2007 review

This year has been a year of consolidation. Running the mlearning pilot has brought together many of the ideas and systems that we have been trialling. I have also started to network better within the mLearning community and am more familiar with the literature associated with mLearning research.

Highlights for the year include:-

• The opportunity to meet with other NZ mlearning practitioners and to interact with them face to face at MOLTA
• Witnessing the buzz during my keynote on mlearning at the ITF Research Conference.
• Winning the Prime Ministers Supreme Tertiary Teaching Excellence Award
• Catching up with family in Perth & the Karri trees on the South West coast of Oz
• Viewing sunset at Uluru near Alice Springs plus touching base with vocational education researchers at the NCVER Research Conference.
• The academic collegially at the annual ASTE conference in Wellington.
• Mlearn2007 in Melbourne
• Final assessments of our full time students and the ongoing development in confidence over the year of most of the students.
• Obtaining funding from the CPIT foundation to get the mlearning pilot going.
• Working with NZ Diploma in Business tutors to put courses online presented some challenges but we got there in the end.
• Starting an apprenticeship as a staff mentor / facilitator with the CPIT staff development unit.
• Teaching staff education courses and observing how adults become more reflective teachers.
• Completing third year interviews for my research project on how young people become bakers. Now that I have started serious data analysis, I am learning so much from the interview and observations I have gathered.

Things to look forward to next year:-

• Writing up my thesis
• Taking on a one day a week role with staff education which includes teaching adults how to become workplace assessors (an area I currently teach) and adults learning about teaching (a new area to get into).
• Continuing my apprenticeship with staff development and playing a role in supporting staff in their teaching and professional development.
• Extending the research into mlearning, in particular, how to make better use of Web 2.0 tools using mobile phones.
• Continued reflection on teaching and learning (my students and my own).
• Mlearn2008 plus other conferences including Molta2008, efest2008 and Herdsa2008.

Its off for some serious re-creation over the next few weeks. Several good tramping trips should help revive me sufficiently to make a start into thesis writing. I also hope to have time to do some reflection on plans for mlearning and my role in staff education / staff development.