Instructional Design

Nearly 2 years...

2010-09-03T16:27:00.003+01:00

..since I posted anything here. I can't really cope with blip, Facebook and Flickr as it is but will make a little effort here - no guarantees it won't be 2 more years before the next one!
So - is this art or vandalism?

How did I do that?

2008-12-16T23:36:00.002Z

That's a shame - the video has disappeared. It was a Disney promotion with my name plastered all over the video - very clever!

Pirate Party on a Boat

2007-11-04T10:37:00.000Z

We had a great time last night on Cruz (the boat / restaurant on the Shore in Leith.
Lurin were playing a benefit gig for the Peru Earthquake appeal. The theme was pirates and lots of people dressed up for it.

Penny and Gus arrive

Nigel, parrot and Katie

Andy and Helen

Gus with a pint or two

Meeting some other pirates!

Lurin the Band

Tomski DJing

The other band (they were great!)

Nigel on guitar

Cairns photos - trip to Port Douglas and diving

2007-09-16T09:39:00.000+01:00

Gus had trouble with his impacted wisdom tooth and had to visit a dentist - Steven King!!

Here are some photos of Keith and Kim's yard.

Pictures of our dive trip with TUSA Dive:

Our meal out at a Korean BBQ restaurant. There were hotplates at the table to cook the meats:

Brisbane - more photos

2007-09-14T06:57:00.001+01:00

Here is Maria's new place in Anerley:

Arrived in Cairns

2007-09-14T06:43:00.001+01:00

We flew from Brisbane to Cairns on 12 September and are staying with Keith and Kim Cardwell for 5 nights. They live on Brinsmead, a quiet suburb of Cairns about 15 minutes from the airport. They have 3 ponds in their back yard with goldfish, angelfish etc but also have a cane toad problem! Flocks of finches come to their feeder.

I met Keith on the USQ Masters on FET5600 in semester 3, 2004 and we have kept in touch since. Joan, Jo-Anne, Keith, Cathy and I were the active members of that course!

Keith has arranged for Gus to complete his advanced PADI starting with 3 night dives in a lake tonight then out on the reef tomorrow (I'll be snorkelling but not in the dark!). Kim is a personal trainer and also does first aid classes and diving classes. Keith and Kim run a diving training school: http://www.fnqdive.com.

Photos to follow!

Meal at Summit Restaurant

2007-09-13T10:57:00.000+01:00

Jo-Anne, Len, Gus and I met up with Joan and Neville Schefe for a wonderful meal at the Summit Restaurant on Mount Coo Tha, on Sunday 9th September. Here are some photos - there was a panoramic view of the city at night behind us...

Visiting Kris and family in Brisbane

2007-09-11T07:48:00.000+01:00

Kris was another fellow student on the USQ course and we were invited to their house last night for a BBQ. The meal was lovely and we met her husband, guest student Natalie and their pets including a white and ginger cat called Nelson! Family and friends will remember our dear old cat Nelson who lived for 16 years (1973 - 1990). NB Gus's T shirt says 'Toowoomba - where the bloody hell is it?'

USQ Graduation

2007-09-08T09:04:00.000+01:00

Meal out at Weis Restaurant. We had a celebration meal on the Saturday evening - Cathy & Steve, Avinash & family (his Mum, sister and sister's 4 month old baby Talin), Peter & Sandra Evans, Kaye Cleary, Birgit Loch, Gus and me. The seafood smorgasbord was wonderful, we kept going back for more! The baby was alert and happy all evening and we got lots of cuddles.

It has been a wonderful day so far. We had to assemble at the Town Hall between 7.45 and 8.15 to collect our robes. The last few days here have been cold and rainy but today the sun came out and the sky was bright blue with a few fluffy clouds. At 9.30 the Town Crier rang his bell and announced the academic parade to celebrate USQ's 40th anniversary and the procession set off through the streets of Toowoomba, led by the town crier, the USQ Big Band, the Faculty (staff) and finally the graduands. The traffic was stopped for us as we made the 600m walk to the Palace Theatre.

On arrival we took our allocated seats with our guests seated behind and the dignitaries on the platform. There were several speeches and the presentation of an honorary doctorate to Mary Wagner (www.wagner.com.au/), a musical interlude then the presentation of awards. I was the only person being awarded a Masters in Flexible Learning - Cathy Grahame (from Melbourne) took Masters of Education and Avinash (from Mauritius) Masters of Educational Techonology.

After the ceremony there were tea and cakes in the church hall, then we queued for the graduation photos.

Staying with Jo and family in Carindale, Brisbane

2007-09-07T01:33:00.000+01:00

Jo-Anne and Len Bowman kindly invited us to stay with them each side of our graduation trip to Toowoomba. We stayed 2 nights, then had a 2 night trip to Toowoomba followed by another 3 nights at Jo's. We met their family, daughter Kate (who stayed with us last New Year while travelling with her friend Kimberley) and son Zak. It was so nice to meet Jo at last, having originally met whilst we were studying on FET5600 in semester 3, 2004. We hired a car for our week's stay and got out and about seeing the local area and downtown Brisbane. It's a beautiful city - we particularly like the Southbank area with flowers and rainforest walks beside the river. Jo works at Southbank TAFE and showed us their new building.

Ken, Francesca and Dougal in Balmain

2007-09-07T01:31:00.001+01:00

We reluctantly left the farm at Wollombi on Monday 3 Sept back to Thornleigh, then once the rush hour was over Shannon took us into Balmain to Ken and Francesca's. Ken worked with Gus at Craigroyston last year when he was in Scotland on a teacher exchange. Curry meal and drinks, walked to local pub for a couple of pints. Tuesday, we walked into Balmain and down Darling Street to the ferry stops, took ferry to Woolwich and back (just for the ride and the views). Decided to avoid city centre while Geroge W Bush is in town for APEC conference!

Weds 5 Sept flight from Sydney - Brisbane, Virgin Blue. Very efficient, checked in at machines then queued for bag drop. Journey time only 1.5 hours, over in a flash!!

Farm at Wollombi

2007-09-07T01:29:00.001+01:00

The farm at Wollombi is in an idyllic setting, overlooking a valley. The drive up from the road crosses a ford which was flooded recently - there was still quite a bit of water to drive through and signs of the flood with banks washed away, fallen trees etc. All the rooms have lovely views and complete privacy as there is no one around apart from a few cows grazing in the field.

King parrots and galahs visited the bird feeder and we saw lots of wildlife including wombats and a wallaby.

Thanks to Marie and Gordon for allowing us to stay in their beautiful home - and thanks also to Shannon for taking us there.

Other experiences at the farm:
Birds on the feeder
Orange and lemon trees loaded with fruit.
Margeritas.
Shannon's fish pie
Pasta with spinach and asparagus from the veg garden
Wombat (out in the day time, it wasn't well)
King parrots and galahs and many other birds...

Shannon's Mum's in Berowra

2007-09-07T01:28:00.001+01:00

The next morning, Saturday, we were invited for lunch at Shannon's Mum's in Berowra. It was good to meet Jitske at last, having spoken to her on the phone many times a few years back when Shannon was living with us. Her house is in a beautiful location with a view across the valley and the small group of houses being surrounded by the bush. After lunch we continued northwards to Wollombi where we were invited to stay at Marie and Gordon's farm for the weekend.

Visiting Shannon in Sydney

2007-09-07T01:20:00.000+01:00

Tiring flight from Dubai, 14 hours. Emirates very good with choice of movies in seat back screen - I watched Blades of Glory and Gus watched Pirates of the Caribbean then 2 episodes of Ab Fab and 3 of the Simpsons. Neither of us got much sleep.

Arrived Sydney Friday 31 August at about 6.30am (yawn!). Met by our friend Shannon and whisked away to her home in Thornleigh. We met Shannon's gorgeous white cat, Barney and walked round her garden. The plants and birds are so interesting, very different to Scotland. It's also nice to see the spring flowers when it is heading towards autumn at home. We went out to a local forest park / nursery for lunch, trying to stay awake as long as possible. Eventually gave in and had a few hours' snooze, then later on had dinner with Shannon at a local Italian restaurant. The afternoon nap didn't stop us sleeping through the night.

Dubai photos

2007-08-29T16:41:00.000+01:00

I think I figured out what the posting problem was.. my laptop was set to UK time so I think the time difference confused it. Anyway, here are some more photos from our Dubai stay.

Here are various shots of the water taxis (abras). We took these across Dubai Creek (a very big creek!) from Bur Dubai to the Gold Souk. It was great fun - just 1Dh each way (about 15p UK). We also visited the spice market and had lunch in an excellent cafe, followed by mint tea and dates.

Our hotel was excellent - the Arabian Courtyard Hotel, opposite the Dubai Museum. We liked being in the old city rather than a beach resort and enjoyed ourselves just wandering round the streets. I had to buy an umbrella to shelter from the sun!

Unfortunately, Niru's work commitments and evening meetings meant that we were not able to meet up. Maybe she'll visit Scotland some time?

Hi from Dubai!

2007-08-29T10:05:00.000+01:00

It's HOT here. No, correct that, VERY HOT here! About 40 degrees, but a fairly dry heat. We met up with Andy Daou (that's me and him in the photo) yesterday evening and are seeing Niru Bhati this evening, then continuing our journey to Australia tomorrow. It's so nice to be meeting USQ friends for real after all this time.

I'll be posting some more Dubai photos soon....

Simpsonize Me!

2007-08-24T14:51:00.000+01:00

What a great programme! Here's Gus and me.

http://www.simpsonizeme.com

Completed Master of Flexible Learning

2007-08-09T16:01:00.000+01:00

I made it! Finished the final course, FET8660, in June and set to graduate from USQ next month. The whole programme of study has been a great experience and I have learned so much about online learning, educational technology and emerging environments in learning. The whole subject is fascinating because it's changing so much and as teachers we need to keep up with our students and their expectations.

I intend to continue contributing to knowledgeGarden and plan to use my knowledge and experience with our own students at Napier. We've already had great success introducing wikis to group work for BA Accounting Year 3 students.

Fitness Centre

2007-08-09T15:47:00.002+01:00

Well, I've joined the fitness centre at work! This is a first for me. Hope it doesn't turn out like this though:

RSS Feeds

2007-06-18T13:22:00.000+01:00

Have been trying to create an RSS feed to our Branch website, http://ataxia-east-scotland.org.uk. Back to the drawing board I think?

Using a Wiki for Raising Awareness of Ataxia

2007-05-01T00:04:00.000+01:00

So far, we are the only Branch of Ataxia UK that has its own website: http://www.ataxia-east-scotland.org.uk.

A simple alternative for other Branches and Support Groups might be to have a wiki instead. They are simple to use and edit and you can post photos, news, events, fund raising ideas etc. I've set up a practice wiki at http://ataxiabranch.pbwiki.com so that Branches can try it out for themselves and have asked Tina to email everyone. I'd be very interested to get feedback from you all.

Hopefully, we'll be able to raise awareness of Ataxia still further!

FET 8660 - The final course

2007-03-20T22:20:00.000Z

Semester 1, 2007, sees the final course in my Masters programme at USQ. FET 8660 is Masters Project 1 and I have until June to complete it. Seems no time at all since I started on this learning journey; it's been a great experience!

Still working out the project title and arranging a supervisor (hoping to get Dr Peter Evans - fingers crossed!) but planning to investigate the creation of a repository of learning objects for my main subject areas: financial accounting / financial reporting. This will provide (I hope) an internal collaborative environment suitable for sharing with colleagues, to enrich teaching and learning and to promote online and blended learning at Napier. There's already a UK wide project, Jorum, and hopefully we will eventually generate some materials of sufficient quality for sharing with other further and higher education institutions.

We're all set for the graduation in September in Toowoomba and planning a big trip round that date. Main flights from the UK are already booked! Hoping to meet up with many fellow students who have become friends over the programme.

Solution to 'Small Font' problem

2007-01-11T14:55:00.000Z

After weeks of struggling with the tiny font in KG - and the even tinier font in the edit box - it suddenly came to me (in the middle of the night) - open KG in Opera and change the zoom to 120% or 150%. It works like a dream! WHY didn't I think of this before? It's great for webct too, where the fixed size font has been annoying me for my 2 years with USQ!

I am working my way through all the WebCT postings and the wonderful KG wiki pages that you have all created, so if I haven't got to you yet it's coming very soon, I promise!

Penny

Catching up

2006-12-10T23:10:00.000Z

I've a lot of catching up to do on FET8611: first had problems with eyesight after straining them on the long drive to and from Yorkshire the other weekend. No long term damage done, fortunately, but have to use drops for a few weeks and avoid using the computer as much as possible. Then I've been covering for a colleague who's off sick, just when I thought the teaching load was easing off a bit. Finally another colleague has broken his leg badly so we're all helping out with his classes and marking.

Soooo - WebCT and knowledgeGarden have been sadly neglected. Major catch up planned over the Christmas vacation!

Thoughts on Assessment

2006-11-20T21:36:00.000Z

Had a text chat with Birgit this evening on Messenger (early morning for her) and we kicked around a few ideas for facilitated pages. I thought of starting by inviting people to report on their own experiences of assessment (on the receiving end), then thinking about which might be appropriate for the new learning environments. Also, what new techniques might be needed. The great thing is, everyone has been on the receiving end of assessment - good and bad experiences. It's possible that the new learning environments may produce 'good' and 'bad' forms of assessment too?

We will probably set up a joint page or two as well.

Started reading a bit of the course notes today. There's certainly a lot to read!

Assessment in Emerging Educational Environments

2006-11-19T18:23:00.000Z

I checked through the wiki titles and no one has investigated this before (surprisingly) so have started to set the page up. Will need to give the content headings a bit of thought though - am not sure how best to structure it. Maybe taking each type of learning environment in turn - or perhaps turning it around and thinking about which types of assessment are / aren't suitable or appropriate any more? Hmmm - will think about this.

Also, maybe I should have called it 'Assessment in Emerging Learning Environments'? No problem, that can be changed.

Starting FET 8611 Emerging Environments for Learning

2006-11-19T15:55:00.000Z

Semester 3 has already started, and there are already many introductory postings from fellow students in webct. It's nice to see some familar names too, including Birgit & Perdita (the 3 of us changed our course enrolments to stay with the same tutor, Peter Evans). One of the first tasks for the course is to become familar with the knowledgeGarden environment - not a problem for the three of us as we used it last semester - but we musn't become complacent either. I've updated my user page and now need to think about pages I could facilitate - have a few ideas but need to check through the wiki titles to make sure I am not 'reinventing the wheel'. Also need to print off the course readings and make a start on them. Andy has already contributed a discussion thread so some serious catch up is needed!

I'm really looking forward to this course and so pleased to be working in a constructive, supportive and friendly environment. I can't imagine any face to face course being as rewarding as the online community we have helped to create.

This blog will take a more serious turn than previously - I'll still post the occasional photo, but these musings will hopefully provide a basis for composing the end of course hand in (assignment 1). However, we're off on a 2 night walking holiday next Friday so might have some nice photos of the English countryside to post here later on.

PS Saw Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band in concert in Edinburgh last Monday, with Adrian Edmonson and Phil Jupitus - they were EXCELLENT! Very funny and good music too.

Finished FET5622

2006-11-19T15:45:00.000Z

The course (FET 5622 Creating Interactive Multimedia) was challenging but very enjoyable, particularly with the support of Birgit, Perdita, Peter (our tutor) and the other students in webct and knowledgeGarden. I finally submitted the third and last assignment for the course yesterday and am looking forward to the end of semester conference next week. Learning to use Fireworks and Flash was an uphill struggle and I still have a lot to learn, especially Actionscript, but plan to use Flash more in the future and have an excellent book, SAMS Flash 8 in 24 hours by Phillip Kerman: http://www.phillipkerman.com/books/

Now, it's on to the next course, FET8611. Only one more to go after that (Masters Project 1) and still on track to graduate in September 2007.

Playing WAV files in Firefox and Opera??

2006-09-10T22:18:00.000+01:00

I have been struggling all day with the coding for this and still cannot get it to work. It works a dream in Internet Explorer, but in Firefox it asks for a Quicktime plug in - then when you've downloaded the plug in, it STILL asks for it!

I just want a simple, visible controller to play an embedded WAV file in any browser.

Any suggestions?

Dr Curt Bonk

2006-09-06T23:20:00.000+01:00

We have been fortunate this week to have three presentations from Curt Bonk http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk/, on 1. Podcasts, Wikis & Blogs: E-Learning (it's not in Kansas anymore - it's in Edinburgh), 2. OOOPs - Open Courseware and 3. Blended Learning. The start of our autumn semester is looming and there's lots to do, but you only get occasional chances to hear inspirational speakers, so let's not waste them!

My latest course (module) at USQ is going well, I'm taking Multimedia with Dr Peter Evans and having a lot of fun with the course Wiki, knowledgeGarden. Trouble is, am spending way too much time in the knowledgeGarden virtual world and not enough time buckling down to reading journal articles and learning to use Fireworks, DreamWeaver and Flash! Must work harder! Great support from fellow course members though, and getting closer to that graduation date next September......

Stephen Downes: Keynote on Skypecast

2006-09-06T11:15:00.000+01:00

I've just participated this morning in the Skypecast of Stephen's keynote address to a conference in South Africa. This was (he thinks) the first ever keynote delivered in this way. There was a combination of a live audience, people listening in from all over the world on Skypecast and texting on Skype chat. It was very exciting to take part. The topic was: 'Learning Objects' what are they good for? and Stephen discussed many ideas on education, learning, technologies and where we may all be going in the future. He'll be creating a podcast of the address and posting it on his website.

Links: Stephen Downes' Website http://www.downes.ca/
Skypecasts: http://www.skype.com/help/guides/skypecasts.html

Starting FET 5622 - Multimedia

2006-07-29T17:57:00.000+01:00

On the homeward stretch now with this being the 6th course towards my Masters in Flexible Learning. We are using the knowledgeGarden learning environment http://knowledgegarden.usq.edu.au which is quite a challenge.

Looking forward to learning much more about website design over the next few months....

FET 8603 - getting there!

2006-06-08T11:00:00.000+01:00

This course has been an uphill struggle, but I have one more assignment to go and can then move on. There has been hardly any interaction in the discussions, mainly down to a lack of structure in both the threads and the course material itself. It has been a very useful lesson in how NOT to run an online learning course. Week 14 already and still less than 300 discussion postings from 30 students. Other courses have been in the thousands by now. So... am using email to interact with a few friends (thanks Rena and Barbara!) and plodding on, researching the topic independently. Such a shame, because assessment is a really important subject in teaching, and more guidance (well, any guidance!) would have been nice.

Hoping to feel less 'out on a limb' next time, in FET5622 (multimedia). It's not easy studying on the web in the UK on your own when all the other students are spread worldwide. At least I've got helpful colleagues to offer support and advice (thanks Heather and Alun!).

Enough moans - summer is coming and the garden is looking lovely (photo taken in April, the roses are coming out now). Heatwave here in Scotland - it was 25 degrees C yesterday! Positively tropical!

Starting FET 8603

2006-02-22T22:15:00.000Z

Have just finished FET 8610 and have reached the half way point in my Masters at USQ. The time has gone really quickly!

Now starting course no. 5, FET 8603: Assessment - Principles and Practices. I'm looking forward to studying different approaches to online assessment and applying the theories to my work at Napier University.

Finished FET 5601 - starting FET 8610!

2005-11-11T20:54:00.000Z

Just starting my 4th module towards my Masters at USQ: FET 8610 - Creating Educational Web Environments. I am looking forward to creating a web resource for our Year 3 Degree students, to help them to achieve success - not just passing their programme of studies, but achieving the best grades possible.

Ataxia: East of Scotland Branch

2005-09-03T08:26:00.000+01:00

Great news: I finally managed to get our Branch website set up with 1&1 hosting. Our permanent address is: http://www.ataxia-east-scotland.org.uk

We have our Branch meeting this afternoon, Saturday 3 September. We are lucky to have a speaker from Edinburgh City Council: Jack Blaik, to talk about Direct Payments for people with disabilities.

Other events planned are a BBQ on Saturday 24 September at Almondell Country Park and a boat trip to the Falkirk Wheel on Sunday 2 October. Join us!

Dates have not been fixed for the November 2005 and January 2006 branch meetings, but I will post them here as soon as they are available.

Katie and Nigel's Wedding

2005-07-19T18:52:00.000+01:00

My daughter Katie Saywood married Nigel Davison on 27 May 2005. The ceremony and reception were held in the Mansion House at Edinburgh Zoo It was wonderful! Here are a couple of pictures of the occasion: the first one is the stretch limo outside our house, waiting to take the bride and wedding party to the ceremony and the second was taken just after the wedding (before the reception)- don't they look happy!

Katie and Nigel keep many reptiles as pets, including leopard geckos. My husband, Gus, keeps tropical fish, especially cichlids. I hope posting 2 photos works & they are not too squashed!

Ataxia UK

2005-07-19T18:35:00.000+01:00

I'm secretary of the East of Scotland Branch of Ataxia UK. At the moment, our Branch website is on the USQ student web server, but we'll soon be getting our own web host; I'll post the address of this when it changes. Ataxia is (usually) an inherited condition and causes progressive problems with mobility and speech: cognitive abilities are unaffected.

At last! Our permanent web address is up and running. It is: http://www.ataxia-east-scotland.org.uk/

Here's a picture taken on a charity walk last summer (2004). The picture is taken at the start in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh, with Arthur's Seat in the background - we then walked all round the city. I'm number 1339 and my daughter Katie has a red jacket on. My nephew Al is number 1343, the rest are friends from work and our branch of Ataxia. We raised nearly 1000 UK pounds for the charity.

Starting FET 5601 at USQ

2005-07-18T19:56:00.000+01:00

Hi there! I've just started my third course on the Masters in Flexible Learning at USQ (University of Southern Queensland, Australia) - it's FET 5601, Instructional Design for Flexible Learning. Have never tried blogging before so this is a bit scary! This is a picture of me and my husband Gus, at my daughter's wedding on May 27 this year. It was a very happy occasion.

I'm hoping to have some discussions on designing courses for flexible delivery. I work at Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK and I lecture in Accounting. We run a BA Hons in Accounting, Certificate / Diploma in Accounting (similar to HNC/HND) and professional training courses for ACCA and CIMA. I also run 3 paper-based distance learning modules which I'm hoping to adapt for the web as well.

We use WebCT for most of our modules, but just as an add-on to face to face delivery - posting handouts, lecture notes, worked examples, past exam papers etc. The students love it and can't get enough, although some are not happy about the costs of printing out material - but study material can be accessed remotely too which helps.

Best wishes,
Penny Gardner