaching recipes"
• Student stories - publishing into books

One extremely valuable resource for us has been the ACEBank resource sharing project, which was set up last year by the brilliant, but sadly disbanded TAFE frontiers. You can browse the collection, and share your own resources with other teachers working in adult community education.

Launch of new community area

Very exciting stuff going on in the new Community Networks area at EdNA. Good to see the Australian Flexible Learning Community having a go with moodle at last. Today's the launch day - will my computer crash just as i get into Elluminate? Ha ha.

Government Monopoly on 'dot-edu' names

For a couple of years, educational bodies could get free domain names. Now we have the flip side. Education.au has taken over the running of the .edu domain, and now they're the most expensive domains you could possibly have. You can buy a .com.au domain for under aud$60 for two years. A .org.au for under $20 if you shop around.

But the .edu domain name space has shot up from free, to aud$110. Why should schools pay more than private companies? I guess if you believe current ideology, then schools are nothing more than private companies (and should be punished for believing otherwise?)

The deciding factor perhaps is that there is only one place you can buy your previously free domain name - a government shop.

Research into Flexible Learning in ACE

Currently reading Josie, Glenda and Mary's research into Flexible Learning in ACE, put together by TAFE frontiers in 2004. It's a brilliant and thorough piece of research, and i hope it's getting the attention it deserves - especially now as we have a major review into education in Victoria. From the 'themes' page, their research "showed overwhelmingly that flexible teaching and learning is flourishing in ACE – as it has for a long time". Urban providers could learn to broaden their learner base using technology more flexibly, and rural providers could build technologies into their everyday practice more thoroughly. (Each could learn from the positives of the other, say the authors.) Overall, however, flexible learning is flourishing because ACE has a fundamental flexibility at the heart - ACE teachers make their primary focus the needs of the learners.

Funds-Hunting Time

Ah yes, it's that time of year again, and here at PRACE we're hunting around for funds to run exciting projects. Plenty of ideas and enthusiasm. Oh joy.

More on how to blog, and why in education

Anyone looking for another overview of the blog phenomenon, could head over to WendyZammit's presentation for Networking04. This one's in moodle - login as guest.

Lankshear appears at Twilight Forum

Last night, VALBEC hosted one of its regular "Twilight Forums" at Carlton Reading and Writing. A packed house listened to Colin Lankshear's overview of blogging and how it might impact on education and literacy. With Michele Knobel, he's built a taxonomy (a 'provisional typology') of blogs (down the page you'll find it - oh crikey that's too small - try this article for more detail).

The question framing his analysis is "What makes a successful blog?" According to Colin, 3 x 'P':

Purpose, Point of view and Presentation.

i'd heard this one before, in Havana <grin> However, it was interesting to hear the different questions emerging from the audience.

People were interested in

• how literacy learners might learn to critically evaluate the author's agenda, authority and authenticity ("Irrelevant!" cried Colin, adding that young people just aren't concerned with that anymore)
• whether the 'blogworld' is making search more difficult ("Just refine your search techniques," said CL.)
• copyright issues ("Copyright is bunk" - paraphrased.)
• whether blogs have brought a 'sense of warmth' to the internet

Purpose - and a sense of audience - is vital to building rapport and community with readers. Maybe literacy learners can get a better sense of 'writing for an audience' via this blog experience.

A practical idea?

One idea that came up, was to combine elements of role play and blog. Over a term, each student would be asked to emulate a particular style and community/ context of authoring (for example a teenager interested in technology, a famous sporting star, a grandmother who studies genealogy and uses her blog to keep people informed.)

The students would also be required to post comments to each other's blogs - in character of someone who would read that author.

They would each have to study models of the character's writing, and build up generic understanding of language and cultural features. If you're brave, you might ask students to keep their writing identity secret until the end of term - and have a competition to see who can guess.

Reminder - article on blog meets 'syndication'

You can still read/listen to the article/interview we did for the Knowledge Tree back in June04. Lots of detail around the culture and communities of bloggers + practical tips.

So little fuss about ANTA?

Twelve years on - was ANTA abolished because it was one of the last remaining Keating initiatives? For Inter-Staters, The Age reported on the PM's attack on this body of knowledge and expertise. No warning of this sudden decision during the election campaign. Are we headed for a "private TAFE" system?

Quote: "Academic Barry Golding admits he has sometimes been critical of the Australian National Training Authority. However, he says he is stunned by the Prime Minister's recent decision to abolish it from July 2005.

"ANTA has put in a lot of hard work over the years, and it has built up expertise and skills and authority," says Dr Golding, from the University of Ballarat's education department.

"Taking an agenda and then stating that you are getting rid of something before you put something else in its place is no way to create policy."

NetWorking 04

Coming up - the most looked-forward-to online conference in Australia - NW04. Presenting with Frankie Forsyth on 'free and open source software' on Friday the 19th November.

Were you touched by the DNA swindle?

".. Justice Finkelstein found that various domain name notices sent by Domain Names Australia (DNA) in July and September 2003 were, as alleged by auDA, misleading and deceptive."

Our accountant said to me one day, "oh, i paid that invoice for our web something".

Wait a minute, our account shouldn't be due for another three months - show me the invoice?

Turns out K. spent money (and way too much) on a fraudulent 'invoice' - which was actually an 'offer' for a new domain name - disguised as a renewal for an existing one.

i rang the company and said, "Look there's been a bona fide mistake, our accountant thought you were our existing web hosts - could we cancel please." In reply i had plenty of well-rehearsed stone-walling, about how the money had already been spent, the domain name secured etc. By the way i retorted, "Your offer seems deliberately designed to deceive".

And now the AuDA has taken them to court in a class action on our behalf - and won! The judge agreed with me - deliberate deception.