Dorothy Waterhouse Project Teacher NSW Adult Migrant English Services 02 9289 9111 wheres_dot@yahoo.com
	Current Perspective The areas I will hope to impact on in 2005 are: Teacher ICT pd to enhance our blended delivery which will increase student uptake of online learning opportunities and increase retention rates of students enrolled in online courses Through our new website and involvement in the new DET portals, support networks and better collaborative relationships between our teachers, our consortium partners and the wider Vet sector will be established.

Reports, Papers and Publications

~ Performance Zone Audio Presentation (MP3, 541KB) December 2004.
~ Final Presentation, December 2004.
~ From WWWWEB to PORTAL: Directions for Professional Development in the knowledge era (PDF, 540KB), October 2004.
~ Blogs: About blogs and my FLL year - http://wheresdot.blogspot.com ~ Online survey of participants' ICT skills survey results during NET*Working 2004 online conference.
~ Initial analysis (PDF, 50KB)
~ Summary (HTML, 140KB)
~ Postcard: A Knowledge Worker engages in disorder! 27 September 2004.

~ Be Shaken: Learning for Change, (PDF, 148KB) conference report, September 2004

~ Report for NSW AMES Bulletin, July 2004 - NSW Flexible Learning Leaders to receive.... (PDF, 485KB)
~ My blogged collection of information on Communities of practice http://dots_cops.blogspot.com

Implications

By providing the professional development opportunities to understand, and develop further, my capabilities as a knowledge worker, I am better prepared to support my organisation as it reviews professional development needs and looks to align them to the key enablers identified in the report, 'Working and Learning in Vocational Education and Training in the Knowledge Era (the full report is available at http://flexiblelearning.net.au/projects/pdfuture.htm you may recognise yourself!)

The networking opportunities are ever expanding. I am able to act as a 'dating service'! As I connect with individuals and groups my increased knowledge of my organisation’s scope, its varied involvement or potential for involvement in the Education industry allows me to see synergies that can be explored and I provide an opportunity for interaction between the parties.

Given this fantastic opportunity to integrate my work, and the new knowledge I am gaining I can begin to do what I do best - repackage what I have learnt into relevant and digestible training and experiences for my colleagues.

Due to increased accessibility of technologies the groups I can reach have expanded from within NSW AMES and those I could travel to, to include those I can reach through online conferencing tools.

Professional Development Goal

Through my proposed professional development (PD) plan I intend:

• To identify effective strategies to support professional development of ICT skills and online facilitation skills.
• To gain an understanding of, and develop my leadership style.

Strategies

The strategies I am using to achieve my PD goals are:

• Conference attendance, site visits, enrolment in training - leadership and online facilitation, involvement in online communities,
• case studies of colleagues as they develop their ICT skills, experimentation with technology: both new and new to me
• informal trialling of new approaches to incorporating new technologies into teaching, networking widely, both within my organisation and through the Framework network.

Outcomes

A Report for NSW AMES detailing:

• models of ICT PD investigated
• courses available
• case studies of teachers’ ICT learning experiences
• resource list of current open source programs suitable to support blended delivery for NSW AMES
• implications for ICT professional development programs for NSW AMES
• a literature review and bibliography on building learning communities and the dynamics of COPs
• implications for NSW AMES consortium

Ongoing development of a blog as a learning experience and model of an open source program, shared with the NSW AMES Learnscope 2004 team.
Staff meetings to encourage involvement in the Framework , share new technologies that could be incorporated into a blended teaching program and collect data on staff ICT skills and expectations.
Articles for the NSW AMES Rural newsletter and staff bulletinOngoing Networking opportunities
Presentation to AMEP conference 2005.

Updated: 04 July, 2005