Welcome everyone in wave 4!!

It feels good to be getting back in to this again after a long hiatus. It will be a bumpy but fun and eye-opening experience for most of you. Heck, even I still have a steep learning curve to traverse. I will do my utmost to help anyone out who gets stuck. Now, let's see what lovely blogs you can create...

Future Modules

Hi everyone,
Please don't be alarmed by all the modules popping up in your LAMs account. I have deliberalely done this to allow those who are up to date to continue with their next modules while they have the time. I have also loaded modules for some people that they didn't choose simply so that you could change your mind if you didn't like the module you did choose! Please feel free to try out some others (if you have time that is!). By the way, do you have headsets for Skype or arranged for these to be sent to you by Alice?

Blogs, Gadgets and learning

I hope you are all finding something of interest in these modules. From time to time I read comments like "interesting but can't see much use for it" when talking about some of the content encountered in CCLlearn. That may well be the case as I for one don't use blogging in my personal life although I could if my circumstances were different. But it is worth thinking about 'why should we learn to use a tool that we had not thought of using before (or may not have understood)?'

One obvious answer is that until we try something out we don't appreciate what it can do. And even if this doesn't have any apparent use now, at some point in the future it may fit the need for a particular tool perfectly - but that match-up might not happen if we haven't learned to use the tool in the first place. And of course we may need to help library patrons with difficulties in blogging or gadgets etc.

The other thing that matters here is that even though the tool may be ditsy or puerile (note the proliferation of gadgets that have scantily clad pin-ups washing cars or serving tea - all from your desktop) the skills we acquire in trying and using these tools are building our confidence as well as giving us skills that we can transfer to other applications. So to end my sermon... everything we do in CCLlearn is useful in some sense and helping us to get comfortable with the digital world we need to be in to be relevant to our communities.

By the way, if you have been experiencing freezes or incredibly slow internet, don't worry. This is perhaps the biggest frustration for everyone in CCLlearn. It is perhaps symptomatic of NZ's third world internet infrastructure. It may even be worse now we have free internet with the concurrent increase in patronage this is attracting. The bandwidth gets bottlenecked and I'm afraid there is no 'digital vaseline' to alleviate this. So keep trying is all the advice I can give (sorry!).

Week 2 modules

Hi everyone,

I just want to remind those of you who haven't done so to make sure you 'follow' the blogs of everyone in the group and try to find out how to get automatic updates when a fellow blogger posts anything new on their own blog. Also you can set your blogs to get e-mail notification if any of your followers put comments posts you add to your own blog. It could mean lots of e-mails over the coming weeks! But try it and if it gets annoying you can always change it back.

I loaded the modules yesterday and hopefully you are getting on with these (but remember to work at your own pace).

All the best!

Welcome to CCLlearn! (and my blog ;)

Firstly I want to apologise for missing our first meeting. I really wanted to be there as it is the most important of all the meetings. I had prepared a list of things I ought to cover to make life a little easier for everyone (I tend to get a little obsessive-compulsive when it comes to preparing myself for meetings and then on the day it all flys out the window!). But on the day events (nine-year old son with hacking cough and goobly nose) conspired against me and to my great frustration I have been flat-out with service delivery training and being TRIM trained since then. I just haven't had time to get in touch with all of you.

I would like you all to check out each other's blogs regularly and 'follow' them (mine included - when you got to it you would have noticed that my creativity leans towards the dark side - I like dark backgrounds). The initial aim is to keep in touch through blogging and to avoid using e-mail. Please, please don't be afraid of making your blog open i.e. public. If you prefer to keep it only for invited people that's fine although it is not intended that you reveal personal stuff and your innermost thoughts to all the world through your blog. It is primarily a tool that you will learn to use while you record what you learned and discoveries you made during CCLlearn.

I hope that you are finding the time to work and play on your modules. It is difficult to dedicate the four to six hours per week you ought to have, especially when colleagues are carrying the can and it gets really busy and the phone keeps ringing etc, etc. But it will compromise your ability to learn if you don't block out these distractions and focus on your learning. By the way, don't mention that I called your colleagues 'distractions' unless they wear something outlandish for Cup Day! See you tomorrow.

Facilitating

It has been amazing seeing how much people have been learning despite having to overcome technical issues (like LAMS not opening all day!). The thoughts and ideas springing from it have been impressive, leading me to think 'gee I wish I'd thought of that one'. For instance someone in my group had the brilliant idea of using wordle as an aid to developing a colleague's PR & D framework by highlighting common themes that emerged during the course of discussion.

The last week has not been an easy one for me as I've struggled with a major case of hayfever and needing time off work to rest. Meanwhile I've been mindful of the need to try to stay in contact with members of my group who have had to email me with proposals for their Productivity sharing tasks. Sorry folks if I have left you in the lurch. It's not easy to have a head full of responsbilities eating away at you when trying to think 'what's the healthiest food I could eat in my condition?' makes the said head hurt!

Facilitator role

This week has certainly been another steep learning curve. I am comfortable enough with being a facilitator as I enjoy encouraging others to try things and challenge themselves. The principle challenge is the use of LAMS. Getting to grips with what to me is not a intuitive software has been as challenging for me as what some of those I mentor in my group have faced in their modules! But it has an invaluable purpose. Exploring and familiarising myself with something new so that I can get the job done and blaze a trail which I can help others to follow.

I also have a minor phobia of setting up electornic hardware in front of a group of people. I recall my school teachers in the 1970's and 80's saying, as they set up overhead projectors and video recorders in font of the class, "these things always work fine when you practice setting them up, then they don't work when you have a whole class watching you". My experience backs me up as I always find connecting laptops with data-shows is never the same with each machine. Oh well, I'll have to swallow my pride and accept I'm going to have a few more red-faced moments along the way.

As far as my group goes (and all the other groups), I admire their adventurous spirit in undertaking this programme especially when some readily admit it takes them out of their comfort zone and they fear failure. However my belief is that all will achieve significant goals, learn a great amount and be so much more confident, skilled and positive to face the digital future.