Info around student software purchase opportunity.

Hi fellows.
I noticed on the Unitec Nest the following  advertisment.

http://www.unitec.ac.nz/?6A60E52D-145E-6A3C-469B-3581E8F3B209

Check it out.
I know some of you are interested in MS software such as; MS Powerpoint , MS Project etc...

Moodle Te Puna Ako - Learning Centre: helps with reading and report writing

I encourage students to use the tools in this site as a means to more fully understand and respond to the readings I set you to undertake.

The readings I set you are to give you more background and knowledge "up front" so that discussions are often based around a prior knowledge, both from your experiences as people and new knowledge as learners.

Last week in the Theory session I set you all the challenge/task of reading the "Temporary and Permanent Mould frames" chapter of the Gougeon Bros on Boat Construction text book (Course required reading).
I expect you all to Blog a report on your views of this reading. This Blog post may then be used (or parts of it if you prefer) in your portfolio of evidence for the "Small Craft Build" course.

A very good resource to help with this task is:.

http://moodle.unitec.ac.nz/course/view.php?id=360

I am happy to open this site up for debate and exploration during our next Theory session (Wednesday)

Small Craft progress

Progress is slow, but I'm determined that critical thinking should be given a chance to happen within the context of a practical workshop environment.

I'm being a little more hands on at present to help 'bring work on' a little more.

I can see some disappointment around the progress and quality.

I would rather see some mistakes and reality checks now than later in the course.

We have a week up our sleeves, but need to be really committed to success from here on in.

The finished Dory in the photo may inspire the guys to come to grips with thinking out the thwart design and look at the rollock block design. Hmmm.





The student Blog posts have been fantastic as a reference to student understanding when marking their googl-doc portfolios.

I think the Trade Term Wiki needs a rethink to be more effective.
Building its' use around set readings may be the answer? Hmmm... more on this later.

Marking of Intro to Boat (in -prog)

I'm in the process of marking student Introduction to Boatbuilding e-portfoilio's produced in google-docs.
I'm really pleased with what I'm seeing.
As usual however I decided to place the feedback AND the marking criteria and grade into each students' google doc.

This (I thought) was going well.
Upon having a conversation or two today, I realise I'd better have another think about the process.
Oh the woes of a 'digital immigrant'. At times I feel more akin to an 'ignorant digit-ist'.
I guess I'll get it right in the end.

I have high hopes that as the wairaka.com system is opened up fully we might be able to better setup resources as templates and avoid re-learning items of little moment.

I've still got some time to mark.
Other pressures on me as a learner are taking there toll and time is compressing. "See" students  I have exactly the same issues of 'time being a measure of work' that you all do.
Guess it's time to prioritise again.

'Intro to Boatbuilding' Portfolios received via Googledocs

Well it has been good to go online and have the chance to give feedback as the rush for all students' to make the due date, has meant most have been online during the day and well into the night.
Hours can evaporate when viewing these activities online with some in some good discussions and distance communications.
I even had some text chats inside the googledocs as students worked. (synchronous communication) I was able to leave some (hopefully) timely comments for students' that were not online at the time of my viewing (asynchronous) and had an occasion to have a  google video chat with a student. (poor web cam my end cut the visuals short).

I've had comment from students' during our F2F contract practical work thanking me for comments to help prompt full coverage of content needed for the portfolio. This is very gratifying. A thank you is always nice to receive.

Your welcome!

It does throw some light on the fact that my working hours will need to be negotiated with Unitec (the policy for working at home is a little stiff)

I had one of Matts' students still using googledoc's as his word processor and during a (synchronous) chat inside his googledoc he stated that he was told by matt to hand his work in 'Hardcopy'.
This however didn't prevent us from having some discussion which hopefully gave the student some guidance.

Most work that I have seen is of good to very good quality.

Project Management

Hi team.
I recognise that there is a reluctance to use 'open proj' web 2.0 tools for project timelines etc... there is also a difficulty in using ms project as some of you have trouble getting access to this programme away from Unitec.

I've been looking at some of the google doc free web 2.0 templates and have found the following.
perhaps you could give me some feedback as to how useful you see them being?
It may be a means to an ends for us.

https://docs.google.com/previewtemplate?id=0As3tAuweYU9QcHlVM3hrY2tocEkwaDJhS0JPUzA1WUE&mode=public


https://docs.google.com/previewtemplate?id=0As3tAuweYU9QcHlVM3hrY2tocEkwQ3J4NE44aVBxZVE&mode=public

Google Docs stuff

Turtle asked how to wrap text around a picture inserted into your portfolio google doc.

here is a link that may help.

http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2010/07/tips-tricks-using-images-in-google.html

Fantastic discussions are happening inside the google docs as the time available before portfolio due date.

Thanks Leon for uploading some more photos into picasa.

Blooms Taxonomy (Terrific Matrix)

The below Blooms Taxonomy is set out in a very clever transparent and user friendly manner.
It should help students to understand the staging of their learning. You may recognise which step you are on.

http://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/RevisedBlooms1.html