FLP Prezi

Here it is... I look forward to expanding on it somewhat on Monday.

Take off to anaesthesia!

Enjoy!

Activity 11 - Indigenous learners

Inclusivity for Maori...

• First thing that springs to mind and is relatively "easy" to implement is some te reo... though being a perfectionist, I'd have to get a speaker to check the details for me.
• Second thing, is the information about the 4 aspects of Te Whare Tapa Wha. By ensuring these are securely in place, can only enhance likelihood of success in our "western" system of learning.
• It is interesting, is it not, that the cognitive part of these processes is that last part that falls into place - so there's a need to sort out all the other ducks into their lines before trying to foist learning on our indigenous learners.
• the four apects of which I speak:
• spiritual
• physical
• social and lastly 
• emotional (or cognitive)

If delivered by distance, adhering to tikaka is a little more difficult - but what we do do already is welcome our students to class (or first block course) and then break for shared kai. Last year a student responded to our welcome!

Challenges faced and how this affected learning...

We had a wonderful student in class last year - all 6foot 4 inches of her. Beautiful and lovely to boot. She struggled with literacy - we got her assessed, used SSS to help out, got a dictaphone, and when she went AWOL after failing a closed book assessment, the team at VN and SSS did heaps to bring her back. Which we did - and didn't she do well?

She got AWESOME feedback from her placement, and turned up at Graduation telling me she wanted to be an anaesthetic technician (it was the anaesthesia CBA she struggled with.) Fab.

What did we do differently for her than other learners?? Probably nothing... isn't this largely what we'd do for any student?

It wasn't her being Maori, that made learning difficult... it was just her. Or was it?? Maybe her Te Whare Tapa Wha's weren't in order??

Approaches Used

My theory around 18-21 year olds that are a minority group, is that lots just want to be part of the crowd... so my approach is to approach with caution. 

Just because they have brown skin and a whakapapa does not mean they "want" to identify as Maori. See the bit in the media files about how an ID will be adopted and the new world vs old world positions.

This is not to  say that I encourage this - but that this may be the reality for some of our learners. So don't blow their cover, but be there to support in anyway that can be helpful.

Other bits - we discourage eating and learning, I don't' sit on tables, do a welcome and Kai to start the year, and moreover - I am open to any needs that may arise during the year, from any group of learners...

Activity 10: Sustainable Flexible Learning

1. How can you become a more sustainable practitioner?
Balance: this is the word that springs to mind when thinking about how to become a more sustainable practitioner. 
A balance of lots of things:

• individual sustainability
• for me
• knowing how much flexibility and availability for all and sundry is sustainable for me, and what is not. Covered this before.
• working out and implementing ways of being more sustainable requires input for course development
• using existing ideas and OPEN EDUCATION RESOURCES to manage these new requirements
• for students
• thoughts from the article around over-lenght course materials and disengagement of learners
• being careful that if material is added to a course that it is accessible, readable, engaging, relevant, achievable and therefore sustainable for learners. 
• this excerpt from Lockwood rang true - and I think this is a reality of too many options and resources. Just overwhelming, rather than helpful. A down side of offering too many choices for how to learn???

"Furthermore, studies elsewhere have demonstrated that students employ a cost benefit analysis model (Lockwood, 1992) as they balance the benefits offered by the various course components against the costs they are likely to incur. The consumption of study time is regarded as a major cost. The skipping of set readings, and failure to respond to associated activities, to contribute to discussion boards, and to ignore whole parts of the course in an attempt to save time, not only detracts from both the scope of their learning and its quality but also contributes to feelings of inadequacy. It results in a poor learning experience."            Lockwood, 2005

• local sustainability
• reducing consumables in teaching(eg using recyclable scrub brushes, recycling practise bandaging materials)
• providing alternative resources like media files rather than the real deal, to limit repeated use of resources (eg post-mortem video cf dead animal)

• global sustainability
• balancing how much we can do, with the realities of living in 2012 - does knowing the big picture just make it too hard and cause disengagement? (eg carbon and tipping point issues; peak oil and energy constraints)

2. What sort of learning and teaching strategies meet your philosophy of sustainability?
In my view sustainable learning is largely based around the idea, that rather than providing all the answers and ticking all the boxes of every concept and detail (whether this be around traditional sustainability or educational susstanability), that we produce graduates that can problem solve: they know where to get the information, or how to look for information AND then can critique what they find. Life-long learners. 

Happily, it seems that my institution is of a similar thinking...

"Education for Sustainability at Otago PolytechnicThe skills and values of Otago Polytechnic graduates contribute to every sector of society.  Our curriculum, teaching and learning therefore is pervasive and influential with global impact.  The Otago Polytechnic sustainability vision is that our graduates, our practitioners and our academics understand the concepts of social, environmental and economic sustainability in order for them to evaluate, question and discuss their role in the world and to enable them to make changes where and when appropriate.  Our goal is that every graduate may think and act as a “sustainable practitioner”."   

So that the learner bit, and the me bit (as I don't have to spend loads of time to do this. It's about enabling learners for the long term).The global bit - personally, I believe we are completely done for, and it won't matter what we do from now... too much carbon released and we've passed the tipping point. The world will implode, and look VERY different to how we know it currently. But that's another whole story. A bleak one at that...Try reading Michael Lynos', "6 Degrees" - very depressing stuff.

3. My reflections about sustainability having viewed the presentations and completed the readings...

I thought that Sir Ken's pressie was awesome and every word of it true. Loved the idea that we only educate the waist up and that gets progressively higher up with age... that the body is just a means to move the head around... that education has mined our minds for academic learning only... Love it, every word. Funny guy.

Activity 9 :Technologies for learning.

Technologies:

Lots of stuff in there... and interesting to see Thom's presentation - though largely I thought still talking to the class with slightly different take on "powerpoint..." To be fair, I don't have a smart phone, and couldn't see links, but hope the others were engaging via the methods about which he spoke.


As a point to note... I do believe that there is a place for these fancy-smancy e-learning ideas... but I think in 20 (or 25 or 30...) years time, we will come back to moderation, and as the pendulum that has over swung to "a bit crazy" on the mobile/flexi/www -based world re-settles, having a conversation FACE-TO-FACE will once again be an important tool to have in our tool box. Let's face it - good to be good with IT. But even better to be great with people. Or not???

ePortfolios - getting to the nuts and bolt - I see this as a great opportunity for my learners to put together a "skills video." That is, a portfolio of evidence that they are required to produce anyway (distance students), in a concise, well presented and professional portfolio. Great opportunity at interview, to show off the stuff they have learned.

Learning Activity: Teaching Induction

Because induction is such an issue, this learning activity is going to be a video/multimedia mini production of the induction process.

• Learning Outcomes: 
• produce a instructional package (powerpoint/voice over/video/photos) of the process of induction to demonstrate the procedure from patient selection to completion of induction and placement and securing of the ET tube.
• consolidate knowledge of items required AND chronological order of use
• produce a video of this IN REAL TIME as demonstrated on a stuffed toy, to show understanding of time frames around this process
• How to go about this
• chose 2-4 team members.
• research the topic using the resources available (course notes/lecturers/students/clinics/Google etc)
• topics may sections such as (this list is not exhaustive)
• selection of and testing of ET tubes
• selection of rest of equipment required for intubation
• location of and identification of the drugs required for the induction/ET tube placement
• stethoscope(or not) for quick patient checks
• decide HOW you want to present the THEORY and INSTRUCTION of the induction process
• eg bite sized segments and voice over to explain
• flow chart with explanations
• break it process into small bites and provide explanation of each section
• this may be video/photo/powerpoint/voice combos
• collect resources for the procedure
• use tablette/smart phone and apps required to produce the evidence required for instruction of this process, including the real time video
• alternatively, this could be done as an instructional teaching session, and streamed live to another cohort.
• Assessment for this activity
• competency will be acknowledged if the evidence provided demonstrates a clear understanding of
• the equipment required and its use
• chronological order of use
• reasonable time frames are indicated for each step in the process, and demonstrated in the "real time" video
• reflection on quality and competency work is offered.

I'd hope that this will encourage flexible learning as the resources need to be sourced from many different places. Options for information include everything from Moodle, to face-to-face communication, Google, video from youTube, real life in surgery sessions (they could video this)...

In fact I think this is such a good idea, I'm going to implement it next year...

Activity 8: Adult learning theories for Flexible Learning.

The Mission:

Should I choose to accept it, was to explore learning theory relevant to my context and find one that resonated and apply it to my flexible learning plan.Heather Day points out, that when trying to find a theory ask yourself:

"How does this connect to what I do and what I believe about teaching/facilitation?"

And furthermore:

"If it doesn't connect easily move on until you find something that does."

The Problem:

Finding one theory that is really OSFA... I actually find it ironic that in flexible learning this would be the directive... that's not very flexible. I say this, because as I read, I thought that many theories had relevance and that actually it wasn't about ME finding the right theory for ME, but me providing the right theory for each and everyone of my learners... isn't this the goal?So some might be all about social learning and constructivisim, others might like behavourist-type learning environment...So with that little rant over - the world is truly a mish-mash of grey, and really not black and white...-  the theories that I connected with (and I have to say, I'm a little confused about where connectivism fits in... see note on this below) include:

• cognitivist theory (because this suits me - but I'm going to leave this out because I don't think a huge number of my learners engage this way...)

• social and situational theory (including constructivism)

• connectivist theory (there seems to be some argument about whether this is a theory or a pedagogical view...)

The Definitions:

cognitivism(I have included for completeness' sake...);"Cognitivism is the theory that humans generate knowledge and meaning through sequential development of an individual’s cognitive abilities, such as the mental processes of recognize, recall, analyze, reflect, apply, create, understand, and evaluate." wikipedia  

constructivism:"Simply stated, it is a learning process which allows a student to experience an environment first-hand, thereby, giving the student reliable, trust-worthy knowledge. The student is required to act upon the environment to both acquire and test new knowledge." wikipedia


connectivism:
"Connectivism was introduced as a theory of learning based on the premise that knowledge exists in the world rather than in the head of an individual.""Summing up connectivist teaching and learning, Downes states: "to teach is to model and demonstrate, to learn is to practice and reflect." " wikipedia

And I'm guessing I'm missing something here, as these seem to be talking about the same/similar thing. Learning by doing and reflecting and practise. So because there's argument about connectivism, I'm choosing constructivism for my FLP.

The Reason:

I've chosen this theory because as a generalisation for my cohort of students, I think that DOING and learning via hands on and actual practise is more the way the majority of them learn. This theory includes concepts like Kolb's learning cycle, and this very strongly reflects the way that we aim to teach many practical tasks... eg, induction and surgery, fluid lines, prepping the patient. They see, they try, they err, they do again... over and over until they are confident and competent (hopefully). This of course, suits the way we teach these skills in real life surgery sessions, and much of the information in the course is transferred through practical, hands-on learning.

"David Kolb, in his books Learning Style Inventory Technical Manual^[7]and Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development ^[8], emphasizes the importance of conditionalized knowledge through experiential learning. David A. Kolb and Roger Fry created the Kolb & Fry Model out of four elements: concrete experience, observation and reflection, the formation of abstract concepts, and testing in new situations." wikipedia

Activity 7 - Open Education Resources and Philosophies.

Again embraced the flexibility that is OP and went running (OK'ed by HOS) in the sun in the afternoon, so here I am at 8pm, on flexi-time.

I digress...

SO... waded through that document... {Open Education Practices: A User Guide for Organisations}. Plenty of fodder for the neurons in there. 

Some tidbits that I liked... 

• "Informational and personal connections are being made through this social media, and all of it creates an impressive opportunity for learning. But as yet educational institutions struggle to define themselves within this social media age, often rejecting the idea of social networked learning because it is regarded as unstructured, undisciplined and inferior to institutionalised learning."

I liked this one because I think there IS a real risk of it being exactly that (see last few words of above)... and this is where the support of the institution and getting the resources (all stuff we talked about earlier) is really important... 

• Jan Hylén's definition for OER as: "digitised materials offered freely and openly for educators, students and self-learners to use and reuse for teaching, learning and research."[3]

Interesting in that  there is no possibility for hard copy to be included - how does this fit with inclusivity for the third world, or the digitally illiterate or opposed??

• This means that any resources created by staff can be freely used, distributed and modified providing attribution is given to the original author. This approach encourages sharing and collaboration with regard to resources.
• http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Open_Education_Practices:_A_User_Guide_for_Organisations

So I am embracing this definition... any resource, anywhere, anyhow, and everyone gets to have a stab at it... but leave my name there as well. Sounds fair to me, and sounds like the power of numbers, improving resources for all to use, but mention my name.

So this is not my definition - but it is what I would say.

Have encountered a couple of responses to this concept... 

• Scenario one:

Firstly, response found whilst developing a wiki for a Standard Operating Procedure at a vet clinic I co-owned. This was available for all staff to modify, and put various instructions and information on, and therefore, any muppet (self-included) could send a courier packet the right way, and know where to get the goods to do this.So in this forum, I was fully embracing of the concept. Bear in mind this was not entirely open - it was password protected for those in employment (wasn't too keen to share this info as was a competitive advantage to be able to replace vet or nurse and give thorough instructions to replacement... you just needed the front interface password to run the whole show. Very nice.)Hmmm... so when we don't have the entire "trekkie-culture of sharing" as the focal point (money talks in business), my position changed slightly to how I feel about ...

• Scenario two

Enter OP. Open resources. Take your unit. Make it your own. Use what we have. Do with it what you will... quite challenging, but in the end, very sensible. Fantabulous. Had heaps to get started on. Adding my bits. Nothing from scratch. Wunderbar. And open to the general population... I also don't mind because I think this is the reality...

• "Many staff express the fear that people will no longer enroll in courses if their teaching material is freely available, but others point out that so much is already freely available and that most students want a qualification which requires assessment not content. Open Educational Resources are a way of attracting people to the Polytechnic, because they can see the sort of material we use, and they can orientate themselves to the courses before they start."     Robin Day

Strategies: put it all up there but protect our assessments. In reality few people take advantage of these sorts of resources anyway (FTI - failure to implement), so let them have a crack. But not the assessments at this point until we have a process to ensure robust assessment and can protect the quality of any graduate that says degree/diploma/etc was conferred via OER and OEP at OP. OK?


Importance: up-skilling anybody and everybody is generally a good idea. And pooling resources (including HR/IP) seem very sensible. It's hard to be an expert in everything, so share the gold, I say. Free education yes - but in the end, we have to make money and produce work-ready quality graduates... so a little more more is required to open our current resources up to Bob, Bill, Jane and Mary to manage their own NCVN in its entirety. In the end, this is win-win for all... educators learn, share better quality resources with learners and everybody has time for a wine.
Super. Now for mine. E noho ra...


PS: Am super frustrated that the fonts and presentation are so crap, and can't seem to work out how to fix it... apologies for those type-a's that also find this offensive...

Activity 6: Planning... importantly, planning to keep up... at induction.

My plan... involves one of the very frustrating times in practical surgery sessions. Students need tip of the tongue responses; total fluency with processes and underpinning theory. it's action, action, action. Take off and landing (induction and recovery) are the dodgiest part of anaesthesia...


I'm keen to improve this - if only for my own stress levels at induction :-)


Brain storm. What creates the knowledge gap?

• Ideas around anaesthesia and induction.
• High pressure time in surgery. 
• Limited amount of time to get lots of jobs done.
• Pre-med dependent. 
• Induction agent dependent. 
• Skills dependent.

Ways to enhance learning ...

• Covered in theory. 
• Research drugs used. Time frames known.
• Understand processes involved in induction. 
• Monitoring parameters
• What is most important at each step?
• How urgent?

Ways to engage students:

• Theory. 
• Practicals. 
• Videos. 
• Quick quizzes. 
• Rapid fire quizzes in class. 
• Words and sentence games - put in chronological order. 
• Make a "road map to anaesthesia."
• Being put on the spot!
• Live video and audio links, real time.

And then assess...

• In own time (within certain constraints).
• In real time.
• Underpinning knowledge able to be done first.
• Can be done in sections - so small bites for ease of management for learners.
• Feedback and re-assessment as required, as long as basis of competency is shown.

So currently my template is a list of ideas - I see theses coming together in a mind map type scenario with lots of linking options between formative practical and theoretical learning...

Peer Feedback:

{abridged} "Since the beginning of this year it has been on my mind that we need to start producing some great quality videos (we have the facilities) not only for anaesthesia but for surgery too.

Anaesthesia – the steps – take off to landing and monitoring!!!

Anaesthesia – circuit and machine checks.

The video’s would be incredibly useful for the distance students and I think give the FT students a little more confidence coming in to surgery also and of course they can view them as many times as they like in their own home without the pressure of the class around them.

We could do voice over on the videos etc."

This was from one person, but certainly reflected the general feeling of all the people that I spoke to (n = 4). And happily, this is one of the gaps that I had already highlighted...

Excellent.

SWOT Review:

• Strengths: lots of opportunity for different types of learning. Theory. Some video resources. Powerpoint. Practical - OP and in clinic. Small learning groups for practicals. Introduction to surgery and anaesthesia done before they come into the actual environment. Assessments processes driven by students (within certain boundaries).
• Weaknesses: lack of real time, on the job hours. Real time in a pressure time - need for fluency to be present at this time, rather than learning it at the time. Lack of really good video resource, with voice over for flexi viewing.
• Opportunities: develop the video resource, with voice over. Do with different drugs on board so the student see what it will look like in practise.
• Threats: changes in national legislation and monies to support this very important learning environment (larger classes required, less resources etc); not conceivable in short to medium term.

GOAL: induction video for next year's cohort.

Onwards and upwards... :-)

Induction = the process of inducing anaesthesia

Activity 5 – Design and describe flexible learning strategies for your context.

Had a little bit of trouble getting this link to work - so shout out if it doesn't function! Here's the trick - they don't link when it's viewed as a preview - you got to PUBLISH and then try it out!
Learn something everyday, don't we??

Found some of the readings and idea in the powerpoint very interesting - but it is a TERRIBLE powerpoint presentaiton, I would have to say! There's some useful information in there (concept of media-intructional-learning environment and how these things dictate the balance of what we actually choose to use), but it's a nightmare to engage with, IMHO.

Anyhoo... here's my strategy

Strategy Document
 Loved Cat's post on flexible learning... have a look!

Cheers, HB

Activity 4 - Access & Equity, Diversity & Inclusivity

Right... it's been a while, but here we go...


In fact, I'm at home, making the most of the flexible learning environment that Poly offers, taking the day to do some home-based flexible learning, so as to not get side-tracked by the 4 million other things on the urgent list. :-)
Tasked with defining and describing "the concepts of Access & Equity, Diversity & Inclusivity in your (my) professional context," I have pulled together some ideas from the suggested resources.
So roughly, something along the lines of (not really my own words, but the ones I liked from the readings:

• "access, equity, diversity and inclusivity would mean providing more ways to access, to participate and to demonstrate learning that results in a more equitable level of access to the general education curriculum for all learners."

Maybe in shorter version (more my own...):

• "providing equal chance to learn for all learners," or 
• "learning is not OSFA - we need many styles and sizes of [learning] jeans."

I loved the PowerPoint on universal design - and I especially loved that the first quote was from an architect ("Consider the needs of the broadest possible range of uses from the beginning" Ron Mace) because the rules that make the world go round are seldom stand along, but apply to very many very different contexts. And the retrofitting analogy is great too - this, I think, is one of the great fears that many of us may hold. If we embrace this idea of flexible learning, then we are going to be required to retro-fit all our delivery (this means MASSIVE work load), but I think from looking through this PP that the better way is to start from scratch, dedicate resources, (human included) and not attempt it in a half-baked manner.
However - I still wonder that being able to roll out UDL and doing it really really well, would be an awful lot of work and that there isn't the time nor the resources to do this currently. I guess the solution is changing the current MO to allow for multiple means of representation, action and expression and engagement.

So UDL - see above. This is about considering all the needs of learners before starting and providing a learning environment that can support these. This includes thinking about the academic achievement gap, religion, culture, upbringing, beliefs, disability etc etc.
I also liked the slide share that contained information from Laureate's (2009) work:

"Brain functioning depends on what is being learned and the learner's current level of expertise with the topic."

He then breaks the brain into 3 main centres (in my words):

• the old brain (recognises what it already knows), 
• the new brain (organises information; conscious muscle control), 
• the emotional brain (decides what is important, therefore engaging).

This really resonated with me as the ability to engage, as he sees it, is due to there being an emotional engagement... and this is turn is affected by the other two parts. So if the history of responses to learning has been one of trauma and disengagement,stress and failure, then there's not much chance that the emotional brain will do anything other than generate disengagement (old,"safe," recognised patterns of behaviour).
So part of UDL, has to be recognising the "stuff" that people already come with (thinking my 45 year olds that don't like computers) and finding a way to make our teaching accessible to them, thus enhancing engagement. And of course, once it becomes fun (!!!) then the pathways for learning from old brain/new brain and emotional brain are set up to encourage further engagement for this learner.

So, to this end, I buddied up my "oldie" with a youngie (who happens to have a qualification in computing studies), and also got her on to the IT help desk. I suggested writing notes in pen first, if this helped, downloading (I helped) assessment documents and printed them for hard copy (then transferred information back to the electronic doc)... So I guess it is about bridging the gap - this wasn't about AVOIDING the technology, but finding a way to get her to engage with it initially, and increase comfort, enjoyment and success.

What my learners need: the three A's (which they were told at the start of the year, and constantly since!!)

• attitude - the right one!
• attendance - the glean all the useful bits I have to say that aren't in the notes.
• attentiveness - no good being in class and not present.

Despite rolling out a pretty flexible learning programme, I realise there is still a lot we can do to make this better - time and HR not-withstanding!

Ref:

1) http://www.slideshare.net/derosac/universal-design-for-learning-4833805?src=related_normal&rel=3210361

2) http://www.slideshare.net/NCUDL/udl-a-framework-for-access-and-equity

3)

Activity 3 : Gossiping with friends as form of flexible learning... I LIKE IT!

The Owheo creates a divide here... hard to find the time to walk for coffee, let alone walk and talk for flexible learning. Pathetic excuse, I hear you say...
Though this form of learning does appeal - and is actually one I use quite often with my HOS. We walk and work on the way to get coffee - discuss the current issues that need addressing, verbally, then action at a later point. Multi-tasking, for flexible management/learning from her to me (well, maybe sometimes from me to her... maybe...)

Our students are a mixed bunch - we have 17 year olds and we have 45 year old. Lots of differnet backgrounds, and life experience. Lots of different ideas, from vegan to farmers. Lots of different levels of skill in reading/writing/maths, computer literacy, to name a few.

I feel like I've already covered some aspects of the five dimensions in last week's post but to re-cap:

1) Time - we are somewhat flexible with some aspects (ie when students chose to engage in assessments, but there is an end date to this flexibility). As mentioned earlier, OP have an 80% attendance requirement... so not so sure that this is embracing the FL model. I love the slideshare that Ron linked us too... and I really think this is the reality - if we aren't engaging AND providing MORE than what's just contained in the resources, WHY would our learners come to listen to us? This leads to the problem of learners who are NOT self-helpers (LCL)... we always have a few, and how these guys and gals fall off the wagon.

Their problem, you may say... but have you also heard of success and retention??? Herein lies a conflict of some magnitude.

2) Delivery and Logistics - sort of flexible.
We do provide FTF facilitating, but our resources are all on line. We provide practicals and theory. There are media files and written word - but not every aspect of the course is covered by every delivery mode (as Ron points out - what does flexible learning mean to us... WORKLOAD (not his exact words...)). Ideally, we'd have all these options covered - but time and money prevail.

3) Entry Requirements - there is some flexibility in our programmes, from no requirements to prerequisites. This is set by our school and institution, though individual PMs can make judgment calls on entry as well. So it's not rigid.

4) Content 
I guess there is some flexibility around content - we can teach to more than is required, but we can only assess to the unit standard. This is maybe where the value of FTF for the over and above aspects of the course, or the extra for experts, comes in. If you want to be average, learn from the note. If you want extension, come to class... just thought.


5)Instructional Approaches  and Resources
Relative freedom and autonomy here - see above. I can see that the same can apply. However, we'd have to remember also that some learners come to listen and DO, not read at home. We could provide audio "lectures" for the course material, and still choose to be the "inspiring extenders" that slide share powerpoint talks about. If only there was enough time to actually DO this, AND our learners were so engaged that this would really work. I have probably 6/30 that would! Something I am doing wrong in engaging the rest... ???? Could be that FL is where it is at. I get the sense that there'd be a teething period first, to get this to work. To change the style, and delivery, and get the engagement. There is an element, even for these young kids, of this being a new idea, and the difficulty of teaching old dogs new tricks, is not new.

Regarding the three-step reflective framework - I guess this is what I've been working on this year around changes made to the fulltime programme. We have tried to incoorporate more flexibilty around learning - more practical skills, more fun, less stressy stuff (closed book assessments, surgery being off limits until term 2) - and have also changed some assessment processes that did not work well last year.
I don't really think about this in detail each time (and I should maybe formalise it more, even if just so there's a more robust "history" of what has gone on), but everytime a change is made, it's via thinking about how it was, how that worked, or didn't work, and how we can make learning better and more accessible, less frightening, and produce better work-ready graduates, that have had flexibility in their learning pathways, whilst still be robust graduates at the end.

Just a few things to thnk about.... and maintain success and retention and work within a budget. LOL.

Activity 2 : My perspective on FL.

What does the term Flexible Learning mean to you?

Following my week's reading flexible learning means a lot more structure, in the development, implementation and delivery of a flexible course than it did before.

Specifically I had not considered than institutional implementation aspects that are required in order to have follow through at a teacher level - ie if the institution isn't behind the idea, and doesn't support the principles and the resources required to teach flexibly, it would be very hard to achieve. I can see the FTI (failure to implement) would be a stumbling block for many along this path without backing from "above.". It is, in some ways, easy to have the ideas, but would be hard to follow through, without support from the outer layers of the ring (refer Figure 1.1 Chapter 1, Collis, B et al.)

The other dimension that really resonated for me was that of flexible learning being tied to learner -centered learning. So the movement away from the instructor driving every piece of learning to one where the learner is choosing how and when to engage, And I can see that for some of my leaners, this approach would be very tricky - those for whom time management and self-directed study are not easily forth-coming.

I also thought the "supermarket' " model was potentially problematic for this cohort - too mach choice, and not enough by way of specifics. (I have quite a number of 17/18 year old, straight out of a school system...). I'm getting a gut feeling that if we were to make generalizations, flexible learning would really suit those of us who have a few grey hairs, and not so much the wrinkle-frees amongst us (there are of courses, always exceptions to these rules.)

I can also see that "when the learner is given more choices, the instructor is increasingly required to respond and individualize rather than plan and deliver" creates some issue with workload, and hours in the day. It is my perception that this would take more hours, than a less flexible course, and this would be problematic.

Why is it necessary to use a more flexible approach in your work?

A flexible approach is always going to benefit everyone - in that being flexible also includes traditional approaches as one of the options of flexibility. So if that suits, we've got it covered - if studying at midnight via Moodle is your ticket, we can do that too. 

Interestingly, as I understand it, there is an expectation, in fact a requirement for my course, which is a OP directive, that my students attend 80% of our teaching sessions (theory and practicals) and that some sessions are just plain compulsory. This is of course, on the continuum that is FL - and the compulsory stuff is largely based around the bits that we believe to have a large health and safety component for those involved.

Course content is NOT very flexible. And our assessment criteria are rigid. However, how the learners choose to go about getting assessed is flexible to some degree (they can choose when to engage in assessments in our surgery sessions, though this has to be done before the sessions are completed for the year.)

VARK springs to mind as a reason WHY we need to be flexible, and provide different modes of information transfer.

What do you need to explore to help this happen?

I liked Annette's scoring so have stolen it as scored my own programme... interestingly, I too would have said we were very flexible - and it is compared to what I experienced when studying myself. BUT, in the field of flexible learning, we are pretty rigid!! An interesting finding - and one that makes us a product of our time. My Dad, and grandmother would be AMAZED that the notes are online not in paper... but for me, this is SO last century. Funny.

Table 2.1: The five dimensions of flexibility
	More fixed <<------------------------->> More flexible
Time	X
Content of the course	X
Entry requirements	X
Instructional approaches and resources	X
Delivery and logistics	X

I'm a bit stumped as to how to make these rigid bits more flexible... course content is largely scaffolded, entry requirements are at a minimum already. There is a lot of practical component (through our surgery and rotations) that our learners can't access anywhere else - and I firmly believe that seeing a cat spey via You Tube is NOT going to simulate anything near the real deal... (nor sort the fainters form the non-fainters...LOL).

So I look forward to exploring options around these issues.

What goals do you have for using Flexible Learning in your work?

I'd like to think that we could support the learners that ARE self-motivated and engaged by being a lot more flexible for the parts of my course for which this would work (thinking face-to-face delivery stuff here). 

I guess one of my beliefs about tertiary education is that if I can send kids (and I have some big kids too) out to the big wide world, with a bit of knowledge, an enquiring mind that can solve problems (albeit, they may have one brain cell jogged by something and think "Oooo, I've heard that before... NOW, where to find the answer? ...") then my job is done.

I believe that  a lot of what we are about is producing a cohort that has basic recognition, or process of enquiry, and THEN can think about where to go to find the answers, AND include in this, thinking critically about what they are reading when they do find this "answer."  (ie there's a lot of crap on the intenet too...). THEN I think I'm part way to doing a good job...

So this is VERY flexible - but based on hard facts of course content... isn't there always a catch...  ??? :-)

I also think there are a number of learners for whom this approach is just never (yup, that's a long time) going to work.

SIGH... oh, gotta love the grey-ness (vs black and white-ness) that is life. 

Activity 1 : Introduction of me!

Kia ora. Finally got here... the blog spot is running. Kind of. I'm in my fourth year of employment at OP, having started as a lecturer at the School of Veterinary Nursing and now managing the full time programme. We have about 40 students on site, fulltime. I also have two kids, partner, cat and a dog, I am  veterinarian by training, with a passion for psychology and psychotherapy, bike riding, running and coffee. And an unhealthy interest in the concept of peak oil... unhealthy, because it's so depressing...
I look forward to gaining knowledge around flexible learning, and implementing these ideas for my fulltimers. I am pleased to see some familiar names - HI ANNETTE!!!