Sarah's Musings

OK! I admit it! I am a bad student! I haven't prepared my presentation for Assignment Two of the Flexible Learning course which is this afternoon. So here's a very, very quick summary (down and dirty) of what I am going to talk about in response to the feedback that was given to me in my original plan last week.

Concise explanation of flexible learning plan

Context

• Course for eMentors in aged care sector in Australia
• Offered by RTO: Aged Care Queensland Inc
• Certificate Level Four - I think this would be equivalent of certificate level in New Zealand
• For mentors before and after eMentoring experience
• Motivated students but time poor and geographically challenged
  
• Most are likely to be managers or similar position, but at the very least will have Certificate Level Three or Four aged care qualifications (requirements to be eMentor)
  
• Moderate computer skills - will be provided computer training and support to be eMentor
• Prepare people for their roles as eMentors.
  
• Provide a qualification for those who have already had the experience of being an eMentor - to support carer progression and evidence of their ability for future roles as eMentors.

How the course will be delivered

• Distance - blended delivery - online and paper/CD ROM
• Minimal face-to-face because of geographical and financial constraints but need to look at creative ways of dealing with this for people who prefer face-to-face interaction, maybe with local support.

Assessment

• Constructionist approach-making sense of their learning in their context of their work
• Aligning assessment with what they are doing in their every day eMentoring practice - needs analysis to match up their learning needs with what they need to 'deliver' in way of assessment.
  
• Portfolio - mix of personal reflection and evidence of eMentoring activities.
• Certificate level does not require in-depth reflection and critical thinking but role of eMentor does - have to find balance in assessment evaluation.
  

Examples or methods that inspired your plan

• My personal experience this week with Heather Day in the Otago Polytechnic EDC department and enrolling in the postgraduate Territory Teaching and Learning Certificate
  

How your plan fits within your educational organisation

• ACQI - strongly support flexible approach to learning and education and reaching students in rural and remote locations.
  

Access and equity

• Flexible modes of delivery to overcome constraints of time, location and learning skills/styles.
• Flexible times for assessment and taking course to suit eMentors time constraints, being mindful that with rolling enrollment, it is more difficult to bring people together.
• How can I facilitate social learning in context of rolled over enrollment - is rolled over enrollment appropriate or workable?
  

Cultural sensitivity

• Make provision for indigenous students and people from backgrounds of cultural diversity.
• How can I manage provide face-to-face support/education if that is their preference?
• These students may not have the need for face-to-face in the way I assume they will - individual assessment
• Material provided in way that meets their needs.
  

Sustainability

• Open access education resources.
• Encouraging ex-students to 'mentor' current students

I am not at all sure I have addressed any of the feedback on my original plan - at the moment I feel like I am going round and round in circles. This is why I have chosen to make a face-to-face presentation this afternoon. People can tease out the issues that I have been unable to articulate very well in my last few blog posts.

Wish me luck!!

I am very pleased to see that the Aged Care Queensland eMentoring CD ROM has been mentioned on the Creative Commons Australia website.

The eMentoring CD ROM is to be published with a Creative Commons BY Attribution license. Creative Commons Australia says

The publication of a single CD Rom under a CC licence might not seem like a big step, but it’s one of the first examples Australia-wide of a community service organisation working at the ground level putting real time and thought into providing the most appropriate copyright policy for their resources. The licensing makes the CD Rom much more valuable to the community it is seeking to service. Not only can it be spread far and wide, aged care workers in the field can create customised versions for their regions, teachers and trainers can feel confident reproducing and distributing the information for their classes, and workers from other sectors can use it as the basis for eMentoring Handbooks relevant to their own workers.

I have to confess that I haven't really been following the latest news in Australia too closely, but I am aware that there are very positive and exciting national changes afoot that will give midwives a greater degree of autonomy.

Midwives will be able to provide continuity of care and be paid by the government in the same way GPs are paid. However, midwives will not be able to access insurance in order to be to provide homebirth, which in effect rules it out as a choice of care for women in Australia.

What I am finding interesting is the way that organisations like Homebirth Australia is utilizing social media to lobby for change ie over-rule this draconian attitude to homebirth. At the moment, there is an active campaign being run in Facebook. It will be interesting to see how effective this mode of campaigning is.

For more information about maternity services in Australia, I recommend you talk to midwives such as infomidwife, Lisa Barrett or Carolyn Hastie.


Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahmstewart/2044901354/

If you are a midwife, or anyone else in that case, working with marginalised women from black and minority ethnic communities, you may be interested in this online training package that has been put together by Medact.

Medact is a charity based in the UK made up of health professionals who lobby for improved health, especially for people who are affected by war and poverty.

The training package is called "Breaking down the barriers" and is made up of six modules:

• Understanding migration
• Maternal and child health of migrants
• Access to maternity services
• Culture and maternity
• Overcoming language barriers
• Intercultural communication
• Migration and maternal mental health
• Improving migrant women’s experiences of maternity services

I have to admit I have only had a quick look at the package but it appears to be very easy to navigate, uncomplicated in its delivery and very thought-provoking even if all the information does not apply to your context.

Thanks to MRI Technician Schools for a comprehensive list of blogs about pregnancy, natural childbirth and midwifery: Top 100 Natural Birthing Blogs.

I am number 91 and have been categorized as "miscellaneous" just above Bill Cosby at number 93!

Now you'll have to go and see what Bill Cosby has to do with natural childbirth!

Last Thursday I was proud to attend the launch of the Aged Care Queensland Inc eMentoring CD ROM that I have developed, sponsored by the Queensland Gambling Community Benefit Fund. Aside from the fact I wasn't not too sure how gambling benefits the community, I had a great time because I was able to meet a number of mentors and mentees that are participating in the ACQI eMentoring project.

The main buzz for me is that I have got agreement from all concerned to have the CD ROM licenced under a Creative Commons By Attribution licence which means people can do what they like with the content as long as it is attributed back to ACQI and the people whose material we used.

So, hats off to ACQI - let's hope this is the beginning of all their resources being published under a Creative Commons licence.


Jessica Coates, Creative Commons Australia.

I was talking to a young waitress in my favorite Indian restaurant in Brisbane the other day. The waitress was complaining that men didn't speak to her with old fashioned courtesy any more. She complained that men didn't complement her with flourish and poetry but rather what she got these days was "Hey, you're looking hot, babe!"

My wise and profound reply was that she should make the most of it. If anyone says that to me these days it's because they've noticed I'm having a hot flush!

You just don't know how lucky you are when you're 20!