The Gazette December 2011 by Great Southern Institute of Technology

Gazette The

Monthly Newsletter December 2011 Volume 2, No 11

Our Abbey’s the best

Great Southern Institute of Technology student Abbey Sergeant has been named Australian Trainee of the Year in the Australian Training Awards announced in Brisbane last Friday. Abbey is Youth Development Officer with the Shire of Katanning, where she is about to finish her traineeship while also completing her Certificate IV in Community Services at the institute’s Katanning campus. She said she was delighted, and surprised, to top the national awards. “It was terrific – it’s a great award and a great

achievement,” Abbey said. The 19-year-old was named WA Trainee of the Year in the State awards run by the Department for Training and Workforce Development in September, and she spent part of the $7000 grant from that award to fund her trip to Brisbane for the nationals. Now on holiday in New South Wales contemplating how to spend the $5000 cash that came with her latest award, Abbey said she was still getting used to the idea of winning, and preparing for a busy summer organising activities for the town’s

young people. Presenting a varied school holiday program can be a challenging task in a small town without shops, a cinema or the beach, but Abbey said seeing the children having fun was reward enough for her efforts. As part of her duties, Abbey applies for grants to fund youth programs and puts out a monthly newsletter. Abbey recommends traineeships for the personal and career opportunities they offer, the valuable experience on the job, and the qualification. She also advocates training and education among the young people she works with. Abbey encourages other students to consider entering the awards – and to put in the time and effort necessary to produce a good entry. Great Southern Institute of Technology managing director Lidia Rozlapa, who was in Brisbane for the awards, said she was very proud of Ms Sergeant’s achievements. Continued on page 2

Great Southern Gazette

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Our Abbey’s the best From page 1 “Abbey has shown a great attitude to her studies with the institute and she is very well respected in her community,” Ms Rozlapa said. “She sets a fine example of what can be achieved through training and dedication to studying,” she added. Abbey’s lecturer Dennis Blewitt said he had had regular contact with his student over the duration of her course, and when Aged Care lecturer Bev Alexander had visited Katanning, she had also provided support for Abbey. “I’m proud of Abbey – I work with every student to maximise their potential, and it’s pleasing to see how Abbey’s dedication

has paid off,” Dennis said. “The world’s her oyster.” Since joining the Shire of Katanning, Abbey has been promoted and in addition to her regular duties, she is also now personal assistant to Acting CEO Carl Beck, a role she clearly relishes.

“

The world’s her oyster

”

– Dennis Blewitt Mr Beck said the Shire was extremely proud of Ms Sergeant’s achievement. “Abbey is an outstanding

staff member who has worked very hard over the last two years to take every opportunity presented to her,” Mr Beck said. “She is definitely part of the succession planning here and she has the potential to go to the top in local government,” he added. Abbey plans to stay at the Shire of Katanning, where she anticipates a bright future for herself and for the town. “There are lots of opportunities with the supertown status, the new saleyards and the gold mine,” Abbey said. Perhaps an even greater reason is the personal satisfaction she gets from her work. “I just love my job,” she said.

Great Southern Gazette

Age no barrier to learning Education changes lives, and it seems nobody is too old to have their life changed by a course delivered at Great Southern Institute of Technology. At the age of 87, great-grandfather Robert Carson sits among people in their teens and 20s for the Certificate I in General Education – and he recommends the experience to everyone. For most of his life, the farmer recognised his reading skills were lacking, and he always vowed to tackle the problem one day. But it was only when he was in his 80s that Robert finally made the move to the institute’s Albany campus to learn to read and write, and every Wednesday morning, he makes the 300km round trip from his farm. A visual impairment means he has to use a magnifying glass to read books and newspapers, and computer pages are printed out in large text. But Robert has made steady progress since he started the course, bringing new confidence and independence. “I can read the labels for drugs and drenches, and I can read the newspaper,” he said. Robert’s new skills have allowed him to contribute to community issues, and he has written a letter to the City of Albany expressing his opinion on a matter close to his heart – the provision of large-type copies of newspapers in the Albany Public Library. This is also a reflection of the selfassurance and freedom Robert is enjoying. Reading and writing enable him to broaden his knowledge of community, influence others and share his opinions, just as he has seen others do. He has written personal letters, and he said official documents were no longer quite so daunting. For Robert’s much younger classmates, improving their literacy and general education also boosts their chances

CGEA lecturers Christina Penn and Cherry Pearce with 87-year-old student Robert Carson.

of finding work. Clearly enjoying their company, Robert said he had learnt from them and shared common interests. Edward Beazley, 17, relishes hearing Robert’s wartime stories and recounts his own grandfather’s experiences. Edward has written a biography for Robert, documenting some of the older man’s stories. Robert said he valued the help of lecturers Christina Penn, Lillian Whitmarsh, Sue Johnson and Cherry Pearce, who made his learning enjoyable as well as valuable. Robert is also a strong ambassador for the course, encouraging others to improve their literacy in the comfortable and supportive environment. As for next year, Robert is clear about his plans. “I’ll be coming back,” he said.

Great Southern Gazette

From the MD’s Desk First, I’d like to send you all my sincere thanks for your hard work over the past 12 months. This has been a productive year with advances in online learning, capital works projects coming to fruition and amazing efforts to progress our sustainability stance. Sustainability The sustainability committee was allocated $75,000 to carry out projects to advance this important area of our business, and several major projects have been funded: • Drinking water fountains have been installed around the institute • Solar panels at R Block are now powering the aquaculture centre • A Greensense monitoring system is being installed to help us keep tabs on our power usage • Sensor lights in the public toilets turn off when the toilets are vacant • A wind turbine now on order for R Block is expected to be operating early next year. Congratulations to you all on your commitment to sustainability. Christmas lunch Our end-of-year professional development session – or Christmas lunch – will be held in George’s Restaurant next Thursday, 15 December, and it’s very pleasing that a record number of people have their names down to attend. As usual, the event will include our annual staff award presentations. We have a different format this year – and more awards to announce. All nominations will be displayed on

posters at various points around the campuses and the winners in each category will be announced on the day. Occupational Safety and Health As you know, OSH is an extremely important part of our daily lives and our business. The safety and security of our students and staff are a major focus for our institute. To encourage staff to participate as OSH reps, we are allocating iPads to each rep so they can carry out OSH assessments in their areas. Rick will install the appropriate software, and the iPads will be available for personal use until the OSH rep resigns from the position. Employee Opinion Survey Insync will present the results of the Employee Opinion Survey on 16 December and I urge staff to attend. Following the survey, staff will have the opportunity to have their say at organised group sessions. If you are unable to attend, focus groups will be organised over the next 12 months to ensure issues identified in the survey can be addressed. 2012 Next year is shaping up to be an exciting one, with new staff starting and initiatives we have worked on this year ready to take shape. Reaffirming my commitment to online learning development, I have increased funding to the Academic Board for curriculum projects to $150,000. We are keeping our fingers crossed that funding for capital works will be authorised, and we will see our proposed building projects start to materialise. Finally, I send you all my best wishes for a happy and safe festive season. Enjoy your break and I look forward to seeing you refreshed and ready for a busy year in 2012. Happy reading, Lidia.

Great Southern Gazette

Rachael is hot on her heals

Seeing wounds heal is the greatest career reward for Rachael Vanden Hoek of Silver Chain. Treating wounds might not be high on the list of dream jobs for most nursing graduates, but for former Great Southern Institute of Technology student Rachael Vanden Hoek, it’s right up there. Rachael, who followed her Enrolled Nursing course at the institute with a BSc (Nursing) delivered at the institute through Curtin University, is now happily installed as a Woundcare

Specialist RN with Silver Chain in Albany, a position which she says suits her down to the ground. For the practical components of her degree, Rachael had opted to work in the Albany Hospital wound clinic as often as possible. After graduating in 2006, she was delighted to land her dream job at Silver Chain, where she attends to patients with chronic wounds. While acute wound

patients are treated at the hospital, some of these patients are later referred to Rachael for longer-term care. Job satisfaction for Rachael comes in the shape of a wound which starts to heal after causing pain and discomfort for the patient. “It may be slow progress, but when things move in the right direction and start to get better, that’s very rewarding,” Rachael said. “It’s black and white – you can clearly see when a wound starts to heal,” she said. “Minute changes make a big difference.” She explained the treatment varied depending on the type of wound, though a lot of her work involved debriding, which is removing dead tissue and foreign matter from wounds. “Debriding is a postregistration competency, so it’s a specialised area,” Rachael said, explaining she had also studied the impact of wounds on patients’ lives. “I see a lot of leg ulcers, pressure ulcers and skin grafts that are slow to heal,” she said. Rachael explained there were many factors to consider when treating wounds, some of which had caused the wound in the first place. “Age, medication, pain and allergies are some of the defining factors,” Rachael said. Continued on page 6

Great Southern Gazette

Rachael is hot on her heals From page 5 “My goal is to increase the patients’ comfort while the wounds heal.” While she works mainly from her wellequipped base at the Silver Chain office in Seymour Street, Rachael’s services are also outsourced to local nursing homes, and she also does home visits. She said patients were often referred to her by their doctors or other nurses. Rachael attributes her job satisfaction and considerable skills to her quality training at the institute, and she recommends the degree course as well as the Enrolled Nursing pathway to the degree. “Doing the EN first is an easier introduction to the RN,” Rachael said. “The EN wasn’t easy, but having that background made the degree course concepts easier to grasp, having already been exposed to many aspects already,” she said. She also had the advantage of having completed 18 months of her degree course in Perth before returning to Albany to have her daughter. Rachael said the institute’s policy on breastfeeding and the flexibility of the lecturers in accommodating her need to

Access All Areas with Wendy Macliver

visit her young daughter at the Rainbow Child Care Centre a few metres away were invaluable. “For more mature students, their life circumstances mean flexibility is very important,” she said.

“

My goal is to increase the patients’ comfort while the wounds heal

”

– Rachael Vanden Hoek

“The lecturers didn’t spoon-feed us, but they were accommodating to me and other students – they made adjustments.” Rachael now attends the institute to present information to students at special ‘wound days’. At some time in the future, Rachael, who loves learning, plans to take a postgraduate course in wound care at Monash University. Until then, the lively and amicable nurse will continue to turn out a string of happy customers whose daily comfort and general wellbeing depend in no small part on her dedication and considerable skills.

World day to celebrate

On 3 December, people throughout the world celebrated the International Day of People with Disability. This day is recognised as a time to celebrate the achievements, skills and contributions of people with disability. This year’s theme was Breaking

Down the Barriers, for which people with disability shared their stories of overcoming obstacles, changing attitudes and making a difference in their communities. For more information on this event, visit http://www.idpwd.com.au/bdtb/.

Great Southern Gazette

WHERE ARE

THEY NOW

Sonja’s pipedream flows into reality

Embarking on a course of study is always a positive move. Furthering one’s education and building skills not only promote self-confidence, but also have the tangible benefits of increased opportunities for a new career or a workplace promotion. One student who has scaled the heights – and is still climbing in her chosen career – is former Great Southern Institute of Technology student Sonja Thomson. One of the first students to complete the Diploma of Human Resources at the institute in 2007, Sonja chose to move on to study externally for the Bachelor of Business through Charles Sturt University in New South Wales. This was no mean feat as the mother-of-two was also working full-time at the Water Corporation in Albany. Sonja credits the institute’s HR lecturer Lee-Anne Smith with the excellent foundation that led her to the degree course, and the support of her employer for her progress at university and her recent graduation. “I enrolled for the diploma when I was working for a labour hire company and

Sonja Thomson recently graduated with a Bachelor of Business – the culmination of eight years of study that started with a Diploma of Human Resources at Great Southern Institute of Technology. I wanted to take a more professional approach,” Sonja explained. “I had a passion for HR and wanted to combine my practical experience with the underlying theory offered by the diploma,” she said. “As a lecturer, Lee-Anne was great – with her HR background, she was able to share her practical knowledge and skills.” The course took Sonja two years of part-time study, after which she received information on the Unilink pathways, and realised she could use some of her completed

units towards a degree. “Using RPL [Recognition of Prior Learning] took 12 months off my degree – a substantial reduction because I still took four years to complete it parttime,” Sonja said. Sonja made a push in the last 18 months and completed three subjects a semester, achieved only through careful planning and choosing one exambased subject and two assessment-based. “I was fortunate to have the backing of my employer,” she said. Continued on page 8

Great Southern Gazette

Sonja’s pipedream From page 7 “They allowed me time off for my exams, time to study and use of their resources such as the online library.” For her part, Sonja is now a highly skilled employee bringing palpable benefits to the Water Corporation in her position of Business Analyst. Just catching her breath after six years of study,

Sonja is enjoying more time with her family and diversifying her interests. She is already considering taking a lifestyle course at Great Southern Institute of Technology for the pleasure of it – Italian is one consideration. But it’s hard to pin down this lively person who plans to study further. “I’d like to do the CPA [Certified Practising Accountant] or Master of Business, but I’ll have 12 months off first,” she said. She is a strong advocate for using the institute as a pathway to university.

“TER is not the be all and end all,” she said. “Find your passion and do it – and see TAFE as a pathway,” she advised. “I have to say the leap from a diploma to a degree is a huge shift in many academic areas of study. However I have truly learnt to love learning and having that personal sense of satisfaction upon completing the courses.” “It is something I don’t believe I would have achieved if not for the support, guidance and encouragement from the institute.”

Kadadjiny Noongar Moort

A walk in the bush is a big hit

Student Sandra Graham and principal lecturer Tony King.

Carolyn Saunders and Larry Blight.

All staff are required to take training in cultural awareness, but judging by the fun one group had at a recent session, there will probably be big queues to join in. Lecturer Larry Blight led the group of staff and students in viewing local Noongar

significant sites and exploring bushland. Participants tasted bush tucker and learnt how Noongar people used vegetation for bush medicine. Larry’s lively presentation kept the group entertained while they were introduced to Noongar culture.

Great Southern Gazette

Sue Bennett-Ng, Ray Tuckey and Tony King.

Life stories over lunch The last two Monday lunchtime sessions of ‘Everyone has a story’ drew good numbers of staff for the entertaining and enlightening interludes. Ladies on the couch brought Gaye Bushell and Ruth McLean to the microphone. Would-be sailor Ruth impressed the audience with her tenacity at the sport, even though she confessed her actual skills were lacking. Ruth’s natural progression from a career in nursing was to teach the degree course through Curtin University from our Albany campus. Well-travelled Gaye Bushell regaled the audience with some of her overseas exploits and recalled highlights of her 16 years as a lecturer with our institute. Gaye now lectures in CGEA and LLNP at the Katanning campus. The last session of the series featured Sue Bennett-Ng and Ray Tuckey. Sue’s varied career has included a long stint in the education sector and in her spare time, she is a protagonist for women’s interests and a tribal dancer. On the road from boiler maker to principal lecturer, Ray Tuckey has been a high school teacher and picked up many other skills he was reticent to share. His entertaining talk was prompted by friendly banter from his colleague and engaging ‘Everyone has a story’ host and organiser Tony King.

Ruth McLean.

Gaye Bushell.

Great Southern Gazette

Ye Olde Photo Competition No matter what size and shape we are now, we were all cute once. To prove it, over these two pages are photos of 12 of our staff members as littlies, and a list of their names. Can you work out who is who? There’s an ‘I got the most right’ certificate for the person who gets the most right. It doesn’t get any better than that. Have fun solving the puzzle and

email your answers to marketing@ gsinstitute.wa.edu.au. In the case of a tie, the winners will each get an ‘I and somebody else got the most right’ certificate. Answers will be in the next edition of The Gazette, which will be published in February. Entries must be received by close of business on Wednesday, 21 December 2011.

��

Great Southern Gazette

Ye Olde Photo Competition 7

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And here are the names . . . John Maddison

Sue Stokes

Andrew Nicholson

Julie Harris

Roger Logan

David Hansen

Natasha Henderson

Steve Speight

Elizabeth Svendsen

Pauline Murphy

Amy Jo de Jong

Jodie Watkins

Great Southern Gazette

Spotlight on...

David Hansen

Position: HR Manager (currently acting in DCS role) Campus: Albany Star sign: Capricorn Favourite food: Rack of lamb with a feisty red or Bunnings sausage sizzle. First car: I inherited my mum’s 1967 Ford Cortina. Sporting team: Dockers but I’m wavering. Hobbies: Gardening, building stuff around the house, fishing, driving topless, travel.

Which three famous people would you take onto your desert island for a year, and why? Paul Keating, Paul McCartney, and Nigella to do the cooking. Karen can come along if she wants. Favourite book or author: Any decent sci fi, Bryce Courtney, John Grisham, gardening books. Favourite music: Generally 70s. I hate...: Queues and crowds. I love...: The Albany lifestyle.

Trio get lippy to promote men’s health Sporting hairy lips for Movember, Jay Rowles, Rob Schorer and Cassie Farnell (yes, Cassie, though you wouldn’t have noticed it) raised nearly $200 for men’s health. Spending a month fending off wise cracks and being pointed at from afar was well Jay Rowles before and after. Movember 1 on the left and Movember 30 on the right. Far right: Just like before – smooth as a baby’s bum again for December.

worth it for the three members of Great Southern Institute of Technology staff. But all were mightily relieved on the first day of December when the itchy patches could be smoothed off and money raked in. Donations are still welcome – just hand the dough to Cassie or Jay.

Great Southern Gazette

Seeds of Sustainability with

Neil Augustson

Education holds key to sustainability

The sustainability committee has endorsed providing 50 per cent of funds for the purchase of a wind turbine and solar generator system to power a pump in the aquaculture centre. The advanced wind and solar hybrid system will transform wind and solar energy to electricity and may be used for a number of purposes including charging batteries and supplying power for monitoring systems, small power appliances and even street lighting. Wind power is a tried and proven technology with small and medium sized farms having used thousands of windmills over the years. With commercial power generation, bigger, taller and better designed turbines have helped to significantly reduce the cost of wind generation over the past 15 years. Wind power has the potential to supply

a significant percentage of Australia’s electricity needs and continues to play an important role in small scale and off-grid systems. To date at R Block, solar panels have been installed to offset some power use, rainwater is used to offset scheme water use and all aquaculture systems are recirculating with the capacity to link to aquaponics projects and minimise any impact on downstream environments. The endemic system near the northern fence lends itself to a wind and solar power source and may be earmarked as the site for the infrastructure. A sustainability area is being established to be used as a demonstration and course delivery resource for sustainability competencies and initiatives, which are to be incorporated into all the institute’s training packages.

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Skills for tomorrow’s workforce Delivering relevant industry skills to its students in order to meet the demands of tomorrow’s workforce is a priority of Great Southern Institute of Technology. To do this, it is imperative the institute understands the needs and expectations of industry in order to plan course delivery and teach students relevant, upto-date skills. The WA Government, and the institute,

FutureNow – Creative and Leisure Industries Training Council is one of 10 training councils in Western Australia and is funded by the Department of Training and Workforce Development. FutureNow’s coverage includes: • Arts and Culture • Sport and Recreation • Hospitality and Tourism • Information • Media • Telecommunications • Printing industries. The State Government charges FutureNow with the task of preparing workforce development strategies for the creative and leisure industries, and advising it on critical areas of skills shortages and future training needs. FutureNow works in partnership with Government, industry leaders, registered training organisations and other stakeholders

work closely with industry training councils (ITCs) to ensure training priorities and the vocational education and training needs of industry are met. For their part, ITCs ensure training and skills development in the VET sector are available and reach industry standards. The next ITC in the series is the FutureNow – Creative and Leisure Industries Training Council.

to achieve positive workforce outcomes. As the leader in brokering the provision of best practice workforce development solutions for the creative and leisure industries in Western Australia, FutureNow will influence and enhance its industries’ future competitiveness and productivity by ensuring businesses and people have the right skills, in the right place at the right time. The core functions of FutureNow are to: • Provide a leadership role in promoting training industry, including partnerships between industry and the training sector • High level, strategic information and advice that informs the State Training Board on the training needs and priorities of industry in Western Australia • Market intelligence on skills supply and demand, in particular, current or emerging skills shortages and recommends training strategies to support industries skills development needs. To find out more about FutureNow, visit www.futurenow.org.au.

Western Australia’s ITC website links – click to access Community Services Health and Education Training Council Construction Training Council Electrical, Utilities and Public Administration Training Council Inc Engineering and Automotive Training Council Inc Financial, Administrative and Professional Services Training Council Food, Fibre and Timber Industries Training Council (WA) Inc FutureNow - Creative and Leisure Industries Training Council Logistics Training Council Inc Resources Industry Training Council Retail and Personal Services Training Council

Great Southern Gazette

2.3 million qualifications needed

VET Trends Skills Australia predicts that Australia could need an additional 2.3 million people qualified to Certificate III level and above by 2015. This does not mean there will simply be an additional 2.3 million new jobs in the workforce. Rather, this estimate includes new entrants with higher qualifications replacing those retiring; existing workers upgrading their skills; and around 800,000 new jobs requiring advanced qualifications. The Council of Australian Government (COAG) targets include halving the proportion of 20-64 year olds without qualifications at Certificate III level and doubling the number of higher qualification completions by 2020. Deloitte Access Economics has identified an estimated $107 billion worth of projects either committed to or under construction in Western Australia. While employment growth is expected for almost all occupational areas, an analysis indicates that a mixture of highly skilled, trade and semi-skilled occupations, such as professionals; clerical and administrative workers; managers; and community and personal service workers will continue to dominate employment growth in Western Australia. Good news for public training providers like great Southern Institute of Technology? Perhaps ….

While publicly funded VET remains the principal supplier of postcompulsory foundation and trade skills, qualifications for the many intermediate, technical and managerial occupations previously delivered by TAFE are now being increasingly serviced by the university sector. NCVER has recently undertaken research that concludes a VET qualification will not get you the job it got you 20 years ago. Degrees are increasingly the currency for many future jobs – not TAFE certificates and diplomas. This trend is confirmed by a recent NCVER study based on data from the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth (LSAY) which concluded that for males two paths stand out: • Year 12 followed by university study • Year 12 followed by an apprenticeship. For females, the best path is Year 12 followed by university study, and this is as true for those with a relatively low academic orientation as well as those with a high academic orientation. So what does this mean for public training providers? To quote Robin Shreeve, CEO Skills Australia “TAFE has plenty of capability to draw on. How it does this, and how it creatively shapes its own future, are its main challenges.” References: Investment Monitor, Deloitte Access Economics, June 2011 2011 National Conference for TAFE Directors Australia Strategic directions for VET: radical reform or business as usual? Robin Shreeve CEO Skills Australia. NCVER Insight Newsletter Issue 43 September 2011

Great Southern Gazette

16 Every one of the institute’s staff is a small cog in a big machine – each playing a vital part in progressing the organisation and developing the workforce. We get to work with people from other sections every day, and on PACD days, we meet those we don’t normally come into contact with. But do we really know what each section does? This month, Great Southern Gazette continues a series of articles on the

what do they do . . . various sections within our institute, with a focus on the staff in records management at the Albany campus.

Loryn Green and Carolyn Heffernan keep information flowing smoothly and records secure. Handling the enormous volume of corporate records and mail going through the institute on a daily basis takes a special attention to detail. With Loryn Green and Carolyn Heffernan on the job, information flows smoothly and myriad facts and figures are stored for instant retrieval. The pair work in the institute’s records section, which also incorporates scoping and copyright

requests. Both Loryn and Carolyn make an early start to open the morning mail before most other staff members arrive at the Albany campus. Carolyn then logs important business mail into the record management system TRIM and creates the necessary temporary files for disseminating information. She then delivers the day’s mail around the Albany campus, and collects outgoing mail from the

various sections. Despatching mail to the three regional campuses and all external items through Australia Post is also Carolyn’s responsibility, as well as ordering printed stationery (including business cards) and processing photocopying requisitions. Loryn is currently in the final stages of updating the institute’s Recordkeeping Plan for next year. Continued on page 17

Great Southern Gazette

what do they do . . . From page 16 This incorporates policies and procedures, and details protocols and a disaster management plan. This major project for Loryn is a requirement of the State Records Act 2000, and is carried out in conjunction with other institutes. While about half of Loryn’s job is dedicated to recordkeeping, the other

17 half is taken up by her duties as scope officer. Loryn liaises with the Training Accreditation Council (TAC) to ensure our scope of registration is correct and she works closely with principal lecturers and portfolio managers, who write the documentation for sending to TAC when adding a new qualification. She also ensures the institute’s versions of training packages are current and issues copies to relevant staff.

Loryn is Freedom of Information (FOI) officer for the institute and is therefore the initial decision maker to determine if an application constitutes an FOI application, or if grounds exist for refusal. She is also a Public interest Disclosure (PID) officer and she deals with copyright matters for the institute. As well as all this, the friendly pair willingly provide guidance and information on any of the above areas, and will train staff when TRIM rolls out across the institute.

Library Resource Centre The Library Resource Centre is on track with its program to develop facilities and services to support technologically advanced teaching and learning strategies, including on-line learning. • The Epson Interactive Ultra Short-Throw 3LCD Multimedia Projector is now installed in the Computer Laboratory • The KeePad Interactive eBeam has been purchased, including the associated Epson Projector – this will allow any flat wall or whiteboard to become an interactive whiteboard, and so will be very

valuable for use by lecturers travelling to deliver in the regions • The ClickView software has been purchased, allowing video streaming over the college network; the software includes video editing capability, allowing lecturers to compile and tailor programs from the bank of videos included in the ClickView Exchange Library. Library staff will progressively acquire the expertise to use all of these technologies in order to support lecturers and students who want to use them in their programs.

Need stationery? Visit your bookshop first Phone Vicki Halliday on 9892 8852

BOOKSHOP

Did you know? Reuse of a plastic water bottle could cost you more than money. When reusing a plastic water bottle... Refilling your water bottle is not an absolute no-no. The key thing is to make sure you wash it regularly, preferably with hot water and detergent and if possible, store it in the fridge. Bugs grow much faster if you leave it on the bench where it’s warmer. And remember, sharing your water bottle means you’re sharing germs.

When last did you wash your bottle? Cleaning plastic water bottles with hot soapy water and allowing them to dry is essential to prevent bacteria growth.

Bacterial contamination A Public Health study has revealed a potentially chilling effect on the practice of reusing plastic water bottles. In this study, bacterial levels in reused plastic water bottles exceeded safe water standards by more than 64 percent. Furthermore, the researchers pointed out that some water bottles were reused for months without being washed.

Fast facts • We need to drink between 1½ and 2½ litres per day to replace what we lose through sweating and going to the loo. • Use stainless steel reusable lightweight bottles. Stainless steel doesn’t leach or react. • Disposable plastic water bottles are made for one-time use -- for the product that came in it, not for continual reuse.

Great Southern Gazette

Great Southern Institute of Technology wishes you a

Merry Christmas and a Happy and Safe 2012

See you when all campuses re-open on 9 January The next edition of The Gazette will be published in February