Before discussing what is possibly needed in professional development within BFS, I thought it would be good to know what the aims of BFS are:

I found this at: http://www.necseniors.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Kiosk-Starter-Kit-NECP6000-0511-00008_5-June-2012.pdf

Broadband for Seniors is to provide support by offering free computer access, free broadband internet access and free computer training.

The main aims are:

1. - To give senior Australians free access to computers and the internet via internet Kiosks
2. - To support senior Australians in gaining confidence and in building new skills in the use of computer technology
3. - To address the issue of senior Australians feeling isolated and ‘left behind’ in a technological age
4. - To build community participation and social inclusion among senior Australians.

Based on the statistics on the BFS website, (250,000 senior Australians assisted, 94,000 online lessons completed, 884 case studies from kiosk Hosts) to me, the aims one and four would seem to be being met.

However without any relevant key performance indicators (KPI's) it is impossible to tell if objects two and three of being met.

The reason being:

How do you measure gains in confidence? Survey? As skills are not measured within the BSF program it is impossible to tell. I am not aware of any surveys having been done against objective three.

I see BFS professional development fitting into two broad areas: delivery and content.

Professional development in relation to content is basically what is going to be taught to students, whereas delivery is the methodology used to deliver that content.

Without doing a complete survey of all those that teach, it will be difficult to know what professional development is required.

I guess we would have to assume that the base knowledge of some one teaching in a BFS program, is contained in the training notes on the BFS website. (Dam nuisance, you cannot copy text off the training screens)

• How the computer can help you
• The difference between hardware and software
• Using the mouse
• Using the keyboard

• Senator turning a computer on
• Using the start orb
• Starting a software program
• The different parts of the window
• Turning off the computer

• Introduction to word processing
• Introduction to the Internet
• Introduction to the email
• Windows 7
• Windows 8

I'm sure there would be quite a bit of contention amongst tutors for this, being, what should be taught.

Technology has moved on, and the other than the notes on windows 7 and 8 very little has changed, if this is regarded as the base knowledge, skills required to meet objectives to 2 and 3.

My feeling is that other devices, such as mobile phones and pads need to be introduced into the course material.

Provision also needs to be made for newer evolving technologies

Again without doing a complete survey it's impossible to know what people skills are in delivering content in the BFS area. From what I can gather it ranges from those that have full teaching qualifications through to complete novices.

Is it necessary to have teaching qualifications to be a tutor/teacher in the BFS area? I feel the answer to this is no. There are some tutors with no experience or qualifications that can do a better job than those that do.

My observations are that there are some tutors in the BFS area that are not particularly good at teaching because they want to show how much they know rather than show the student had to do something. This is not necessarily their fault, because they simply don't know any better or may not have empathy for slower learners or people with learning disabilities

This brings up the issue of establishing the competency of tutors as well as students.

Generally BFS do not do any testing of students or tutors, so it is was not possible to assess their competency.

I know from personal experience that many tutors are very reluctant to build any assessment whatsoever into their training.

However it is possible to have assessment in BFS training without students even being aware of they are being assessed. It just becomes part of the training

I feel the lot more professional development could be done in the area delivery, more on on a micro scale.

Like, ways of establishing if a student has learnt something, easier ways of showing how to do something.

Based on the number of BFS kiosks and the number of people utilising the webinars it would appear to me we have their a lot of tutors would do not do any professional development at all. This may not necessarily be a bad thing, however without knowing whether objectives 2 and three are being met is impossible to know.

Hi Geoff,

Thanks for putting those thoughts up on your wiki. You mention 'it is possible to have assessment in BFS training without students even being aware of they are being assessed' Can you enlarge on this please?

Below are some comments I'd like to make:

Content Area: For our kiosk we use a one page 'competency check list' that covers much of what you have listed. We first get all seniors to go through the online training sessions. Then we work through the items on the competency list and fill in any gaps. Windows 8 is still a bit of a challenge as we have to cherry pick items of the online training and the competency list.

I agree that we should be able to address Android tablets and smartphones. Also Macs and iPads. After all a major aim of BFS is to get seniors using the internet for information and communication and those devices do just that. Why should they have to learn about the PC if all they have is a tablet? Or an iPad? We try to cater for that approach but it can be quite challenging. Maybe that is one topic for a BbC session?

Delivery: There are 2 areas of tuition - in the kiosks and delivering via BbC.

- In our kiosk, before they turn up for their first session, we first try to establish what the learners current knowledge is, their needs are and what equipment they have. That way we know whether to concentrate around Vista-W7, W8, Mac or tablet and just where to start with them. I also encourage them to bring their own laptop if they have one.

I feel that the important assets for a kiosk tutor are listening and encouraging the senior to have a go. Build up their skills in a logical flow. By all means take over the PC to show them something but then get them to do it. Doing is vital.

- In a simplistic way, BbC is a 'classroom like' information delivery system. Like any classroom delivery the essentials are thorough preparation, having a flow to the presentation and some audience participation. And just the same as delivery in a physical classroom where you need to be conversant with presentation devices such as a data pro, sound system, OHP, whiteboard etc, its vital to be conversant with using BbC and know its requirements and limitations.

There have been some BbC sessions where the presenter has not mastered those items, or was not aware of their importance. 'She'll be right on the day' is no way to approach using BbC.

Any training session where the presenter lacks flow or fails to use the presentation technology correctly is more often remembered for the stuff ups than for the message.

Now that I have that off my chest, these are what I consider to be some essentials for any presenter using BbC - Use a headset with a boom microphone. No exceptions. You don't need an expensive set. - No background noise when speaking. Its amazing how well a mic can pick up the softest TV - Mute the mic when you are not talking - the presentation must flow logically. From known to unknown so it becomes the next 'known' to build on. - slides should always be an aid to the patter. They should summarize or provoke the audience to think. Never slabs of text. There are plenty of tutorials on good practices for creating slides. - have a sprinkling of questions or surveys or smileys for the listeners to give feedback. Always state exactly HOW you want the feedback. - answer questions promptly, or at least acknowledge them - have speaker notes at hand in bullet points. Do NOT read them verbatim but use them as memory joggers. Include questions to ask. - know how to App Share and how to get back to the whiteboard. - Do NOT place any BbC component on top of the window you are app sharing. It will form a grey rectangular shape on the participants screens - Have all your app share windows open, sized and ready to go before you start BbC. - There is a significant delay in what is being app shared. Never try to app share video or animation. - Avoid scrolling your App shared window. Use page up and down and allow several seconds for it to stabilize on everyones screen - Do not allow long periods of silence. The audience is apt to think they have a speaker issue - Welcome and assist people before the show starts. Encourage them to try the mic and chat systems, scribble on the whiteboard. Many seniors new to computers are unaware how to use a chat system and reluctant to try speaking.

I will now demount from my soapbox

Regards, Keith Woodrising Neighbourhood Centre http://wncnews.blogspot.com/ Muswellbrook Seniors Computer Club: http://sites.google.com/site/mscc2333/ My Soapbox: http://sites.google.com/site/harvey45/coalusage

Thanks Geoff and Keith.

In terms of the BFS professional development, it forms part of the BFS volunteer tutor community of practice. While there are specific requirements of the BFS initiative that relate to the areas you have outlined - we do try to use this forum as a way of giving something back to the volunteer tutors - not just as a way to provide information to the volunteer tutors so they can then pass this on to senior Australians.

Also the needs of the seniors coming into kiosks around Australia varies widely - which basically means that tutors need to be able to respond to this varied need.

What I would like to do though - is create a two-tiered structure – basic / advanced. Those who are new volunteers - those who have been around a while.

I am not overly excited at the prospect of surveying volunteer tutors because they already get that much information that I suspect this may be fruitless. Perhaps a better way would be a form which acts like a suggestion box. When I advertise webinars, I could include a link to the suggestion box so that VTs could – if they felt compelled to – offer up some suggestions.

The other thing I would like to talk about is getting a decent process in place so that when someone presents - there's a process in place that will guide them.

Anyway, before we put the cart before the horse - why not get together. Next week would suit me, as am off to Adelaide this week.

What day / date next week would suit you both?

Keith,

Thanks for your feedback.

There are a number of techniques that I use to assess students without them actually knowing they being assessed.

1. - Simply observing what students do
2. - Getting them to summarise what has been done so far
3. - Asking them to describe what has been covered in a previous session
4. - Getting them to perform a very simple task based on what has just been taught
5. - Having them follow simple written instructions on something that has been previously explained
6. - Asking them to explain what they feel has changed on the screen
7. - Asking for feedback
8. - Allowing them to make mistakes
9. - Using terms like, based on what you have learnt so far, how do you think you would perform such and such a task?
10. - Asking, why do you think that just happened?
11. - Basically, asking rather than telling

I have always felt that assessment is an intricate part of learning. For example, it is of very little use showing how to scroll the screen with a mouse if a student does not know how to use the mouse. So you have to assess the student's ability to use the mouse before proceeding to show how to scroll the screen.

Traditionally, assessment has been used in schooling for some sort of certification, often with a long period of time between assessments, such as a school year. If the student fails in the assessment, often they are required to repeat the whole year when they may have only, not been competent, in a few small areas.

Fortunately with BFS we don't have any formal assessment but often we will have students who wish to repeat classes because they feel they have not “ remembered” enough. I feel that if some of the techniques I described above are utilised there would be less need for students to repeat classes.

I like your idea of determining what level the student is at before they arrive. Can you please explain how you do this? The methods you use?

That list that I made up, is just the headings in the online training. In the case of other devices and windows 8 perhaps a new list of competencies needs to be established?

I thoroughly agree with you that preparation should be done prior to delivery of any training. A tutor should be familiar with all the material before they do the training. That is the online training material on the BFS website, for beginners.

Both you and I have encouraged others to have a go at BBC sessions. Perhaps we should have put a caveat on that, that a certain amount of preparation and experimentation needs to be done before the delivery.

I see Catherine has indicated that the Professional Development (PD) is also ment to be a reward to tutors for the work they perform. Perhaps then as part of a BBC session this is communicated to tutors and they are asked, considering such, what PD they would prefer.

I understand we will discuss all this on Thursday. What time? Do we have an agenda?

Your list of subtle assessment methods is very good and we use much the same.

I phone everyone before the training sessions and get a good idea of where they are up to, what PC they have, their email address and what they currently use their PC and net for. On Oct 18, 2013 3:21 PM, “Catherine Devlin” c.devlin@ala.asn.au wrote:

Hey I reckon instead of a webinar in Dec - which I thought you might kindly deliver. I wonder if we should get people together to run through some ideas around next year's PD schedule.

Then the sub-committee could take those ideas and talk about what's feasible bla bla - then I could run away and arrange.

Whaddya reckon?

If a meeting is to occur then these are my suggestions for an agenda.

Who to invite?

Time?

Any gos

• Kiosks
• What is going well
• What is going poorly
• Suggestions to trial and who to task

BbC

• What is going well
• What is going poorly
• Suggestions to trial and who to task

Next meeting time and date