Hello hortykim here-I have just been working on updating a hazard register for the arborists when I heard the delightful sound of receiving a new e mail! and the following interesting request from a colleague. So I will spare a few moments-save save and save again(my hazard reg doc) and see if I can help out .Here is a copy of the email sent to me and my responses.
Dear all,
I desperately need help with my professional development on flexible learning.
Could you please answer these questions (as soon as possible please) about what flexible learning – the answers will appear on a blog, but I don’t need to add names if you don’t want me to.
What does the term Flexible Learning mean to you?
For hortykim I think of flexible learning as more blended learning where we combine traditional face-to-face classroom methods with more modern computer-mediated activities and in my case I really enjoy the use of wikieducator
.”WikiEducator is an international online community project for the collaborative development of learning materials, which educators are free to reuse, adapt and share without restriction. WikiEducator was launched in 2006[4][5] and is supported by the non-profit Open Education Resource (OER) Foundation.[6] A variety of learning resources are available on WikiEducator: direct instructional resources such as lesson plans and full courses, as well as learning-support resources”
Why is it necessary to use a more flexible approach in your work?
I find that wikieducator is a great place to store resources and is extremely time efficient. Once I had mastered the ability to set up new pages and edit them then I am able to tweak and add information so that my lesson plans and resources improve every time I present a particular unit to my class. I also really enjoy capturing resources on video and photos as we do a lot of stuff that is practical and interesting.These resources become links in the wikieducator to support ideas or explain concepts for future students.Another great benefit is if a student misses a class then I can direct them to the session stored on the wiki.
What do you need to explore to make this happen?
Now I will contradict myself in that as time efficient and streamline as a wiki page may appear I always wish I had more time to spend on editing and refining the pages.Or perhaps using more of the wiki features like wikibook( talk about vanity publishing eh ?)
What goals do you have for using Flexible Learning in your work?
It is important to listen to the clues that come from our CEO as this is the best way to stay vital to our organisation.The most recent communications have included some of the following quotes from Phil Ker
“Meeting Otago Polytechnic’s development needs for the future” is all about identifying what development expertise, processes and structures will best serve Otago Polytechnic into the future…”
There are a few areas under discussion that seem to be important to our future but the one that stood out most to me and the one I feel I can contribute to immediately is the focus on open education resources as per the following statement.
- The growth in the use of Open Education Resources, and new models of education delivery based on OER. This is happening NOW, and Otago Polytechnic is a world leader in this area. More and more people round the world will be able to access a quality vocational education for free, or at very low cost.
I am interested in looking at how we could enrol,deliver and assess Permaculture Design for more and more people around the world for free or at a very low cost…..that would be my next goal.
Horty Kim 
Lisa Short said,
April 18, 2012 at 2:59 am
Great! Thank you very much Kim. I would love to catch up an hear all about your experiences on Wikieducator. Lisa
bronwyn said,
May 8, 2012 at 9:01 am
A great post hortykim. Your optimism is inspiring, and a great characteristic to have, along with your creative thinking, to support the organisation’s future direction. It was very informative with regard to the flexible learning questions.