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Yesterday I interviewed one of the teachers at North Coast Institute, TAFE NSW about the current use of technology to engage trainees and industry. Linda Johnston, a Community Pharmacy Teacher and e-Learning Contact for the THRAPS Faculty (Tourism, Hospitality, Retail and Personal Services) was happy to share her experiences with me.

This podcast covers the use of Adobe Connect as ‘Virtual Classrooms’, the use of various Social Networking and collaboration tools, such as wiki’s, blog’s and Facebook to engage trainee’s in industry.

Linda also talks about the mutual benefits to TAFE and Industry and the importance of these tools for life-long learning.

Attended e-Learning Networks web conference about Virtual Classrooms, let me clarify; the virtual classroom is an online classroom using web software such as Adobe Connect or Elluminate. Sessions run in these applications have a URL (web address) and offer interactive tools such as polls, share document spaces, whiteboards, chat and much more. You can facilitate quite an interactive session using the software, which often includes the use of a web camera and headset for audio and vision.
Ruth focused on how to harness the power of a virtual classroom by looking at the techniques required (such as interactivity, instructional design, multimedia, use of graphics, etc), rather than the technologies (although there was a slight focus on Elluminate).