Short report 2 - I wuz hacked!

No sooner had I decided to post a series of short reports about what I've been up to, than my Gmail account was hacked, and messages sent to my contacts asking them to send money to Greece where supposedly I am stranded. I trust that everyone I know knew that I have recently moved to Japan, and that Greece would have been an unlikely detour.

So, don't be taken in. Do think seriously about passwords. Don't believe emails from Google demanding to know your account details to do a routine check. Just . . . watch out.

A good piece of news is that Mami and I have finally connected my laptop (the one I'm using now) to the Internet. No expensive pieces of equipment were needed. No outside 'expert' advice proved very useful. If you want to operate online from overseas, you need to be prepared to negotiate a pretty steep learning curve.

That's all for now - over and out

Update the next day . . .

There was still something odd about my Gmail account. I could send messages out, but none were coming in. Also, I would get 'bumped' out of it from time to time. So I did a search and discovered that your account settings can be adjusted so that mail is diverted. I checked, and found out that my mail was automatically being deleted and a copy sent to irenimope@yahoo.com Smeerlap! as you would swear in Dutch. I also discovered a bumch of messages in my trash, and will now go through and pass the saga on to them.

Short report

I think that I'll prepare a short report from time to time, to let people know what I'm up to in terms of both work and daily life. Creating such posts would not take too much time away from my other duties. I'll try to 'bundle' them together in a corner of my blog (not sure yet how to do that, though I know that it can be done).

Online work

In terms of my online activity, I'm happy to report a bit of a breakthrough with my NZ laptop yesterday. The adapter that comes with it, for converting 230V to 20, has some small print on it that indicates that it will work for 100-230 V. That means that it ought to be okay to hook it up to Japanese electricity. But they have differently shaped plug pins here, and it's not an easy matter to locate the handy little converters that Japan sells overseas; they are literally not available in the shops. But then I discovered an old TV cord not being used that I can use. I fitted eveything together last night. It seems that the battery charges successfully. Next step: Mami reckons that she can help with connecting it to the Internet.

Another idea I've had, is to compile a series of Vlogs (similar to several I've viewed about people based here in Japan documenting their lives). I would work at producing a few videos myself, explaining various strategies in numeracy and study skills that I'd upload onto Youtube. They'd be there, as well as the other Web-based resources I'd link to, and allow/require students with questions to view them, and maybe save me having to repeat the same things for the umpteenth time.

Personal life

I was dragged along to the barber yesterday for an el cheapo haircut so that Mami could observe and learn fto apply in the future. I sampled octopus for the first time yesterday and really enjoyed it. A rubbery form of chicken is how I'd describe it. I'm really enjoying cycling around in just my shirtsleeves (and no helmet!). I feel perfectly safe here - safer than in NZ. Finally, I may not visit the old country until the end of February, 2012. There's a marathon on 19th February, my birthday, around Kumamoto Castle. It is likely to be my last, so what the heck.

Help with study

Did you know that Otago Polytechnic's Learning Centre now has a Kumamoto branch? Japan is a fascinating place to live (here's a two-minute 'best-of' clip by a fan).



I used to work at the Learning Centre, and still do part time. If you have a quick question regarding your studies, I'm only an email away (4 to 7 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays).

Do realise that you still have Jean and Helen who you can see in person, but I'm here (online) to help, especially with Maths related stuff.

During my down time, I'd like to work on making study resources more available for everyone. That's why I've sent all Otago Polytech students the link to this post. I'd like your help to make online resources more acessible for everyone. Please, if you know of a good website to help with study in any way at all, please send me the link (william.lucas@op.ac.nz). To those of you who use Facebook, please find me there. Could you help me - and your fellow students - by developing the Otago Polytechnic Learning Centre group that I've started? I'm really a beginner with Facebook and could use your input (c'mon, you IT students!) Their chat function seems to be really useful. Also, once I get Skype going on my laptop, I could do with progressing that aspect of my project.

Thanks for reading, and please remember to say Hi :-)

Back Online

I'm happy to report that I'm back online after a break of approximately three weeks. On the 7th of April, 2011, I moved to Japan. From now on, from there, I hope to continue offering learning support part-time. This is just a short report to let people know where I'm at. I suggest that you subscribe to this blog if that might be useful to you. Otherwise I'll catch you from time to time with a global email.

Just like most of the students (and staff) I've come into contact with, online learning (and teaching) is new for most of us. There aren't many so-called experts. Most of us are finding our way. Well, my aim is to evolve this online Learning Centre project into something that everyone finds useful. And by the end of that journey we'll find that we've all arrived.

In the meantime, baby steps are the order of the day. Just as a baby doesn't get to walk without occasionally falling down, I've already made a blunder or two. The first was not to obtain an adaptor that converts Japan's 110 Volts into the 230 Volts required by the laptop that Otago Polytechnic set me up with. Another was to assume that arranging an Internet connection overseas would be all plain sailing.

The short story is that someone is going to send me what I need from NZ (the only transformers on sale here are those that convert overseas electrical current into something that Japanese tourists need when they head out of the country). In the meantime, I get to use my sister-in-law's old computer. We did manage to get the family home set up as a--what is it?--a wii, wiki, quickie, quick-ease, hi-fi . . . no, wireless environment. It's just that the text has a tendency to do a 'lost in translation manoeuvre into Japanese, just when I need to understand what I'm doing the most (e.g. access Google help).

I'll close for now after a few observations. Yesterday, when I got back online, I went wild with emails, Facebook, catching up on the blogs that I follow, and just generally surfing and following my nose. It brought home to me the fact that online study is not so easy. It is hard to keep focused and disciplined. It's important to have your tasks that you want to accomplish firmly before you. And you need to have a strategy in place to save your sanity when things don't go instantly the way that you want them to. It is all too easy to squander your reserves of mental energy on interesting but time-consuming activity that isn't study-related. But I'm sure that you know that already. As far as that goes, I'm the newbie.

Scope: Meeting Needs Across Distance

Introduction

The 2011-2013 Strategic Directions document refers to "creative capability, being open to new ways of thinking and doing, innovative solutions, skillful communication, digital literacy, adaptability and autonomy" (for our students) and "leading our sector in the achievement of educational excellence" for the rest of us. With the imminent relocation of a member of staff to Japan (me!), Otago Polytechnic has the opportunity to improve its online distance learning support. This is an outline of a structured plan for innovation by the Learning Centre as part of Student Services to (1) enable students to access distance learning support, to (2) develop existing online resources and (3) upskill Student Services staff with their digital capability so that they will be able to provide wider support.

Student support

The goal is to offer more student support for them to access on their terms. Of the ten hours per week allotted to the overall project, about eight will be earmarked student contact. Students will be able to access online help at two or three fixed times per week, mainly in the afternoons and evenings, and possibly some weekend slots during the exam season (days of the week and time of day to be finalized). Cohorts of students will be targeted; groups already identified are 1st year nursing students (including the Timaru group), QuickStart groups 1 & 2, a general numeracy group, and possibly the 2011 IT Peer Tutors group (including IT). A survey will be conducted to determine how students prefer to access help online, and the most popular will be activated. Initially we will operate via email, Facebook, Elluminate and a chat interface. Other future possibilities include the creation of an LC Moodle shell. This blog (http://on-line-presence.blogspot.com/) shall also be maintained as a means of staying in the public eye, and several stand-alone pages of categorized links are planned.

Resources

Much has already been done by Helen Lindsay and others to identify and create online learning support resources. For the current project, the aim is to spend about two (of the ten) hours per week progressing this work so that the resources appropriate for each student's needs are made more easily available. This will involve consolidation of the Moodle, WikiEducator and other repositories that have been created.

Staff support

The third prong of this project will be to upskill Student Services staff in digital literacy. Using Skype to communicate with their colleague in Japan should enable them to become familiar with that tool and increase their range of student support.

Time-line

Prior to my departure on 7 April, 2011:

• Load Skype onto Student Services computers
• Obtain laptop installed with standard OP software,
• Establish contact with various student groups, evolve them, expand them and refer extra students to them
• Activate blog
• Prepare introductory video using webcam

By the end of April, 2011:

• Be up and running with times and dates of sessions announced.
  

October, 2011:

• Online review with Matt and Kitty
  

Feb, 2012:

• Return to Dunedin for several weeks
  
• Determine future direction.
  

Equipment and resources
Laptop computer with webcam to be made available through IT (Mike Collins and Ange). Skype, Facebook, Twitter, WikiEducator, Moodle

Personnel
Matt, Kitty, Sheena, Helen, Bronwyn, Terry, Leigh, Dave, Judy, Sonny, Ange Meikle, Mike, Sarah, Jean

Otago Polytechnic to reduce staff to 150?

Okay, I admit it. This was an attempt to grab your attention. I've emailed the student population to let them know about my continuing contribution to our Learning Centre from offshore in Japan (who says that the L.C. hasn't changed in donkey's years?). I fear, however, that a global email to staff would've got overlooked. Hence this ploy to 'hook' you.

Gotcha!

Nevertheless, I'm not joking about a staff of 150. According to the British anthropologist, Robin Dunbar, humans have evolved to work best in groups of no more than 150 people in order to have a genuine social relationship. And that has implications for the workplace.

Gore Associates, an American company that always makes the list of the best companies to work for, limits its size to 150 staff. Here's how they operate:

1. Instead of bosses they have sponsors
2. They have no organization charts, no budgets, no elaborate strategic plans
3. All salaries are determined collectively

What limiting their size does is ensures that everyone knows each other. The company operates by peer pressure (a much more motivating thing than a boss). New ideas and information flow far more easily within the organization, and it develops what is termed a highly effective institutional transactive memory.

Something to think about. And to read about too; I'll forward you the scan of the relevant chapter from the book The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell if you ask me to. You'll note that I haven't APA referenced it :-)

Get It While It's Hot

First, good on you for clicking on the link!

Second, right now's an ideal time for you to set up study support. Help yourself to some, it's free! Contact me, William Lucas, if you'd like to attend a series of 4 lunchtime workshops on the 8th, 10th, 15th and 17th of March (Tuesdays and Thursdays). It's a fast-track version of the QuickStart course that the Learning Centre ran for 40 lucky people at the start of the year. First in, first served. Numbers are limited on this course (though our team plans to run it again).

However, I won't be here when they do. Sorry. I'm escaping to Cyberland from where I'll be offering online support only. Don't miss out on this golden opportunity to meet me in the flesh. Get to know the face before I flee. If you're interested, book a place by making a comment at the foot of this post, or by emailing me.

william.lucas@op.ac.nz

Here's what we'll cover:

1. Setting yourself up to succeed--the essential hits package
2. Secure a home base (on computers and in the library)
3. Take EVERYTHING in: Reading & Listening tips and tricks
   
4. Nail your first assignment; fly through every test (float like a butterfly; sting like a bee)
   

Finally, you have got to contact me to reserve a place (the deadline is Monday midnight). The classes will take place in a mystery location whose address I will electronically send the lucky few. As soon as you've read it, it will self-destruct in a puff of smoke. Bring along your lunch (you won't have to share it). Student Services will provide the tea and coffee, and if they don't I will :-)