2009 – A year of diverse study ahead.

So sorry I have neglected you Mr Blog, have been working non-stop for last 8 weeks on my study skills site (www.studyskillshandbook.com.au) trying to incorporate more principles of online learning and make the site more interactive, am really happy with how it has been developing and now ready to shift my focus for awhile to my studies this year.

I think I am going to start at least doing my PhD work on a wiki: http://pruesalter.wikispaces.com/
I found the process of working on a wiki really useful, being able to edit and arrange to have my supervisors be able to directly comment on what I am doing and monitor my progress easily seems like a great bonus. The pain will be backing up what I do, I think I will have to cut and paste each page into a word doc to back it up, unless anyone knows of an easier way?

Not much on the wiki yet but am starting to get my thoughts together and put a plan in place – think I will have a better idea where to start after the first orientation session late Feb.

So at the other end of the spectrum I have had the first orientation session of Cert 11 in Animal Care at the Zoo. The best part was the cotton top tamarins that are in a tree behind the glass wall at the education centre. They are the most magical little monkeys with miniature faces and teensy teensy punk rocker white mohawks. We all watched them entranced. The next best bit is we get our uniform soon. But it is interesting to see how different the course is, it is all competencies and signing off of skills, I like it. I like the idea of having to demonstrate certain outcomes. It is very clear exactly what you have to do, how to do it, and how to demonstrate it is done.

Whereas the PhD right now is one big mass of uncertainity and possibilities of directions.