Task 3 - Continuing study or what to do after the Diploma!

It seems that the most prudent option is to go for an undergraduate degree, as most Diploma courses require you to have passed a Certificate IV in the same discipline. So to get a better (higher) qualification you would need the degree.

The obvious choices are further studies in library and information management, but I also found that the Bachelor of Arts at most institutions offers a wide range of subject majors and that Teaching degrees also offer areas of specialization which marry well with library qualifications.

Charles Sturt University – New South Wales

Bachelor of Information Studies

http://www.csu.edu.au/courses/undergraduate/information_studies/course-overview

This is the most popular distance education degree available to gain qualification as a Librarian. The course is six (6) years part-time with three (3) specializations available and attendance at an orientation conference. Students who have attained a TAFE Diploma in Library & Information Services will be exempted from one-third of the degree.

I chose this course because it is only available via distance education (online) and it is acknowledged as the leading course of its type in Australia. Many staff already working in libraries are doing this course.

Depending on your major, you could get work in many types of libraries. At the end of the course, graduates are eligible for professional membership of ALIA (Australia Library & Information Association).

Curtin University – Western Australia

Bachelor of Arts (Librarianship and Corporate Information Management)

http://www.open.edu.au/courses/arts/curtin-university-bachelor-of-arts-librarianship-and-corporate-information-management--cur-lib-deg-2013

This degree course offers a double major and is on offer through the Open Universities platform, with students able to pull in related electives from other institutions like Griffith University or Swinburne University. The electives include Cultural Studies, Social Sciences, Internet Studies and Business, making it possible to get a very specialized qualification.

I chose this course because of the flexibility offered by Open Universities and because this course concentrates on knowledge management and document management. Graduates could obtain work as librarians and archivists in both government and corporate sectors. The degree is recognized by ALIA, RIM (Records & Information Management Professionals Australia) and ASA (Australian Society of Archivists).

Curtin University – Western Australia

Bachelor of Arts (Internet Communications)

http://www.open.edu.au/courses/arts/curtin-university-bachelor-of-arts-internet-communications--cur-net-deg-2013

This Arts degree offers an interdisciplinary course covering social media, marketing, web production and lots more. As usual with most Open Universities courses, subjects can be pulled from other institutions to enhance and expand your chosen major.

I liked this Arts degree because together with the Diploma graduates become suitable candidates for working in any library, especially with the current reliance on social media, marketing and the internet. We are relying more and more on web-based technologies in all aspects of our lives and graduates of this course should never be out of a job.

Deakin University – Victoria

Bachelor of Arts (Literary Studies)

http://www.deakin.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/2855/arts-undergraduate-courses-2013.pdf

(page 14)

Deakin University specializes in off-campus studies and has done for a number of years. They offer another interdisciplinary Arts degree with majors including Language and Culture Studies, and Media and Communications, both suitable for library work.

I chose this course because of the opportunity to do a double major and because the Literary Studies major offers additional units in Children’s Literature. Depending on the major(s) chosen, graduates could obtain work in libraries or government agencies wanting specialists in CALD programs, marketing or children’s literature.

University of Southern Queensland

Bachelor of Education (Secondary)

http://www.usq.edu.au/handbook/current/edu/BEDU.html#programspecific.major.study

Not many institutions offer undergraduate courses in Education to online students, especially if you want to go into secondary teaching. USQ has a quite comprehensive offering with many majors available in areas like language, business, computing, to name a few.

I chose this course mainly because it was available for distance learning and a big plus was the many majors it offered. Together with the Diploma, graduates should be able to obtain a position as a Teacher Librarian. Teaching could involve something totally unrelated to library work, or could offer a sort of synergy, e.g.: Computing, Media or IPT.

Diploma 2013 – IT Skills 1 - Task 2

There were a few Australian Universities or TAFE colleges listed on iTunes-u, so finding five (5) was relatively easy. However some institutions had lots on offer but I could not open them. I chose the following because they had items which I could access fairly easily:

La Trobe University

Australian National University

Deakin University

Queensland University of Technology

University of Melbourne

La Trobe University

A link to “Australian History” at La Trobe was listed on the iTunes-u home page, so that was an obvious choice. On offer were 31 podcasts on various aspects of Australian history and I chose a 19 minute talk about “Melbourne Archaeology”.

The talk was focused on well-known areas of archaeological interest in the CBD and touching on the availability of sites as well as the cost in both time and money, and was both interesting and enjoyable.

Australian National University

From this University I listened to the first 10 minutes of an hour long podcast entitled “Open Access & the Future of Scholarly Communication: Dissemination, Prestige & Impact”, which is one of three lectures available under the “Education” banner.

I chose this lecture because open access is a hot topic at the moment and was surprised to see that the lecture was recorded in 2009. So obviously the topic has been around in universities for a while but only recently being discussed in public (radio, blogs, etc.).

Deakin University

I wandered around Deakin’s offerings before choosing a recording of a radio interview called “Facebook and the use of Social Media in classrooms”. The topic was well covered in the eight (8) minutes and the lecturer was articulate and emphasised the collaborative nature of social media.

Short, sweet and useful as an argument for using Facebook and other Web 2.0 tools in the classroom.

Queensland University of Technology

This university has the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies which has both podcasts and transcripts of its podcasts on iTunes-u.  I listened to the first part of “ACPNS56 Givers and Regulators: Two sides of the fundraising coin”.

The two parts of the topic were slightly disconnected because we looked at Australian giving and Irish regulations. In total there were 61 podcasts which usually have two speakers, two parts to them and are definitely for the more serious student of philanthropy.

University of Melbourne

As a HSC student I used to attend Saturday morning public lectures at University of Melbourne, so this was an obvious choice. I had trouble accessing some lectures but eventually found one called “Integrated Design – a Holistic Approach and a Business Model” under the Dean’s Lectures banner.

This lecture looked at engineering advances which have made it possible for architects to design building structures not previously thought possible.  Quite interesting lecture on how architects work with various stakeholders.

Ratings

Institution	Overall Rating	Comments
La Trobe University	4.5 / 5	The link made it quick and easy to find a subject of interest on offer. There are many courses on offer including a lot about literature.
Australian National University	4 / 5	I found the topic fairly quickly and other disciplines offer more podcasts.
Deakin University	4 / 5	I had to do a bit of searching to find a topic of interest, but that says more about me! Lots on offer.
Queensland University of Technology	4.5 / 5	I particularly liked the transcripts on offer for all of the ACPNS podcasts. Only two faculties but a large amount of material on offer.
University of Melbourne	3.5 / 5	I was unable to open some of the lecture under other tabs when I first tried. Items in offer are mainly public lectures 3 – 5 years old.

Diploma 2013 – IT Skills 1 - Task 1

I chose five learning sites from Michele’s list, including one which I had accessed in the past – TedED. I used simple search terms or just clicked on subject indexes to find my choice of learning video.

http://teachertube.com/videos

This was easy to find and a simple search for French offered me several topics and I chose French Verbs. There was nothing to show which age group or class group the videos were aimed at – a case of hit or miss? Once you open the video, you can see the channel (e.g.: high school) and how long and other info.

The video I chose was “French Verb ending in review” which was useful with the teacher giving the rules in English and French, then students demonstrated uses of I, you and we with the appropriate ending. In just over 3 ½ minutes I was reminded of both the written form and shown how to use them. Very instructional.

Overall: 3.5 out of 5.

http://www.cosmolearning.com

The site was easy to find and offered a list of subjects on the home page – so I immediately went to the two (2) on offer under French. Disappointing that only two were on offer and guess what – both no longer exist!!

So try again with another subject – Architecture – and found a video on “Australian Landscape Architecture” which offered an overview of landscape and urban renewal projects in Australia. Obviously made to promote landscape architecture as a career, it had very good production values and highlighted a number of large scale projects. I enjoyed watching it.

Overall: 3 out of 5.

http://ed.ted.com/

I’ve listened to some talks on ted.com in the past and so I was looking forward to see what I might find on TedED.  Nothing on my chosen subject – French – but on the Subjects page there was an animation called “Why is there a “b” in doubt?”.

This was a great choice – 3 ½ minutes about the history of the word and its links to other words told using bright, simple graphics and clear explanations. It would appeal to both adults and children.

Overall: 4 out of 5.

http://www.academicearth.org/

This site is obviously for the serious student. On this site you can attend a whole series of lectures on a given subject, not just a five or ten minute take on the subject.  So using the Subject tab, I made my way to languages and again no French. So this time I chose a course in Old English from Oxford.

There was no obvious start button, but I just clicked on the image and was redirected to YouTube. I watched the first ten minutes of the 43 minute introductory lecture. The sound was a bit patchy and I would have liked a better view of the slides on the wall behind the lecturer, but I can see the attraction of attending lectures like this.

Overall: 3.5 out of 5.

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/

Did I want the magazine, the TV station, the Australian website? – spoiled for choice and very slow to open when I found the right one. A search under “language” net mostly information about NG magazine releases in various countries – so not helpful.

I thought what was on offer under the Video tab was a bit superficial and lots of it very short . I eventually chose an interview about the threat to manuscripts in Mali and archeological sites in Syria, and I also looked at a couple of “critter-cam” clips.

I think this website is less about education and more about self-promotion, but kids would probably love some of the animal clips as they are short and some are fun.

Overall: 3 out of 5.

Ratings

Learning Site	Easy to Find	Easy to Use	Topic well Covered	Overall Rating	Ranking
Teacher Tube	3 / 5	4 / 5	4 / 5	3.5 / 5	3
CosmoLearning	3 / 5	3 / 5	3 / 5	3 / 5	4
TedED	4 / 5	4 / 5	5 / 5	4 / 5	1
Academic Earth	4 / 5	3 / 5	4 / 5	3.5 / 5	2
National Geographic	3 / 5	2 / 5	4 / 5	3 / 5	5