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How are other people using video in education?

Scott Campbell, newly appointed Duty Investigator for the NSW Department of Education and Training and graduate of the pilot Aboriginal Mentoring Program for the NSW Government summarised the key benefits of participating in the program in the Wordle image below:-  learning, building, growth and the importance of self discovery, culture and reconciliation.

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In early December 2008 the Pilot group gathered together to reflect and evaluate the Pilot program to date. Whilst members of the pilot group – mentors and mentees, still have many months to go to complete their mentoring program the Pilot period was drawing to a close and everyone felt it was important to reflect on what had been learnt.

The evaluation considered a range of aspects of the online environment and the broader mentoring program, focusing on:

1. content;
2. access;
3. visual appeal;
4. support available;
5. use-ability; and
6. the Interactive Ochre Toolbox.

Some of the benefits reported by the mentees are:

• “self-discovery” ;
• increased “self esteem“;
• “finding common ground with others“;
• “developed good relationships”;
• “a direction for my career”
  

Other mentee benefits include:

• promotions;
• higher grade positions in other agencies within the NSW public sector;
• increased computer literacy;
• enhanced professional (and personal) networks;
• a nationally recognised qualification;

Benefits reported and comments offered by mentors in the program are:

• “valued my life and professional experience“
• “non-indigenous learnt to understand part of our culture”.
  
• “important to meet other indigenous people”
  
• self discovery
• further study – one mentor started a coaching program
  
• “I’ve started a a couple of new projects prompted by the course”;
  
• “better understanding of where others are at”
• “learn more by helping”
  
• “don’t realise how much you’ve got until you start talking”
  

In addition participants are more familiar and adept at using online technologies and have enhanced their transferable skillsets.

What did we as a project team learn?

• To tap into the learning of others through both research and inviting key speakers to team meetings;
• More about Indigenous cultural preferences for learning, eg audio and visual;
• The way different technologies can be embedded in Moodle to enhance learning;
• The importance of the initial face-to-face workshop to develop relationships for Indigenous learners;
• The need for clear communication between all partners of the project team,
• the importance of offering choice in a learning program targetted to indigenous learners,
• The importance of the mentor/mentee matching to the success of a mentoring program, and where that program is an elearning mentoring program then some assessment of the digital lietracy of the mentoring “pair” should be considered as one criteron for matching.

Where to from here?

We will continue to enhance the program, learning from and improving the quality of the online expeience based on the feedback received from the pilot participants. The Institute of Public Administration of Australia (NSW), our parter for this this project, are offering the Aboriginal Mentoring Program for the NSW Government twice in 2009 – the first in March 2009 and then again in September 2009. For more details and to register please go to the program description on the IPAA NSW website.