presentation from Learning Technologies 2008 conference in Mooloolaba, Queensland. Nov08

1. The Adult Educator:
An endangered species
(cc) Anne Bartlett-Bragg
Headshift, November 08

2. Warning:
The images and views expressed in this presentation
may be confronting and distressing for some
participants.
The views expressed are those of the author and not
necessarily representative of the Learning
Technologies organising committee!
Authorised by the ICUN Endangered Species
February 2009

3. LT: 2015

4. Then...storm clouds loomed...

5. Endangered Species Criteria
“An endangered species is a population of an
organism which is at risk of becoming extinct
because it is either:
•
few in numbers,
•
threatened by changing environmental, or
•
predation parameters.”
Wikipedia

6. Extinct roles:

7. Other Endangered Roles in 2008:
Swimming Car
Printers Educational Chimney
pool manufacturing
Services Bankers Sweeps
services services

8. Adult Educators:
The Changing Environment in 2008
The nature of work:
1992: 70% jobs FT & perm
Currently: 41% of new jobs are FT & perm
The new job trend: casual / FT - for women
What’s the impact?
NCVER, 2008

9. Adult Educators:
The Changing Environment in 2008
The financial crisis:
5 Nov 2008: 200,000 jobs will be lost
Budgets slashed or frozen:
“learning is a discretionary spend”
Government funding slashed
What’s the impact?

10. Adult Educators:
The Changing Environment in 2008
The learners have changed
LT 2007: Gen Y

11. Adult Educators:
The Changing Environment in 2008
The learners have changed
My students’ study found Facebook
MORE effective than LMS

12. Adult Educators: Predation Parameters
Current practices
★ computers in classrooms
★ interactive whiteboards
★ virtual classrooms
★PRINTING materials
★recording lectures
★curriculum design & assessment
★LMS
★boundaries & restrictions

13. Predation Parameters
Example: informal knowledge sharing in teams
• Blended social tools ‘groupware’ for collaboration
• Better support for informal sharing and discussion
• RSS / blogs / wiki / bookmarks / tags / people

14. Predation Parameters
But my IT department tell me we can do
everything we need with product X...
• Yes! .... and you can dig a tunnel with a spoon, but
perhaps a more suitable tool might be advisable ;-)

15. Adult Educators: Decreasing Numbers
How many people here are UNDER 30?
searching for identity
reminiscing the good
‘ol days

16. What is the future role
of the educator?
• Trusted resource in a social learning network
• Guiding and advising
• Facilitating establishment of networks
• Empowering
• Supporting personal landscape development

17. What can we do?
• Join SAVE (Save Adult & Vocational Educators)
fund?
• Lobby for protection from the government?
• Create sanctuaries?

18. But then…
this was all just a good story ….
Wasn’t it..??
Disclaimer: Any similarity to persons in the audience is denied by the author, if you
have felt in anyway disturbed by the information presented - please see Howard Errey,
the approved LT2008 Twittering psychologist.