TAFENSW Quality Awards and Showcase

Wow! Yesterday I saw some amazing technology at the TAFENSW awards. I also found some new resources and ideas to bring back to my colleagues. The event was truely inspirational!

Wikis

I think wikis are a great resource. The web is so big these days you can spend a lot of time searching the web.

Interactive Retail

Interactive windows. Stores now are using technology in their window displays to engage their customers. They are also using interactive screens within the store to let customers select colours and information on products aswell as order them to be delivered to their door. It would certainly save floor space within stores. A Sydney hairsalon is using this type of system to compete with people buying online as this avoids the salon holding stock to sell on the shelf and then they can be more competitive with price.

Blog Challenge

Write a post at least each week.

I've been exploring more technologies and now I've set up a Adobe Connect Room for online teaching and meetings. It's very exciting! I can't wait to host my first online class. Community Pharmacy has just loaded it's first unit online - Blood Pressure and I've just started on another.
I'm still only just on my L plates.

What do you think about online learning? Please comment

Launched the THRAPS wikispace at our Team meeting in Coffs last night

Our Retail teachers had a meeting last night and I showed them the THRAPS wikispace and the Retail wiki and useful links etc. The team was quite interested in this information. It was great to see.

Commercial Cookery Group is Bloggin'

I recently presented a elearning presentation to the Commercial Cookery Project Team.
I created them a blog and they have been engaging with it. I'm so excited! They were also given quick reference guides on eLearning for future reference.

New Feature!!

I've just tried a poll feature. It's just to the right of this post. Please vote it would be great to see how many people who read this blog vote on my new poll feature. This poll feature could be used for businesses to poll their customers and teachers to poll their students etc.

Virtual Tour with Jo and Sean

I have just been on a virtual tour of second life with Jo and Sean who are exploring virtual worlds.

We visited a US government site which had great features like a weather demo and more very educational. We went to Rome and discovered ancient items and information here they replay ancient events that would be so interesting to watch especially if your studying ancient Rome.
We also checked out the TAFE Hairdressing salon wow! It looks so good I must go back and get a new look. The Learnscope lounge was good to visit it is amazing how you can create these great places. My favourite place was the Library I will definitely go back there so I can explore their information.

In summary it was a great group experience, well organised and I would certainly suggest anyone to take one of these tours well done to Jo and Sean :)

Exploring Second Life

I've been exploring again. Second Life is so exciting! I want to start my own retail store. I need money to start building things. I can see that students could do virtual work placement and develop customer merchandising and service skills.

During induction day I told my students about second life and they were very interested in it and thought it was pretty cool.

My Flickr

Today I thought I'd explore Flickr. Alex emailed me a link where Tourism and Hospitality have a Flickr collection which shows pictures of students, teachers and avatars involved in using different technologies in learning.

So I thought I'd start one and I look forward to using this with my students and colleagues. I must talk to our fashion teachers as I think they could use Second Life with their students as well, the only problem is access is blocked at TAFE. This probably needs to be addressed in some way as students need to have access to these sites. On my wiki I have a link to a movie and it won't play at TAFE as it is blocked, the movie is about wound healing and it's great for Pharmacy Assistants but they have to view it at home or in the workplace.

Thanks for your comments to my last post maybe you might like to leave a comment on access to Second Life at TAFE?

My Second Life!

Yes I am leading a double life now. I have been exploring Second Life. In this virtual world my name is Adnil Aabye, so if you are in Second Life add me to your friends and we can catch up. I met Alex The Learning Technologies Support Officer at NCI TAFE and she showed me around some places to visit. It was fun! I am mainly looking for opportunities that I can use for class and to share experiences with my colleagues. It's certainly fun once you get the hand of it.

Visual Merchandising Workshop in Coffs Harbour

Last Saturday we held a visual merchandising workshop in the Coffs Harbour Campus including students from Pharmacy and Fashion. The feedback on the day was great and everyone had fun which is great because you always learn more when your having a good time. Two of the students said they wish they could come everyday. They was lots of creativity by students which I enjoy to see as well as the elements learnt being used as a part of their major display at the end of the session.

New Wiki Feature

Today I explored a new feature available from pbwiki for my wiki. It is a voice chat pod. This means I can speak to anyone who is on my wiki and anyone can talk to each other this is a great way to collaborate and share ideas and for students to connect with other students. This is great, I am just waiting for someone to be on the site at the same time so I can speak to someone. If you are reading this go to my wiki and check out the new chat pod located under my picture on the bottom of the left hand side of the screen, you will need to scroll down a bit. Maybe we can chat?

Pharmacy Expo

The Pharmacy Expo was held at the Sydney Convention Centre at Darling Harbour. It was great to attend the educational sessions to update my knowledge.

The North Coast Institute of TAFE also had an exhibitor stand with the PSA. The PSA invited us on their stand as we have a partnership with them and offer traineeships for New Pharmacy Assistants and Existing workers. There was a great interest in the training we deliver and also the other exhibitors had a great interest in what we do. Many companies wanted to provide information for our students in hard copy and via online sources they also liked the idea of being on our wiki site. It was a great opportunity to expose people to what we provide with pharmacy training and the networking opportunity might provide some future working relationship eg Hillary Khan with merchandising and training, she was very interested in us.

Technology in the classroom

Yesterday I brought my laptop, web cam, video camera and digital camera to class. The class had agreed that we would put together a movie or presentation on the unit we are studying. Students who were not into the usual class style took charge and they were certainly in their element. They had fun and at the same time I could see how much they had recalled from their studies. I was amazed! I would like to explore using the technology more in my classes as so far it has been quite positive.

Today I learnt the basics on video conferencing. I can see this as an extremely useful tool in many ways. My only concern is when something goes wrong you must have a backup plan b.

WIKI

Today I also spoke with the TVET officer Michelle Moore and she asked me what do I teach and when I mentioned pharmacy she said did you know that it is now offered to the year 11 and 12's. I said yes my Head Teacher had told me. She asked me how could I explain to a student what this course is like and of course I explained it to her verbally and then I told her about my wiki and she went wow that would be great for future students to have a look at. This wiki site is certainly the best thing since sliced bread at the moment. I was talking to a pharmacy at Narabri on Monday and I uploaded a file for her I was showing her the wiki over the phone, she was at her Pharmacy computer and I was at home and we talked and explored together and she was also very pleased with this site and has added it to their favourites.

Great Feedback on The North Coast Institute of TAFE Community Pharmacy Wiki

The North Coast Institute of TAFE Community Pharmacy Wiki has been receiving fantastic feedback from students, trainees in remote areas and also from industry employers. It is so rewarding to see people using this resource and enjoying the experience. At the end of my face to face class of Certificate II students I handed out a course feedback sheet I noticed one of the students mentioned in the any other comments that she loved the wiki site. Last Friday I was speaking to a New Community Pharmacy Teacher in Newcastle who works for our Institute I emailed her the link and she emailed me back how great this wiki site is. I continue to edit and add to the wiki site as I think of new and relevant information which I can share with everyone.

Today I learnt how to organise a RSS feed. This is a great resource which will keep me up to date on the industry changes especially in Pharmacy.

Gen Y
I find very interesting. I am amazed at how generations change. I went to a conference this year and the speaker was talking about the new generation and how he expects we will have 100 years worth of change in the next 10 years. He spoke of the keyboard less computer is just around the corner and last night on the news Bill Gates launched a sample of this new technology. I think it is essential for us all to embrace and understand the new technologies. It wasn't long ago when we used a typewriter for our letters. Who would have thought you would be developing your own photos at home via your computer and sending them across the world in a second.
From the Gen Y's I speak to I notice that their communication strategies are so different eg Communicating via My space or MSN not just texting through their state of the art mobile phones.

E Learning

I've been trialing e learning with my students and they love using technology.
We have trialed the Retail Toolbox, Didasko Retail CD's, Digital camera and Power Point presentations. We are also trialing producing a movie for our Orangise a job application and complete an interview unit.