Government receptive to e-learning advice?

This is to request comments on how receptive to advice the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations was for the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy and the establishment of the Australian research and education network (AREN) and AARNet3.

The Department is seeking advice on IT for education with a Applied Information and Communications Technology in Education Panel. However, the process seems overly bureaucratic, requiring applicants to fill in an 87 page form, when two pages would be sufficient. Assuming I was to correctly fill in this form and was selected for the panel, how likely is it that the department would listen to any advice given?

My concern is that if the department is unable to do something relatively simple, like streamline its tender process to take advantage of online technology, would they listen to advice on how to improve the efficiency of education across Australia using online technology?

Government ICT Education Panel

The federal Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations has issued a Request for Tender for an Applied Information and Communications Technology in Education Panel (ATM ID DEEWR RFT PRN24602 17 February 2010). There is a 126 page document avialable to prospective tenderers (1.48Mbyte MS-Word). The table of contents is 20 pages long.

Overview

Purpose of the Applied ICT in Education Panel

1. DEEWR requires a panel of experienced consultants with strong technical knowledge and a good understanding of the use of ICT in the education sector to form the Applied ICT in Education Panel (‘the Panel’). Panel Members must have detailed knowledge and a demonstrated understanding of the design and implementation of ICT infrastructure, networking and eLearning in the education sector. Members of the panel will have demonstrated capacity, expertise and experience in providing high quality technical advice and analysis services in relation to government ICT in education initiatives.

Types of Services Required

2. The panel may be used by DEEWR to support the development, implementation and evaluation of initiatives that support the use of ICT in education including the Digital Education Revolution (DER) and the Vocational Education Broadband Network (VEN).

Use of the Applied ICT in Education Panel

...

Background

9. The Australian Government has made it a national priority to create a world class education and training system for Australia. It is committed to increasing the proportion of Australians with educational qualifications and through the Council of Australian Governments, has set targets for 2020 and 2024 in order to secure Australia’s long term economic prosperity.

10. The Government is supporting the education and training sector to achieve this objective through the investment of $2.2 billion under the DER and $80 million under the VEN initiatives. Reflecting Government policies DEEWR aims to promote the effective integration of ICT in teaching and learning in Australia.

11. DEEWR has identified a need to have access to ongoing external specialist technical advice. The panel arrangements which are the subject of this tender will assist in the timely delivery of technical and specialist advice and reports to support the activities set out ...

From: Applied Information and Communications Technology in Education Panel , Request for Tender ATM ID DEEWR RFT PRN24602, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations 17 February 2010

Vocational Education Broadband Network

The Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations has issued a Request for Expression of Interest for the provision of Vocational Education Broadband Network Backbone Network Provider. This is for a $80M Vocational Education Broadband Network (VEN) announced by the Prime Minister 22 April 2009, in response to the 2020 Summit. The RFI is deficient in not addressing inter-working with Australia's existing educational backbone network (AARnet) and not requiring IPv6.

The new backbone will interconnect the state TAFEs and other vocation training organisations. There is a requirements document available for downloading (366 KByte,Ms-word format) .

No Mention of AARnet

What is not clear from the RFI is why Australia needs a second national education network backbone. The Australia Academic and Research Network (AARNet) is run by a not-for-profit company to connect Australian universities and the CSIRO. AARNet has been at forefront of the development of the Internet in Australia for twenty years. AARNet already connects many vocational educational providers in Australia, were these are provided in conjunction with universities. There is no good reason to duplicate this service.

As an example, AARnet now provides a roaming service "EduRoam", which allows those from one educational institution to use the network at another. This service would be very useful if extended to the vocational sector and preferable to that sector having to establish its own system.

The vocational network RFI requirements document does not mention AARnet.

No requirement for IPv6

The RFI document specifies the use of the IPv4 address space. This address space is reaching its limits. Other deficiencies with IPv4 have been identified, particularly security and IPv6 was developed to address this. AARnet supports IPv6. The lack of any mention of IPv6 for the vocational network appears to be a fundamental flaw.

Lack of Coordination of Vocational and Higher Education Policies

Data networking is one example of a general lack of coordination of IT resources between vocational and higher education in Australia. The Australian Government is funding duplicated programs for e-learning for the vocational and university sectors. In many cases these parallel programs are duplicating effort, working on essentially the same requirement and coming up with the same answers.

From the Vocational Education Broadband Network RFI:

Overview

Background

Broadband infrastructure is an essential platform for world class teaching, learning and research. The education and training sector needs access to broadband infrastructure on terms that are affordable, predictable and priced in ways that ensure it can be used to maximum educational effect. Currently, broadband connections in the education and training sector are variable in quality and speed.

In this context, the Prime Minister announced funding of $80 million for a high speed Vocational Education Broadband Network (VEN) on 22 April 2009. The announcement formed part of the Australian Government’s Response to the 2020 Summit.

An implementation strategy for the VEN has been developed, endorsed by senior Commonwealth and State officials and noted by the Ministerial Council for Tertiary Education and Employment (MCTEE). The implementation strategy and any further background information and documentation relating to the VEN may be accessed on the DEEWR website at www.deewr.gov.au/VEN. It is noted in the implementation strategy that up to $70m will be available for the broadband element of the VEN.

This Request for Expressions of Interest (REOI) relates to the establishment and operation of a VEN Backbone Network (VBN) that will:

1. leverage existing infrastructure as far as possible;
2. provide interconnections between existing networks serving Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutions in each state and territory; and
3. be able to be accessed by non-TAFE registered training organisations, school authorities, peering networks and providers of online education and training resources.

Scope

The Commonwealth, represented by and acting through the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), invites expressions of interest (responses) from interested organisations to establish and operate the VBN for an initial period of three years.

Subject to further consideration by Government, there may be potential to extend the initial period.

DEEWR's objectives

In broad terms, DEEWR intends that the VBN will achieve the following objectives (Overall Objectives):

1. Provide high-capacity connectivity across Australia, with at least one point-of-presence (PoP) in each state and territory. The desired location and/or number of PoPs will be determined having regard to responses received through this REOI and the views of State and Territory stakeholders.
2. Provide redundancy mechanisms, including alternative routes between major PoPs to limit the loss of connectivity between major PoPs in the event of a single link failure.
3. In each state and territory, provide a peering connection between the VBN PoP and a designated PoP for the whole of government or other government network operating in that state or territory. Advice from stakeholders will be required relating to such connections.
4. Provide sufficient capacity to enable bandwidth-intensive applications, such as near-high definition video conferencing, to be delivered across State and Territory boundaries to the PoPs in each jurisdiction. DEEWR expects that the initial capacity of the backbone network links will generally not be less than 1 Gbps, although lower initial speeds may be acceptable on links to less populous States and Territories, where these would be sufficient to meet expected needs.
5. Be capable of being upgraded readily and at reasonable cost.
6. Be capable of providing peering links to non-training organisations, and online resource providers of interest to TAFE institutions, routed in ways that do not incur additional charges (e.g. traffic charges).
7. Be accessible to other (non-TAFE) registered training organisations. It is intended that such providers will have access to the services, applications and content available on the VEN on commercial terms and conditions.
8. Be accessible to, and have sufficient capacity to allow connection by, school authorities that may wish to connect to it.
9. Leverage existing infrastructure as far as possible.

DEEWR has set out in Schedule 2 (Other Information) its initial views as to how these Overall Objectives may be achieved. ...

Schedule 2 – Other information

Essential requirements

Respondents should include in their response evidence that it meets the Essential Requirement in relation to Capability (see paragraph 2.3.1 of the REOI).

Detailed solution

Respondents should include in their response details of their proposed solution, with a particular focus on how that solution will meet the Overall Objectives in paragraph 1.3 of the REOI.

Respondents may propose more than one solution.

Where supporting material is provided, the respondent must clearly specify which paragraphs of that material are relevant to the requirements listed in this Schedule 2 (Other Information).

Respondents should also include a response to each of the attributes described below in Section 3 of this Schedule 2 (Other Information).

Attributes

Architecture and Topology

DEEWR's initial view is that the VBN solution should include the following attributes:

Provide Internet Protocol (IP) network-centric architecture.

Make use of the IPv4 address space.

Be capable of providing for IPv4 multicast traffic.

Be capable of meeting industry standards in the delivery of low latency network design specifications for the delivery of real-time voice and video services.

Be capable of supporting Quality of Service (QoS) delivery mechanisms that ensure service levels across multiple classes of services for end users can be met.

Support any-to-any connectivity between connected VBN users.

Please detail:

how the respondent's solution will deliver each of these attributes;

if applicable, why, in the respondent's opinion, any of these attributes may not be required; and

where the respondent's solution does not meet these attributes, describe how the respondent's solution will:

better achieve the Overall Objectives in paragraph 1.3 of the REOI; and/or

provide a lower cost solution for DEEWR.

Network Capacity

DEEWR's initial view is that the VBN solution will include the following attributes.

Provide actual bandwidth of 1Gbps or more (uncontested) on the major VBN backbone links (Adelaide-Melbourne-Canberra-Sydney-Brisbane) that support the high availability of the core VBN backbone.

Provide capacity of at least 100Mbps or more on any other identified links (Adelaide-Perth, Adelaide-Darwin, Brisbane-Darwin, Melbourne-Hobart).

Provide symmetrical bandwidth for peer-to-peer traffic between VBN users.

Please detail:

how the respondent's solution will deliver each of these attributes;

if applicable, why, in the respondent's opinion, any of these attributes may not be required; and

where the respondent's solution does not meet these attributes, describe how the respondent's solution will:

better achieve the Overall Objectives in paragraph 1.3 of the REOI; and/or

provide a lower cost solution for DEEWR.

how the respondent's solution could be scaled up and the likely cost and timeframe for doing this.

Points-of-Presence (PoPs)

DEEWR's initial view is that PoPs will be required in each of the following locations:

Sydney

Melbourne

Brisbane

Perth

Canberra

Adelaide

Hobart

Darwin

Please detail:

if the respondent's solution will include the PoPs described above;

if applicable, any recommendations as to why alternative PoPs should be considered; and

if alternative PoPs were adopted, how these will:

better achieve the Overall Objectives in paragraph 1.3 of the REOI; and/or

provide a lower cost solution for DEEWR.

any additional PoP locations at which the respondent has existing infrastructure.

Peering

DEEWR's initial view is that the VBN solution should include the following attributes:

Provide a peering connection in each state and territory between the VBN PoP and:

a designated PoP for the whole of government; or

other government network PoPs operating in that state or territory (e.g., Education and Training authority PoPs).

Be capable of peering with other private educational authorities as and when required.

Be capable of peering with non-educational organisations and content providers.

Be structured and priced in a way that ensures that traffic between peering users that traverses the VBN does not incur additional traffic charges.

Please detail:

how the respondent's solution will deliver each of these attributes;

if applicable, why, in the respondent's opinion, any of these attributes may not be required; and

where the respondent's solution does not meet these attributes, describe how the respondent's solution will:

better achieve the Overall Objectives in paragraph 1.3 of the REOI; and/or

provide a lower cost solution for DEEWR.

VBN Access

DEEWR's initial view is that the VBN solution will need to be capable of providing connectivity to users through the use of a variety of access methods and carrier connections.

Please detail:

how the respondent's solution will provide connectivity to users;

if applicable, why, in the respondent's opinion, a variety of access methods and carrier connections may not be required; and

where the respondent's solution does not include a variety of access methods and carrier connections, describe how the respondent's solution will:

better achieve the Overall Objectives in paragraph 1.3 of the REOI; and/or

provide a lower cost solution for DEEWR.

Redundancy

DEEWR's initial view is that the VBN solution will need to include the following attributes:

Provide redundancy mechanisms, including alternative routes between major PoPs to limit the loss of connectivity in the event of a single point of failure.

Be supported by the establishment of at least two PoPs serving as VBN core nodes (i.e. primary and secondary nodes).

Make use of other redundancy mechanisms, such as:

Additional fibre routes,

Redundant network hardware,

Redundant power systems (including generators, multi-phased power),

Virtual switching technologies used for automated fail-over,

The use of leveraging underpinning third-party wholesale carriage services.

Please detail:

how the respondent's solution will deliver each of these attributes;

if applicable, why, in the respondent's opinion, any of these attributes may not be required; and

where the respondent's solution does not deliver these attributes, describe how the respondent's solution will:

better achieve the Overall Objectives in paragraph 1.3 of the REOI; and/or

provide a lower cost solution for DEEWR.

Performance

DEEWR's initial view is that the VBN would need to include the following attributes:

be available at least 99.9% of each calendar month, measured on a 24 x 7 basis (excluded agreed maintenance windows); and

meet other minimum service levels for voice and video service classes in relation to:

end-to-end delay;

end-to-end jitter; and

error threshold (packet loss ratio).

Please set out what service levels the respondent would be prepared to commit to in relation to:

availability (as a percentage);

end-to-end delay (one way) (in milliseconds);

end-to-end jitter (one way) (in milliseconds); and

error threshold (packet loss ratio) (shown as a percentage).

Where the availability service level is lower than the level set above, please explain how this will achieve the Overall Objectives in paragraph 1.3 of the REOI and provide a lower cost solution for DEEWR.

Please also provide information in relation to:

the mechanisms that would be used to measure whether the service level is being achieved; and

the rebates and other remedies that may be available to DEEWR if the service levels are not achieved.

Security

The VBN solution will need to have a design and an operational environment that is secure against malicious and non-malicious threats. The design and operational environment should provide identification, authentication and access control mechanisms that protect against:

Unauthorised access to the VBN and its connected networks; and

Access to VBN stakeholder connected networks by means considered unauthorised and/or inappropriate.

Please:

detail what security methods the respondent's solution will employ; and

provide information about the current security level classifications and certifications of network infrastructure and systems currently operated by the respondent within Australia.

Internet Access

DEEWR's initial view is that the VBN solution will need to provide parties which are connected to the VBN with the option of accessing traffic from the wider internet via a VBN provided internet gateway or via peering connections to Whole-of-Government or education and training arrangements, incorporating network and security mechanisms that restrict unauthorised access.

Please detail:

how the respondent's solution will deliver internet access;

if applicable, why, in the respondent's opinion, internet access may not be required to be delivered in accordance with the approach set out above; and

where the respondent's solution does not deliver internet access in accordance with the approach set out above:

better achieve the Overall Objectives in paragraph 1.3 of the REOI; and/or

provide a lower cost solution for DEEWR.

Please also outline the secured internet network design and its key components.

Operational Support and Services

The VBN solution will need to include the provision of high quality operational support and services.

Please:

describe the respondent's approach to service support and provide details of the minimum levels of support the respondent is able to provide;

identify the range of service support offerings available to DEEWR that deliver proactive monitoring and support of the VBN;

outline the management tools and processes for service management reporting to stakeholders; and

provide supporting information relating to the proposed account management practices for the operation of the VBN. ...

From: Request for Expression of Interest for the provision of Vocational Education Broadband Network Backbone Network Provider, ATM ID DEEWR EOI PRN24590, DEEWR, 18 February 2010

School of One

School of One is a pilot program by the New York City Department of Education to customise education for each student. The result is similar to the flexible learning techniques being used by vocational and higher learning institutions. Each student has a custom daily schedule of one-to-one tutoring, independent study, e-learning and traditional classroom education. Students proceed at their own pace, with testing to help determine not only what level they are at, but what learning style will suit.

Architectural Record, January 2010 ("School of One" Charles Linn) features possible designs for schools to support the School of One. The designs appear very simpler to Australian design for flexible school buildings, with an emphasis on open plan, using changes in direction to replace walls and doors. The article describes a reception area, similar to a business lobby with display screens,. where students would get their plan for the day.

Interestingly for the first School of One, with four teachers and 80 students, the library of a NY school was used. Modular tables and screens were arranged into different configurations. This suggests a more flexible arrangement similar to the learning centre which many vocational and higher education libraries are evolving into.

The School of One idea suffers from some obvious limitations: it downplays the role of groups in learning by emphasising each student as an individual unit. It treats the student as a passive consumer of education to be given their daily program of education, rather than an active decision maker. It assumes a greater level of resources to be able to provide the student with more individual and custom programs. It ignores the role of the Internet and the wider world in learning.

The same issue of Architectural Record also contains an article on the renovation of an old school building for the "Latin American Montessori Bilingual Public Charter School" in Washington, D.C. (Architects Hickok Cole, article by Joann Gonchar). This provides a more realistic model for the school of the future, as it is having to adapt the old school infrastructure to a more flexible style of learning.

Mobile real-time e-learning tools needed

Is online real time interaction feasible on limited Internet connections, such as those on mobile devices? I was invited to try "Learn Central" with the Elluminate Live! collaboration tool. However, this requires a Java download which will take 11 minutes on my slow wireless Internet connection. Even after that I was not confident that Elluminate would have options suitable for a low speed high latency connection to my low performance Linux netbook computer. That may seem an unusual configuration of computer. But it is not that different to the smart phones many people have and could use for education, if a workable configuration could be found. As it is, it seems that every week or so someone offers me what they claim to be a revolutionary online education tool, which turns out not to run on anything other than a Microsoft Windows computer with a high speed broadband connection and a lot of very fragile add-on software. What we need are some really revolutionary tools which are not just adaptions of business video conferencing.

Listening to Students’ and Educators’ Voices: Research Findings

Listening to Students’ and Educators’ Voices: Research Findings, provides a useful, timely credible information about Australian student and staff access, use and views on information technology for education. The research is from 2008 an covers primary and secondary schools, vocational education (TAFE), universities. Communication and group work activities was one commonly valued use for email and discussion lists. Online games, social networking and media sites were of interest.

There was an interesting split with most of primary students indicating social networking sites are for fun, not learning and should not be accessed at school. In contrast adult students believe social networking can be used for education. But all levels expect to have access to computers and the Internet at educational institutions and home. They also expect the teachers to be be able to use the technology to communicate with them.

Unfortunately the report is difficult to read, being a large PDF document. Here is the Executive summary as text:

This report outlines findings collected from listening to and analysing the views and expectations of students within Australian education and training institutions about learning with technologies. The overarching question for this research was: ‘what are the views of students and early career educators, about learning with technologies in Australian education and training?’ In 2008, students in primary and secondary schools, vocational education and training (VET) institutions, international students studying education in universities and pre-service teacher education students contributed to the research based upon their current experiences and views. Early career teachers were asked to reflect on their experiences as pre-service teachers. Data was collected through online surveys and focus groups. The research design was informed by a literature review, which is available at: http://www.aictec.edu.au/aictec/go/home/priorities/pid/233.

The purposes of this research were:
(a) To gain an improved and contemporary understanding of the expectations and experiences of learners and early career educators, of how information and
communication technologies (ICT) may be utilized to improve learning outcomes; and
(b) To develop a better understanding of students’ and educators’ requirements regarding ICT in education and training.

The data collected shows that within their educational institutions and at home, students and early career educators have access to and use a range of technologies for teaching and learning purposes, but in particular, use computers and the Internet. Access and convenience to computers and the Internet within education and training institutions varied for the different respondent groups, according to specific locations, including within their education and training institutions. In general, more use of the computer and Internet for educational purposes is made by students as they progress through the respective levels of education. Participants indicated they use technologies to research information; for communication and group work activities with other students and educators; for solving problems; presenting assignments; and for reflection, planning and for creative purposes.

All cohorts indicated the importance of high quality teachers who form positive
relationships and can construct relevant and engaging learning contexts, with and without technologies. Survey and focus group responses identified the following benefits of including technologies in education and training:

• Access to detailed and easy-to-access information;
• Skill building through problem-solving;
• Development of maths and other literacies;
• Opportunities to practice tasks;
• Increased motivation to learn through self-directed and interest-focused work;
• Improved presentation of work including the use of office productivity and multimedia software applications;
• Personalized learning that supports different learning styles and levels; and
• Increased control of their own learning.

The value of technologies for communication and group work activities was recognised by all cohorts. Tertiary students in particular, indicated they value communication with their lecturers through using technologies such as email and discussion lists. Despite students’ preferences for varying approaches to learning however, many students reported their classroom activities often involve considerable teacher/lecturer information-giving.

Online games and social networking and media sites were reported to be of interest and used frequently by many respondent groups, particularly outside of educational institutions.

Despite some concerns about possible distractions, over half of the respondents from most groups indicated that educational games should be more widely used because of their motivational and educational benefits.

The value of social networking sites for learning received variable responses. MSN was commonly identified as ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’ being used across all groups. Unique to secondary students however, was the extent of their involvement in chatting online with other students in regard to their studies, with over 70% of online survey respondents indicating they did so.

There were mixed responses about the value of Myspace, Instant Messaging, Facebook, Although 50% of primary students reported using MSN for learning, around 70% of primary students indicated they believe sites such as MySpace, Facebook and YouTube are more for fun than for learning, and should be accessed from home rather for from schools.

On the other hand, about half of the post-school, adult respondents disagreed with the younger students. The adult students instead indicated they believe social networking and media sites such as YouTube and Flickr can be used for educational purposes.

All respondents indicated they have high expectations about access to and use of computers and the Internet at various education and training locations and want intranet access from home. Respondents also indicated they expect teachers and lecturers to have confidence in using technologies and to use email to communicate with them.

Across all cohorts concerns were raised about issues related to teaching and learning with technologies. These concerns included insufficient time, lack of access to and use of the Internet, concerns about the speed of the Internet, and concerns about the level of teacher/lecturer skills. These concerns were raised by about half of respondents in most groups, although some issues were identified as being of greater concern for some respondent categories than others.

About a third of adult participants indicated they believe that improving lecturers’ knowledge of online games would improve students’ learning. Over 40% of primary students and 60% of secondary students raised concerns about online sites being blocked at their educational institutions and the impact of this filtering on their studies. Issues such as plagiarizing, distractions in lessons caused by playing games, online bullying, and viruses were raised by some in focus groups. In the surveys, these issues were not seen as a concern by around half of respondents in all groups.

All cohorts emphasized the importance of good relationships and communication between students and educators, and indicated they would like to receive more formative feedback from their teachers and/or lecturers.

Participants also indicated they would like greater variety and more interesting learning approaches, more personalized learning that caters for their individual requirements, and the opportunity for individual help. Importantly however, focus group respondents highlighted the importance of face-to-face teaching aided by technologies, rather than advocating only face-to-face or only online learning. Furthermore, while more up-to-date technology, faster Internet speed, more accessible computers such as laptops, and less blocked Internet sites were suggested by respondents, the quality of the teachers and lecturers was reiterated across all cohorts. The challenges then are before us. ...

From: Listening to Students’ and Educators’ Voices: Research Findings, Associate Professor Kathryn Moyle PhD, University of Canberra and Dr Susanne Owen, Executive Director, Owen Educational Consultancy, for the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2009.

Digital Education Revolution Resources

The Australian Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) has a useful list of Digital Education Revolution Resources. Unfortunately these are on a very poorly designed web page. It is a shame that this excellent work, which is costing Australian tax payers many hundreds of millions of dollars is so poorly presented. A few hours work would make the material far more accessible. The page is headed "Experience the Digital Education Revolution www.digitaleducationrevolution.gov.au". The web address is not linked to a web page and entering that web address manually ends up back on the same page on the DEEWR web site. The list of links to resources on the page do not seem to work. These are supposed to link to further down on the same page, but actually go nowhere. This is unfortunate as the education resources listed are excellent, if you can find them. Many of the materials are in the form of hard to get, hard to read, poorly formatted, large PDF files.An example of this is "Listening to Students’ and Educators’ Voices: Research Findings" which is so poorly formatted that DEEWR offer to mail a printed copy.

• Listening to Students’ and Educators’ Voices: Research Findings
• Digital Education Revolution Fact Sheet – March 2009
• Review of Legitimate and Additional Financial Implications of the National Secondary School Computer Fund
• Better Practice Guide - ICT in Schools
• Cyber-safety in schools
• Exemplar Schools: Using Innovative Learning Technologies Report and Digistories
• Partnerships in Information Communication Technology Learning (PICTL) Report and Case Studies
• Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)
• Australian Information and Communications Technology in Education Committee (AICTEC)
• Council of Australian Governments (COAG)
• Curriculum Corporation
• Education.au
• MCEETYA ICT in Schools Taskforce (ICTST)
• Me.edu.au – through Teacher PD/PD forum
• the Le@rning Federation

Questions about e-Learning

After my presentation at the ANU meeting of educational designers today ("The Gaggle"), I was asked a series of rapid fire questions by an unidentified attendee who was obviously frustrated by the lack of opportunity to ask questions earlier on. He then commented he had Twitted the questions, with the tag Gaggle. This was poetic justice and at the previous event I had become frustrated by the inability to ask my questions and blogged about it. Perhaps these events should adopt the Public Sphere/Barcamp web enhanced technique, but this can take some getting used to for the uninitiated.

Later I was able to find that the Tweets were from Leigh Blackall (leighblackall), who according to his blog, works in Educational Development for the Otago Polytechnic and specialises in developing open educational resources. Here is my attempt to answer his questions more fully:

What if anyone could pick and chose anything from anywhere to make a degree? Why limit it to institutions?

You can pick and choose anything for your education. But it may help to have someone help you pick and choose. That is part of what institutions do. They also provide a form of quality control for you, and for others, to say what you studied and what you did with it was worthwhile. This particularly applies to education for professions which effect on people's lives.

I help educate engineers and other professionals where mistakes can result in causalities, as well large financial loss. The students and society therefore need some assurance they know what they are doing. In the case of the green ICT course we are attempting to help arrest the greenhouse effect. Failure will result in the suffering of millions of people.

It is possible to structure courses which allow for more freedom. My Green ICT course (COMP7310) is part of the ANU Graduate Studies Select program which allows student to pick courses across the university from any discipline. One student is at another Australian university and one works for a Canadian university and is just doing the course for interest.

Exploring a topic with a guide is essentially what is done in Masters and PHD research. This does not happen so much at undergraduate level. But the ANU ICT undergraduates can do projects, where they explore a topic with guidance from a supervisor. But with this freedom comes very hard work and a much higher risk of failure

Some examples of project work from my students are: Semantic Web for Museums and Evaluating Emergency Management Websites. The work on museums has been taken up for building indigenous databases. The work on emergency web sites was studied carefully by the ACT bushfire authorities, but regrettably not by their Victorian counterparts.

An idea expressed by an anti web Guy, design describing researchers adding info to archived artifacts. Um, internet?

Not sure about this one. The ANU is centre for work on how to build e-archives. But a lot of what is in those archives can look frustratingly old fashioned, such as PDF facsimiles of traditional academic papers and books. But it helps to keep that stuff and make it available online, even when conceiving new formats.

One of my students worked on a publishing system for the ACS. This resulted in the IFIP Digital Library. While a useful service, it is frustrating that the content indexed is either in PDF or in a copyright commercial database. The Australian National Data Service is providing access to research data in a more flexible way, with generated maps , for example.

Oh dear, I have very little in common with the ANU experiences

We probably have a lot in common. That may not have come across in this forum.

If I engage with a www network, instead of your closed moodle group, will I fail your little group work assessment?

Yes, the course requires the students to work in the closed Moodle group. This to help teach the students how to work together and to help them teach each other. Also it is to protect the students from the world at large and protect the world from the students.

Some of the students have very little experience, having come from an undergraduate university course at a university. They find discussing a topic difficult, especially a topic new to them. They find it very confronting having to discuss it with people they don't know.

Other students have work experience and are more able to hold an open discussion. However, these students may be working in the field and prohibited by their employer from discussing the topic in public. Some of my students hold positions in governments and corporations and while they can discuss some of their work in a closed university group, they cannot discuss it in public.

Also the partly trained students may be a danger to the public. As an example the students will frequently make mistakes in my course when calculating greenhouse gas emissions. They commonly confuse units of measure, with results which are wrong by orders of magnitude.

Me and my big mouth. I need to try to question less confrontationally.

That is nothing. For real confrontation, try giving a seminar at Cambridge University Computer Lab. I once tried giving a seminar at the lab on security. The group swiftly tired of my general talk and started a very detailed discussion of how they had hacked the British banking system.

ps: Thanks for the questions.

Training Lawyers Online

Greetings from the meeting of educational designers at the Australian National University in Canberra. One interesting presentation is on training Lawyers online. The idea is that the students do a finishing school in a simulated law firm, which makes heavy use of online tools. This is by Jonathan Powles, College of Law: The development of a simulated professional learning environment for law. Apart from the value in improved education, this has proved popular with the students and profitable for the university.

Educational Design in Canberra

The next meeting of educational designers at the Australian National University will be in Canberra, 16 October, 4-6pm. The event is free and open to interested educators from academia, government and industry (please RSVP). I will be giving a brief presentation on my Green ICT masters course, which is delivered without lectures or examinations.

Educational Design at the ANU
GAGGLE Program
4-6pm, 16 October 2009,
Sir Roland Wilson Building, Short Course Room 1 (on the left at the top of the stairs)

The ANU has educational designers, developers and technologists in every
College, each engaged in activities with a College-specific focus. This group meets regularly, but while there are common themes to their work, each area is using a slightly different approach to the issues.

In this session, representatives from each area will speak briefly about their
work, their professional practice, and the current focus of their operational activity. Each speaker will make a 10 minutes presentation, and then there will be a panel discussion about the issues and implications.

Session A: 1 hour

1. Megan Poore, College of Arts and the Social Sciences: New media
literacy in the new knowledge space
2. Aliya Steed / Jonathan Powles, College of Law: The development
of a simulated professional learning environment for law
3. Lauren Kane / Debbie Pioch, College of Engineering and Computer
Science: Online management of course information / CECS and the hubs and spokes project with UniSA
4. James Meek, College of Asia and the Pacific: The Conference
Model (and alternative to lectures) and Hidden Treasures (archival
source material)
5. Paula Newitt, Colleges of Science: Research experiences in the
undergraduate curriculum
6. Deborah Veness, College of Economics and Business: Finding a way
to make standards descriptors useful to a University teacher in the
business disciplines

Session B: 1/2 hour

Each speaker will finish with a provocative question, which will lead
into a group discussion.

Session C: 15-20 minutes

Finally, Tom Worthington will give us a brief presentation on his Green
ICT course, which is delivered without lectures or examinations.


Everyone is welcome, so please pass this invitation on to any of your colleagues not already on the mailing list. Please remind them to let me know if they are coming ... by 12 noon on Thursday.


Deborah Veness | Manager | Education Innovation Office | College of
Business & Economics | The Australian National University | Canberra ACT
0200, Australia

t: 61 (0)2 6125 9504 | e: deborah.veness@anu.edu.au | office: Rm 1136
Copland Building 24

Creativity in teaching and learning

The Australian National University is holding a free teaching forum in Canberra on "Creativity in teaching and learning", 12:30 PM, 7 October 2009. All welcome, but please RSVP:

This semester break, come along to a teaching forum on creativity in teaching and innovation in the academic learning environment.

Professor Mandy Thomas, Pro Vice-Chancellor of The Australian National University will be giving a talk entitled The Senses in Teaching.

Dr Thomas Nielsen, an expert in Imaginative Education, will talk on Emotions, creativity and imagination: keys to a whole person approach to education.

From the Centre for Educational Development and Academic Methods, Stephen Darwin, who works to improve the quality and integration of educational evaluation, will be discussing expansive learning in light of the impact of new technologies and approaches to teaching.

Lunch will be provided, please RSVP by COB Friday 2nd October to vivien.silvey@anu.edu.au
Speaker/Host: Professor Mandy Thomas, Dr Stephen Darwin and Dr Thomas Nielsen
Venue: Forestry Room 1.02, Building 48
Date: Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Enquiries: Vivien Silvey on 6125 2606

From: Creativity in teaching and learning, What's On @ ANU, 2009

Creative Industries Content for the Digital Education Revolution

Public Sphere #3: Australian ICT & Creative Industries Development is now taking place in Wollongong and online. One issue I would like to see addressed is government and industry strategies for the creative industries to be involved in producing content for education, thus providing synergy with the Government's Digital Education Revolution.

Ideally, Australian industry can produce educational content for use in Australian schools, universities and TAFES, and the for use around the world. One problem with this is that the creative industry policies tend to emphasise entertainment and culture, seeing education and not very interesting or profitable. But Australia is spending billions of dollars on equipping schools for computer and Internet assisted education. It would be a shame if all this system delivered was booring and not relivant content from the USA and the UK.

One Laptop per Child at Google Sydney

The monthly talk at the Sydney Linux Users Group (SLUG) this Friday is on the "One Laptop per Child" (OLPC) educational computer for developing nations. The free talk is worth attending even if just to see the venue, which is Google's Sydney office:

General Talk
Mitchell Seaton: The OLPC Battleground

OLPC gears up during the rest of this year with the development of the XO 1.5 laptop, SugarLabs pushes forth with the SoaS (Sugar on a Stick) and Sugar v0.86, and deployments continue around the world. In this talk, Mitchell will discuss the current state of play, future directions and the world-wide support community at the heart of it all. ...

From: SLUG monthly talk August Announcement.

Social inclusion by cooperative e-learning

Greetings from the Australian Collaborative Education Network forum on social inclusion and cooperative education at University of Sydney. I am speaking from my ICT point of view on how to do that with social networking and mobile accessible web design. I have some reinforcement with Doug O'Hara from the ACS Foundation in the audience.

One point which came out is that the Australian Minister for Social Inclusion is also the Deputy PM, Minister for Education and Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations. This should make it easier to apply social inclusion principles in the education and workplace.

One of the other panellists is an Indian ICT graduate who related his experience in first staying in an Australian country town. This was a mirror image to my experience in staying in an Indian village, he was worried by the spare population, whereas it was the crowd which unsettled me.

Australian institutions can learn from others. As an example Professor Uma Kanjilal, Director of the School of Social Sciences, Indira Gandhi Open University (IGNOU), visited some weeks ago and talked about the problems of scale in her institution.

Another issues which came up was defining graduate attributes. This is an area I am working up a research proposal for in the business end of computing (information studies). My solutions for this may not be popular with elite universities, as it would involve building on the work which professional bodies have done in defining what skills practitioners need and the work the vocation education sector has done in carefully describing their courses. This may involve some loss of autonomy by the universities. Anyone interested in being involved, please let me know.

Implementing ICT in Australian education and training

Education.au has produced a series of reports for Australian Government on the use of technology for education. There is "strategic ICT advisory service 2009:key messages" giving an overview and summary of recommendations. Unfortunately like the individual reports, this is a hard to find, hard to read PDF document. At 15 pages the key messages document is a bit long. I have extracted the recommendations below. Education.au needs to provide a web page with a guide to their material, not longer than two A4 pages, with hypertext links.

While it might still be necessary to produce a couple of pretty looking printed copies of such reports for PR proposes, these are a waste of time and money for actual practical use. Government policy makers have entered the digital age and are capable of using web pages. It is not necessary to give them electronic documents in PDF format which closely mimic paper reports.

In my policy development work I have found that if you provide policy advisers easy to read simply formatted electronic material, your recommendations are more likely to adopted. This is because the busy advisers can more easily understand what you are proposing and if they like it, can simply copy and paste from your document into their report. In contrast Education.au's PDF reports are hard to read on screen and can't easily be copied from.

One of the lessons from the success of the Internet is that the use of this technology comes from actually using it. Education.au have written an excellent set of recommendations, but have not really taken them to heart by providing them using the technology they are recommending be used. Education.au needs to lead by example, if they want their recommendations to be credible.

Summary of recommendations

The SICTAS project

Education.au was commissioned by the Australian Government’s Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) to undertake the Strategic ICT Advisory Service (SICTAS) project during the 2008 – 09 financial year.

The purpose of SICTAS was to provide DEEWR with strategic advice to assist policy makers in the development of policy and programs to support the implementation of ICT in Australia’s education and training sectors.

The SICTAS project was commissioned as a response to the complex environment in which policy makers are currently working. The environment is made complex by a range of factors including Australia’s political structure of cooperative federalism, the range of approaches required to address the needs of multiple sectors within education and training, and the rapidly changing technological environment.

Education.au developed a program for the SICTAS project that incorporated a range of inter-related activities. These activities were designed to respond to DEEWR’s requirements for advice relating to the implementation of ICT across all education and training sectors, and to engage with stakeholders in the sectors, both through providing avenues for them to contribute to the thinking underpinning the investigative research program and through publishing and broadly promoting the findings.

SICTAS activities included the following:

• an investigative research program that delivered five published reports on topics, including
  • ICT in collaborative teaching and learning
  • site-blocking of Web 2.0 tools and services
  • national software infrastructure with an emphasis on gaining the most benefit for education and training from Web 2.0 tools and services
  • professional learning for in-service teachers in schools
  • e-portfolios as lifelong learning and career development tools beyond education and training
• a think tank program that engaged leading thinkers across the education and training sectors, incorporating online discussion and a national symposium
• a report on emerging technologies that synthesised the findings of the investigative research program and the think tank around the implications of new and emerging technologies for
  • learning and learners
  • professional learning
  • infrastructure for supporting implementation of ICT in education and training
• two short papers, referred to as hot topics, that provided information on issues arising during the course of the project including
  • a set of case studies to build a model of characteristics of successful ICT support for the implementation of ICT in schools and VET
  • a review of the approach to embedding the use of ICT in teacher training for pre-service teachers.

...

Summary of recommendations

Collaboration in teaching and learning

The Collaboration in teaching and learning report, focused on collaborative learning as it relates to ICT.

Collaborative learning is a broad term for educational approaches involving joint intellectual effort by students, or students and teachers together. Considerable evidence has been found for its educational benefits, and the success factors required to support it have been identified.

This investigation finds that effective collaborative learning using ICT is dependent on services and skills that are not specific to collaborative learning, but are essential for the provision of ICT in
education more generally. The report provides a number of recommendations that focus on leveraging from the considerable investment by the Australian Government in ICT for education and training to provide benefits across all sectors and to support the delivery of education options to disenfranchised groups such as remote and regional users.

Recommendations

Provide access to post-secondary education options for remote and regional users leveraging the investments being made through the schools-focused DER and existing broadband initiatives.

Extend the digital education revolution concept to the VET and University sectors.

Task a national body to work through national partnerships to reduce fragmentation of effort, and making best use of the investments made in ICT in education at a broad level, and collaborative learning in particular.

Embed new media literacy skills into Australia’s national curriculum in a consistent way independent of specific technologies.

Web 2.0 site blocking in schools

The rapid emergence of Web 2.0 has presented the education and training sectors with a dilemma. On the one hand, Web 2.0 tools and services provide rich opportunities to improve student learning by significantly contributing to personalised, collaborative learning and supporting the development of internet literacy. On the other hand, teachers and school policy makers face a number of challenges in regard to effective use of Web 2.0 in teaching and learning, ranging from lack of teacher knowledge, confidence and expertise in the use of Web 2.0 tools and ervices to the inflexibility of site blocking policies and systems.

The Web 2.0 site blocking in schools report investigates current practices across schools with relation to site blocking and makes a number of recommendations related to the role of the Australian Government in policy development and implementation and in the establishment of national collaboration to showcase and share best practice in the development of tools and techniques in Web 2.0-aware content filtering, tools and safe access to rich media content.

Recommendations

Establish a national collaboration to identify, promote and share best practice in the development and implementation of Web 2.0-style collaborative online learning policies within schools.
Establish a national collaboration to showcase and share tools and techniques in Web 2.0-aware content filtering, tools and safe access to rich media content.

Towards a 21st Century national software infrastructure for education

This investigation builds upon the Collaboration in teaching and learning and Web 2.0 site blocking in schools reports and provides a picture of the essential elements of national software infrastructure for education and training.

An overarching focus of the SICTAS project has been on the need for a culture that embraces and seeks to benefit from ongoing technological change. Accordingly, the Towards a 21st Century national software infrastructure for education report emphasises infrastructure that supports and enables the integration of Web 2.0 tools and services and new and emerging
technologies ongoing.

The Towards a 21st Century National Software Infrastructure for Education report provides an analysis of current national infrastructure and identifies gaps and opportunities for integration of existing services and projects. The recommendations are focused on the three key elements of national software infrastructure – software services, interoperability standards, and governance, leadership and operations.

Recommendations

Add support for learner-centric identity and collaboration services to the existing national software infrastructure.

• Commence trials to inform the development of integration of strong authenticated trust services (as currently provided by the Australian Access Federation) with Web 2.0 user-centric identity and social networking services.
• Extend the Australian Access Federation (AAF) into a national cross-sectoral service for Trust, Identity and Access Control.

Commence trials to inform development of a national Web 2.0-enabled collaborative interoperability service.

Develop an ongoing national collaborative capability to sustain and enhance the national software infrastructure in a rapidly changing technology environment.

Teacher professional learning: Planning for change

...

The investigation into teacher professional learning for in-service teachers looked at the challenges for schools in integrating ICT into teaching and learning, and was informed by input from one of the tankettes. The report includes case studies of four schools (including public and private, primary and secondary) which are addressing the challenges of providing appropriate professional learning for teachers to encourage an integrated approach to using ICT with their students.

The Teacher professional learning: Planning for change report states that professional learning for teachers needs to be supported by the establishment and maintenance of ICT standards in schools for both students and teachers and makes recommendations that indicate the importance of the Australian Government’s role in developing a national approach in this area.

The report also recommends the development of a national strategy for professional learning, citing the example of LearnScope, the professional learning program for the VET sector administered through the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework).

Recommendations

That the Australian Government take a leadership role in collaboration with the jurisdictions to develop a national professional learning strategy for schools, based on sound research into good practice school improvement. That this strategy frames the Australian Government's support for ICT-
related professional learning.

That the Australian Government takes a leadership role, through the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority and in collaboration with the states and territories, to develop
and maintain ICT standards in schools. The standards should build on existing state, territory and other jurisdiction plans and provide a common language and direction for the integration of ICT in the school curriculum.

That the Australian Government take a leadership role, in partnership with other education authorities and entities, in implementing and maintaining the ICT competency framework for teachers as described in the Raising the Standards18 report. A key component of the described framework is teacher standards.

The Government should task AICTEC, through its advisory bodies, to develop teacher ICT standards for:

• pre-service teachers
• practising teachers
• school leaders
• teacher educators.

E-portfolios beyond education and training

A large amount of work has already been and is currently being undertaken around the use of e-portfolios within education and training. This investigation has sought to provide insight into use of e-portfolios in Australia’s current economic climate, where policy makers are challenged regarding how best to support and manage Australia’s workforce.

E-portfolios arguably become most important as they are used to help prepare and support transitions. These may be transitions within educational settings, between education and employment (and vice versa), or changes in employment status.

The E-portfolios beyond education and training report provides case studies of a number of international examples of the use of e-portfolios to assist people in the workforce and in career development. It makes recommendations that include enhancing current national infrastructure to enable Australians to use an e-portfolio to enhance career development, lifelong learning, and
workforce participation.

Recommendations

Expand Myfuture to include the following:

• the types of e-portfolio services offered by Careers Wales
• features that address labour market adjustment issues, particularly the needs of workers dealing with unemployment and trying to get back into the workforce
• multiple user interfaces to support different audiences
• appropriate communications tools for collaborative reflection in professional development.

Fund e-portfolio trials in areas of particular relevance to Australia.
Fund interoperability trials between the recommended ‘Myfuture’ e-portfolio and existing Australian institutional e-portfolios.

Annual report on emerging technologies: planning for change

The Annual report on emerging technologies: Planning for change report is the culmination of SICTAS’ investigative research program. It incorporates and extends the recommendations made in the preceding reports and includes strategies and actions that support the recommendations.

The work of this report is informed by the tankettes, the symposium and submissions from invited peak bodies.

Extensive research is already available into particular technologies through such projects as Horizon. Accordingly, the Annual report on emerging technologies: Planning for change focuses on the implications of continuous and rapid technological change for learning and learners, for professional learning and educators, and for national infrastructure and policy makers.

The report’s recommendations highlight the Australian Government’s crucial role in providing strong and visionary leadership and coordinating development of policy and programs to support the integration of ICT in education and training. The focus is on how to leverage extensive work at national and jurisdictional levels to provide benefits for all users of education and training across Australia.

Recommendations

Implement an ICT in teaching and learning continuum so that learners’ new media literacy skills and abilities are augmented as they move through the education sectors.

Task a national body to support national collaborative partnerships to reduce fragmentation of effort, and make best use of the existing and future investments made in ICT.

Commit to providing ongoing resourcing and funding to maintain, sustain and enhance a technology rich environment for the education and training sector.

Develop and implement a national approach to software infrastructure that minimises the barriers to effective use and sharing of resources, and maximises access.

Address the complications of Australian copyright law in a way that encourages sharing and exchange of resources in the education and training sector, including the implementation of Creative Commons across Australian education and training.

That the Australian Government take a leadership role in collaboration with jurisdictions, sectors and educational institutions to develop a national professional learning strategy based on sound research into good practice.

The Australian Government take a leadership role, in partnership with other education authorities and entities, in implementing and maintaining the ICT competency framework for teachers as described in the ‘Raising the Standards’ report, but look to apply this to teachers in each of the education sectors.

A key component of the described framework is teacher standards. The Government should undertake to task AICTEC, through its advisory bodies to develop teacher ICT standards for:

• Pre-service teachers
• Practicing teachers
• School leaders
• Teacher educators
• VET teachers
• University teachers.

Hot topics

The SICTAS project team undertook two rapid response papers on issues arising during the course of the project. The reports provided some directions for the future.

Hot topic: ICT teaching and learning support services

This report uses a series of case studes to develop a dynamic and responsive ICT service model that attends to the day-to-day user demands and the ever-changing ICT environment, but at the same time, maintains standards and security.

Conclusions

The essential and interrelated components of this model are:

1. Sound governance: the ICT unit is represented in and accountable to the highest level of management in the organisation.
2. User-centred culture: the ICT unit adopts a responsive service-oriented mode of operation, following ITIL standards.
3. ICT staff competence: ICT staff are selected on the basis of their competency and capacity to embrace change.
4. Robust infrastructure: the infrastructure is stable, secure, reliable and modular, to enable growth with ever-increasing levels of demand.
5. Open and flexible adoption of software applications: Open Source technologies are critically evaluated and embraced where appropriate.
6. Secure Internet access.
7. Robust and responsive technical operations: central to this is an online and phone help service desk to manage help requests.
8. Vigorous user digital literacy training and mentoring: a continuous, decentralised and highly targeted training regime.
9. Robust communication.
10. Sound performance measures: the performance of the ICT is reviewed regularly against an agreed set of standards and resources allocated accordingly.

Hot topic: ICT in pre-service teacher training

This hot topic investigated the current experience of student teachers in applying ICT in pedagogy, any barriers to using technology at University, challenges in the practicum and ways to improve their experience of ICT in their pre-service.

Conclusions

The evidence presented in this paper strongly points to fundamental systemic flaws in the pre-service teacher education system in Australia in terms of developing teacher competence in embedding ICTs in pedagogy and practice.

The report proposed future directions related to

• a suite of virtual world schools as teaching and learning simulation environments
• individual on-line identities
• e-portfolios
• research and infrastructure
• accreditation and registration
• private sector engagement. ...

From: "strategic ICT advisory service 2009: key messages", Education.au, 2009

Reports on ICT and education from Education.au]

Here are some of the recent reports from Education.au as part of its Strategic ICT Advisory Service for the Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). These reports are intended for senior policy advisors in Australian Governments. The reports are likely to be of interest to educators as well. Unfortunately each report is written as a standalone PDF document, making them harder to use:

1. Annual Report on Emerging Technologies: Planning for Change
2. Towards at 21^st Century Software Infrastructure for Education
3. Eportfolios beyond education and training
4. Teacher Professional Learning: Planning for Change

Hi Tech Green Jobs and Computer based Skills Training as part of Rudd Plan

Yesterday the Prime Minister, announced "50,000 New Green Jobs and Green Skills Training Places for a Stronger Greener Australian Economy". I suggest that the government expand the scheme for the high technology green jobs which will be needed. This could include Green ICT Jobs and could make use of computer based training using the infrastructure which the government is already putting in place as part of its digital education revolution. As a part of this, the government could fund the Australian Computer Society and the Australian National University to expand the Green ICT courses already provided (GIT and COMP7310), into the vocational education sector, with online courses to make young people work ready. Courses can also be modularised to allow them to be delivered as part of broader education programs.

The Rudd Government today announced 50,000 new green jobs and training opportunities to build a stronger and greener Australian economy.

This $94 million investment in Australia’s future and major reform of Australia’s training system will help support jobs and communities being hit by the local consequence of a severe global recession.

Today’s announcements will ensure that during these tough times up to 50,000 young or disadvantaged Australians get the skills and training they will need for the green jobs of tomorrow.

Reforming Australia’s training system to produce high quality green skills is essential to meet the growing demand for energy efficient homes and buildings, and to power the industries of the future.

The separate elements in today’s green skills announcement are:

· 10,000 member National Green Jobs Corps – long term unemployed youth will take part in 26 weeks of green job training and work experience.

· 30,000 apprentices trained with new Green Skills –tradies will complete their training with practical job ready green skills.

· 4,000 training places for insulation installers – to help long term unemployed or disadvantaged people into the workforce through extra training and short term - stimulus funded - insulation installation jobs.

· 6,000 new local green jobs - 6,000 new jobs contributing to environmental sustainability in priority local economies.

10,000 Member National Green Jobs Corps

The National Green Jobs Corps is a 26-week environmental training program that over two years will enable 10,000 18-24 year-olds gain job-ready skills.

This will provide 10,000 out of work young Australians with the opportunity to gain work experience and green skills for future jobs.

There are currently around 10,000 young Australians between school leaving age and age 24 who have been out of work for more than 12 months.

These young Australians will be able to join the National Green Jobs Corps to meet their participation obligations for Youth Allowance or Newstart.

The National Green Jobs Corps activities would include:

• Bush regeneration and planting native trees
• Wildlife and fish habitat protection
• Walking and nature track construction/restoration; and
• Training and hands on experience in the installation of energy efficiencies for buildings.

The Government’s Compact with Young Australians requires that young people must be earning or learning to receive the support of the Government.

The National Green Jobs Corps will compliment the Compact.

30,000 apprentices trained with new Green Skills

To ensure all young tradies in Australia possess the green skills of the future, the Commonwealth will negotiate a new National Green Skills Agreement.

This Agreement will make practical sustainability training a fundamental part of all vocational training programs.

With the support of industry and State and Territory Governments this Agreement will ensure all our future tradies will possess practical job ready green skills.

The Government expects that every new trade apprentice who commences their training after 1 January 2010 will graduate with a core set of green skills and knowledge as part of their training.

This Agreement will lead to national sustainability standards in vocational training.

It will speed up the re-writing of training packages to include these green skills.

And it will require VET instructors and teachers to build on the skills they already have and acquire new skills to train the apprentices of the future.

Over the next two years 30,000 apprentices in sectors such as building and construction; agriculture and forestry; mining and energy; water; transport; manufacturing and engineering will graduate with competencies in green skills.

The practical green skills involved in this training could include:

· Training electricians in smart heating and cooling technologies

· Training plumbers in water recycling and water efficiency

· Training mechanics in green car engines

The national Agreement will be supported by the Rudd Government’s investment of close to $900 mil in TAFE and vocational education infrastructure in 2009-10 alone.

4,000 training places for Insulation installers

To help long term and disadvantaged unemployed people transition into permanent jobs, 4,000 additional training places will be available to workers installing ceiling insulation, or job seekers wanting an insulation job.

The ceiling insulation program is linked to the Energy Efficient Homes Initiative, which is a key element of the Government’s economic stimulus measures.

The Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Master Builders Association, the Housing Industry Association, the National Employment Services Association and with the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union to link disadvantaged job seekers with Energy Efficient Homes package jobs.

To get unemployed people into these jobs, and also turn these short term jobs into long term careers, 2,000 additional Apprenticeship Access places and 2,000 extra pre-vocational training places in language, literacy and numeracy will be provided for low skilled and disadvantaged workers in the Initiative.

The Government has also asked Job Services Australia providers to identify job seekers who can be part of the home insulation industry and refer them to registered training organisations so they can complete the basic training – paid for by Government – and start work quickly.

6,000 new local green jobs

The Government’s local jobs component of its Jobs Fund will also be used to fund an estimated 6,000 new local jobs contributing to environmental sustainability in priority local economies.

These jobs could include:

• Revegetating bushland

• Constructing a boardwalk over vulnerable wetland

• Retrofitting energy efficient lighting and plumbing

The Jobs Fund has been set up to fund immediate jobs in local communities hardest hit by unemployment caused by the global recession.

SYDNEY

30 JULY 2009
PRESS OFFICE (02) 6277 77 44

Tags:

• Media Release,
• Education, Skills & Training,
• Employment & Industrial Relations,
• Environment & Resource Management

From: 50,000 New Green Jobs and Green Skills Training Places for a Stronger Greener Australian Economy, Media Release, Prime Minister of Australia, 30 July 2009

Social inclusion and cooperative education programs with ICT

The Australian Collaborative Education Network is having a forum on social inclusion and cooperative education at University of Sydney, 20 August 2009. I will be speaking on how to do that with social networking and mobile accessible web design.

ACEN NSW/ACT Forum
August 20th 2009

University of Sydney, Room 214/215 Economics and Business Building (building code H69)
Map: http://db.auth.usyd.edu.au/directories/map/building.stm?location=18S
RSVP: Jill Kelton <http://www.econ.usyd.edu.au/staff/jillk>

9.45 - 10.30 ACEN Business meeting
Agenda: TBC
10.30 - 11.00 MORNING TEA
11.00 - 12.30 Panel discussion

Making "social inclusion" a focus when creating opportunities for participation in cooperative education programs

Panel members:

• Barbara Holland, ProVC engagement University of Western Sydney
• Tom Worthington, adjunct lecturer ANU, former President Australian Computer Society
• Mark Lazaroo, Senior Consultant, Employer network on Disability (TBC)
• Student, co-op program UTS (TBC)

12.30 -1.30 LUNCH* Royal Hotel, Darlington - please come along if you can stay.

Australian E-portfolio Plan

A "VET E-portfolio Roadmap: A strategic roadmap for e-portfolios to support lifelong learning" (640 kbytes PDF, 16 June 2009) has been released by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. This provides a useful 26 page overview of what electronic portfolios are, how they are useful in education and how they can be applied in Australia. Unfortunately AFLF published the plan as a difficult to read PDF document, rather than web format (excerpts appended).

AFLF is a state and federal funded body to support e-learning and has issued a call for participation in a VET E-portfolios Showcase in October 2009. Unfortunately the VET and higher education sectors are not coordinating their e-learning initiatives in Australia, with the federal government funding the wasted duplicated effort resulting from this. This is mostly the fault of the universities, who have difficulty accepting that the TAFEs are more advanced in e-learning than the universities are. This is dispite some reports recommended cooperation, such as QUT's "AeP ePortfolio Project - Final Project Report" (August 2008) which said something similar from the university point of view. This creates problems for organisations, such as ACS, which are involved in both vocational and masters level postgraduate education.

Contents
Section 1: Introduction 1
What is an e-portfolio? 2
Why are e-portfolios important to VET learners? 2
What is an e-portfolio system? 3
Activities or processes for a VET e-portfolio system 4
A reference model for VET e-portfolio systems 4
Section 2: VET E-portfolio Roadmap goals 6
Section 3: VET E-portfolio Roadmap key outputs 8
3.1 National guidelines for VET managers of learner information 8
3.2 Functional specifi cations for e-portfolio system implementers and developers 9
3.3 Strategies for embedding e-portfolios into VET 9
Section 4: VET E-portfolio Roadmap implementation strategy 10
Roadmap implementation strategy 10
Section 5: Getting involved 14
The role of jurisdictions and RTOs 14
For more information 15
Appendix 1: Summary of the VET E-portfolio Roadmap 16
Appendix 2: Key national policy drivers 19
Appendix 3: Defi nition of e-portfolio system services 21 ...

Appendix 1: Summary of the VET E-portfolio Roadmap

Portability
Goal 1: Enable portable e-portfolios and associated content to effectively support learner transitions and lifelong learning.

Requirements: A learner should be able to access and develop their e-portfolio throughout their lifelong learning journey. This will require them to be able to move their e-portfolio between various e-portfolio systems.

Strategy: A technical method for associating competencies, employability skills and other relevant frameworks/classifi cations to e-portfolio content/evidence will be investigated and recommended for the VET sector.

Import/export functional requirements for e-portfolio systems will be recommended and agreed nationally.

The use of a VET person profi le to facilitate the portability of e-portfolios which is interoperable with specifi cations such as auEduPerson8 specifi cation will be investigated.

Verification
This roadmap was commissioned by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework’s national E-portfolio business activity1
in 2008 to assist in the development of work to suppsaining system.

Goal 2: Enable electronic verifi cation of educational qualifi cations, membership of professional associations or trade/occupational licensing information.

Requirements: The ability to electronically verify evidence will help to streamline applications for employment, course admissions and recognition of prior learning processes.

Strategy: Existing systems for validating claims including Qualsearch9, Purple Passport10 and Digitary11 will be evaluated for their potential suitability in an Australian VET context. The Australian Graduation Statement for Higher Education and European Diploma Supplement will also be considered as part of this investigation.

Privacy
Goal 3: Ensure that personal data is protected and under the control of the e-portfolio owner.

Requirements: There are legal requirements for privacy which, along with agreements on ownership of content, need to be clearly articulated and addressed in e-portfolio implementations.

Strategy: Generic legal advice will be sought regarding privacy issues and the roles and responsibilities associated with the delivery of e-portfolio services.

Information and advice on privacy and ownership policies will be researched and guidelines for RTOs and developers of e-portfolio systems. This information will be based on best and emerging
practice in this area and use-cases illustrating common issues and scenarios will be provided.

Ownership
Goal 4: Ensure key stakeholders, including e-portfolio owners (learners) and organisations hosting e-portfolios systems, understand their copyright and intellectual property (IP)
obligations.

Requirements: Copyright and IP considerations can affect the access and usage rights for a range of different types of e-portfolio content.

Strategy: Guidelines concerning the management of copyright and IP in e-portfolio implementation will be developed for the VET sector. In particular:

• guidelines on licensing of materials and usage of third party materials
• guidelines on appropriae content.

The E-portfolio business activity will monitor relevant developments such as Creative Commons Australia, in particular ccLearn initiatives.12

Access control
Goal 5: Enable effective authentication methods for third parties seeking access to sensitive personal information.

Requirements: Effective digital security facilitates learners’ privacy rights under law, allowing only authorised access to protected content and services.

Strategy: A set of representative VET use-cases for identity, authentication and access control will be developed based on further stakeholder consultations. Although focused on e-portfolios, an identity framework for the VET sector will need to be broader in scope.

A trial of a user-centric identity framework approach such as OpenID or Information Cards will be undertaken.

The sector will also need to engage in related activities such as the higher education sector, auEduPerson and the work of the schools sector in developing a localised version of the SIF data model13 to form a common agreement on data attributes for students. (see actions under Portability above).

Guidance and support for RTOs implementing e-portfolio systems will be provided.

Infrastructure
Goal 6: Advocate the availability of suffi cient web connectivity, appropriate access devices, and suffi cient digital infrastructure.
Requirements: Access to appropriate infrastructure is required to support widespread adoption of e-portfolios within the sector.

Strategy: Infrastructure requirements for learners, e-portfolios and e-portfolio systems to support lifelong learning will be communicated to RTOs, jurisdictions and federal government (including the Digital Education Revolution initiative) and other relevant stakeholders.

Storage
Goal 7: Establish a shared understanding of storage issues and requirements for e-portfolios in VET.

Requirements: Storage agreements need to take into account that some e-portfolio content will be stored in the e-portfolio system, whilst some content will be stored in other systems or on the
internet.

Strategy: Guidance on storage of digital content for e-portfolios will be developed and agreed upon. This guidance will be informed by a number of key resources including higher education
sector’s Australian E-portfolio Project’s e-portfolio toolkit14 and JISC e-portfolio15 resources. It will be aimed at balancing the needs of learners, RTOs and the requirement for longevity of
e-portfolios.

Guidelines on supporting the longevity requirements for e-portfolios will be developed.

Embedding
Goal 8: Establish a strategic approach to developing effective e-portfolio practice.

Requirements: The uptake of e-portfolios as a teaching, learning and recognition tool needs to be accompanied through professional development, adequate business structures and support.

Strategy: The Framework’s E-portfolio business activity will play a central role in supporting the establishment and facilitation of communities of practice to provide assistance, dissemination of
information and a mentoring role for new users.

The business activity will also seek FLAG16 and AICTEC17 support to advocate the establishment of a cross sectoral working/reference group that focuses on issues such as policy, professional learning, standards and advocacy at national level to support a standards-based approach to e-portfolios across the sectors.

Transitions
Goal 9: Promote e-portfolio good practice which supports learner transitions and key national policy drivers such as RPL (recognition of prior learning) and fast-tracking apprenticeships.

Requirements: E-portfolios provide a means for presenting a variety of evidence from formal and informal learning environments which have been acquired through workplace and life-wide experiences.

Strategy: Pilot projects within the VET sector will be encouraged to further develop an understanding of the technical and policy requirements of learner transitions.

The COAG RPL community will be engaged to ensure e-portfolios support RPL processes. ...

From: "VET E-portfolio Roadmap: A strategic roadmap for e-portfolios to support lifelong learning", Australian Flexible Learning Framework, 16 June 2009