Final Post for 2010!! What have I learnt?

Well the end of year is near upon us! As I often do around this time, I reflect on how fast the year has gone, how it seems to whiz by. Which is probably due to my advancing age no doubt..

It has been a great year for me, with huge learning curves, new experiences and new doors opened for me. I need to be very thankful for all of these opportunities and for all those who have have entrusted me with them and supported me in stumbling my way through them.

At the beginning of this year, I was new. Brand new. Dare I say ignorant. I was overwhelmed by a new job. I was confident with being a midwife and enjoyed working with students, but facilitating? Teaching? This was a brand new field that I guess I simply fell into. And then found myself slap bang in the middle of it all. I was trying to understand my role, the new cirirculum and all the things I 'needed' to do to fulfill my new job.. Undertaking the GCTTL was one of those. I found it hard working part time, learning and studying part time, another part time job and then attempting to be a mum and partner... But I think I survived. And the kids still seem stable. Ha.

I can safetly say that now I know that GCTTL stands for 'graduate cert. in tertiary teaching and learing', which is something I can honestly say I didn't know until half way through the year.
So yes, I did this course because I was required to.... But....Little did I know that this course and the others in it, were so applicable for my new role. When I haven't had someone to hold my hand from Otago I have been supported by my knowledge from these courses. I have learnt an abundance of things. Like the 'little things' such as confidence in engaging online, about learning online tips such as using a microphone and headset to better the quality of my communication and how to get around and use online tools such as skype, twitter and elluminate. And then I have learnt the bigger and broader concepts around academic online facilitation theory which I can base my knowledge and practice as a facilitator on.

I think I have learnt that actually being an online facilitator is relatively easy, and that I do not need to be afraid and nervous to the extent that I was during the year... However to be a quality facilitator takes effort, skill and an awareness and acknowledgement around the theory of facilitation. I think the 10 steps to sucessful facilitation needs to be laminated and hung on my study wall. I feel although still a beginner facilitator I now have an awareness of the topic and how I can better myself to then better students learning. This needs to be and will be an ongoing learning goal for me. Next year I will not be so brand new, and I will go into 2011 with a new confidence and a few more tools in my toolbox to equip myself with to enhance my role in teaching, learning and facilitating.

Thank you to Sarah who nudged me through and gave me great tips and advice and always seemed to have time to support me. Without her phone calls to touch base and to remind me to keep on track, I probably would have forgotten all about the course and content and simply left it all behind. So thanks Sarah..

See you in 2011.

Feedback on my session.

Here is some of the feedback I received from the elluminate session I facilitated on 'engaging students online'.


Hi Jade - I was glad to be invited to join in your session, and even though I was a bit late I was really interested to hear the discussion. Being new to online facilitation myself I heard many useful tips, some I already have used (e.g. blank slides for participants to brainstorm in) and others I haven't been brave enough to use just yet (break out rooms).I liked that you gave people plenty of time to answer if you asked a question - I think people often hang back because they're waiting to see if someone else is going to answer, so its good to give a few more seconds to let someone begin. I thought you sounded confident, and the 'ums' will disappear as you get more used to it - I do that too, but am trying hard to let a pause be a pause, rather than feeling I need to fill it up! cheers, Suzanne

I attended an online elluminate session that Jade organised and facilitated. I found the session to be not only informative, but interesting! I have had experience with using elluminate via several Otago Polytechnic online postgraduate courses, so wasn't a novice in the area of logging on, speaking to the group and writing on the whiteboard, however learnt about 'breakout sessions' and the like. After agreeing to be involved as a participant from the initial session invitation (which was emailed from Jade with ample amount of time for me to be able to organise my busy schedule around the session), I found it simple to locate Jade's session from the elluminate link that she provided. I found Jade to be confident with addressing the group and able to handle issues surrounding eluminate that arose, in a timely fashion. Rachel.