Met with Alison today who is CEO of Touchstone a local charity and a member of Volition and more importantly, a lovely lady. She has indicated that there are lots of voluntary secotr organisations which would really benefit from students doing real work based projects for them and that these would suit multidiscplinary teams involved in business development, marketing, finance etc They have capacity to mentor student teams and currently take a lot of post graduate and undergraduate health students on the service sector side.
We discussed PUPPS and she was very interested in the use of web technologies to support students via social networks etc in a work based context - she said the Finance Director was desperate for help/assistance from accounting/finance students - there has been lots of encouragement about my proposed project from people involved in Employability.
I have submitted a bid to ELESIG (http://elesig.ning.com/) to fund the activity day - so I will be awaiting a decision sometime in December! I am trying to get the SCEPTrE wiki working which is frustrating and slow - I am really too busy to keep trying to resolve the issues but it is important..
I STILL havent sent the employer questionnaire out - time is making things really tough for me at the moment - I have written 2,800 words of the book chapter on WBL and mobile technologies (the research and theories on it are fascinating) but I have to write a proposal paper about the module that I am writing - I am so passionate about what I am doing but I have so much to do and am hoping that when I get some PhD hours this will free up some time so that I dont have to do so much out of work....my husband is getting annoyed as I have no work life balance at the moment and it is all work, work, work..
Anyway - hopefully I am going to create something of real value and worth for students at a time when employability is a big issue - I am really thinking about a CBI bid but I have so much on at the mo'!
Wednesday 25 November 2009
Wednesday 18 November 2009
Early morning blues - stress!
OK - so I went to bed early cause I was tired and I have woken up early because I am stressed - so what is stressing me? Lots of things to do with the project mainly - firstly, a participant has dropped out and not returned the PDA and despite my numerous communications, did not return it on Monday as promised and has not responded to subsequent emails - so I will have to write formally which I didnt want to have to do.
Secondly, despitre numerous requests for students to blog, send me an MP3 file and publish their assets to the Gateway - only x2 have published their assets, 4 have done a blog and 5 have sent me an MP3 file...I understand that participants have comittments but they have all agreed to take part in the pilot and whilst I appreciate things might not happen straightaway it has been well over a month now, so that is frustrating and stressful.
I was going to submit an HEA bid for some funds to do some work in relation to extending the project which is going to feed into a new module I am designing (it wil be interesting to see if particpants compliance changes if webfolios and the progression of populating assets is assessed). However, far more important people than I are going to submit a bid synthesising good practice in a collection of case studies, so I am not going to bother as I cant compete with the people involved. If it is approved the outputs will be helpful for my project but it is a bit disheartening as a new researcher to find constantly find a lack of opportunity in bidding for funds as you face competition from more experienced researchers...
I havent started my book chapter yet (eek) - the lack of assets being published and blogs is hindering this and I of course have a deadline to work to, so this is stressful for me.
On a less stressful (for now) note, Helen Whitrod Brown who is now involved in partnerships would like to meet next week to discuss the experiential learning module that I would like to write for business students and I informed that Barbara Colledge is working on something similar.
One thing I have learned this week, is that the ideas that I have had in terms of competency/skills framework, e-portfolio assessment, resuable learning objects for the proposed module etc are things that are happening in various projects across the University. The module I want to design is a synthesis of all of these things but I conceptualised the module before knowing any of this - so the work may not be as labour intensive in terms of set up as I imagined.
So this week - I still need to circulate the questionnaire I designed weeks ago to employers, find out some way of convincing participants to do the stuff I have asked - get participants to send the activity report from PebblePad showing what they have (or in most cases have not done) and start this book chapter so that I dont have a nervous breakdown in December trying to pull it all together - oh yes and I will have a mound of marking/assessing as Semester 1 exams are looming - oh the joy!
Right well, off to make a hot chocolate and get some shut eye if I can!
Secondly, despitre numerous requests for students to blog, send me an MP3 file and publish their assets to the Gateway - only x2 have published their assets, 4 have done a blog and 5 have sent me an MP3 file...I understand that participants have comittments but they have all agreed to take part in the pilot and whilst I appreciate things might not happen straightaway it has been well over a month now, so that is frustrating and stressful.
I was going to submit an HEA bid for some funds to do some work in relation to extending the project which is going to feed into a new module I am designing (it wil be interesting to see if particpants compliance changes if webfolios and the progression of populating assets is assessed). However, far more important people than I are going to submit a bid synthesising good practice in a collection of case studies, so I am not going to bother as I cant compete with the people involved. If it is approved the outputs will be helpful for my project but it is a bit disheartening as a new researcher to find constantly find a lack of opportunity in bidding for funds as you face competition from more experienced researchers...
I havent started my book chapter yet (eek) - the lack of assets being published and blogs is hindering this and I of course have a deadline to work to, so this is stressful for me.
On a less stressful (for now) note, Helen Whitrod Brown who is now involved in partnerships would like to meet next week to discuss the experiential learning module that I would like to write for business students and I informed that Barbara Colledge is working on something similar.
One thing I have learned this week, is that the ideas that I have had in terms of competency/skills framework, e-portfolio assessment, resuable learning objects for the proposed module etc are things that are happening in various projects across the University. The module I want to design is a synthesis of all of these things but I conceptualised the module before knowing any of this - so the work may not be as labour intensive in terms of set up as I imagined.
So this week - I still need to circulate the questionnaire I designed weeks ago to employers, find out some way of convincing participants to do the stuff I have asked - get participants to send the activity report from PebblePad showing what they have (or in most cases have not done) and start this book chapter so that I dont have a nervous breakdown in December trying to pull it all together - oh yes and I will have a mound of marking/assessing as Semester 1 exams are looming - oh the joy!
Right well, off to make a hot chocolate and get some shut eye if I can!
Wednesday 4 November 2009
Participant drop out, employer questionnaires and sharing assets
We have a participant who has left the PUPPS project which is sad but not wholly unexpected if I am honest. I was upfront to potential participants that there is some work involved being in the pilot but that it would be worth it in terms of providing information for assessments, linked with the placement and PACE.
So, the problem that I am faced with is finding a replacement...I think I will approach a graduate trainee involved in Becky's project as they will be familar with PebblePad and only PDA training will be required.
I definitely want to circulate the employer questionnaire today and have yet to receive an MP3 file from x2 participants - we are getting there slowly!!!
Next thing is to get activity reports from each participant, although I may just be able to use information from the Gateway..this will only provide data in relation to published assets not ones created - think I will speak to Junjie about this!
So - still waiting for 4 students to publish/share their assets with me but the ones I have seen so far are very intersting...
OK well I am outta here - so much to do (as usual!)
So, the problem that I am faced with is finding a replacement...I think I will approach a graduate trainee involved in Becky's project as they will be familar with PebblePad and only PDA training will be required.
I definitely want to circulate the employer questionnaire today and have yet to receive an MP3 file from x2 participants - we are getting there slowly!!!
Next thing is to get activity reports from each participant, although I may just be able to use information from the Gateway..this will only provide data in relation to published assets not ones created - think I will speak to Junjie about this!
So - still waiting for 4 students to publish/share their assets with me but the ones I have seen so far are very intersting...
OK well I am outta here - so much to do (as usual!)
Sunday 1 November 2009
sharing assets - PebblePad
Hi all
As you will all be aware from the PUPPS launch and PUPPS pack - one of the important features of the project is creating a body of evidence of experience through reflective learning. In order to support members of the project and for my research work, I have suggested previously that we should share the assets that have been created by you with the rest of the group, so that people can learn from each other.
You must share all assets with me (as agreed) but you do not have to share all assets with other participants of the project just those you want to.
Attached is a link to a file for instructions on sharing your assets - please do so asap, so that I can view what you have been doing - Suffice to say, this should be an ongoing process now until the creation of your webfolios in June!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/21980053/share-assets-PebblePad
Thanks
Iwi
As you will all be aware from the PUPPS launch and PUPPS pack - one of the important features of the project is creating a body of evidence of experience through reflective learning. In order to support members of the project and for my research work, I have suggested previously that we should share the assets that have been created by you with the rest of the group, so that people can learn from each other.
You must share all assets with me (as agreed) but you do not have to share all assets with other participants of the project just those you want to.
Attached is a link to a file for instructions on sharing your assets - please do so asap, so that I can view what you have been doing - Suffice to say, this should be an ongoing process now until the creation of your webfolios in June!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/21980053/share-assets-PebblePad
Thanks
Iwi
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