Reflections
Posted on January 23, 2009 by admin
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Key Lessons from the Aboriginal Mentoring Program
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.
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:
- content;
- access;
- visual appeal;
- support available;
- use-ability; and
- 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.
Ethics on Video
Posted on January 21, 2009 by admin
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The research told me that Aboriginal culture has a strong aural tradition and many aboriginal learners have a visual learning style preference. Therefore I wanted to use voice and visual media as much as possible throughout the program. As one of our topics is “ethics in the public sector” I thought it would be helpful to get some input from senior public sector staff on their ideas about ethics.
The video is of Maureen Chapman Regional Co-ordinator, New England/North West NSW, NSW Department of Premier & Cabinet. I took the video in September 2008. I then uploaded the original video file to BlipTV and used this within a voicethread to faciltiate some comment by mentors and mentees. I embedded the voicethread within the Aboriginal Mentoring Program’s Moodle site
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Blip.tv video.The Approach
Posted on November 10, 2008 by admin
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The approach has been to focus on relationships drawing on the cultural preference for community and sharing. An initial 2-day face-to-face workshop allowed participants to meet and nominate their preferred mentors, and to have a hands-on supported experience with the technology.
Elders and other respected community leaders have been key participants both in the face-to-face workshop and in the 8-week online environment. They have brought their own experiences; their own stories to the learning.
There has been structure in the online program alternating weekly between a focus on specific learning through activities and opportunity to meet and follow-up the discussions with their mentors.
The mentoring relationship will continue for another four months when a final evaluation will be undertaken.
The Design Emerges
Posted on October 1, 2008 by admin
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An important consideration in the design process was to have a learning environment that was appealing culturally and suited preferred learning styles. Visual representations supported with audio learning material rather than relying on text alone was essential.
Our starting point was text that had the learning environment looking like this:
But, with the help of Teresa Leon for the key design, and Jo Kay working on the programming within Moodle, we have now got this:
Choosing Technologies
Posted on September 29, 2008 by admin
Filed Under E-learning Innovations 08 | 2 Comments
Choosing the appropriate technologies was an exciting exploration. The actual learning environment was easy – Moodle was chosen because it is easy to navigate, could be customised without too much difficulty, and could handle plug-ins. Oh, and it was free!
A key criterion when selecting the plug-ins was their accessibility within the workplace. Other key criteria to be considered included participant computer literacy, cultural and learning preferences. The inclusion of community and sharing was also identified with the idea of simulating a ‘story telling circle’. And compatibility with Moodle was critical. Those selected have included forums, blogs, Voicethread, Exabis E-Portfolio, Animoto, Gtalk and Blip TV with Slideshare and Toondoo still to be introduced.
Interactive Ochre, a Framework Toolbox, has been integral to the discussion and learning.
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