The matter raised by Seely Brown concerning ‘bricolage’ at the Week 2 posting; as a descriptor of how we learn I still have concern about because whilst there is a large requirement in education today to be able to ‘navigate’ and seek out information at some stage subject expertise has to be learned and I am failing to see that ‘bricolge’ will provide this answer in education. There is a generational gap currently lost in the teaching of Science stranded courses and as a community we are in a world of hurt through this occurrence. With the Gen-Ys wanting to capture answers with minimum effort expended, the hard sciences that underpins all of society, in my opinion, is not being addressed in the e-learning solution.

On the 24^th May, (the scheduled block meeting period for the subject), the group met at 0800h to finalise the detail for presentation for Assignment 2, part1. At class presentation, whilst the group did not have the depth in detail of the other larger groups who presented, there was good understanding of the entire spectrum of the subject matter by all and more importantly the approach that was being presented was using the technology platforms to access information sources between people that had not previously been able to be tapped. Clearly the need was firmly positioned and the work we were presenting was the underpinning structure to allow the need to develop.

After considerable months of complaint over the TAFE computer I was using it was finally replaced this week. The continuity that was lost for me through equipment inaccessibility, the ‘big-brother’ approach has made me realise that equipment compatibility is paramount for e-learning to be truly viable. At all times a trainee needs to be able to step-out of synchronous learning to be able to find answers at least semi-synchronously to enable them to maintain their focus in their learning.

This week I am dealing with continuous Army training requirements with members and assignment submission requirements with two other subjects. Finally got the edublog address sorted. The on-line learning site selected for the first assignment is the Decorative Concrete Forum and within this site there are many areas where people who are dealing with concrete could capture information for all aspects of concrete usage. My attraction to the site is the participation rate. Irrespective of the nature of the learning, I am of the opinion that unless a site is having strong ‘traffic’, then there is no ‘real learning’ happening. I settled on the Concrete Counter-top Forum, as the selected site for the Assignment 1, part1 submission and study. Managed to submit the assignment on-line but have more work to do to on the blog.

I had problems with the online services at TAFE in accessing sites through banned locations and technology incompatibility with old equipment. My Army requirements have been particularly demanding this week with the unit training demands for Brigade demands on RRF training.