Update

I have been flat out at work so I am going to take some time out to comment tonight.
We spent a couple of days more planning around the development of the VLN.

We will migrate from Interact to another platform over the next year or so and we are developing some papers for internal sign off at he MoE. When we get a clearer pathway I will publish it here.

These things really do take time.

I am going to a reunion at Bishop Viard College in Porirua where I used to teach many years ao this weekend. I don't usually go to these things but I am really looking forward to this one?
Must be getting old.

The business I have been working on with an old student of mine, a really nice young man has taken a giant leap forward last week. We have got initial backing from a large company to run a pilot with them as the partners. All exciting stuff.
This I hope will give me more flexible options for my future.

I will fill you in about this when we go live.

Am off to fly aces high http://www.hitechcreations.com/frindex.html I love this online game. If you are into flying world war 2 planes etc in an online environment I recommend this so much fun.
See ya

Me and Cam hard at work

Eddie Profile and update

I thought I would fill you in on some of the work that I do for the MoE in New Zealand. Iwas asked to write a bit for a cluster news lettter and thought that this summed it up well.
WHAT JOB DO YOU DO?:
I am the Ministry of Education
contact person for Hive, VLN, Adobe Connect, Moodle, LAMS, Video/Audio Conferencing Bridge,
and the Tandberg Content Server. I manage the contracts for these products on behalf of the MoE. You can find out more at http://www.v6.breezeserver.co.nz/moe
covering technical connectivity issues as well as the implementation of these services for schools and the business arm of the MoE. I have a strong pedagogical focus in the work that I do and the
services for schools and MoE are directly related to better outcomes for children through Ka- Hikitia - Managing for Success as well as 'Enabling the 21st Century Learner' - this is The e-Learning Action Plan for Schools 2006-2010, and outlines the key outcomes and actions for e-learning in the New Zealand school sector for 2006- 2010. It describes the goals for elearning
in schools and the projects, tools, and resources that are being developed to address those
outcomes.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO ELEARNING?:
I discovered computers in the early part of the 1990's and started creating web sites etc. I was then employed part time by The Correspondence School based in Wellington. In the latter part of the 1990's I went full-time at The Correspondence School and was involved in the Esection headed up by Derek Wenmoth. That was where my teaching passion was turned into a passion for technology and the convergence of the face to face teacher with the classroom teacher.
Making it possible for students of all ages to access learning when, where and how they liked either in the face to face environment or the online environment or a mixture of both.
WHAT VISION DO YOU HAVE FOR VIRTUAL LEARNING IN NZ?:
The vision I hold was stated before in a little way and that was "Making it possible for students of all ages to access learning when, where and how they liked either in the face to face environment or the online environment or a mixture of both." This philosophy will I believe
address a number of issues like: equity, teacher shortages, preparing students for the 21st century and beyond, flexibility in learning choices and a whole heap of other issues that need to be addressed in our education system
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE WEBSITE?:
I could say the VLN of course http://virtuallearning.school.nz but I guess I like a lot of them out there such as, Trade Me, Snapfiles.com, YouTube and a number of others. I tend to get caught up in on line forums about different products etc. that are good for education for example I am exploring Wiz iQ http://www.wiziq.com/ so I am going to get involved with WiZiQ's Meeting Place on Ning "Anyone can teach and learn live, online!" to see what is going on internationally
and whether it is worth pursuing.
eddie.reisch@minedu.govt.nz
I guess that sums me up I will psot more work on the VLN upgrade as things develop. Thee is a fair bit of work going on behind the scenes at the moment.

The Virtual Learning Network

At present the VLN is located in Interact and consists of a number of areas like:
Enrollments, Timetables, Scheduling, Communities of Practice, Professional development etc. Some of these areas need addressing, It needs to migrate out of this environment to another and the thinking at the moment is Moodle.

The image shows some of the areas already covered by the VLN but also some future thinking.
What needs to be done?

1. Develop Business case and action plan. Outputs would be
1. Business case 1 week 40 hours
2. Technical specs 40 + 60 hours
3. Action plan 20 hours total 160
   
2. Migration and build 12 months
   
3. Develop and implement community ownership model three options around being
1. Community owned funded partially by MoE
2. Stay where it is at MoE and worked for and by the community
3. Completely owned by the community with funding options from the community as well as possible contributions and support from time to time from the MoE

I will have another think and add another post

Day Three of conference

Had a workshop with professor Stepehn Heppell and then his keynote.
Was a frank and open discussion on some of the work he is doing like notschool etc.
Talked a wee bit about the future of the VLN
Headed of to Jasper after the last key note.
What an awesome journey

And then onto Edmonton to meet up with Cathy King. Will fill in details of visit with Cathy later.
I have had a chance to talk about and think about the future of the VLN with CAM on this trip which has been very useful

Where to from here?

Out of the conference there are a few things I will follow up on:

1. Develop the relationship with Darren and Keewaytinook Internet High School Balmertown, Ontario,
2. Develop the relationship with Linda Wright and Michelle Eady from Northern Onterio Sioux-Hudson Literacy Council
3. Develop a relationship with Randy LaBonte and Tim Winklmans Ministry of Education in British Colombia Distance Learning

Now the conference is over I have had time to talk and reflect with and do some in depth talking to a range of people re the VLN I now want to start to develop the VLN into a world class brokerage site.

Day 2

Traveled from Jasper to Edmonton today to meet with Cathy King VC RLN Provincial Coordinator for Alberta.
Looking forward to this meeting will let you know how it goes.
What an awesome trip through the Canadian Rockies wow breathtaking.
Day 2 of the conference was as good as the first day in Bannf.
One quote I liked was
"If technology doesn't work for people it doesn't work" Simple but true.
I went to two sessions on 2nd life and how it is being used with tertiary organisations as well as the journey they went through.
In summary it was the fact they tried to recreate the physical world of their organisation into the virtual world and it didn't work.
I guess the lesson here is create a dynamic environment that grows around sustainability.
As I have mentioned before I am redeveloping the VLN (Virtual Learning Network) sitee intial stages and has moved beyond this to other technologies.
I will go into this in another post with my ideas.
The other valuable part of this conference was meeting and talking to Prof Stephen Heppell what a cool guy.
I meet an talked to Randy LaBonte and Tim Winklmans from the
So far it had focus on Video Conferencing in the Ministry of Education in British Colombia, A valuable conversation as they are going through some of the same issues we are. They are offering courses that have no start or finish time. Excellent. You can find an outline and a lot of policy docs etc on their site Distance Learning
The other guy I meet up with were Darren Potter the Principal from Keewaytinook Internet High School Balmertown, Ontario, Excellent exchange of ideas and thoughts. Darren works with 1st Nation children in Balmertown, Ontario

The other guy I met was from Niagara Falls he is involved with ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) I will talk about him later.
Where to from here will be in my next posting.