DEANZ Award 2010 – call for applications

Applications for the 2010 DEANZ award for Excellence in Distance, Open, Flexible and E-learning are now open.

The Distance Education Association of New Zealand (DEANZ) wishes to promote and reward excellence in e-learning, distance, open and flexible learning. The DEANZ Award is open to individuals or groups in New Zealand, or New Zealand citizens living overseas, who have completed a project that meets the criteria of the Award.

Awards are given for projects that

• advance understanding of best practice in e-learning, distance, open and flexible learning in New Zealand;
• are original or innovative in concept or application;
• are relevant to and whose outcomes are useful to the e-learning, distance, open and flexible-learning community.

Up to three separate awards may be conferred biennially in conjunction with the DEANZ national conference, with the total amount of money awarded in any year not exceeding $NZ2,000. It is expected that applications for the DEANZ Award will be associated with the current conference theme, and Award recipients (who will be notified in advance) are encouraged to travel to the conference to attend the DEANZ Award ceremony that takes place as a part of the DEANZ conference, being held in Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of New Zealand Wellington, New Zealand, from 25-28 April, 2010.

More details, including a download-able application form are available on the DEANZ website.

Online Learning as a Strategic Assett

A report of interest to anyone with responsibility for policy, strategy and implementation of eLearning at at an institutional level.

The APLU-Sloan National Commission on Online Learning conducted an extensive benchmarking study over a 15-month period in 2008–2009 designed to: (1) identify key factors that contribute to successful, strategic online learning initiatives; and (2) gain a better understanding of faculty attitudes toward online learning and how those attitudes might impact institutional efforts to initiate and grow online programs. The benchmarking study included interviews with more than 230 senior administrators, faculty, and students at 45 campuses across the country and a national web-based survey of faculty that generated almost 11,000 responses from faculty at 69 campuses. The benchmarking study is the largest study of this type regarding online learning yet conducted.

The powerpoint that can be downloaded from this site is worth a browse for a summary of the key findings.

CLESOL 2010 Conference

CLESOL 2010 Conference
Context & Communication: Mediating Language Learning
Te Horopaki me te Tuku: He Rongoā i te Ako Reo

Date: Friday 1 October – Monday 4 October 2010
Location: King’s High School, Dunedin, New Zealand

The 12^th National Conference for Community Languages and ESOL, brought to you by TESOLANZ (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages New Zealand) Inc. and CLANZ (Community Languages Association New Zealand) is being held in Dunedin, New Zealand 1-4 October 2010.

Held every 2 years, the CLESOL Conference is a major event on the professional development calendar for everyone involved in ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages), Community Languages and Te Reo Maori.

The conference provides opportunities to hear the latest research and trends in language teaching and learning from early childhood to adult education.  It also attracts those involved in the wider sphere of English and international education, immigration and Ministry of Education officials, migrant and refugee workers, private trainers and non-government organisations.

Information will be posted to the CLESOL website as it becomes available:

http://www.clesol.org.nz/2010/home.html

For registrations of interest, sponsorship and other enquiries please contact the conference organisers:

Paardekooper and Associates
Phone: + 64 4 562 8259
Email: clesol@paardekooper.co.nz
Website: http://www.clesol.org.nz/2010/home.html

Northern Regional eLearning Symposium

You are invited to the Northern Regional e-Learning Symposium to find out how e-learning can provide a cost effective way to meet your organisation’s training and education priorities.

This free symposium will present best practice real-world solutions that your organisation can implement. Through a series of presentations, workshops, and case studies facilitated by internationally recognised e-learning experts, you will come away with an action plan for developing e-learning solutions.

Northern Regional e-Learning Symposium Maximising Outcomes and Minimising Cost Cost: FREE Date: Monday 19th October 2009 Time: 9:00am – 4:30pm Place: NorthTec Interactive Learning Centre, 55 Raumanga Valley Road, Whangarei. Location map. Morning, lunch and afternoon tea provided. Spaces are limited! Reserve a spot now or send to the right person in your organisaton. RSVP: Please RSVP by 10th October 2009 by responding to this email or emailing mchristian@northtec.ac.nz

Latest technologies for developing e-learning including 3D models and interactive courseware Tips and Tricks for designing effective e-learning activities Practical tools for developing your organisation’s e-learning capabilities The How-To get the most of your e-learning Development Keynote Speaker: Dr Sue Bennett will explore effective e-learning practices and present a series of emerging trends, measures and resources in e-learning. Showcase: e-Learning Partnership between NorthTec and the Northland District Health Board (NDHB). Finding the right regional partner for developing e-learning. The NDHB is entering into the realm of e-learning for its staff training.  Partnering with NorthTec as the e-learning developer, NDHB is developing their first online training course. Workshop: Practical e-Learning Design. Learn the latest techniques for designing effective e-learning.  Take away practical tips and tricks and hands-on knowledge about building e-learning solutions for your organisation. Featured Speaker: Dr John Clayton. Do you know if your organisation has the capability to develop e-learning?  What are some best practice frameworks and models for developing e-learning?  Bring back some real knowledge for your organisation to move forward with e-learning. Showcase: Enhancing Learning with 3D Models. Who knew that Northland was a centre for innovate e-learning technologies?  This showcase will demonstrate how 3D can bring a subject to life while increasing learning transfer and decreasing training/classroom time. Workshop: Build your organisation’s e-Learning capability. Thinking about developing e-learning at your organisation?  Let Dr John Clayton give you some practical tips and tricks on systematically improving organistional e-learning capability. Workshop: E-Learning How-Tos Part 1: Planning, prioritisation and management. Learn how to make the most of your learning and development budget. Workshop: E-Learning How-Tos Part 2: Instructional Design and Development. Understand what instructional design is, the roles and responsibilities of your development team, and draft a simple process for developing e-learning.

Online learning more effective than face to face

A recent report from GetEducated.com written for the U.S. Department of Education,  has concluded that Online & blended education is more effective than residential method alone.

This conclusion was reached after analyzing research studies undertaken from 1996 to 2008 that address this topic, concluding the following:

1. Online education is more effective than face-to-face learning;
   
2. Online learning combined with some face-to-face learning (blended learning) is the most effective;
   
3. Face-to-face learning alone is the least effective method among the three types studied.

Note that these findings are specific to college-level learning as the researchers found that not enough studies exist to merit a valid comparison at the K-12 level.

The full version of this report is available here:

Dept of Education: “Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning” (PDF)

Virtual Worlds, Simulations, and Games for Education

An article in this months Innovate.  Partly sponsored by Microsoft.  Quite an interesting read.  (As one who is NOT greatly into this field)  Unfortunately you need to create an account. 

Virtual Worlds, Simulations, and Games for Education: A Unifying View by Clark Aldrich.

The intro:

Many practitioners have been struck by a paradox. They sense an overlap between virtual worlds, games, and simulations, and yet they know that one is not synonymous with the other. The three often look similar; they all typically take place in three-dimensional worlds that are populated by three-dimensional avatars. Yet as I have argued elsewhere (Aldrich 2009), the differences are profound. Games are fun, engaging activities usually used purely for entertainment, but they may also allow people to gain exposure to a particular set of tools, motions, or ideas. In contrast, simulations use rigorously structured scenarios carefully designed to develop specific competencies that can be directly transferred into the real world. Finally, virtual worlds are multiplayer (and often massively multiplayer), three-dimensional, persistent social environments with easy-to-access building capabilities. They share with games and simulations the three-dimensional environment, but they do not have the focus on a particular goal, such as advancing to the next level or successfully navigating the scenario.

Aldrich, C. 2009. The complete guide to serious games and simulations. Somerset, NJ: Wiley.

Online development for school BoT members

MEDIA RELEASE – Distance Education Association of New Zealand (DEANZ)

27 May 2009

Online training for Boards of Trustees members a good move says DEANZ

Online training for school Board of Trustees members, supported by the Ministry of Education, recognises the tremendous contribution that distance education methods can make to training environments, says Distance Education Association of New Zealand (DEANZ) President Dr Bill Anderson

“Distance education is a proven way of delivering cost-effective high-quality training to large numbers of widely dispersed people. The training of the approximately 10,000 Boards of Trustees members provides considerable opportunity to leverage the cost benefits that distance education can create,” says Dr Anderson.

Dr Anderson says that while this initiative has its origin in an Auditor-General’s report that considered the cost effectiveness of Trustee training; cost alone should not drive the initiative. “Online training is as effective as any other means of training.”

“As with all forms of education and training its effectiveness is a result of the combination of good planning, good design of learning materials and resources, appropriate choice of technologies and effective online teaching.

The Ministry’s move toward online training for School Trustees must take account of all these requirements”, says Dr Anderson.

School Trustees are typically leading busy lives, often working and inevitably involved with their communities in a range of ways.

Distance education provides flexibility for such people and enables them to undertake the necessary training for their valuable role at places and times convenient to them.

It provides the benefit that they can easily make contact with a much wider, potentially national range of fellow Trustees to share ideas and develop new perspectives on their role and tasks, and still allows them to come together in groups when that is valuable.

The flexibility of online training also means targeted just-in-time training is possible.

“Many schools that Trustees are involved with will be using online resources and capabilities to enrich the learning of their students.

There are many examples of the use of distance education techniques in primary and secondary schools that illustrate just how effective distance education can be. Training for Trustees could take advantage of some of the lessons learnt through the experiences of schools” says Dr Anderson.

DEANZ sees the Ministry of Education’s initiative as a valuable example of the ways in which distance education can support education and training across all sectors of the New Zealand economy.

Latest e-primer on “Online Discourse”

The fourth in the E-Primer series, “Online discourse”, is now available from the Ako Aotearoa Website . The fourth E-Primer is available under a Creative Commons license and is both a good practice guide for and a theoretical orientation to online discourse based on peer-reviewed literature. The first three in the series are also available from Ako Aotearoa:

#1 – E-learning in context – An introduction to e-learning and the international experience; definitions of terms; a theory for e-learning; technologies; benefits
#2 – E-education and faculty – Education theory and e-learning; the changing role of faculty; workload issues; quality
#3 – Designing for e-learning – Instructional design; learning objects; constructing a hybrid course

A future E-Primer, to be released toward the middle of the year, considers the potential contributions of social networking, ePortfolios and mobile technologies to formal education.

From the introduction:In this e-primer, you will discover both the promise of formal online discourse (that is, conversation mediated through internet tools) for education, and good practice. Throughout, I encourage you to apply online discourse in ways that are conducive to teaching and learning. The focus in this e-primer is more on the discourse than the
technology although, inevitably, we will consider technology. In E-Primer 5, E-xtending Possibilities, we will look at interactive journals (blogs), collaboration through wiki tools,
working with ePortfolios, and the potential of social networking tools such as MySpace and Facebook for education. Here, in E-Primer 4, we will limit our attention to synchronous chat, desktop audio- and videoconferencing, and the online bulletin or discussion boards that are common in learning management systems (LMSs). Because LMSs are commonly used in distance education and blended learning courses (MacDonald 2006; Hopkins et al 2008), we’ll look closely at them and their features.

Vacancy: Administrator/Communications Officer

Administrator/Communications Officer

The Distance Education Association of New Zealand (DEANZ) is looking for an Administrator/Communications Officer to promote the work of DEANZ and support the activities of the organization. DEANZ is the New Zealand Association for Professionals working in Flexible, Open and Networked Education. We are committed to fostering growth, development, research and good practice in these areas.

This is a part-time position of 200 hours per year which can be worked flexibly depending on work flow.

Key responsibilities include promoting DEANZ to members and external groups, keeping the website up-to-date, providing support for the DEANZ Treasurer and ensuring the smooth running of DEANZ.

Applications close Friday 8th May at 4PM.

For further information please consult the job description.

As we start the new year it’s always a good opportunity to plan for some of the places we may want to publish and share some of the exciting things we’re doing in the field of distance education. The Canadian Institute of Distance Education Research has recently published its list of eLearning conferences for 2009 (well, through to July 2009 anyway). There are conferences in pretty much every place you can imagine, covering all aspects of work in the eLearning/Distance Education field.

If you do attend one of these please remember to share what you learned from it through a comment on this blog or by sending an email to a DEANZ exec member so we can share it with others in the DEANZ newsletter.