Professional Learning coming up in WA

Introduction to CGEA Part 1 workshop delayed

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the 11th March workshop, Introduction to CGEA Part 1 ,  is delayed.  The Semester 1 workshop will now be Wednesday 6th May 2015.  Semester 2 is still on Wednesday 12th August. More details and registration through the DTWD website.

Tracks to Two-Way Learning Induction

On Thursday 9 April and Friday 10 April 2015 at Statewide Services Resource and information Centre, 33 Giles Avenue, Padbury. This course is “An introduction to leading professional learning in Aboriginal English and Two-Way bidialectal education.” It is “relevant for educators working in all phases of schooling and training, including VET language and literacy teachers; and of benefit to people working in other systems and sectors who deal with Aboriginal clients.” The flyer has more details and the registration form

Teach Me Grammar 2015

A new program for Teach Me Grammar will start in July. If you are interested in Teach Me Grammar visit Teach Me Grammar Program 2015 to get more information and the application form.

 

Professional learning coming up in WA

Introduction to Certificates in General Education for Adults (CGEA)

This induction program for new CGEA teachers is scheduled on Wednesdays in 2015 (11 March and 12 August).

Teach Me Grammar 2015

A new program for Teach Me Grammar will start in July. If you are interested in Teach Me Grammar, checkout the GoogleGroup or visit Teach Me Grammar Program 2015 to get more information and the application form of the previous program.

Collaborative numeracy: working together to build numeracy skills in adults

Collaborative numeracy: working together to build numeracy skills in adults is a program of  professional development for teaching numeracy to adults and young people in vocational training  and other adult learning contexts.

Program starts 26th February 2015. Any late applications as soon as possible please. Contact Cheryl.Wiltshire@dtwd.wa.gov.au 

Digital literacy for “offline” students – Part 1

Worried about how to incorporate digital literacy in your literacy course if your students have no, or limited, Internet access? There are downloadable tools that you can use to help you with this. Most need to be installed on the computers your students use although some may be run from a USB memory stick or a CD/DVD. This article focuses on PowerPoint as a tool for creating digital texts.

The maths resource “Language of shape” on this blog page, was developed in PowerPoint. It is a digital text containing internal hyperlinks and audio so that it has a degree of interactivity. The links below connect to short “how to” tutorials on creating different interactive texts using PowerPoint:

Some ideas for student tasks that create digital texts using PowerPoint advanced features.

Wordle ideas for Ppt projects

There are a number of other tools that may be used to create digital texts without being connected to the Internet, however PowerPoint is probably the most easily available in most teaching contexts.

Jo Hart

PD coming up from December 2014

Teach Me Grammar 2015

Teach Me Grammar is available again for next year if you are interested in Teach Me Grammar checkout the GoogleGroup or visit Teach Me Grammar Program 2015 to get more information and the application form.

Collaborative numeracy: working together to build numeracy skills in adults

Collaborative numeracy: working together to build numeracy skills in adults is a program of  professional development for teaching numeracy to adults and young people in vocational training  and other adult learning contexts. For more information on this and application forms see the article that follows this one.

Applications need to be in by 5pm Monday 19th January 2015

Supporting effective delivery of foundation skills to Indigenous, remote and disadvantaged learners

We are looking for input from foundation skills (LLN and Employability Skills) practitioners into the “Technology Innovations Applied Research Project” that CY O’Connor Institute is currently undertaking (funded through the National Vocational E-Learning Strategy (NVELS)).

The project focus is on building the e-capability of the VET workforce to identify and address the foundation skills needs of disadvantaged learners.

Natures window distance

One of the main outputs from the project will be a “toolkit” for foundation skills teachers working with the identified learner groups that will provide them with:

  • A framework of e-pedagogy outlining the key principles for teaching foundation skills to disadvantaged learners in VET
  • Advice on the use of selected media and technological applications for foundation skills training for disadvantaged learners
  • Good practice examples of the use of e-learning technologies for the development of foundation skills for the identified equity groups
  • Case studies of ‘e-mbedding’ foundation skills in vocational training for the identified equity groups
  • E-teaching strategies that will enable foundation skills teachers to ‘deliberately’ introduce and teach the literacies, numeracies and foundation skills that are taken for granted within the vocational course.

We are seeking examples and ideas from foundation skills (LLN/Employability Skills) practitioners to help us create a useful resource for others. So please, please share if you use/have used any e-tools and strategies with your students.

We are looking particularly for:

  • case studies of how you/your students have used technology to support LLN/Employability Skills development, in a vocational or general education context;
  • information about any media/technology/apps you have trialled/used and how successful these were (especially if you had any bandwidth – speed – issues)
  • any strategies you have used to introduce vocationally specific foundation skills to students

Please add a comment here on the post or visit the Google group and comment on the post there so that we can contact you for more information. It is so important that we have input from as many people as possible so that we can create a terrific toolkit!

Sharon Ross, Lina Zampichelli, Jo Hart (CY O’Connor Institute)

Conferences update – Feb 2014

Australia

The National Adult Language, Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Conference 2014 will be held in Melbourne on May 1st and 2nd 2014.

The 2014 conference of the International Applied Linguistics Association is being hosted by the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia and takes place from the 10th to 15th of August in Brisbane.

This year’s ACAL Conference “Literacy: a learning spiral for life” is on October 2nd to 4th at Surfers Paradise in Queensland. Keep up to date with call for papers and all other information by registering an expression of interest on the ACAL website.

Australian Council of TESOL Associations – International Conference 2014 with the theme “Meeting the Challenge” takes place from September 30 – October 3 2014 in Melbourne. For information available to date check out the website.

The next Western Australian Adult Literacy Council state conference is planned for April 2015.  That’s a different time of the year than usual and there won’t be one in 2014.

A little further afield

In New Zealand this year – the 14th National Conference for Community Languages and ESOL has the theme “Essentials for Learning and Teaching:Ko te Pū, ko te Ako”

PD coming up/continuing next year

PD within the WA ALaN network

Project still in progress.

“What’s in a number!” has changed focus from webinars to blog posting and is getting some increased participation through comments. Pressure of work for everyone at this time of year has been a problem raised by several people in respect of finding time to take part. The current post is on “Time”  so if you can make the TIME please read the post and add your comments. There will be one more post before Christmas – intended to be about “Date”.

If you are interested in Teach Me Grammar checkout the GoogleGroup and even if it is past the deadline for applications register your interest because there may be the potential for additional “runs” if there is sufficient interest.

Expressions of interest

Expressions of interest are still being sought from those interested in attending any of the following:

  • Face-to-face numeracy workshops with Beth Marr

Please send a separate email to literacy@dtwd.wa.gov.au

Also watch out for more information on the GoogleGroup

Update on available PD

PD within the WA ALaN network

Project still in progress.

“What’s in a number!” is changing focus from webinars to blog posting. Input requested due to low webinar numbers has indicated that time pressure is too great at the moment for people to commit to webinar participation hence the change to blog posts and comments in order to keep the conversation going. The first topic is “Number”

“Adult Literacy and Numeracy Professional Development Workshops” at  Kimberley Training Institute are continuing through September, October and November with sessions focussing on the TAELLN401A, and on grammar (strategies for teaching, and enhancing business writing skills).

For more information, or to become a participant in any of these, visit the network GoogleGroup (if you aren’t a member see this page on how to join) and check out the posts.

Course in Applied Vocational Study Skills (CAVSS) Training – the next two day workshop has now been scheduled for  November 21st/22nd. Applications close on 14th November. Please visit the network GoogleGroup (if you aren’t a member see this page on how to join) for more detail and the application forms.

Expressions of interest

Expressions of interest are still being sought from those interested in attending any of the following:

  • Face-to-face numeracy workshops with Beth Marr
  • Teach Me Grammar in 2014

Please send a separate email for each one of the above that you are interested in attending to literacy@dtwd.wa.gov.au

Also watch out for more information on the GoogleGroup

Drowning in information?

Introduction

How do you manage all those links to websites that you come across every day? Even if you don’t currently use very much digital or web-based content in your teaching you probably visit websites for printable teaching resources. There are many printable resources available from websites as well as the truly digital content. I know I was accessing (and printing) masses of such material some years ago, well before my face-to-face students had any computer access in class.

Information curation

Keeping the links that you need and want while discarding those items that are not useful for you is a big problem that is continuing to increase. Information curation has become a major issue for many people. This is compounded by the fact that most of us now access work related links and content on more than one digital device. In my own case I need to be able to regularly access links from at least three different desktop computers, my laptop and my iPad. This excludes classrooms and any one-off situations such as workshops or conferences. Browser “Favourites” are no longer sufficient to keep all those links especially when they are still often lost during updates.

As a general bookmarking tool I mostly use Diigo an online application that enables me to save and tag links and also to share with others. However this is not ideal for sharing links with students as it isn’t very structured (at least mine isn’t) and in my opinion links are easier for students to work with if they are organised in some way.

Using SymbalooEdu with students

My preferred tool for managing links that I use with students is SymbalooEdu. This is easy to sign up to and easy to use. The pages (“Webmixes”) can also easily be made public and shared.

 

Symbaloo

Symbaloo is very visual using coloured “tiles” to which you can add icons and titles. In Symbaloo I create what are known as “Webmixes” groups of links that relate to particular topics. I can then share the “Webmixes” with students to use in activities.

Advantages of using Symbaloo:

  • enables me to give students a degree of ownership and choice in the links they access for activities;
  • allows me some control so that I can ensure that students visit websites which provide appropriate examples related to the activity concerned and are likely to be comparativley “safe”;
  • limits the websites students access for an activity (reduces the number I need to visit when evaluating work);
  • provides scaffolding opportunities from which students can progress to become more independent
  • I can use tile colour, page position and icon to provide clear navigation for students so that they can easily find the links they need;
  • colour and page position can also be used for level differentiation so that I can use the same Webmix for an activity that spans several levels – this makes it easy if a student needs to access higher or lower level links to meet individual needs;
  • I can give students access to the links they need for an activity without “cluttering” up their written instructions with a series of links in the text;
  • if a link becomes inactive it is easy to remove or replace without having to modify and re-upload the activity itself;
  • the visual nature of the tiles works well with literacy students.

This embedded Symbaloo page with groups related to career exploration and resume development is one I use online – the activity I use this with is similar at Certs I, II and III and, depending on standard of completion,  it may provide evidence for aspects of units on Learning Plan and Portfolio, Creating and Engaging with texts (Personal and/or Learning).

Conclusion

SymbalooEdu works well as a tool for managing links that are shared with students, it is easy to update links and manages student access reducing risk to students and potential for lecturer overload.

Jo Hart

 

Professional development news

Lots of PD news this time!

PD within the WA ALaN network

Firstly, within the ALaN network, some of this year’s projects are getting under way with webinars and workshops.

“What’s in a number!” has made a great start with the first webinar already complete. Webinars will be approximately fortnightly until mid 2014. This project is designed to help everyone teaching maths/numeracy to improve their maths skills and gather evidence for the numeracy core unit of the Grad. Cert. (soon to become Grad. Dip.)  of Adult Language Literacy and Numeracy Practice.

“Adult Literacy and Numeracy Professional Development Workshops” at  Kimberley Training Institute have been scheduled and start with “Teaching Numeracy” sessions in late July and August.

The “Digital Literacy in the CGEA” webinar series is underway looking at implications of, and strategies for encompassing, digital literacy/digital texts in CGEA delivery.

For more information, or to become a participant in any of these, visit the network GoogleGroup (if you aren’t a member see this page on how to join) and check out the posts.

New DTWD events management system

DTWD has a new PD calendar system and you will need to create a user registration before you can register to attend DTWD LLN sessions including.

CGEA part 1 on August 22nd

This workshop for new CGEA teachers is designed to help them orient themselves, and their teaching approaches, to teach literacy and numeracy skills to adults. The workshop will focus on finding ways to establish a teaching/learning environment that most closely reflects the way that literacy and numeracy skills are acquired in the real world, by all of us.

CGEA part 2 on 10th and 11th September

This workshop for CGEA teachers is designed to explore the aspects of teaching adult literacy classes that challenge teachers as they attempt to meet the needs of all their students. The workshop will focus on finding ways to establish a teaching/learning environment that most closely reflects the way we all acquire literacy and numeracy skills in the real world.

Department of Education PD

The “Tracks to Two-Way Learning Induction workshop – replacing the ABC of Two Way Learning and  Literacy workshop is on the 15th and 16th of August. Registration details available soon.

Expressions of interest

Expressions of interest are being sought from those interested in attending any of the following:

  • Face-to-face numeracy workshops with Beth Marr – coming up soon
  • CAVSS training later this year
  • Teach Me Grammar in 2014

Please send a separate email for each one of the above that you are interested in attending to literacy@dtwd.wa.gov.au