madamepsychosis - by-nc-nd

Over the last 2 days I’ve been following the tweets from the #bectax (link) and #gbl10 (link) events. It’s a great if slightly frustrating way to keep up with goings-on (frustrating ‘cos it makes you wish you were there).

I’ve yet to deliver a presentation or workshop where there is an active  backchannel and don’t have any planned yet but the thought of it does make by blood run cold rather.

These are my current thoughts about it which I wanted to capture and then possibly revisit having experienced it properly.

Why I don’t like the idea…

• Paranoia – I remember making soto voce snarky comments about a lecturer (his name was Peter Cundill) during a session he was running while I was a snotty under-grad. I was showing off and he was particularly unhappy about it. I’m ashamed of it now because I know how that sort of behaviour would affect me. To feel like a whole audience is having a discussion about you and your message whilst your doing it I think would throw me right off my concentration.

• Control – this is especially true about presentations where the twitterfall is visible behind the presenter. If I’m putting together a presentation I spend a lot of time getting the visual side as stripped down as I can. If the audience want to follow what is happening in the backchannel then by all means they can follow it on their own devices. But unless I say otherwise the podium is my space and I want to control the message that is delivered from there.

And now for the other side…

Why I love the idea…

• Feedback –  What a fantastic motivator to make your presentation the best it could possibly be! My aim would be to get tweets that were agreeing, disagreeing, offering alternatives, building ideas etc. What I wouldn’t want to see is comments highlighting a weak presentation style. I know I’ve delivered poor presentations in my time and yet the feedback from delegates is very complimentary and polite. People who haven’t appreciated I suspect have chosen to remain silent and anonymous (at least to my face!). The backchannel appears to be fearless even though it’s not necessarily anonymous.

• Interaction – OK, I mentioned my need for control before but I love engaging audiences and getting their thoughts. With Twitter you have an amazing tool for doing that in a much broader way than by raised hands and voices alone. I hope I would be brave enough to open up questions to the backchannel. If I was watching a presentation like that I think I would be really engaged.

• Networks – A perusal of the backchannel comments after an event is a great way of finding out the individuals who have a real interest in the topic you were discussing and that’s a great way for establishing those links.

• Engagement – I’ve heard some people argue that if people are tweeting during a presentation they can’t be concentrating on it. You could say the same thing about taking notes in that case! With Twitter people can take notes in a much more socially constructive way and that is likely to make your presentation MUCH more effective anyway.

So, on balance I think I like the idea providing I can keep on my toes as a presenter!

The most exciting thing about it is that it turns a presentation into much more of a social event. To some extent that means that the training I had on how to be a good presenter is gradually becoming obsolete – that was based much more on the one to many delivery model.

I also think it makes a conference hall a much more honest environment where people are able to express themselves in a way that they perhaps didn’t on their paper feedback forms.

Whether I’ll still believe that after having gone through the experience remains to be seen!

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.

Image Credit - Tom Barrance

Film Education’s CP3 conference is a routinely excellent occasion and well worth your attention if you are involved in using digital media in education. I’ve blogged about it before.

The last event was in Liverpool (way back in July) and CP3 has now completely revamped its site and updated it with the resources from the event. Have a look…

This is extraordinarily good value! You can download podcasts and transcripts of the keynotes and the materials from the many workshops (the best bit of the conference). The quality is as high as ever.

Have a look at James Durran’s Keynote and Tom Barrance’s Image, Text and Sound workshop as good examples.

Keep your eye on the website for details of next year’s conference.

Did you attend the Liverpool conference? Review it for us…

"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

Here’s the long answer…

Training courses are comfortable. I’ve been a trainer in different sectors for 11 years now and there is a time-honoured process for identifying a training need, devising a course, evaluating it and then starting all over again or buggering off.

Also, for learners, courses are comfortable. You sort of know what to expect; leave your desk for a day or two, find out some new stuff, discard the stuff you disagreed with then get on with life pretty much as it was before the course.

I’d be happy to bet that of all the training programmes I’ve been a part of, maybe 50% have been good value for money.

That’s not because I’m a rubbish trainer.  It’s because if you want real transformation to take place the learner’s environment and culture has to change as much as their brain. 2 days in a training room ain’t gonna do that.

For web2.0 specifically you are faced with a model of technology that doesn’t behave like traditional IT.  It’s much more flexible, available, ephemeral and fragile than what most people are used to.

“Train” people how to use particular web2.0 apps and before you know it the tech landscape has changed and people are cross at you for wasting their time! Check out Henrico Dolfing’s slideshare about why web2.0 is a fragile beast. (Thanks James Clay for posting it)

So, do 2 things…

1) Forget about ICT – for the moment anyway. Breed a culture at all levels on both sides of the staffroom door that thrives on change and novelty. Students will need that skill when they step outside the gate. That way the school’s use of ICT will flex and bend with technology, not try to shoehorn old technology into new curriculums (curricula?).

2) Let students do the choosing of how they use ICT.  This frees teachers from having to keep at the bleeding edge of technology when their real job is helping students to learn.

Obviously, it’s going to be much more complex than that so let me know how you would refine this. Or tell me what the right answer should be…

Image – Noodlepie 6n Flickr

CP3 2008 - Brighton

If you are interested in using digital video as a teaching and learning tool then this conference by Film Education comes highly recommended. It’s in Liverpool this year.

I’ve blogged about it before and have been to 3 of them although I haven’t quite got over the shame of weeping over Ian Wall on the final day in Leicester (I was ILL! OK?)

They’re down to their last few places so move quickly…

Image Credit – Tom Barrance

Image - Adi Setiawan on Flickr

Had an interesting day out on Monday at Nottingham Uni. Nick Mount and Gary Priestnall in the school of geography were hosting a workshop on the uses of immersive technologies in education. It was all a bit out of my remit as we don’t do higher ed in CLC’s but a fascinating day nonetheless.

It was all done under the auspices of the DELVE project (if you want a good example of creative acronym wrangling (CAW) check out how they got to DELVE!) which links Nottingham Uni and the OU.

In a nutshell it was a showcase of some examples of how they have been using immersive technologies (3D sims, Google Earth, Second Life) in teaching their courses. By immersive technologies (and there was considerable debate about the meaning of the term) they mean apps and hardware that allows a learner to become drawn into a virtual or augmented environment which supposedly leads to a deeper form of engagement with the task. There were also presentations from Claire Jarvis at Leicester about her work modelling GPS in a virtual environment.

The majority of the stuff being demo’s was beyond most schools’ capabilities but it was interesting to see what’s going on in other parts of the eductaional world.

Here are some of the mail things I took away from the event…

Google Earth - there was a fascinating demo of an activity to create a 3d wind farm in the Lake District in GE and then assess it’s visual impact from certain key point sround the National Park. Really made me want to investigate GE as a creative tool along with Sketchup rather than just a viewing tool.

Maptube - Brilliant. An excellent resoure for making map mashups. OK, maybe it’s only geographers like me that get excited about that sort of thing but it makes for a really groovy activity for KS4. I’ve just had a go at comparing the distribution of knife crime stats in 2006/7 with post office distribution and mashing up a map of it. Why? BECAUSE I COULD!! (Not strictly immersive technology but I’m not complaining).

Second Life - Nick was showing how they used SL as a discussion tool for a wind farm project. They had created an island in SL and mapped a mini version of the Lake District on it and users were encouraged to place turbines in certainlocations then the students’ avatars could meet and discuss different options. I’m still not convinced that SL is something we could usefully get involved with here. I have too many worries about using it in schools mainly from the e-safety point of view and I’m not sure that the pedagogic benefits are worth pursuing before schools have grasped more basic web2.0 tools.

Does anyone have any experience of using Second Life in schools? Am I missing the point?

3D Screen Technology – This was the first time I’d seen 3d used outside of BETT. They used it as a way of visualizing a wind farm (notice a theme?) in the Lake District. It was veryimpressive (and hugely expensive) but I was left with the same feeling that I had after BETT, namely that the education benefits of immersion are not proven to the extent that schools would want to invest tens of thousands in the necessary resources.

On the whole, this idea of immersion and it’s relation to engagement was fascinating and I never went just because I was trying to pick up new ideas for the classroom. Mind expanding stuff.

A wee shout out to Claire Chambers who was particularly helpful and to Claire Jarvis for possibly having the solution to all our GPS problems!

We’ve just finished hosting quite an exciting event at one of our partner schools where members of staff have been showcasing their skills and their students’ skills in ICT. The aim was to create some real momentum towards developing ICT in the curriculum as the school moves towards it’s BSF rebuild in a few years’ time.

It was particularly exciting from my point of view as it was the teachers demonstrating, not us. It’s great as it shows where teachers have taken on the skills we have introduced and taken them to the next level.

I’ve been reflecting on CPD and growing ICT skills since BETT. I went to one seminar by NAACE that was effectively saying that sending staff on a load of courses is not an effective model for CPD. 

As someone who runs occasional courses for outside agencies on stuff like white boards and digital media I’ve been getting increasing demoralised that I’m not actually doing  much good. People have a nice time and they say lovely things on their feedback sheets but I’m skeptical about how much actually changes in the classroom given the investment of time and money.

The seminar also pointed out that the best way to develop skills was to develop collaborative communities of learners within the institution who share their own experience and knowledge and offer support…

…which made me think of another seminar I went to by Futurelabs on their “Enquiring Minds” project. Checking the website will be a much more useful and effective way of finding out about it than me telling you but in a nutshell…

An Enquiring Minds project is one where the enquiry is driven by the students. They establishing what they already know and care about and look for areas that they feel warrant further investigation. Drawing on resources like their teachers, each other, parent, local community, online community etc they research new topics and work towards ordering their findings and presenting them back in a method of their own choosing using whatever media they think appropriate.

The feedback from schools trying it out with students seem to be encouraging.

So what about staff? If it’s an effective, empowering way of learning for students surely it would also work with adults.

I have this rosey, glowing vision in my head of an elightened school leadership team fostering an Enquiring Minds-style collaborative learning community (pat pending) where the staff themselves assess their current levels of knowledge and determine which areas they want to develop. Working in “interest groups” with people of differing levels of skill and experience they research, draw on other sources of information and help and facilitate their own learning. The results are then shared widely across the school/LEA community and the process starts again. Some areas of development will be school wide (say for example when the school invests in a new piece of MIS software) but other areas wil be uncovered by teachers seeing good practice elsewhere, reading blogs or pure, naked inspiration!

No doubt this is already happening in some schools so it would be great to hear how well this works in practice

Have a look at the Enquiring Minds site and let me know if I’m talking rubbish or if you like the idea.

Image credit - John Connell on Flickr

I had these brilliant plans to do lots of live blogging/twittering/vodcasting from BETT this year but I couldn’t be arsed. Bad blogger. Sorry. It was just so hectic and noisy, plus the Premiere Inn charge £9 for 24 hours on their cloud! 

So, what did we learn? I’ll do some specific stuff about some of these points later so here’s a summary

1. There seemed to be more stuff about assessment, monitoring and systems this year and less interesting stuff about teaching and learning. My boss, who specialises in e-safety, thought it said a lot that the CEOP stand was a tiny, wee booth but organisations like Sentinel had huge stands – is this fueling the idea that e-safety is about buying a better monitoring system?

2. Interesting-looking things we saw on demo – True Tube (social issues documentary sharing service), Podium2 (easy-to-use podcasting software), 2 Do-it-yourself (game making software aimed at KS1-2 from 2Simple). More on these soon…

3. ICT CPD – sending people on loads of courses isn’t truly effective. It should be more about building collaborative networks. I need to process this one a bit more but had some interesting thoughts about how to model CPD along the lines of “Enquiring Minds“. Need a whole post to talk about that one…

4. There is no magic mobile device. There was stuff for running on mobile platforms but nobody was jumping up, saying “this is the machine to do it on!” I thought there would be more about the iPhone but Apple weren’t exhibiting and I coudn’t find much on the apps side. Is it just me or has the heat  gone out of mobile learning compared to 2 years ago? More convinced now that mobile learning will have to be designed to work on students’ devices, whatever that might be.

5. 3d screens are still at the interesting gimmick stage. It’s the first time I’ve seen one of these in operation but all they had to demonstrate was things like looking at the workings of the inner ear and a tudor street scene. Another CLC in our region is really pushing these which puzzled me slightly – once you get pack the “ooh” factor can it really sustain interest. Once you introduce more interactivity into it (maybe with motion sensors or similar) then it’ll be worth more of a look.

6.Why is ICT still dominated by interactive whiteboards? Not saying they’re not a useful tool but everywhere you look it’s Promethean this and Smart that?

On a minor note, I was surprised by the reaction of a managed service provider I spoke to involved in a LEA future schools scheme. I was asking about how a managed service would actually operate from a day to day perspective and he seemed extremely reluctant to talk about it. I was genuinely trying to broaden my knowledge and not get into a fight but he actually said that he didn’t want to discuss managed service and why weren’t people asking about all the great equipment they were putting into the new schools in their contract. A bit disappointing.

In summary, I didn’t come back feeling particularly fired up about ICT developments but the changes afoot concerning Building Schools for the Future and the shape of the curriculum made me quite optimistic about what’s round the corner. As someone wisely pointed out, it’s a trade show so if you want big ideas and inspiration then conferences are a better place to look.

If you have any interest in digital video in the classroom and you can get to Liverpool between the  15th to 19th July this year start bothering your bursar now!

I’ve been to the three previous conferences and they have been uniformly excellent leaving delegates buzzing about trying out new ideas in the classroom, even transforming their whole approach to teaching a particular topic.

The y manage a great balance of challenging keynotes and workshops on critical and creative topics from experts in the field.

Equally suitable for secondary and primary.

I’ll try to catch up with them at BETT next week for some more info.