Workshop details

Workshops are limited to 20 delegates each and filled on a first in first served basis. Payment options are listed on the registration form. Your name will be placed on a waitlist if spaces are filled upon receipt of your application. A refund will be issued after the event if a delegate is not placed into their chosen workshop. Workshop venue and times are being finalised and delegates will be notified after registration. Please send payment with registration.

You do not have to attend the conference in order to attend workshops. All participants are welcome.

Register for the workshops and conference from 8.00 am - 4 pm Wednesday 27th Sept in the reception area of WelTec, 11-17 Church Street, Wellington.

Parking - Tournament Parking, Boulcott Street

Description: 2006 has seen the emergence of the personalized web, the interactive web, the web that places a premium on participation and community. How should the learning sector respond? The initial reaction from educational institutions has been negative, with access to many of the new applications blocked and banned by administrators. But in the longer term we will need to meet the students where they live, learning how to participate in their online world. Stephen Downes, an educational technologist who has pioneered many of the new technologies, will offer his thoughts and suggestions.

Facilitator: Stephen Downes

Audience level: General

Background: Born in Montreal, Quebec, Stephen Downes lived and worked across Canada before joining the National Research Council as a senior researcher in November, 2001. Currently based in Moncton, New Brunswick, at the Institute for Information Technology's e-Learning Research Group, Stephen has become a leading voice in the areas of learning objects and metadata as well as the emerging fields of weblogs in education and content syndication.

Stephen is perhaps best known for his daily research newsletter, OLDaily (short for Online Learning Daily), which reaches thousands of readers across Canada and around the world. His work also includes the development of educational content syndication systems such as Edu_RSS and DLORN along and the design of a digital rights management system for learning resources. Stephen is also frequently to be found the road giving seminars and lectures on the field of online learning, including the notable Buntine Oration delivered in Perth, Australia, in October, 2004.

Description: This workshop will assume nothing .... and will lead participants through the process of capturing, making and broadcasting a podcast – that should take about 10 minutes (‘cos it’s actually that easy with the right tools!!!).  Podcasting for education has become a very powerful media to deliver content to supplement lectures and course notes.  It provides a mechanism for academic staff to deliver directly to students in one of their preferred modes of learning – at a time and place they want it.  Duke University is a good model to see developments ( http://www.duke.edu/ddi/) - but so is AUT, Uni of Otago, Massey...

Facilitators: Dave Hayward, Tim Durrant and Graham Prentice - Renaissance Tertiary Staff

Audience level: Open to all. Whilst the process will be explained, you will have the opportunity to make your own podcast with staff to facilitate along the way.  Some discussion will highlight the good, the bad and the ugly and point to resources and references that will encourage your journey.

Desired outcomes: Participants will leave with the skills, knowledge and confidence to create podcasts themselves.

Background: Renaissance is the Apple Distributor in New Zealand – and the supplier of a wide range of IT products to tertiary sector institutions in NZ (www.tertiaryIT.co.nz).  Apple is the creator of the iPod and the applications to make podcasting easy.

Description: It is now widely recognised that the success of e-Learning in tertiary institutions has more to do with institutional change issues than with pedagogical ones. This workshop overviews the literature on change management for e-Learning dissemination, and also draws on interviews with e-Learning managers from across the globe. Participants will be encouraged to share their own experiences of institutional change and discuss positive action that might be taken to further the uptake of e-Learning.

Audience level: The audience would need to be in a position to accurately critique their organisation's dynamics as far as high-level decision-making and strategic direction are concerned.

Facilitators: Mark Nichol, Massey University

Desired outcomes: An understanding of those issues of change that are universal and those that are institutionally specific. Reflection on the real barriers of e-Learning within institutions. An exploration of what it means to be a change agent for e-Learning. An action plan to assist with further e-Learning dissemination within your institution.

Background: Mark was a Flexible Learning Leader in New Zealand (2005-2006) who opted to examine the dynamics of institutional change. He is a member of the DEANZ executive and a prior convener of the ITPNZ e-Learning Forum. He has extensive experience as an e-Learner and e-teacher and is currently confronted with the challenge of bringing an entire University College into e-Learning.

Description: This workshop aims to build participants' understanding of synergies between kaupapa Māori education and e-Learning approaches. The facilitators will introduce the concepts of e-Learning and kaupapa Māori and share the experience of one institution in applying kaupapa Māori approaches with e-Learning. Participants will then discuss together to consider links between kaupapa, tikanga, e-strategies and western education principles. Integral to the approach is the opportunity for participants to begin relationships with others who have a deeper understanding of kaupapa Māori or e-Learning than they themselves have.

Facilitators: Hohaia Collier and Terry Neal, Te Wānanga-o-Raukawa and ITPNZ

Audience level: General

Background: Hohaia Collier (Ngāti Porou) is the Director of Māori and Administration Studies at Te Wānanga-o-Raukawa.   With a background in training development and design in the NZ Army, he has used video conferencing in the delivery of the administration programme.  This programme is delivered to remote locations (marae) which have been set up with infrastructure to access satellite delivery.

The rationale for the use of video conferencing was to reduce the need for students to travel to the Ōtaki campus, which had been a major impediment to completion and retention.   This initiative has elevated completions of assignments on remote sites to 82 per cent.  A further benefit has been the challenge of teaching staff to be innovative and well prepared for an experience that complements rather than replaces the traditional classroom experience.   The video conferencing delivery is underpinned by adherence to kaupapa Māori.   These kaupapa give a unique aspect to the pedagogical approach of wānanga learning.

Terry Neal entered the world of e-Learning in 2000, when she joined the team introducing e-Learning at the Open Polytechnic. Her main role was to manage the development of 60 online courses and evaluate the student experience. In 2003, Terry moved to Whitireia to manage their online learning group.

As part of Whitireia’s commitment to the Treaty and meeting the needs of their Māori learners, Terry began to try to understand how the e-Learning tools could be used effectively with Māori. She seized the opportunity, along with other ITP and wānanga e-Learning enthusiasts, to apply for funding for this project, never imagining that she would end up managing it. However, in April last year Terry was seconded from Whitireia to manage this project and another eCDF project for which ITPNZ received funding. It has been one of the more amazing learning journeys of her life!

Description: Learning Management Systems support discussion forums and other interactive tools to manage learning in groups. However, interesting online discussions don’t just happen and collaboration does not automatically lead to learning. Meaningful learning through collaboration online needs to be carefully designed to reflect the active learning that is promoted by Moodle. This workshop introduces some of the basic concepts of collaborative learning design for online environments. Workshop participants will be given an opportunity to experience hands-on what it takes to make this happen.

The Open Polytechnic delivers many online courses and collaborative online work is a key element of many of our courses, especially at the higher levels. As a distance learning institution we endeavour to design online learning activities which students gain full benefit from, both in terms of their learning outcomes and assessment. Learners should be 'moved' online if this brings benefits to the learning experience, and this is the philosophy underpinning effective collaborative learning design at the Open Polytechnic. We have been facilitating online learning for over 6 years.

Facilitator: Anouk Janssens-Bevernage and Sue Dark, The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand

Audience level: General

Desired outcomes: Discuss and construct principles for meaningful interactive learning design. Explain what makes an effective learning design to foster group collaborative working. Design an inspiring group activity. Recommend facilitation approaches to promote a 'learner-centered' learning experience

Background: Anouk Janssens-Bevernage is the e-Tutor Advisor at the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. She is involved in supporting learning design for online courses and in guiding Faculty to effectively facilitate in an online learning environment. Anouk is an economist/MBA and educationist and has worked in Africa for 15 years before moving to New Zealand at the beginning of 2006. Her main interests include research on and application of good practice online learning design and facilitation.   

Sue Dark is the Professional Development Advisor for e-Learning at The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. Since obtaining her MSc in IT & Learning in the UK, Sue has worked in computer-based learning, training and e-Learning for over 15 years in a variety of roles; instructional designer, staff developer and in management. Sue manages the Professional Development team and the Instructional Design team at The Open Polytechnic. She has been involved in a number of Government-funded e-Learning capability projects within New Zealand, including the Open Source Virtual Learning Environment project, e-Learning Guidelines project, eXe project and the Networked Education Pilot project. She engages with a range of national groups and forums and is particularly interested in instructional design. 

Description: This workshop will feature demonstration and discussion of selected flexible and e-Learning initiatives from different institutions and environments. These initiatives are chosen because they are considered to be particularly innovative and / or effective. The format of the workshop is informal, participative and lively discussion is encouraged. Each presenter has 20-30 minutes to:  Identify the learning objectives and/or e-Learning context; demonstrate the initiative; highlight the innovative / unique / creative aspect; summarize the impact – including any unexpected outcomes; Identify the biggest challenge faced during development / implementation; and invite discussion of implementation / dissemination issues.

The presenters were Flexible Learning Leaders in New Zealand (FLLinNZ) during 2004-06 (an eCDF project), and the workshop will also discuss ways in which members of the wider community can participate in the current 2006-07 project.

Facilitators: Dr Stanley Frielick, Mark Northover and others, NorthTec and AUT etc.

Audience level: Existing knowledge and some experience of e-Learning design, development and implementation issues.

Background: Dr Stanley Frielick is Director of Flexible Learning at NorthTec and currently manager of the Flexible Learning Leaders in New Zealand project for 2006-07.  His research interests include ecological approaches to education, complexity science and learning theory, and emerging social software for e-Learning. He was project leader of the Certificate in e-Learning Design and Development project funded by the eCDF in 2005-06.

Mark Northover (MSc, MComp, DipTchg) is currently the Manager of Flexible Learning Services at AUT University. He is responsible for all operational aspects of flexible learning delivery, as well as the academic support and uptake of flexible learning at AUT. Mark has been involved in the development and support of e-Learning capability in the New Zealand tertiary sector since 1997, with previous teaching experience at both secondary and tertiary levels. He has published and presented papers at international conferences in New Zealand, Australia and the USA, and has recently completed a Master of Computing degree. Mark is a member of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE) and the Blackboard Ideas Exchange (BIE), and is a current holder of a Flexible Learning Leaders in New Zealand award (www.fllinnz.ac.nz).

Description: A hands-on overview of Social Software tools for creating customized collaborative learning environments in Tertiary Education. And an example of managing these tools using FLOCK - a web browser built as a hub for social software.  http://www.flock.com/
(See http://ltxserver.unitec.ac.nz/mediawiki/index.php/SocialSoftware for a brief outline of workshop content.)

Facilitator: Thom Cochrane, UNITEC

Audience level: Good computer skills required

Desired Outcomes: Investigate and become familiar with a variety of collaborative technologies (Social Software). Create a customized collaborative learning environment using Flock as the 'hub'. Create personal reflective learning journals (Blogs). Create a Flickr account (Image sharing). Create a Shadows or Delicious account (Social Bookmarking). Subscribe to RSS feeds. If time - mobile blogging via Letmeparty.com and Podcasting via podomatic.com

Background: Thom Cochrane runs a variety of e-Learning and multimedia workshops for teaching staff at Unitec. Coming from a background in teaching Audio Engineering and Multimedia development, his current interests include Social Software and the use of wireless mobile computing in Tertiary Education.

Description: Although my own institution is committed to e-Learning, I am a relative newcomer to its intricacies. I prefer to speak on what I might know better – the more generic and broadly human challenges of growing as an institution.

If you are after the latest fads on ‘change’ – find another workshop. Instead I will seek to bring together in dialogue the concerns of leadership with the much greater challenges of wisdom. We will glance at what it means to be wise, the simple human phenomenon of leading, how language shapes our lives, the heart of conversation, the art of influence, and the unavoidable reality that leading is always a speaking and walking into the void.

Time permitting (it depends how much we get into the conversation), I will open up what I’ve come to call the Arts of the Wise Leader® – Story, Brilliance, Promise and Grace. Four profound and utterly simple and human ways of leading and living wisely.

If it hasn’t been clear throughout the workshop, it will be clear at the end that we have left managerialism behind to address institutional change and leadership via the human back door.

Facilitators: Dr Mark Strom, The Bible College of New Zealand

Audience level: Open to all.

Background: As an adviser to senior government and commercial leaders, Mark has partnered senior leaders over more than 16 years in renewing leadership and culture in ways that are realistic about context and respectful of people.

As an historian of ideas, he has synthesised and brought to life ancient and modern intellectual and historical traditions, and translated rich insights from these traditions into perspectives and tools for commercial and civic leaders.

As CEO of an undergraduate and postgraduate educational institution, invited by the board to turn this complex 83 year old institution around, Mark has had a unique context in which to prove his own ideas in practice. His PhD research was an interdisciplinary exploration of the intellectual and social contexts of leadership in the ancient world and today.

Description: Dip your toes into the emerging world of mLearning! Explore some simple tools that you can use to enhance learning opportunities with our students. A practical workshop with the goal of setting a series of short pod and vodcasts to be made available for all eFest participants and flexible educators. This will show you just how easy it is to offer brief audio and video resources for your students.

Facilitators: Peter Mellow, Auckland University of Technology

Audience level: Open to all.

Background: Peter Mellow has been teaching Sport Science at AUT for the last 19 years. In this time, his interest has moved from anatomy and anthropometry, to pedagogy, and using technology to allow students to learn better.

Peter has produced CD-ROMs and DVDs for his students over the last five years, taught online and is now focusing on an mLearning project (StudyTXT), delivering content via text messages onto students cell phones in the tertiary and secondary sectors.

The last few years Peter has achieved the following awards:
2004 - Named in the first group of 15 flexible learning leaders in New Zealand
2003 - Apple New Zealand Outstanding Tertiary Educator Award
2002 - Lifetime achievement award for contribution to the health and fitness industry
2001 - Distinguished teaching award from AUT

Peter holds a Postgraduate Certificate in eEducation, Waikato and a Graduate Diploma in Teacher Education (Tertiary) AUT.

Description: Change Management invariably involves the development of a vision of what the proposers hope will-be followed by a gap-analysis of the things that need to be addressed before the change can be brought about. This has been called a deficit approach to change and one that frequently results in a range of negative behaviours from those involved. Appreciative Inquiry turns the principle of deficit change management on its head and presents a set of 5 principles on which to build a positive perspective to change. Participants will be given the introductory tools for adopting the appreciative approach to their work and personal lives.

Facilitators: Maurice Moore, UCOL

Audience level: Being aware of the need to bring about change (not necessarily associated with e-Learning) and a real desire to engage in a positive approach to that task

Background: Maurice has been involved in the e-Learning field for over 10 years. As a Flexible Learning Leader in New Zealand (2005-2006), a goal was to improve his ability to influence others. This has involved a significant personal journey which has revealed many new perspectives on change management at both a personal and institutional level.

Description: Passive learning in an instructivist environment can appear to students much easier than struggling to make sense of concepts and experiences for themselves. As a result there is often learner resistance to collaborative learning approaches and these can sometimes be very strong. This workshop is for teachers who have found that their students need help in learning how to learn in a constructivist environment.
                                      
Participants will explore the reasons why their students have difficulty in co-constructing knowledge in an online environment. They will use this to draw up a list of conditions favourable to the development of collaborative learning. We will then work together to design learning activities which provide these conditions and which participants can use with their students. The focus will be not only on the learning design but also on techniques of facilitation and assessment.

Facilitators: Jennie Swann, Auckland University of Technology

Audience level: Intermediate

Desired outcomes: By the end of this workshop it is expected that participants will have developed an online learning activity or series of activities which would help their students learn how to learn in a collaborative environment.

Background: Jennie Swann is a Flexible Learning Advisor at the Auckland University of Technology. She has extensive experience in teaching, distance education and flexible learning in a variety of cultural environments, having worked in Asia, Africa, Europe and the South Pacific before coming to New Zealand. Her current role at AUT involves advising lecturers on the pedagogic elements of the online and flexible components of their courses. In the process of this work she has become increasingly aware that learning design is not enough. The role facilitation of online learning is paramount.

Description: To develop participants’ ability to use online dramatised scenarios to support learner engagement and learner driven inquiry, problem-based learning, and transfer of learning to work performance. To develop participants’ ability to develop dramatised online scenarios.

Facilitator: Ruth Schick, Keith Tyler-Smith, Workbase and TANZ

Audience level: Tertiary teachers and others interested in developing resources and/or delivering teaching programmes to adult learners in applied areas such as: trades, education, hospitality, hairdressing, horticulture, etc. Participants should have a reasonable working familiarity with using computers, and an interest in many of the following: online teaching resources, blended delivery, problem-based and/or scenario-based learning. No specialist technical knowledge is required.

Desired outcomes: Participants understand how to use online dramatised scenarios to support learning.  Participants can access, use, and adapt existing online dramatised scenarios.   Participants have a solid basic understanding of how to develop online dramatised scenarios and can assess the feasibility of this within their own job roles.

Background: Ruth Schick has a background in education and literacy and has been conducting research and developing online resources to support workplace literacy programme provision and practitioner development at Workbase.    

Keith Tyler-Smith has recently completed a Masters Degree focusing on the cognitive load which online learning places on learners, and how this can be addressed in the design of online courses. His professional expertise and interests include adult and workplace learning, design and production of online scenarios, and e-learning.    

Description: Mobile is gaining ground rapidly. Steve Lowe of SPF Multimedia invites interested delegates to join him in a practical session working under the hood of Moodle to make key information available to students on their mobile phones. While it sounds like a workshop for experts, Steve says nothing participants will be doing is actually that hard, and they'll get to cut a few lines of simple code and play with phones like the Nokia 6680.  Steve and his business partner Robyn started working with mobiles one year ago and SPF Multimedia have been focusing their efforts on mobile integration with web applications and on 4th-screen social innovation.

Facilitator: Steve Lowe, SPF Multimedia

Audience level: It would help if participants had some previous hands-on experience as teachers or course creators in Moodle, but it is not essential.   

Desired outcomes: Participants will: Know how mobile phones may be used in future flexible learning environments. Know how Moodle can extend the capability of the phone. Know how the mobile phone can extend the capability of Moodle. Have some practical understanding  at code level of how these objectives can be met.

Background: Steve Lowe gained a Diploma in Teaching Tertiary while working at Aoraki Polytechnic's School of Information Technology. He is a central figure in Timaru's nascent developer community and recently his focus has been on mobile and especially on 4th-screen stuff. Social innovation is what pushes his buttons, and especially the way learner’s use technology. Steve is currently studying online at University of Liverpool to gain his Masters Degree in Information Science (Software Engineering).

Description: In presenting "content" or course material to student’s educators often follow a structured linear approach. For example, some tutors have a tendency to divide a sequence of learning into discrete topics and assign tasks, activities and link resources relevant to the discrete topic. However, educators are conscious that this form of delivery can create “tunnel vision” and students sometimes have difficulty integrating the concepts learnt in one topic with concepts explored and explained in later topics.  In this practical workshop the full range of glossary tools are used to present content. By using the full glossary functions it is hoped:

• Students have the ability to find and explore content using the search functionalities embedded in the glossary tool.
• Students have the ability to engage with and build upon the content by using the “comment” functionality provided.   

Facilitator: John Clayton, Wintec

Audience level: Intermediate

Background: John Clayton is the Manager for the Centre for Learning Technologies at the Waikato Institute of Technology. In 2002 he was awarded the general staff award for excellence by the Association of Polytechnics in New Zealand. He is currently the leader of The Open Source Learning Object Repository an eCDF funded project that is focused on: The creation of a robust, financially viable open source learning repository system that meets the needs of the cultural populations of Aotearoa. The creation of learning opportunities for staff, students and communities in the concepts of e-learning e-teaching and e-environments.