OER Literature Scavenger Hunt

Well, wouldn't really call it a scavenger hunt because facebook has made it entirely possible and way much easier for me to get the latest scoop on the latest OER news. If you are wondering why I linked scoop, it is one of the popular content curation tools out there and if you want to know what the hell I am talking about, just google it! This hot off the press OER scoop particularly caught my eye - Practice, teaching and open educational practices and gives a frank, just what I need for upcoming awareness sessions resource about the next inevitable phase after OERs which is OEPs. Okay! now I need to do a scavenger hunt and look for that journal article that talked about this OERs and moving to OEPs thingy - ok, here it is from the Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning, DEANZ, New Zealand. Just pondering over the work so far that has been carried out with regard to OERs at USP and I know there is so much more to be done and of course reading up the literature which, thank goodness is free and open for use can greatly assist in making this process a little bit smoother. Now I am wondering about the smoothest way to get this information to the OER VAKA group :)

Empowering Online Learning - FSTE Workshop stuff

I was tasked my Theresa to provide resources for types of online learning activities that will be part of the FSTE Course Writing Workshop that is scheduled for 2nd June and my first reference point of course is the book by Professor Curt Bonk and Dr Zhang titled Empowering Online learning: 100+ Activities for reading, reflecting, displaying & doing. Its chocka-block full of activities based on the R2D2 model that they have come up with. I have provided Theresa with a short ppt. presentation on this, links and attachments to the book itself.
[to insert ppt after workshop is conducted]

Pre World OER Congress Preps!!

I have been keeping myself busy for the past two weeks with travel arrangements for the upcoming World OER Congress that is happening in Paris, France from the 20-22 June, 2012.

Here is a checklist of things that I had to ponder over and work on:

• Research on suitable, affordable accommodation - thanks to Dhiraj for discovering a suitable choice 
• Constantly doing currency conversions; FJD, USD, Euros to work out afford-abilities in relation to the per diem given
• Making online hotel bookings
• Constantly liaising with Abel Caine at  UNESCO, Evonne, Theresa, Dhiraj, Shikha, Marika on travel arrangements
• Initial discussions with Theresa on a possible concept for the Open Exhibition for USP - still more to be done...
• Checking and re-checking that I have all the documentation for the French visa application; HR letter, itinerary and e-ticket (my middle again was spelt wrongly on the ticket but thanks to the very efficient and resourceful Evonne - this has been taken care of - I am just so paranoid about being stopped at the airport for not having a correctly spelt name - it has happened before :)), suitable passport photo, $137 visa application fee and I went to submit this today but I am outstanding with a letter from USP to confirm that they are covering for health insurance. Have to take this over tomorrow.

Catching up on ED401 work

Got a call from Akhila today to touch base on ED401 course. He requested to have a drop-box created for the micro-teaching presentations. I had especially requested that we meet early next month to start work on ED402 course.

Does Moodle 2 come with plugins?

Received a phone call from Shikha Raturi this morning enquiring as to whether Moodle 2 will have any plugins which I would term as Third Party tools - there was mention by the Moodle team about including a web conferencing plugin but will need to enquire further.

PD documentation requested

Had a request from DVC Kelly's office through Karyn Gibson for documentation on workshops and training conducted by CFDL so I send through the schedule but before doing so, I had to update it given the amount of requests that are just pouring in, including a sample of one of the workshop programmes made.
Link to schedule and sample programme

FSTE Course Writing Workshop meeting

I had a meeting today at 3.30pm at the CFDL Director's Room to discuss plans for the FSTE Course Writing Workshop that is scheduled to be held on Saturday 2nd June at CCR. Those in attendance were as follows; Theresa (chair), Siga, Deepak, Tevita, Mojito and myself. The workshop will be attended by selected course writers whose courses are earmarked to be developed for full online offer in Semester 2, 2012. I was present in my capacity as Professional Development Coordinator. I will need to provide Theresa with types of online activities.

Moodle 2 manual - picking up where we left off....

to do list written on CFDL meeting room whiteboard

I had to pick up on the development progress of the Moodle 2 print manual with Evan and Maxine who are part of the group undertaking this - we have set a goal to have this completed by Friday 1st June after having been struck by illness and urgent work matters for the past two weeks. We have block booked time slots in the CFDL meeting room as shown below to meet this target.

The bookings for CFDL Meeting room as discussed.

1. Monday 28 May 3-5 pm
2. Tuesday 29 May 3-5 pm
3. Wednesday 30 May 8-11 am
4. Thursday 31 May 2.30-5pm
5. Friday 1 June 2-5pm

OER VAKA meeting today

We had our 3rd OER VAKA meeting today at 2.30pm in the CFDL meeting room since March and in this meeting we welcomed a new member in Shikha Raturi of the School of Education, FALE. In this meeting which I chair, I have indicated to the group that there is high likelihood that the membership structure of the group will change after the OER congress in Paris, France.
Link to meeting minutes

Staff Review Due

Staff Review is

ICT in Education Leadership Forum

I attended an ICT in Education Leadership Forum from 31st April - 2nd May held at the Microsoft Office, North Ryde, Sydney, Australia. Read this USP Web News article for more information. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Faculty of Arts, Law and Education (FALE) in particular the Dean, Dr Akanisi Kedrayate, Acting Head of School of Education, Dr Salanieta Bakalevu for the opportunity to attend this forum.