ELECTRICCHALK

Image - gordon2208 cc on Flickr

It struck me earlier this week how much of a role technology has played in helping us with our move to new jobs in Newcastle. Some aspects were fairly bland but others have been a little more interesting. I thought I’d itemise the different ways and then draw some tenuous conclusion as I usually do. I’ll try to keep it brief.

Getting a job

Using Google Reader to keep tack of job adverts from various sources – There was a lot of irrelevant stuff to wade through but that may be down to how well I configured my searches. I didn’t want to narrow this down too much in case something came out of leftfield that looked interesting. It was the rss feed from Newcastle Uni that threw up the Netskills job.

Twitter - part of researching the role and the organisation was to start with the website and read around it but more useful was actually following the Netskills employees on Twitter. This did feel a bit like stalking initially and I was a bit cautious about what impression I was giving through my own Tweets when they started following back. One of the most important things about jobs for me is the people I’d be working with so this was an opportunity to see whether I thought I would fit with the general feel of the place. It have me a window on Netskills that more traditional research methods couldn’t have done. Twitter was also useful for getting my networks opinions on the topic I was given for the presentation.

Blogging - Candidates were asked to provide a sample of their work as part of the interview process and to bring it along to the interview. My work at the CLC involved only a little bit of materials writing and I didn’t think this gave a good account of what I was capable of. I had a few videos I’d produced, a podcast or two and actually the blog itself is a good representation of me as a learner. So I created a showcase page on this blog and embedded the various bits of meida hoping that it demonstrated I was at least competent with the technology. It was like making a mini e-portfolio.

Prezi - oh Prezi, how do I love thee. Let me count the ways… Both my wife and I had to do interviews with presentations, both of us used Prezi and both got the jobs. See my effort here – obviously you miss out on the sparkling repartee that went with it (and the grilling I got from the Netskills audience afterwards) but it’s a flavour.

Finding a house

So you can search for properties on the internet. Yada yada, so far so normal.

Google Streetview – as we’ve been moving to an area we’re not familiar with and that involves a 2.5 hour car drive to get there having Streetview as a way of getting a closer look at the outside of a property has been invaluable. I’ve always been frustrated that brochures for houses never give you an clear picture of the surroundings but with Google’s various mapping tools you can see how a house fits into the neighbourhood, proximity to services, noise sources etc.

iPhone/iPod Touch – I’ve jumped on the iPhone bandwagon the the last week but had access to an iPod Touch from work for the majority of time we were looking at properties. Aside from the fact that checking emails has been a cinch Rightmove have a nice app for doing quick property searches where you can see the pics of the property, find it on the map and request further details. Viewing a house yesterday having the iPhone to take pics and video of the rooms has been a useful aide memoire.

Choosing a school

Oh the shame of it. Most of our research on schools was done via the OFSTED site. I felt like a complete Judas! The schools’ websites varied so much in quality and content that it made it difficult to draw comparisons. A decent school website can give some indication of their approach to ICT and other things and for people coming into the area from outside with few contacts and local knowledge it’s a nice starting point.

Social Networking – On the subject of local knowledge using Twitter and Mumsnet to help us navigate the confusing set up for mid-year admissions in Newcastle City Council was a boon.

And so the the contrived moral of this tale…

Organising this move up to the North East would have been perfectly possible without all this technological input but having these tools at ones disposal can really improve the way you build connections,  the range of choices you have, remove some (not all, definitely not all) of the anxiety and also introduce a bit of fun into the proceedings.

…and that is one of the reasons why I think it’s worthwhile me helping people become more confident with technology.