A year since Nepal - why are some learners more enthusiastic than others?

We've just been on holiday for a month, and although I had limited access to internet I did find time to write some thoughts on my training experiences here and overseas. Anyway, why would I want to be on the internet when there were whales, dolphins, bears and glaciers to be watching. (Highly recommend Alaska as a holiday destination.)

I’m starting to get Facebook reminders of our time in Nepal last year, and as each one pops up I’m thinking more about the training we did there, what I learned in those situations, what I’ve applied already and what I would do differently in those situations now.

The most significant experience at the time was seeing the enthusiasm displayed by each group of learners. These were people who were all experienced in their field (community development, nursing, community health, finance) but with limited or no experience of working with a computer. They were amazed that we had travelled to their remote communities to spend time providing training opportunities and were more excited than any learners I have come across in fifteen years training in Australia. This experience has deepened my sense of privilege of access to learning and reignited my passion for training.

Having had this experience, I now question why we don’t see that same level of enthusiasm here. One common reason / excuse for not attending professional development is “I don’t have time”. At the beginning of this year I came across a blog put together by four Educational Technologists from the UK who were experiencing the same issue with their staff. Their blog, “1 minute CPD”, offers daily bite sized, just-in-time, professional development. James Clay’s blog post “I don’t have a dog”, shared recently through my Twitter PLN, is both entertaining and enlightening as he shares his thoughts that we all have the same number of minutes in a day and how we choose to use them is a matter of personal priorities. 

Through following 1 minute CPD this year I have improved my ICT proficiency, acquired new skills in classroom technologies and learnt to use curation tools … and so much more – and I’m excited to share what I’ve learned on my social media and with my colleagues. Sharing the 1 minute CPD concept and James’ thoughts have already proved helpful to me in encouraging staff to re-evaluate their priorities and to see professional development as something desirable and enjoyable and not just a compliance “tick the box”.

I now need to build on this and, with my team, determine the best way ahead for our staff – being very conscious that one model doesn’t fit every situation.

Communicating - #BYOD4L

Day 2 of #BYOD4L is all about communicating. Specifically, thinking about how we communicate in our professional and private lives, the methods and tools we use.

Rather than just write a list, I found this neat website to create Venn diagrams - because I was sure there would be an overlap - and there is. When I sat down to think about it, there are very few tools that I use exclusively for professional or private use, with most sitting in a blur in the middle. Some, like Facebook, started as a purely social tool, but as more and more businesses and professional bodies create pages I find it an increasingly useful way to be informed and to raise questions.

I then considered which of these tools I use of choice and which I have to use because they are work based, or because that is where to find others with whom I want to communicate. Google tools fit in this latter category with a lot of MOOCs using google as the preferred platform. I'm getting used to it, but it's not my preferred choice.

The day 2 scenarios are interesting and I relate to the educator in the second, as I often hear similar comments from our trainers and assessors: "I'm all alone", "I can't get to that PD session because I'm teaching", "My colleagues are so far away" (At CDU we have over 22,000 students across 4 campuses and 4 training centres). 

To them, and to our man in the video, I would say, "I hear what you're saying. My colleagues are 1,500 km away too. I've been able to explore using technology to help us communicate better. Let's see what might work for you." And then begins a journey of exploration ...

So for me, where to next? I've just returned from long service leave where I spent time in Nepal facilitating training in MS Word and PowerPoint with groups of community development workers in remote regions (Read about that on my other blog), and also introducing them to Twitter and Padlet and blogs. It was exciting to see their enthusiasm. I'm continuing to work with some of them individually, slowly introducing tools and apps they can use on their limited bandwidth. In my day job, I'll be continuing to explore (through courses like this) tools and apps that I can share with our trainers and assessors to help them further develop their skills and give their training sessions some "bling". Exciting times!

Keeping up with PD in Nepal

While we've been here in Nepal I've been surprised by how easy it has been to keep up with my professional development through a variety of online activities.

During our first week here I was able to join two sessions through Blackboard Collaborate facilitated from my own workplace, Charles Darwin University, as part of our annual Learning and Teaching Week.

I've also enjoyed participating in some of the Sunday evening #AussieED chats on Twitter and have enjoyed following the conversations around digital writing on #DigiWriMo.

Participating in Collaborate session from Pokhara 

Training in Nepal

Several months have passed since I last posted here.

We are now in Nepal and spending a few days in several remote communities, providing IT training for staff of International NepalFellowship (INF). Last week we spent a few days in Jumla and we are now in Gamgadhi with a group of staff who are keen and interested to learn about blogging. This post is to demonstrate to the group how to update a blog.

Our first view of snow from the top of the pass - heading to Gamgadhi

Jumla

Training INF Staff in Gamgadhi

This group also learnt how to use Padlet: