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Deborah Griffin's User Page
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UserPage:dgriffinThis page contains these sections:Table of contentsWelcome to Deborah Griffin's User Page
 1. Introduction1.1 BackgroundThis page was created as part of the course FET8611 Emerging Environments that I am enrolled in as my UserPage. I will endeavour to facilitate a page that introduces me with a brief history of my working life, education and some other background information including my interests; both work and personal! I hope you find these either interesting or useful and welcome contributions to further links and/or resources that will particularly support our current learning journey. 1.2 Working LifeFor the past 13 years I have been employed by the NSW Department of Education & Training  . I have seen many changes over this time and have worked in many areas. Unfortunately, I have also experienced many restructures and had what I like to call "involuntary career events".For 6 years I worked in the Information Technology Directorate as member of the Corporate Systems team. This team involved developing a large range of corporate software systems tailored specifically to TAFE NSW (the vocational education system in Australia). My role included the implementation of this software across 120 colleges and involved mainly training the management, teachers and administration staff.One of the main systems was an electronic rollbook system that interfaced with all the existing systems to capture student's enrolments, attendance and results. This system has certainly evolved since I first took it on the road and as a part time teacher of TAFE, I am still quite an active user. Probably the main difference is that now teachers can enter their attendance and results via the internet!! It was one of the main bugbears of the system to begin with... the issue around access to PCs was a major issue and many colleges set up 'special' resource rooms for part time teachers to access their rollbook. From there I worked for a little while in the VET in Schools Directorate: this is a real growth area in Australia. It involves school students undertaking vocational training and achieving qualifications under the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). The students have a couple of options; depending on their region. For instance, some students attend TAFE to complete their studies. And at some schools, teachers have undertaken additional training to qualify to teach under the AQF.For the past 4 years I have worked in the Industry Programs Directorate of State Training Services. This area is very much involved in supporting industry's training needs at the vocational level. In one team I worked on projects that developed learning material and resources to support industry and enterprises upskill their employees. All the material developed is based on Training Packages . Briefly, Training Packages are made up of units of competency and these are packaged together as qualifications under AQF. The material is available nationally on the SkillsOnline website and please feel free to browse...I must comment, that more recently, the major stakeholders were requesting that the learning material being developed be either interactive, web based, portable, self-paced tutorials etc. or ALL of the above! with the request for print-based material be made available for instance from the url, CD or DVD. This was one reason for becoming interested in completing this course; workplace learning is very much embracing 'emerging technology' in my view. At the moment I am working as a project officer for the Commonwealth of Australia Government (COAG) iniative to improve the process and uptake of recognition of prior learning (RPL) to address the current and future skill shortages in Australia. Basically, RPL is a process whereby candidates/students have their work and life experiences assessed and either are recognised with formal qualifications or gaps identified and a strategy is developed for the candidate/student to undergo further training.One of the features of this project that I love is that technology is very much taking a front row seat. We have networks set up all over NSW and run online forums with the different groups that I am a part of. We use Adobe Session which is similar to Ellusion that USQ uses. These different networks are also running f2f forums, professional development days, workshops and conference days to share experiences and knowledge on RPL. One of the networks also facilitates a wiki where everyone is encouraged to contribute and reference up to date material and information. 1.3 EducationI started out working many many years ago... (too many to say!!) but I really only started to get interested in further education after I spent the earlier part of my career using word processors. For instance, I started out using WANG and Apricots..., hardware that came with its own specific software, then branched out to PCs and used WordPerfect 4.2 and progressed to the Microsoft revolution and all the Window based software applications. For some reason, I always ended up being the 'guru' and taking on the role of training in the office I was working (pre Department of Ed life). So, I ventured to TAFE and undertook some formal training:
At this stage, word processing was evolving fast and I was began to teach part time at TAFE NSW. I have now been teaching for more than 17 years..., and hence my life-long learning journey continued:
and..., I am halfway through my:
Here are some links to work completed with USQ below. 1.4 FET5621 Introduction to Web PublishingAssignment 1 Assignment 1 included building a basic web site using XHTML and you'll find some background information on where I live. Assignment 4 Assignment 4 included building an integrated web site with particular reference to compliance and validation to W3C standards. I developed a WebQuest and I am about to use it at TAFE this semester. It will be interesting in terms of vocational education as I believe WebQuests are more widely used at both primary and secondary schools. I chose a unit of comptence that I felt the students would benefit from using a WebQuest which a key feature is to use the web as a research tool.For everything you ever wanted to know and learn about WebQuests, I suggest you visit WebQuest.org .2. Progress Report2.1 Assignment 2 Link to Wiki Page2.2 Relevant links to 5 other pages
2.3 Facilitating Strategy
2.4 Problems/issuesAt this stage:
2.5 OtherAt this stage:
3. Proposal3.1 What I would like to do:What I would like to do is develop a wiki page to support my part time teaching at Sydney Institute, TAFE NSW. I am in a situation where I team teach with another part time teacher and we share the same class but teach different units of competency (and we have team teaching for more than 5 years!). I believe developing a wiki page would support and enhance our tam teaching and learning for the students as the functionality would allow all of us to collaborate flexibly in an online environment without the hassle of phone calls or trying to catch up in our busy working lives - we both have full time jobs and our students are usually working and difficult to contact ( no matter how many times we provide an email or phone contact, its a mystery to me...?).For our team teaching to work effectively, I have to communicate with the other teacher about many issues including students (comings and goings...), curriculum, lesson plans, teaching material, assessments, results and TAFE paperwork, resources, textbooks and replacing each other when required. We are also constantly communicating with out students about all these issues. 3.2 How I am going to do it:I would like to develop the wiki page using Wikispaces. There are a few considerations that I need to address and research. Firstly as most wiki pages are completely open to the public and could be edited by anyone and would therefore be open for breaches of use; I will investigate the use of a private (only space members can access) to act a deterrant for irresponsible behaviour.Although I believe there is a promotion for K-12 educators to set up private wikispaces for free - I may enquire if VET education comes under this umbrella!! There may also be the option of developing the wiki page on the Sydney Institute Wikispaces closed internet network that is available only to Sydney Institute staff and students due to intellectual property considerations. At this stage, staff and students have access to the Sydney Institute network via a NSW DET Portal logon and this would ensure that students would not be restricted to access from TAFE premises only! 3.3 What I will produce:I proposed to develop a wiki page that will link to all the units of competency that we are delivering and upload all the relevant information relating to that unit in an ongoing structure that would allow students to access and contribute where appropriate, to lesson outlines, reference material and resources, ongoing project work and activities, old assessments, my WebQuest link etc. as well as any generic information to support TAFE including assessment guides, teaching schedule etc. The possibilities for using the wiki as the platform for collabortive and flexible online communication is limited only by one's imagination and time!!3.4 Who I will work with:Initially I will consult with the other part time teacher to get their feedback on the proposal. This is important because I would need their input to the wiki page including their teaching resources, reference material, links to educational support material etc. The whole premise of developing the wiki page would be for us to collaborate and communicate over the Semester.I would also need to consult with my Head Teacher as to the protocol of using wiki pages in his teaching section. Although I do not foresee any issues other than obtaining his approval as Sydney Institute has other teams have developed wiki pages for their projects and is encouraging this form of technology. At the TAFE NSW 2007 Learning PowerHouse Conference on 10th August, I attended a demonstration of a wiki page at Sydney Institute and we were advised that Sydney Institute has registered for wikispace that is available for their use. Lastly but definitely not finally, we would work with the students and promote the use of the wiki page as an information portal and collaborative online learning tool. 3.5 How work is to be evaluated:I believe using the wiki over a Semester would enable a progressive evaluation to take place as to what is useful and what didn't work or where gaps are able to be identified from both my team teacher and students. I could also issue a summative assessment at the end of the Semester in the form of a survey or questionnaire. This would enable structured feedback to be incorporated but I see a continuous process of improvement being very much at the core of the wiki facilitation and I consider that this is definitely an emerging technology in my part time teaching environment.3.6 SummaryAt this stage I propose to develop mainly an information portal but I would very much like to believe that this will be the first step to incoporating a wiki into my teaching with an opportunity to devise strategies to use the wiki with more of a emphasis on the learning for my students and take advantage of the contribution function. Under the AQT framework, we have to assess each student competent against each performance criteria... which doesn't leave much room for collaborative work but it may be that I just haven't looked outside the square just yet!3.7 ReferencesAugur, N. Raitman, R. & Zhou, W. (2004). Teaching and learning online with wikis. Retrieved on 20 August 2007, from <[http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/augar.html>]EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative: Wikis. (2005). 7 things you should know about Wikis. Retrieved on 20 August 2007, from <http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7004.pdf >Staff, T. & Webb, M. (2006). What Is a Wiki (and How to Use One for Your Projects). Retreived on 30 August 2007, from <[http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/6646 >]4. Workgroup Wiki PagePlease visit and join or contribute to a workgroup about VET teaching and learning and emerging new practices!5. Family and interests5.1 FamilyMy husband John and Selby  My 14 year old son Ryan and Basil  Selby (mini fox terrier) and Basil (papillion or the viscious slipper!)
and Samui
5.2 KnittingThis seem boring, but I really love knitting!! Unfortunately, I have a short attention span so I only like to knit items that don't take forever to finish i.e. baby clothes. I started out knitting booties and because my travel to and from work is 2 hours each way (hence my study reading time!), I used to knit a pair a day!! Once I felt confident with booties, I started knitting mattinee jackets... awfully old fashioned these days, but I still think babies look adorable in hand knitted apparel. One day I will finish that shawl I started....Vogue Knitting 5.3 Horse RacingI also like horse racing. I've been in a punting club for more than 10 years with my husband, brother, sister and brother-in-law. We put $5 in each week and one person bets $30. My brother-in-law has kept the books and every xmas we have an Annual General Report released with our bets, wins and losses. The winner for the year scores an bonus of $100 and I'm proud to say I won 3 years in a row. No one else has even come close. We also award the annual 'Backpack' award to the loser. And for the record we are well ahead on our profits.., although not enough to give up our jobs.We frequent Randwick Races once or twice a year... This is the other main racing club in Sydney. Home of the Melbourne Cup Carnival!! 5.4 FijiMy other great love is Fiji. We have been 6 times and I'm heading off again at the end of this year. I find Fijians and Fiji the most relaxing and chilled out wonderful culture, food, swimming, snorkelling etc etc... and I am totally addicted. We've been to the following places:and I'm going to: Treasure Island this year.Well, if you have reached this point - I congratulate you!!!  Please feel free to contribute to my page and I will be back soon to add more pictures and there's always more editing... Deborah This Table of Contents is maintained by members — please add to and improve it. Pages can appear under more than one selection. You can also add pages that need to be created. Table of contents
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