Learning Technology Mentoring Programs

Institute 

Program/approach

Hunter started off with a Faculty eMentopr program funded under the ANT2 project.  At the end of the project the responsibility for eMentors was handed to each Faculty.  A number of Faculties are mainitaining these and have now been rolled over to be Faculty Moodle contacts.

In this project some of the chosen people were too busy to have as great an effect as we hoped.

In Sem 2 2009 we have been trialling campus Drop in Flexi sessions where a team of Workforce Deveoplment, Customer Support Services and Regional IT Services with links back to Finance by telephone or Adobe Connect attends a campus each week for approximately 3 hours to mentor staff in anything that they feel they need, eg  CLAMS, MEVI, technology, RPL, Leadership TAA 04, etc.  This has been very successful and will continue in 2010.

As each F2f training session is delivered all partcipants are then told that they will become the 'expert' in their cmpus for that technology.  This is then backed up with resources on Moodle for them to use eg Cativate Tutorials.  This is still a work in progress.

Where possible we are recording all training sessions for later reference.

Not a concerted mentoring program at this stage.

• Teaching staff have been seconded in recent times into the learning technologies team to upgrade their skills. These staff in turn mentor their faculty colleagues on return to their faculties
• Faculty moodle administrators are being established and these may expand to an wider elearning role to provide a mentoring role
• Similarly the Institute moodle user group may expand to cover elearning in general. This group feeds technical isssues to the Institute moodle technical user group

Arabella Hay: During 2006 we researched the NCTAFE eLearning Strategy where multiple NC teachers requested support with using technology, both from an information point of view, and also physical (coaching & mentoring) support. The eLearning Kit was developed to provide the "information" support (eg Quick reference guides, quick links), while the Learning Technologies Team was created (by EOI) and developed to provide the hands-on coaching and mentoring support. One person per Campus and one per Faculty was allocated to cover the 850km length and breadth of the Institute. The Learning Technologies Team was folded after a successful 2 years of helping to embed elearning by introducing the humanistic approach of engage, empower and enthuse, due to a lack of funding.

During 2009 a new direction was formed and currently we are doing the following:

(Sue Shelly) At North Coast we do various things for mentoring. We have

• a Blueprint instructional design course (in Moodle) run for Teachers to learn about improving their online course delivery and presentation,
• Campus Capability Consultants who look after Campus based requirements and act as the conduit back to Organisation Improvement for professional development opportunities
• Faculty eLearning Contacts connected to each Faculty that provide mentoring and support to teaching staff on eLearning, technology and other delivery options
• The Hub staff provide mentoring for Adobe Connect, eLearning, lms, technologies, project management and building teacher capability
• a Facilitator's network that assists and mentors all staff in facilitating events

2010 - (Arabella)

We are currently reviewing our entire eLearning Strategy and aligning the new direction with internal influences such as the merge between The Hub and Libraries, the appointment of a Project Leader for "Using Technologies to do Business" area of TAFE in the 21st Century (my new role), and external influences such as current research (Mitchell, Wheelahan) and AFLF. The new strategy will be called "Using Technologies to do Business" - watch this space for updates!!

The Institute funds eLearning Mentors for each of the faculties and one for Support Units/Libraries.  An expression of interest went out to all Institute staff and applications were reviewed by a panel of self nominated Faculty Managers - selections were made and put to the faculties for support prior to informing the applicant. 

There is a full day face to face meeting at the beginning of each semester and meetings held fortnightly through Adobe Connect.  We review the program each semester to identify areas of improvements and a skills matrix is developed. ELMs Wiki

Difficulties experienced: Levels of expertise amongst mentors and varied levels of reporting competency amongst mentors and inadequate communication with mentor and faculty management.

TAFE NSW - Sydney Institute has had a LTM program since mid 2008 and was funded in part by ANT and Workforce Guarantee. A revised program has continued into 2009 throughout the year in Term 2 & 3. Workforce Development is currently analysing the results from the 2009 program and will review the program for 2010. In summary .

• Mentors chosen from an EOI process
• 13 Mentors selected, one from each college and cluster
• 3 day induction program where mentors are given PD on core technologies and overview of program reporting etc.
• Each 2009 mentor was mentored by a 2008 mentor
• Mentors report on their work using zoho and produce 2 case studies at the end of the program

For more information see the myLearning wiki

Western Sydney Institute has a number of strategies around mentoring they include:

• Technology Trainers which started as an ANT2 funding project and has been supported since then through the PD Unit using a Just in Time training model.  Learning Technologies Unit officers meet online regularly with the technology trainers to discuss issues around their role.  The technology trainers were initially trained to support the roll out of media resource kits  http://mrk.westernsydneyinstitute.wikispaces.net/
• TALS mentors who were supported to develop skills in sharepoint and support the rollout of the TALS (Teaching and learning support) portal which was implemented in late 2008 for teachers to deliver resources to students online.  Initially there was some project funds to support these mentors but now they are supported at the local level mostly by teaching sections who want to have a TALS site developed.
• eLf Network - through the elearning facilitation program we now have 50 or more teachers who have completed the program and are called upon to support college based and faculty based projects around using technology to support teaching and learning.  Teachers who have been involved in this program continue to support other teachers and participate in a range of capability development strategies including presenting in our TechTime series: http://techtime.westernsydneyinstitute.wikispaces.net and our showcases:   http://tlishowcase09.westernsydneyinstitute.wikispaces.net/
• A list of the various technology mentors can be found on the wiki page

http://learningtechnologies.westernsydneyinstitute.wikispaces.net/College+Contacts