Last week in Elan land was filled with challenge, inspiration and Very Clever People (shhhh – don’t tell anyone, but there were very few moments last week that actually felt like “work”…).
Here were some of the highlights:
– We joined forces with TasICT and kicked off the “It’s Your Career” project, in collaboration with TasTAFE Stay tuned about that one, it’s set to be a very cool project that we’re very excited to be working on. More about that in a few weeks…
– The very clever James Riggall from @StartUpTasmania took us for a sneak peek at the Macquarie House redevelopment in Launceston, soon-to-be-home of The Catalyst Project. A clear all-round political, social and economic winner, the project will sow the seeds for a hotbed of innovation and collaboration in Northern Tas. Watch this space, as @jamesriggall presented at the TedX Launceston talks last Friday. I’ll post the link to the video when it becomes available. James spoke about the decentralisation of innovation hubs, as they increasingly proliferate in regional areas (like Launceston). He presents an exciting message, which tells of resourceful and edgy businesses quietly achieving globally and acting locally.
It is a coincidence that I snapped this while the “Reliability” slide was up there. It refers to the FTTP difference, but is also one of our points of pride…
– Andrew and I presented two segments of the Technology and Training: Get Up To Speed workshop, hosted by @Skills Tasmania’s E-learning Unit. It was an excellent day, attended by a range of people from RTOs, local government, Department of Education and local businesses. There was a breadth of knowledge and experience in the room and we were delighted to hear about two case studies from the recent Skills Tasmania Technology Infrastructure Investment Program. I’ll post the link to the case studies as they become available. They are brilliant stories about the use of technology as the glue between people and opportunity.
Andrew guided us through the finer points of High Speed Broadband / NBN and answered a bunch of those lingering pesky questions including: “What is it?” “How do I get it?” “How much will it cost?” “Why would my business bother?” “What does this all mean anyway?” “What if we’ve got $1k, $5K or $20K to spend?” He also kicked a Prezi-mastery goal and we’ll be sharing the presentation slides soon.
Brendan from Department of Education’s ITS gamely stepped up to the plate to assemble the Cold Drip coffee rig.
I took the group through a “lesson within a lesson”, demonstrating a modular approach to Technology-enhanced learning using free and paid tools to address identified needs for learners, industry and RTOs. Elan is all about picking and mixing online tools that get the job done as simply and cheaply as possible.
We served up a live lesson that drew performance criteria from the “Plan and Monitor the Sale and Service of Espresso Coffee” Unit of Competency from the SIT13 package. Tristan, one of the professional coffee roasters from Zimmah Coffee showed us through his industry setting (including those “out the back” places not normally available to punters. He taught us about the different types of grinds, showed us how to assemble a Cold Drip Coffee set up and then supported the assessment of Brendan from Department of Education ITS and Fiona from Skills Tasmania’s E-Learning Unit’s grasp of the skills and knowledge. That was followed with some online assessment and collaboration using free tools in Google Apps.
You’ll be pleased to know that everyone completed the quiz with a “satisfactory” outcome (well done). The session was rounded out with a quick look over the National Vocational Registration standards that were addressed through the activity – and there were lots from NVRs 15-17 covered off. Phew! The 90 minutes passed in a flash (well, for me, at least). I hope that Elan will get to do more of that type of teaching – possibly with even more time allocated – as there’s a lot to bite off and chew with this live approach.
It was a whirlwind tour through virtual excursions and free online assessment and delivery, and we hope that the participants got plenty out of a glimpse of our “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” (aka fit-for-purpose, rather than packaged solution) approach to technology-enhanced learning. Thanks Skills Tasmania for having us along – and thank you to the participants who came for the ride with us!
– Friday saw a catch up with Dr Marcus Bowles from University of Tasmania and The Institute for Working Futures. A generous and learned man, Marcus shared his vision for regional development & workforce development with us and generally bamboozled us with his insights. There was a point at which I felt that it was only fair that he call me “Grasshopper”… Plenty of food for thought there, particularly with respect to global approaches to workforce development & planning.
Then there were the TasICT Industry Awards…
After the panel interviews that made the whole thing worthwhile (imagine a roomful of experienced and expert business leaders asking insightful questions that inspire all kinds of introspection and refinement in your new business), I felt that we’d been very well served by the awards process already (thank you panellists, it was tremendous). (Tip for young players: enter the awards – it is time well spent no matter the outcome).
And we won two categories!!
We were delighted to take the trophies for Best Start Up and Best ICT Solution with us. We were also finalists in the Best ICT Service category, but that would have just been cheeky and the prize went to those clever guys at @acrodata (well done, John and the gang – second year running!).
Andrew accepted the “Best Start Up” trophy
And I got to collect the “Best ICT Solution” trophy
A good time was had by all – perhaps most of all by me.
I was lucky enough to sit next to Minister Nick McKim and harangue – I mean interview – him about workforce development strategy and VET reform in Tasmania, and to discover his thoughts about Tertiary and VET sector intersection over dinner. He was very gracious and even talked me through signing up to Twitter on my phone (follow us at @elanprojects).
There was lots of buzz in the room when Premier Lara Giddings announced that there would be funding for a Workforce Development Plan for the ICT industry in Tasmania – a much-needed and exciting opportunity for our State indeed.
I was supposed to give an acceptance speech for one of our awards. Never one to waste an opportunity to spruik an idea, I preferred steal the chance to call the TasICT community to action through participating in the consultation for the Plan and to step up and join us in the IT’s Your Career Project. People were very indulgent and went with the flow.
It was fascinating to hear Michael Ferguson, Lara Giddings and Nick McKim battle it out on the couch in the panel discussions, brilliant to meet lots of TasICT members and movers & shakers in education. It was humbling to witness the commitment to innovation using technology that exists in the Tasmanian ICT community. Thank you to all of the TasICT members who came to say hello, offer their congratulations, and especially, to express their interest in participating in the creation of Workforce Development Plan. Elan is absolutely brimming with excitement at the prospect of getting going on the Plan.
Top work to @DeanWinter4, who is the Executive Officer at TasICT. Dean did a sterling job of the awards and Elan is really pleased to be working with him!
Phew! What a week. I finished it by flying to Bali.
Congratulations if you read this far. Promise that future posts will be much shorter.
Recent Comments