I have decided to stop my work on the PVS. Keep that in mind as you read about the PVS below.
Please see this announcement…!
A Simplified Direction
As a result of my deciding that I have to be more focused and restrict the scope of what I will be doing, the Parkinson’s Video Society concept was a major cut for me. But even though I will no longer be driving the project personally, I am leaving this page, that describes the project, for historical and reference reasons.
Online Training Facility
While PVS was the ultimate goal, I had started an online training facility that would develop and run online courses for people on the run, i.e. who are using only their smartphones for work.
Many of the online courses I developed would be building blocks for a PVS i.e. the Online training facility was spewing out (wish it was that easy) the components that I would eventually need to implement the PVS internationally.
The courses would cover standard business software (word-processing, spreadsheet, graphics, etc), and business communication (email, fax, sms, website).
Project Focus
Based on personal experience and on surveys conducted in areas identified as potential commercial/industrial developmental regions, I confirmed the importance of smartphone skills, and identified project management as an essential skill needed for the workforce of tomorrow! For this reason I have developed several courses covering standard project management theory and concepts but with the focus still being the smartphone.
For the sake of bringing in the benefits of project-based learning methodologies, I designed the courses to be as real as possible. You learn best by getting your hands dirty, solving real world problems working with colleagues. When I reached this stage, I saw the huge overlap with the PVS. Remember that in the PVS we are training PVS members to go out in the community and execute video projects that would ultimately benefit the community and as a result enhance their quality of life. Yes, the focus is different, but the overlap lay in the fact that the were creating video projects.
I immediately included online project courses that would also eventually be used in the PVS.
Descriptive Project
We will certainly have project courses, they will not be run as part of the course, but the project aspects will be discussed in the course – i.e. the students will read about it rather than doing it. That is not the end of the world, that’s how most subjects have been taught traditionally.
What Changes?
Several new thoughts have been generated. The online training was something that I did on the side as it were while working on the PVS. Perhaps it is time to formalize it, perhaps by giving it a name? HMDLearn or TheSmartSchool?
Another need that was identified by the development surveys was a need for modular practical training. The need is for skills using current business technology. This is certainly something that could be included as part of HMDLearn??