Flexible Learning Guidebook/Introduction

= Orientation and introductions =

''Orientation to the course. Who are you? Who is the facilitator? What's involved? What are your goals? Who can you get help from?''

In the first workshop, you will be asked to contribute your thoughts about flexible learning, introduce yourself and your interest in the topic. There will also be an overview of Flexible Learning.

The Moodle discussion forum will mainly be used for asking questions, sharing information such as blog links, and alerting the class to updates on your blogs. Some discussion activities may also occur.

Using a blog to document your learning
There is an expectation that you will record your learning progress using a blog. The blog is used for communicating with others in the class, and for posting your responses to the activities. You will build your Flexible Learning plan with each activity, and present the main areas of the plan at the end of the course - this process of developing and presenting the plan is assessed. The blog can include text, video, audio recordings etc. To get started with your blog, please do the following:
 * Look at - Help in getting started with blogs to set up a blog. Blogger provides a simple template for blogging if this is your first time. Step by step instructions are provided. Wordpress is also good for the more confident blogger.
 * Blogging Handbook.
 * Post the link to the blog on the discussion forum in the Flexible Learning Moodle course.

Using images on your blog
There are a few easy steps you need to take when searching for images for use on your blog. If you are not using your own images, you need to be careful not to breach copyright regulations. Therefore, it is best to search for images with Creative Commons licensing.
 * Search Google (image) or Flickr (image) at: http://search.creativecommons.org/
 * You can go directly to Creative Commons images on Flickr, the photo sharing site - http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/.
 * Check the images you choose have Some Rights Reserved licensing NOT All Rights Reserved.
 * You need to give attribution to the photographer and the image. To do this, put the photographer's name and the name of the image beneath your image and add the hyperlink to the image - it can be in a smaller font than the rest of the text.
 * Grab the URL for the photographer and embed it in the name - ask if you need help with images.
 * Remember to leave a comment for the photographer to inform him or her hw you are using the image (You need to be logged in to do this.)

Posting to your blog
The Three-Step Reflective Framework and template can be used as a guide when writing posts for your blog. (This is based on Bronwyn Hegarty's Doctorate research.)

Examples of blogs
These blogs were kept by people in previous classes.


 * Sarah Stewart's introduction to the Flexible Learning class.
 * A blog post by Raewyn Lesa called: Is flexible learning a new concept?

Subscribing to other peoples' blogs
It will save you time and make it faster and more efficient to read others' blog posts when you set up a Reader for accessing blog RSS feeds.
 * Find out how to set up Google Reader to keep up with blogs - article by Michael Hyatt.
 * When leaving a comment on someone's blog, makes sure you subscribe to email follow up comments. That way you can more easily join in the 'blog conversations'.