John "K" (by-nc-nd)

I really like the people I follow on Twitter. They generate a real buzz of excitement about stuff that is happening that I find very energising.

The thing that gets the Tweeps I follow particularly excited is novelty. When a new idea, device, article appears that challenges a widely held preconception Tweetdeck just lights up as the thoughts bounce around like popcorn.

It’s a fairly trivial example but take the arrival of the 11th Dr Who last week (Matt Smith, brilliant BTW!). Science fiction is not a common topic amongst the people I follow but there was a certain amount of glee (common noun) about the arrival and “post-match” analysis.

I think this whole issue of novelty is important. Articles like this one suggest a strong link between novelty and learning so it’s not just about “oooh, look at the shiny!”

I loved working with kids for the moments when you show them something or they discover something for themselves and you can really feel the buzz as they get stuck in. I think that the people that make the best, most inspirational teachers are the ones who tap into this yearning for novelty and exploit it mercilessly.

There are many complaints that the world of technology never stands still. Devices become obsolete in a matter of months and sites like Bebo go from the peak of popularity to the dead pool in what seems like the blink of an eye. It’s actually what makes technology such a thrilling thing to follow. Educators need to develop different skills to manage these changes but if we expect our students to be able to adapt to a changing economy and society, the least we could do is follow suit.

Two of my new colleagues, Will and Steve, introduced me to the term digital fluency the other day as a way of describing the ability to keep up with a fluid tech-verse. It’s a topic I want to come back to in the future.

So, what I’m saying is that all the people that I follow on Twitter are Novelty Junkies. I suspect it’s not the technology itself that attracts most of these tweeps but the constant arrival of  new resources, devices, news and innovation.

AFTERTHOUGHT: I’m writing this a few days later after following @daveowhite’s keynote at the Plymouth Elearning Conference. There have been one or two tweets about how the idea of “perpetual beta” is accepeted by “players” (people deeply involved in examining new technologies) but anathema to “pragmatists” (people who are interested mostly in implementing tech to help them perform a function – not bothered by exploring). I find the idea of a world in perpetual beta quite liberating – nothing is ever quite finished, everything is in a constant state of renewal and flux and the community and conversation are part of the development. I don’t think I mean just with technology either; ideas, learning, relationships, art, architecture, music etc etc.

Fear - by Mark Sun on Flickr (CC)

As part of our MSc we’ve had to read a paper by Guy Merchant (2009) on Web2.0, new literacies and the idea of learning though participation. We were asked to provide a response on it in a form of our choosing. I thought I’d have a go with Audioboo as I haven’t really had a chance to play with it.

You can read the paper here. It’s well worth it if you are interested in web2.0 and social networking for eductaion.

My response was just a quick thing about the relationship between participation and engagement on one hand and fear on the other and how it links to reading I did as an undergrad about fear (informed or otherwise) influences behaviour in real landscapes. The book was by Yi Fu Tuan and can be found here.

I don’t draw any radical conclusions as this was more a way of recording some thoughts.

PS – Sorry about the tag cloud – slight issues following updating the plugin…

Cell by skatejpg CC on Flickr

This idea has been knocking around in my head for a few days. I’m not even sure it’s a practical suggestion but when you’ve got an itch you gotta scratch.

There’ve been quite a lot of new developments regarding CPD in the UK recently, the most obvious being the arrival of VITAL so it’s occupying a bit of my brain.

I’ve blogged before (and here) about my disillusionment with traditional CPD models where learners choose courses from a list, turn up and then hope to goodness that it changes their skills/behaviour. In many cases it might, but it seems like a hopeful scatter-gun approach to learning, not very effective if you are managing CPD for your staff.

I really like the Enquiring Minds model that Futurelab has written about where learning is directed by the learners, establishing a community that effectively teaches itself or drafts in outside help (professional or otherwise). It’s worth a look at and it’s being put into practice all over the shop (this for example).

The thing that interests me is the challenge of managing this group of learners especially if you are in a large organisation like a school or university. Groups of learners would have to be of a size that was self-sustaining without being overly big.

Also, not everybody wants to learn about the same things at the same time so how do you manage learning where the needs are so fluid?

And this got me thinking about Cell Groups. If you’re not familiar with the term, in a nutshell they’re a way of organising fellowship groups in churches (no wait, come back!) where a large congregation organises itself into small fluid groups where membership can grow and change over time. If a group becomes too large to sustain it is free to split. If members of one group feel they are a better fit elsewhere then they can join a different cell.

I was wondering whether this sort of model would work for CPD.

• In a school different cells would be formed for different special interests depending on where individuals’ needs for development lay, for instance, aspects of SEN provision, social networking as a learning tool, new literacies etc.
• Each cell would direct it’s own learning, collaborate, share experience and comment on each other’s progress.
• Within a cell, leadership wouldn’t necessarily be by any one person. It could be fluid or even non-existent, relying on leadership by consensus.
• When an avenue of development is judged by the group to be exhausted then the cell changes its focus or disperses and members join other cells or split to investigate other avenues.
• If individuals feel they are better served in different cells then they can switch mid-stream with the new group helping to support the new arrival in catching up.

The key thing is that these mini-communities

It’s all quite Darwinian. If it worked well then, with a bit of gentle direction,  the cells would form around topics that were of most professional benefit to the learners themselves and therefore the institution.

It could also be quite chaotic and difficult to manage from the leadership’s point of view. Is that necessarily a bad thing? Not sure. The role of the leadership team would be to support learners in taking their development seriously and helping them to reflect and put into practice. With learners owning their own development the benefits would be greater than just plonking someone on a course and hoping for the best.

I’ll probably find that it’s already been in use for years and I just hadn’t noticed. Typical, really.

So, itch scratched. I’ll probably read this in a few weeks time with my head in my hands but the reason for having this blog was to record ideas, however naff.

If you have any thoughts on this I’d love to hear from you.

Go on, put me straight.

Hallam Cascade by shanerounce (CC)

I can’t quite believe that we’re already through our first semester of the MSc at Sheffield Hallam. It’s been a challenging few months in which the learning has come thick and fast. It’s been tricky trying to get back into the mindset of a student, particularly difficult in the last month or so as the family is going through a bit of upheaval (more later – it’s all good).

The final piece of work was to do an evaluative case study on a work-based project or around 3,000 words, backed up by the literature. It was originally going to be about using Glogster as a way of improving year 9 students’ skills in examining character development in a Benjamin Zephaniah novel with a teacher from Handsworth Grange Community Sports College in Sheffield.

It looked like it was going to be quite a cool project but in the end OFSTED descended and we had to can it.

Luckily we were able to try something different fairly quickly with the same teacher. Instead we had a group of Year 11s come in to do an exercise using photo-story software to reflect on their responses to the poem Vultures by Chinua Achebe.

This sort of digital media work has been our bread and butter at the CLC for years now in lots of different contexts so it was nice to be able to examine it working in more details and get some data.

I don’t claim any great insights here but in the interests of sharing feel free to have a read and give me any constructive comments. I’m releasing it under a Creative Commons license (first time I’ve actively done this).

Link to the document here.

Digital Visual Literacy and Photostories by Chris Thomson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.electricchalk.com.

"Hello, Cup Cake!"

On Thursday night I start an MSc with Sheffield Hallam University with the rather twisty title, Technology Enhanced Learning Innovation and Change or TELIC for short. Check out this link for details.

My main reason for choosing this particular course is for the IC bit of TELIC. I reckon I’m OK with most of the TEL (I still have stuff to learn) but I struggle when it comes to understanding how to influence change in an organisation, especially one that is resistant to it.

I’m a little nervous. I managed to get a 2:1 in Geography from St. Andrews back in ’96 (same degree as Prince William, folks) but that was mostly by accident. I’m hoping I’ve grown up sufficiently to take this seriously, especially as work is funding it. Any sort of learning requires you to make yourself vulnerable in some ways so I hope I don’t fall flat on my face.

So 1) why am I doing it and 2) why am I talking about it here?

Well…

1. a) It’ll be good for me. I haven’t been a proper “learner” in the formal sense since my teacher training in 1997 so I can put my brain through its paces and hope it manages the pressure.
   b) It’ll be good for my career. I know having a “badge” doesn’t indicate competence in the workplace but I’m hoping what I learn will help me move to the next stage. And if Ed Balls gets his way (or anyone else for that matter) then it’s unlikely I’ll be doing this job in 18 months time! This might make me more employable.
2. I anticipate that what I learn may be of use to those of you who read this so expect the occassional post on books, article, theories, workshops etc. And sharing what we do is my way of taking responsibility for my own learning and being open to challenge from all of you lot.

If you want to follow my adventures in Academia then there’s a new Category on the blog. There will also be stuff on Twitter and Delicious (tagged MSc) so follow me on those as well.

Wish me luck!

CC Image credit – clevercupcake on Flickr