The End is just the Beginning!

The NSW LearnScope Managers in eLearning project was very short - just 12 weeks in all! Was this long enough to really conceive the eLearning map (to keep our journey metaphor alive!)?

Well, if we take Tanya's and Georgie's postings below it seems their journey is just beginning - see what they've been up to in their individual posts. While our other team members haven't posted to the blog we know that Beryl investigated Toolboxes further and intends to use this in her work at NSW Uni; Simon established an eLearning Committee in his section at NSW Uni and they will continue to investigate elearning as a viable delivery strategy; Rhonnie looked at Digital Stories for use at Batemans Bay ACE.

There were definitely some bumps on our road over the 12 weeks - probably the main obstacle for one of our participants was firewalls - such an annoying word - ughhhhh! I guess they have their purpose but in an ever-increasing world of sharing and connecting, they seem to restrict learning rather than enhance learning - another argument for another day! Attending virtual meetings became a nightmare for Beryl unfortunately.

Time did present itself as an issue, particularly time to participate in scheduled virtual meetings. Time to learn continues to be a major issue for all VTE practitioners, not just the managers. Particularly disappointing was the last minute unavailability of team members to attend scheduled virtual presentations with guest speakers (who were also hindered by firewalls and had to access the virtual conferencing room from home!).

Over the 12 weeks the team was exposed to

• a face-to-face induction in Sydney introducing participants to each other, and NSW Framework support, viz Robyn Jay and Alex Hayes (NSW LearnScope) and Robby Weatherley (Capability Building Program Leader). Viv Evans also virtually (from Coonabarabran) introduced them to DiscoverE, the virtual conferencing tool to be used for meetings
• How the Framework can support them through its projects and resources presented by Jeff Saul, NSW Framework Coordinator
• Toolboxes presented by Shane Dowd, NSW Toolbox Champion
• Digital Stories presented by Robyn Jay, NSW LearnScope Manager
• LifebasedLearning and a Capability Development Model presented by Robby Weatherley, Framework Capability Building Program Leader
• Social Software, viz blogs and wikis - check out our wiki at http://nswlscopemanagers.wikispaces.com/ and
• Using forum tools through EdNA Groups.

We were also virtually visited by Elke Unger from Mt Gambier in South Australia who was undertaking an individual LearnScope project through SA LearnScope - check out Elke's blog at http://lakeschank.blogspot.com/.

So generally I believe we achieved what we set out to do, ie gain an understanding of the different resources and support available through the Framework and engage with some elearning technologies.

For next time, perhaps it is more about managers being part of a LearnScope team within their own organisation, rather than having a separate team. Now that they have a taste for elearning and a little understanding, they will be able to contribute a manager/leader's perspective to the team learning experience.

Thanks everyone for participating and good luck with the rest of your journey!