chris_sutton

David I absolutely agree. In some sectors of education herein lies the problem. Many teachers in Higher Education and Vocational Education and Training have had little or no teacher training and their teaching and learning background is very small. One of the professional development issues that Australia and the UK share is how to prepare teachers for teaching with ICT in HE and VET. We need to start right back at the basics of teaching and learning practice before we even think about blending f2f with ICT enhanced teaching. At least in Primary and Secondary schooling you have a base o

I agree, Graham, 'blended learning' is not a term I like at all. I'm glad this has turned into such a healthy debate, because it really is about asking 'what are we trying to do?' and 'what do we want to achieve?" To me it's about choice - student choice. Now, as ChristineS pointed out it would be very hard for students in the lower grades [primary school ] to make these sorts of choices but the students in secondary school , a higher education and vocational education the ability to choose how, when, and where they learn is one of the basic tenets of today's education . In our vocationa

I couldn't agree more. In both higher education and the vocational education sector we are faced with problems problems of teaching quality because we have a teacher population of content experts with little background in pedagogical understanding . There is no requirement in Australia for teachers in universities or registered training organisations to have formal teacher qualifications . In the vocational education sector the only requirement is that a teacher holds a certificate three in workplace training and assessment which can be completed in as little as four days . It is little wo

Hi Dan You may find what you're looking for if you start at this URL in EdNA Online Higher Education Community EdNA Online is another great place for Online educators to go to find resources in all areas of teaching and learning. Cheers

Hi Guys Can I give an outsiders perspective to this debate? I have just spent seven weeks in the UK researching the professional development strategies that have been used to prepare teachers for e-learning in higher and further education. I believe that there are some good sound strategies in place in lots of organisations. In open university in particular I found policies and practices and sound professional development strategies in place to take OU into an eLearning future. But I don't believe that e-learning is only for distance education. In further education particularly there are

At the EDUCA Online 2003 conference in Berlin in December , one of the workshop leaders was heard to remark, "Blended learning? Blended learning is just a cop out for those people who are too afraid or unable to teach fully online" What do you think ? Is blended learning a cop out or the best way to offer flexible learning choices to students ? Is teaching online different to teaching face to face ? Do students really want to learn fully online ? Let's open the debate on blended learning!

Andy this is a great forum and a valuable resource. Congratualtions and thankyou! If you'd be willing to have an Australia/New Zealand Board I'd be only too pleased to moderate it. Cheers - and again, thanks for your efforts in getting this going. Chris Sutton

Hi My name is Chris Sutton. I'm the Internet Training Consultant for the Centre for Innovation and Development of TAFE Queensland in Australia. (TAFE is Technical and Further Education - we have 15 institutes that deliver vocational training across Qld) My job is to support teachers in our Institutes who are, or wish to be, using elearning strategies for teaching. I'm also an Australian Flexible Learning Leader - see Flexible Learning Leaders to find out what that is. I'm looking forward to being part of this forum. Greetings to all from Down Under! - and don't anyone mention the cricket