2007 - December
Yours In Training
 |
December 2007 |
Freecall 1800 2 TRAIN (1800 2 87246) www.mrwed.com.au |
In This Issue
Training News: New name for our Peak Body
MRWED News: MRWED in the Windy City
Training Tip: Sharpen up your powerpoints and e-learning with stock photos
Website of the Month: www.discoveryeducation.com
Training Game: Aeroplanes
Also...
Training News: New name for our Peak Body
As the new Government was sworn in by the Governor-General on 3 December 2007, it was announced that there would be the creation of a new Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. This replaces the Department of Education, Science and Training as the peak federal body for education and training in Australia.
Information pertaining to the VET sector can be still be found at www.dest.gov.au but will change to www.deewr.gov.au within the next 12 months.
Existing information relating to the former Department of Employment and Workplace Relations can also be found at www.dewr.gov.au until the end of 2008.
MRWED News: MRWED in the Windy City
MRWED Principal, Marc Ratcliffe and Early Childhood Coordinator, Jodie Riek have recently returned from the NAEYC National Conference in Chicago after successful speaking engagements at the event. This conference attracts around 20000 education and learning professionals from around the world and it was a great honour to be associated with the event for a third year in a row. Jodie presented her very popular presentation, Blocks: Moving beyond just building roads, (having already presented this workshop in Washington DC and Atlanta, Georgia in previous years.) Marc unveiled his new workshop "Learning Styles: The language of the learner" to positive reviews.
Marc will be returning to the windy city in 2008, after being invited to speak at the 15th Annual International Education Conference to be held at the University of Illinois in June. He will be presenting his workshop "Building your Trainer's Tool Kit: 12 proven tricks to spice up your training", which has been well received at local education conferences in Perth, Sydney and Hobart in 2007.
Training Tip: Sharpen up your powerpoints and e-learning with relevant stock photos
Are you looking to sharpen up your powerpoint slides and e-learning activities? One way is to use stock photos. There are literally millions of royalty free images that are either free or can be purchased at cost-effective rates. It might just mean the difference between an interesting and relevant presentation and death by powerpoint!
One site that we have used recently is www.istockphoto.com where individual photographers and graphic artists from around the world post royalty-free images. The site boasts an "excellent assortment of photographs, illustrations and video for very reasonable prices." Most photos cost less than $1 and illustrations go for around $5 per image.
For larger scale e-learning projects, you may want to consider subscription-based resources, which are ordered according to your specific preferences:
For individual images or CD collections, www.inmagine.com provides a very comprehensive and well priced stock photo library.
For free images, check out www.imageafter.com and www.flickr.com. You'd be surprised how many people are willing to donate pictures!
Website of the Month: www.discoveryeducation.com
Discovery Education is a division of Discovery Communications, the people behind the very popular Discovery Channel seen in Australia on Foxtel. A leader in digital video-based learning, Discovery Education produces and distributes high-quality digital resources in easy-to-use formats in a variety of subject areas. Whilst there is a schools focus to this site, we have found some cool links that would be very relevant in a vocational education and training environment.
http://school.discoveryeducation.com for instance provides links to a puzzle builder, lesson plan library and a clip art gallery. This is all free content so discover away!
Training Game: Aeroplanes
We used this game at a recent conference, but it could be adapted successfully into a classroom training situation.
Time: 15 minutes
Goal:To test learners knowledge of the given topic in a fresh way.
Timing: To be used when there is a need to re-cap the learning from a session. Typically at the end or just after lunch.
Instructions:
- Ask delegates to write a question relating to the training event that they are currently involved in on the centre of a sheet of A4 paper. They should create as many questions as you feel are necessary (two each will usually suffice).
- Next, ask them to create an aeroplane out of the sheets of paper with the questions on. If they cannot make aeroplanes, ask them to screw the paper up into a ball.
- When the delegates have completed this, ask them to split into to two different lines facing each other and at opposite sides of the room.
- Next, ask them to throw their aeroplanes across the room at each other. When an aeroplane lands near them, they should throw it back to the line of people on the other side of the room.
- After a short period of the ‘throwing’, ask everyone to stop. The delegates must then pick up the paper that is closest to them and in turn, answer the questions.
Possible Use: This energiser is particularly effective just after lunch when you want to test retention of knowledge and also ‘wake’ the delegates.
So it seems all those skills making paper planes at school can be put to good use!
Next Issue
In the next issue of Yours in Training! we look at the key training developments and Trends for 2008. Until then, I hope Santa brings you lots of training goodies.
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Thanks!
If you have any questions, suggestions or issues to be discussed on the Yours in Training! Ezine then please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it us or call our Client Relations Team on Freecall 1800 2 TRAIN (1800 2 87246).
Happy training!
Marc Ratcliffe
Principal – MRWED
