I approach my leadership role within the school with enthusiasm.When first appointed to Oakey State High School I had a coaching and mentoring role with my colleagues in the VET area, helping them modify and adapt ICT to record and track student data. Since then I have developed positive relationships with all school staff and have been the teacher staff have sort out for advice on all things ICT.

It has been my goal to promote a stronger ICT culture within the school as our teaching staff is still emerging with it's adoption of ICT into their teaching practice. At present we have only two teachers on staff with their ICT Pedagogical Licence and a reluctance by staff to be involved in ICT professional development. Last year I was instrumental in forming a school ICT committee with a small group of teachers wanting to raise the awareness and adoption of ICT integration into our school curriculum.

I believe teachers change their teaching pedagogy by seeing and modelling good teaching practice of other teachers. They learn using constructivist principles building on their existing teaching pedagogy with new experiences. They learn best when their learning needs are catered for, when they see, hear and actively participate in the learning experience. When they can collaborate and share ideas in a environment of acceptance of their peers they are more likely to be transformed by the experience and adopt new ideas and methodology. With this in mind, I designed an innovating learning unit on Workplace Health and Safety, with ICT integral to the learning process.

I think many teachers have gone through "defining moments" using ICT a little like the one I refer to below. They either reflect and go through it or shy away from it and no longer want to face that situation again. I wanted to create a "moment" to transform their beliefs in using ICT within their curriculum area.

I created these learning materials while on extended sick leave for a severe illness during Semester 1 this year. I saw this as a way I could inspire other teachers to develop a passion for using ICT in their teaching practice. I incorporated a variety of collaboration tools used in blackboard. This was made available for all staff who teach VET, english communications or structured workplace students to actively facilitate in a blackboard environment. I mentored teaching staff through emails from home. I wanted staff to experience how ICT could add to and transform the learning process, in a topic most teachers consider a very dry and boring subject.

The WHS unit I designed after a defining moment in my teaching careeer while supervising a class of 18x16yr old VET Transport boys. The class consisted of 25% disengaged boys, as well as others with low numeracy and literacy, who were looking for traineeships in the transport industry so they could leave school a.s.a.p. Learning materials were provided by an outside registered training organisation (RTO) and it was my role as Business teacher to help them through the Workplace Health and Safety unit.

I was told this was an "online" course. I had to teach from a 164 slide powerpoint, small white writing on dark blue background, and the boys had a 20 page word document with questions in which they had to write short answer responses, attach to an email and send to the RTO upon completion. Each week they had to write a diary in a word document, attach and send at the completion of the week to the RTO, again as an email. Half the class did not have computers at home, had very few computer skills and typed with two fingers at approx 5 words per minute with mistakes. We had 4x70min lessons to complete the task!

In the first 70min lesson I clarified many of my teaching beliefs about teaching with ICT. The unit about WHS is a core unit and an important one for all students entering the workforce. The class was not being assessed on the competency of the unit but rather their skills at using ICT, of which they had few. This was a frustrating and confidence destroying exercise for these boys (and myself) and change was not negotiable with the outside RTO. This experience had no foundation in "real life" and I could see the connections were not being made with reality. The RTO was not using sound teaching pedagogy in presenting the learning unit.

This lesson was my inspiration for studying "Creating Educational Web Environments" at USQ and creating the "Participate in Occupational Health and Safety" (OHS or WHS) unit for this portfolio. Vocational Education offers an avenue for many educationally challenged school students. These students come from a diverse background, with many different learning styles and abilities. The concept of e-learning has been used in many ways by outside registered training organisations. Some, like in the example above, were not taking into account the diverse abilities and interests of the students and were providing a standard "adult" way of teaching.This situation is not uncommon.

I received many positive responses from teaching staff who facilitated or reviewed this unit. Many appreciated this novel approach to give them a hands-on opportunity to experiment with new teaching pedagogy. I now have a group of 8 teachers working with me in after school tutorials to help them attain their ICT Pedagogical Licence. It is known that in schools where teachers obtain their ICT Pedagogical Licence, their enthusiasm and support encourages other colleagues to improve their teaching pedagogy. I have a professional development plan designed to work with this group of teachers in afternoon workshops to build this support network of teacers to inspire others.

In Semester 2, 2008, I was approached to co-facilitate for the Curriculum Integration Course - an online pathway for teachers to obtain their ICT Pedagogical Licence.

As a classroom teacher to facilitate a course for colleagues, many who had been teaching far longer than myself or in positions of administration was quite challenging. I had to adapt face to face teaching pedagogy for students using ICT to online pedagogy for colleagues. My completion of the Mentoring online course through Education Queensland equipped me for this position.

Social Presence

To be a good online facilitator it is important to create a social presence. Social presence refers to a feeling of belonging to a real community (Mykota & Duncan, 2007). It enables learners to “overcome feelings of loneliness or isolation” and to feel comfortable with not only the medium but also the content, teacher and with each other. This makes it more likely for learners to take “social risk” and participate in online communication (Kehrwald, 2008. p98; Anderson, 2004, p.274). When there is a high degree of social presence there is an increase in:

• “learner satisfaction” (Gunawardena & Zittle, 1997),
• facilitation of “the process of critical thinking” (Garrison et al. , 2000 quoted in Mykota & Duncan, 2007, p160),
• meaningful interaction (Danchak, Walther, & Swan, 2001 cited in Mykoya & Duncan, 2007),
• people finishing the course and reduces the likelihood of ‘drop outs’ (Visser, Plomp, & Kuiper, 1999 cited in Mykoya & Duncan, 2007).

Social presence is a measure of the immediacy and intimacy of social interactions (among learners and between teachers and learners) in computer-mediated communication. (Short, William, and Christie, 1976 cited in Kehrwald, 2008). So high interaction and timely responsiveness, increases social presence.

Encouraging interaction

To participate in online interactions, participants need to feel safe so it is important to establish some rules from the beginning about the tone of the interactions. I found the best way to do this was to model the type of behavior that I expected from participants. Many participants were very nervous with the online environment and it was necessary to make them feel at ease with the technology. I used the words "we will learn together" to make participants feel at ease. The CIC course demands teachers feel competent using the technology. I was most careful to provide supporting documentation in the form of podcasts, vidcasts and help and how sheets in order for participants to effectively use the technology. By using online icebreakers in the form of personality tests, hot potatoes, and getting to know you homepage, participants became more at ease with the environment and others they were to work with over the following four months. The acitivites in the CIC course is effective because the online interactions are integrated into the requirements to creating an ePortfolio for the course. All activities involved collaborative learning tasks to encourage interaction.

I helped create social online areas for participants to mingle and chat about happenings outside the course. These areas encourage networking and sharing of thoughts and feelings and keep social dialogue separate from the forums related to the course. Within the Blackboard course I created areas and encouraged participation in threaded discussions, to innitiate discussions, ask questions and comment on each other's work or contributions.

Collaboration

The course provides a base of knowledge needed to make ICT integral to learning and participants expand their understanding through collaboration with peers who are studying the same focus discipline. The CIC course brings together Queensland teachers in isolated communities to access professional development in a way that is not available through alternate means. The CIC course facilitates learning through collaboration and communication between participants. It is effective because students work both individually and as members of the learning community, to complete a range of activities integrating ICT tools for effective classroom pedagogy. Participants use ICT resources such as chats, forums, blogs, wikis, teleconferences, Elluminate conferences, and email hot potatoes to demonstrate the process of effective teaching and learning. They improve their knowledge and understanding by networking with peers and experts in the teaching field who integrate ICT into their teaching practices. Internet technologies enhance and expand the curriculum within and beyond the physical classroom.

Benefits of online CIC course

The major benefit for teachers participating in the CIC course is the support from the facilitators and the other participants through the process of compiling the ICT Pedagogical Licence. Feedback from teachers who have been involved in the three day face to face course show a lack of support in their school when they return to their classes. Many feel isolated while gathering the evidence for their ePortfolio and often don't complete their licence because there is a lack of understanding of the process from their fellow teaching staff and principal. However teachers feel a sense of community spirit in the online course. They have a ready group of people to ask technical questions and to recieve answers within a short timeframe. The sharing of ideas and the support when there are failures allow participants to keep their spirits up through lack of facilities, money and slow internet connection speeds.

Comparison of Face to Face and online learning.

For many teachers face to face learning is their preferred option. The social aspect of mingling with colleagues, sharing ideas, making new friends and real life networking will never be replaced in an online environment. Face to face learning is about making connections with real people, seeing their facial gestures, hearing the intonation in their voices , feeling their presence and making connections. Questions can be immediately answered, some problems immediately solved and technical issues clarified and rectified; almost in an instant. Teachers need few ICT technical competencies to interact in a face to face environment, no high speed internet connections or the need for computer technology. Online learning cannot deliver the same environment.

However for many teachers in remote areas of Queensland and not so remote regional areas, face to face professional development requres time away from their classes, teacher replacement and long journeys to metropolitan centres for learning workshops. Often overnight accomodation is needed. In far north Queensland a plane journey may be the only way a teacher can attend workshops which may involve heavy costs associated with time away from their school and disruption to their students learning. It is little wonder school administration is reluctant to fund such opportunities. So the online environment becomes the only option for many teachers to improve skills and teaching pedagogy.

The CIC course provides the opportunity for teachers to overcome some of these difficuluties. It provides support for teachers who lack the technical experience and skills needed to negotiate the online environment and provides a possibiltiy for all teachers to access professional development opportunity anywhere, anytime. Although the online environment does not cater for all learning styles it is accessible to all Queensland teachers and participation in online courses improves teacher's skills and understanding of 21st Century skills for learning.

There are many advantages to online learnng that face to face learning cannot provide. These include continuing support through the acquiring of new skills. As in the CIC course, an online course continues over a period of time. During this time a teacher has the opportunity to put into practice their newly acquired skills, share with other participants and recieive support, assistance and feedback when needed. The higher order reflection involved in online learning often sees teachers sustain their new teaching practices rather than abandon ideas picked up during a face to face workshop.

The newly acquired online tool Elluminate, assists facilitators and participants with synchronous learning by providing an easily accessible environment which allows all participants to match online avatars to real people. This tool is readily available for individuals and groups to work together and share ideas. Also the ability to share desktops allows both facilitators and participants to share and learn new skills that cannot be duplicated in a face to face workshop.

The online environment however can be difficult for those participants who have slow internet speeds. This can be overcome by facilitators providing quicklinks and hyperlinks throughout the course to allow participants to reach the required learning material with minimal clicks. Also by having weekly email handouts sent to participants this ensures updated weekly information is available outside the course. Blackboard allows for participants to have daily forums emailed to inboxes which elliminates the need to login daily to forums.

Online learning may disadvantage some teachers who find publishing their content intimidating as they may lack confidence in abilities. This may be confronting and could stifle creativity because they are worried about negative feedback. Also participating in online discussions often requires participants to keyboard long responses. For those teachers with poor keyboarding skills this can be very time consuming and frustrating. However most teachers have been willing to accept this as an opportunity to improve their skills and associate their frustrations with those of their students when required to present their own assessment items.

One of the most frustrating aspects of online learning for both the facilitator and the participant is reading between the lines of online communication. When a participant fails to login for an extended time or to make a post, it is up to the facilitator to make enquiries. There is necessity for clarity in the written word to specifically convey meaning. For the facilitator who is well aware of this need it is accepted however the participant may become frustrated conveying their meaning. In many instances a phone call may be a quicker way to solve a problem than continuing online posts.

Principles of Effective Online Teaching

During the course facilitation I used the following practices to be effective online.

1. Show Up and Teach — Since most of the course is already authored and designed for online delivery, instructors may believe they simply need to serve as the proverbial “guide on the side” as the participants work through the process.. Not true! Faciliation of the course involves activie daily involvement. In the early part of the course I found it essential to answer every post and give feedback. This encouraged participants to post. Follow up emails and phone calls were made to those participants who were late comers to the course or were not making regular visits to the Blackboard course. This ensured all participants were aware of the expectations of being part on the online community.
2. Practice Proactive Course Management Strategies — As an online facilitator it was necessary to make sure all links worked and all course material and acitivities were showing for participants. By having a generic student login to Blackboard, I regularly checked to ensure all areas were available. It is good practice to gradually make available content as the course continues. This eliminates confusion as to where everything is found within the course area. Regularly weekly emails with a weekly to-do list kept participants updated to what was happening in the coming week.
3. Establish Patterns of Course Activities — Establish and communicate a course pace and pattern of work. Each week I would create a checklist to guide participants and make sure they were up to date. I created a spreadsheet in Google Docs to check off the acitivities each participant completed. That way I kept abreast of those participants that were lagging behind and I would get in touch with them.
4. Plan for the Unplanned — When using technology, especially the teleconference and Elluminate tools, I had alternate arrangements in the event of a participant could not join in. By giving choices as to times for events happening, most participants to catch up if an event was missed.
5. Response Requested and Expected — I was timely with feedback as this is essential for the online learner to manage their learning experience. I responded to participants within a day. If there was a time when I could not respond I would send a message through email or in a forum as to the time I would respond.
6. Think Before You Write — Clarity is essential when writing online. I spent extra time reading through my forum posts before posting to ensure that I had answered the participants questions properly. If writing answers too quickly it was highly likely the participant would not have a sufficient explanation and would respond with another request.
7. Help Maintain Forward Progress — I ensured timely return of any work that needed proof reading to ensure participants made positive forward progress in the completion of their portfolio;.
8. Safe and Secure — Provides increased degrees of security and confidentiality and keeps “institutional business” within the appropriate confines.
9. Quality Counts —The documents included in the course were designed by experienced educators and so the quality was assured. What I did during facilitation was ensure these documents could be found easily. I established a quick link page for the participants to go that had hyperlinks to course documents that would be needed each week. This ensured speed of access for those participants with slow bandwidth from schools.
10. (Double) Click a Mile on My Connection — With the online classroom Blackboard provided a reliable technological infrastructure for particpants and instructors. However many participants struggled with learning how to set up their own virtual classrooms. I provided vidcasts to "good structural design" of online classrooms to guide participants through this process.

An insider’s guide to teaching and learning in the online classroom: 10 Principles of Effective Online Teaching: Best Practices in Distance Education. Retrieved 12th September 2009 from http://www.facultyfocus.com/free-report/principles-of-effective-online-teaching-best-practices-in-distance-education/

• I am an inaugural member of Oakey State High School ICT committee, which I helped form last year to reflect, evaluate and manage ICT within the school. This year we created a Blackboard community for staff members to contribute and be involved in professional discussions and share information regarding ICT use within the school. The website encourages staff to develop and refine ICT skills and pedagogy.

• It is my role to organise, add materials, ideas and links to information about new technology and teaching practices. My role as co facilitator for the Curriculum Integration Course, participant in the Mentoring Online course, USQ Masters student as well as member of the Accredited facilitator and ICT Pedagogical Licence Advanced communities and Smart Classroom Mentor allow me access to quality resources to distribute to staff. Staff are then able to read, discuss, evaluate, collaborate and integrate many of these ideas into their classroom.

• This semester I presented the SCPD Framework at a staff meeting. I wanted all teachers to understand the indicators and the need for our staff to become qualified to ICT certificate and ICT Pedagogical Licence level. The relationship to the School ICT index was addressed. I offered to provide out of school workshops to interested teachers to facilitate development of their ICT skills and teaching pedagogy.

• Presently I am guiding teaching staff in before school and lunch time ICT small group and individual tutor groups. Together we are building relationships while I am preparing them to undertake the ICT Pedagogical Licence process next year. This involves working individually and in small groups, discussing the indicators and the steps involved in the licence process. I am mentoring on ways to integrate ICT’s into their classrooms and collectively we are developing ideas, strategies and resources to begin portfolios. Next term when I return to work full time, I will continue after school tutor groups.

• Another role I have is one of Smart Classroom mentor for the Darling Downs region. At present I am compiling resources for the Darling Down technology website which includes online learning resources and e-learning resources. My participation in my online communities has help me in creating these websites.

• This semester I have collaborated with the librarian/IT teacher, technicians, administration and teaching staff to assist in completing the School ICT Census. During this process I have communicated with teachers the details required in this census and the need to improve our school ICT index. I have collated data, compiled information and provided feedback to ensure all questions have been completed correctly.

• This semester after completing the Mentoring Online Course, I volunteered to be co-facilitator for a group of teachers completing their ICT Pedagogical Licence through the Curriculum Integration Course online. This is a 10wk course that spans a period of 3 months. I have been involved in organising materials, presenting them in blackboard and guiding participants in their pedagogical journey. I have chaired teleconferences, co-chaired chats and responded to participants through forums. I have ensured that all questions have been responded to within a 24hr period. This has been a wonderful opportunity to share with an enthusiastic group of participants all things ICT. It has proved to be a worthwhile learning experience for myself as I gain further understanding of teaching pedagogy, practice, ideas and methodology with colleagues from a wide teaching background. Being part of such an enthusiastic and experienced group of facilitators, has inspired me in my leadership practices.

• The CIC course experience has clarified my beliefs about the way teachers learn and improve their teaching practices. Sharing and experiencing new ideas and methodology in an environment of acceptance with their peers, inspires and motivates them to integrate ICT into their teaching practice. The network that has been established through the collaboration tools in blackboard has provided an wealth of support for teachers working towards their pedagogical licence. It has been inspirational to watch and share their development.

• I am always looking for innovative ways to help teachers improve their ICT skills and teaching pedagogy. Many teachers have expressed how difficult it is to make learning materials and their ICT Pedagogical Licence look attractive in blackboard CMS. During my studies last semester I came across Exe 1.4 an opensource html editor made especially for uploading content to CMS. I recognised how easy this software was to use and how simply it can run off a USB flash drive. Someone with a few html programming skills can create styles that can be adopted by the whole school, department or individual topics. To test how user friendly this software is and how it could be adapted to suit a teacher's needs, I have created a style that can be added to the program files on the server and adapted for both the ICT Pedagogical Licence and the ICT Pedagogical Licence advanced. I have used this to create my advanced licence instead of programming one of my own. It is so easy for teachers to zip and upload the file to blackboard or directly upload to the web. I see benefits for whole school usage, with students being able to create their own e-portfolio, and link items easily and simply. This eliminates the need for expensive web editor programs or programming skills. It takes approx 30mins to learn to use. (LiInk to information and template)

• For the past 12 months the Oakey State High School website has been non functional. Based on the Joomla Content Management System, it has required trained personnel to manage the site. I have taken on the responsibility to acquire the necessary competency to manage and update the site. Regular communication with staff, students and administration has been needed to collect and compile information, files and links to make our school website a functional communication tool. Gradually our school staff is recognising the value of being able to provide up to date information about our school teaching practices to the school community.

• Management of my different roles within the school and district has been a challenge. At present I have three days per week contact at Oakey State High School and one day allocated for Smart Classroom Mentor. Most days I finish work at 1.30pm and return home to high internet speeds to achieve my online teaching leadership goals. I am an extremely organised person and make use of breaks at Oakey SHS and time before school to catch up with staff who are participating in professional development.