what a suprise

it's really in fast moving...today, i received Alex from email, and i notice that most of the action learning set members started to build up their blog :)
it's really amazed me, i am impressed by Phaik Nee
my hardworking lady.... i need to catch up with them.
with the heavy workload and also i am going to on leave, running group work, internal audit for ISO, conduct normal counselling session, deliver talk, running staf develoment programmer and etc.... .... i am really scared that i will be left out.  because i have too much commitment at one time.

I guess, time managament is important, i need to put up my own "stamina" put more effort in this, and at the same time, i also need to concentrate more. the self -awareness and self sicipline might play a good role here

what a suprise, i guess, all the set members is ready to run a "good show" here...

below is the request from Alex， the recent email:-

Dear all

The official welcoming of the Action Learning Set for the Therapeutic Use of Dramatic Role Playing Module

Let me extend my welcome to you all as we begin to embark on an experiential learning journey together for the next 8 to 10 weeks.  The essential ingredients that I ask of you to bring along this learning adventure is your sense of creativity, imagination, fun, playfulness, curiosity ….well you can leave the kitchen sink behind J we won’t be needing that J.

 Let me introduce you to your fellow travellers. I apologise if I have included you in the group by mistake as this is the initial list given to me by Josephine on Saturday of those who have expressed and confirmed their interest to complete the full module. I have yet to receive the final confirmed list from her in the meantime I need to make a start, as the tele – transportation portal is ready and waiting to take us….and we need to make some preparations for our adventurous journey.

I have outline the tasks as various sections, firstly for those who are joining this Action Learning Set (ALS) for the first time since your forays into the initial CPPD programme, let me update you on what the baseline ‘ICT’ (Information Communication Technology) necessities in equipping you to engage with the group in virtual space. We don’t want to you feel ‘Lost in Space’ and find it hard to maintain the warp speed (or may feel like it) that the group may be proceeding. Let’s do our equipment check –

• Have a google mail account. Set in up your Google Mail Contacts your group email for your Action Learning Set (to include me – alexwpchew@gmail.com) making it easier to include everyone in any email loop discussion.
• Google calendar – Have shared CPPD Penang calendar you can add this to your own google calendar as well as your group members in helping you organising your schedules for future web conferencing or meetings. You will note that our first online tutorial will be 19th May
• Google Documents – This is where I will be posting relevant academics articles to share in reference to your action learning tasks. This is were your Action Learning Set will posting files of your group ‘work in progress’ as you share and address the group task of the module.
• With your Google Mail Account you can then create your Blog at www.blogspot.com  Create a blog for this module that follows the following protocol (yourname)tuodrp.blogspot.com. (See Ding I Ling e.g. above) This is your Personal Learning Journal (PLJ) where you will maintain your learning reflections (thoughts, feelings, actions, learning insights, links, understandings, evaluations etc. to be shared with your Set. Ensure your settings can accept comments and create links to your ALS member’s blogs by following their blogs as ‘friends’.
• Because Disted College hasn’t come back with a confirmation on hosting the modules learning portal in their Moodle server, I have decided that the learning portal for this module has set up using the familiar blogspot at http://cppdroleplaying.blogspot.com/  instead of Elgg which we had used for earlier modules. This is where our learning tasks will be posted, discussions, questions and answers, links to resources, etc, etc will be posted. This is like the main reception area to all the various areas of learning. So DON’T FORGET to add this also to your own blogs (PLJ). It will show up on the blog if you have managed to achieve this. Could you do this asap as all future communication will be via the portal.
• Skype – Ensure you have a Skype account although if you have no access to the internet to join the web conferencing during one of our scheduled online group tutorials and supervision, you still can join in if you provide me with a landline telephone of where you will be so that I could include you into the conference. Please let me know in good time. Please be aware that you have audio communication with the rest of the group, you may not have access to any URLs where an internet connection is required as some of the tutorial may include going to sites e.g. Whiteboard or other Web 2.0 application etc as necessary.
• Useful to remind yourself as a group again what are the Ground Rules for the Action Learning Set given the changes in membership. Its up to the group to negotiate, establish and make explicit what those ground rules are to avoid any misunderstanding of what is expected and the responsibilities as a member of the learning set to the group. You may decide to use group email, Skype conference etc to achieve that. Better to get this out way first before the Problem Scenario is issued to the group as any accompanying stress may distort our perceptions and lead to misunderstanding.