David Sugden
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Will it ever stop raining? Sharon and I set off to Blackpool in the rain on Thursday at
6.00pm and the spray on the motorway was horrendous. It was still
raining when we got there and had to unpack all our kit in the rain. We
had been given a stand at the RSC Northwest's Conference (see
Lisa Valentine's Blog)
There wasn't much chat up and down about the Becta
report. I saw it on a few blogs but nowhere else. Mind you I haven't had
the time to visit the Champions forum all week, so perhaps they talked
about it - we'll see when I catch up. If I catch up! Tuesday went ok,
despite the floods. I was able to drive to Burton on Trent over the High
Peak and missed Matlock and Derby - both of which seemed to have
problems similar to, but not as severe as Sheffield and Leeds. The
floods had come as part of a terrific deluge over the weekend which
seemed to just hang over Yorkshire and north Derbyshire. The trains were
still disrupted yesterday and John Whalley was diverted (on his way from
Hull to Huddersfield by train) all over the place. It took him four
hours to get home. Tuesday was unusual inasmuch as I'd been asked to talk to three
groups of 17 year olds (year 12s) about the I.T. industry (a careers
event). I had pointed out early on, that I knew very little about it but
apparently my story fitted the bill - so off I went to de Ferrer's
School in Burton. The first two groups were great - we looked at how I
got to be what I am (whatever that is), a little history (calculators
the price of a week's wage) and then at what way other industries rely
on I.T. - then the I.T. stuff itself. The last group were more
disruptive and more closed minded (one guy wanted - when asked what (if
there were no barriers), would he do in I.T. to make a £million - said
"make an online weapon design tool") Whaaaat? Today I'm off to the RSC Northwest conference, where I have a
stand tomorrow. Sharon and I are both going and I'm also delivering a
workshop on Web 2.0. so it should all be fun, especially as I should
also meet so many old friends. AND Two nights in a posh hotel!
Discuss "Ofsted inspectors tended to disregard ICT, and computer use was
inhibited by assessment methods, the study found."
"But Ofsted denied the report findings, saying its inspections
highlighted the effectiveness of ICT."
What a week! A great week,
but phew I'm glad it's weekend.
We've come over to Karen's in Chirk for a couple of days - mainly
to retrieve the Mimio I'd lent her,
ready for our Blackpool conference this next week. But by the time
we'd got here, had dinner and a drink, I was ready for bed. After
Wednesday's troubles with the car and the hotel room, things could only
get better. And they did. I always enjoy meeting old friends and making
new ones and at both RSC events I was working at, I was able to do this.
At Bridgewater my display table neighbour was Alistair McNaught and
although we didn't get as much chance as we'd liked to chat - we did
manage to catch up a bit. My facilitator for my (read about later)
presentation was the gorgeous
Virginia
Havergal. I know she's gorgeous, because she told me so. In fact
when I sent the picture to Karen and said 'guess who' - Virg (upon being
told that Karen had replied saying 'give Virg a hug for me') said "did
she say how good I look?". There's nothing like confidence. Virg is
brilliant at what she does and fitted right into my presentation.
James Clay also made it to the
afternoon sessions so it was good to catch up with him too. We discussed
some of the uses for technology currently being promoted. I also met
Andy Daimont of Penwith College - with whom I'd exchanged emails earlier
about Moodle on a stick. I'd been asked to do the presentation when their booked event -
Marc Keeble of Classroom ICT
- could 't make it. Although I was in Bridgewater as a representative of
MyKnowledgeMap, I didn't
think it would do any harm for me to do the presentation because it
would attract more attention to the MKM table. The subject was Gadgets
and Gizmo's - so I'd planned a very active half an hour with much
audience participation. But by the time they'd assembled after the first
key note speech, my presentation was cut to just over quarter of an
hour. So I had Virg go around doing short interviews on video camera -
and she'd never done THAT before! The feedback was great apparently. And
as planned it brought people to the table. At Sheffield on Friday at the
Yorkshire and Humberside conference, I met all my old friends from
around the region and had some interesting discussions. There was some
interest in the MKM products from Family Learning people - who I hope
will now follow up their interest.
Sometimes you just have to
write a blog entry straight away. Had I had the time this afternoon
(while waiting for the tow truck), I
would have - but until now, the incidents have been on
Jaiku only. I set off for
Bridgewater this morning in good time - I left the local filling station
at 11.15am and planned a five to six hour drive, depending on traffic.
And traffic was something I got big style - but not until junction 13 of the M6. I
would normally do this route M1 > M42 > M5 but having been delayed so
badly that way before and it being the
time it was, I decided to go the old way - M62 > M6 > M5. As I say, all
was fine until junction 13 when the traffic stopped - big style. I
phoned
Karen (Stafford being her neck of the woods) and she said to get
off at junction 13 and use the A449 (but I had to wait 35 minutes until
I got to junction 12 to do that) via Wolverhampton and Kidderminster. I
decided that I would use a shortcut to junction 4 of the M5 via
Stourbridge - and it was
well signposted so no worries! It was 2.15pm when I stopped for my lunch
just 4 miles short of the motorway (I'd planned to have this much earlier, but couldn't find
anywhere 'reasonable' to stop). I'd made myself a really nice chicken
salad this morning which was (although I say it myself) excellent. A
nice relaxing meal. Then the car wouldn't start. I eventually had to be towed away and have my starter motor
fixed. This is nothing new. I had the same problem
last year - (May 13th!) which is now more than a
year ago and definitely not guaranteed! (Ford won't guarantee their
starter motors -because they are crap - allegedly) £271 later I was on the road again and ultimately, only
delayed by 2 hours. So well done Green Flag and the guys at the Rescue
Station.
I arrived at the hotel (about 6.30pm - so not too bad time) to
find that my room had been double booked (or something) so I had to
leave poor Jan from the RSC SW to sort that one out while I had a pint
in the pub next door. What else can you do? Because it's Glastonbury
this week - the hotel is full, but I'm in a room now, so - phew. Jan
however, is doubling up with a (female) colleague. Latest news -
Alistair McNaught isn't coming until tomorrow - so they can now have a
room each.
What a day!
It's my brother Andrews' birthday today (Happy
Birthday Andrew!). He lives in Perth (in Oz) and I've had the devil of a
time trying to remember to phone him. There's a seven hour time
difference and if I don't ring before 3.00pm - it's unfair to expect him
to be up and about. He works really strange shifts (something like 14 on
- 4 off) and catching that 4 off period is tricky. So, I missed him.
Sorry mate. I've spent quite some time recently, trying to catch up on all
the preparation for upcoming work. As I said during my previous post,
there's a lot of new work to be covered and today, I finally made some
headway. I've done the bits for two of my Leeds College of A & D gigs in
July and caught up with MKM
preparations for this week. I'm also doing an impromptu workshop at the
South West RSC event in Bridgewater this week - so I've had to plan that
one too. I'm there on the day courtesy of
MKM who have asked me to
'stand' their stand. The request for me to do a 30 minute workshop was a
pleasant surprise and will hopefully help to get more people calling at
the stand. My workshop is about 'Gadgets and Gizmos' so that should be
fun - in just 30 minutes! I really enjoyed planning that and if all goes
well, the delegates should be properly enthused. I'm at the Yorkshire
and Humberside RSC event on Friday in Sheffield too. Once again, for
MKM. Next week is my big worry - Tuesday I have three inputs to year
11's about careers in the I.T. industry. They are an age group that I
have taught for years and years - but not I.T. - so that should be an
interesting gig. It's certainly one that's causing me a lot of thought
and preparation. Wednesday I'm at the University of Huddersfield and I
have the RSC North-West Conference on the Friday - but that's my own
booking and I'm doing a presentation (already sorted and sent to them)
too so that should be good. Helen from the e-Guides training last week has submitted a
comment regarding blogs and blogging and I have to admit I like her idea
of a blog to share the frustrations of bringing up teenagers!
Dave Winer makes some
interesting comments in his article below. He is considered (but I don't
know by whom) to be the father of blogging. I don't mind that - it's
always nice to have someone to blame/thank. He really does seem to be a
proponent of the common voice. And I subscribe to that. If you read his
article, you will see that he advocates more two way technologies and
politician voice tagging. I've always thought that the Internet is
something of a Hippy ideal where we share ideas and knowledge. In many
ways this does not suit world commerce so there is a constant battle for
control. Some even propose a two tier web! [See Tim Berners-Lee
talking about the 'Dark Web' -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5009250.stm] The web started
'free' - lets keep it that way. I have an interesting set of tasks to complete today and Monday -
the list seems to get longer and longer and no matter what I do, there
seems to be no headway. I have some 'new' gigs coming up that need
preparing for. The fact that they are new, means that I don't just go
through my notes, files and folders to create/rejuvenate a presentation
- but I have to research it too (and put myself in the place of
listener/user to see/hear how it looks/sounds - is that weird?) And I've
a lot of phone calls to make before weekend. So I'd better get started.
Be good.
York was good. I just spent the last two days with
Vic Dejean in York, delivering days one and two of a
WBL e-Guide training programme. We had
sixteen delegates from all areas of WBL (some large organisations, some
small), with a wide variety of skills and awareness. They all shared the
same enthusiasm for 'e' though and once again we had to note the
readiness of WBL for moving on with 'e'. Now all they need is some
realistic funding and time for development. I'd met Vic, as arranged on Sunday night and after a few pints we
went to the Chinese Restaurant that
Lilian Soon had introduced me to last year - the Happy Valley on
Goodrumgate. This is a small restaurant in one of the oldest buildings
in York. Service is good an the food is good. We had a problem however,
deciding whether a quarter duck or a half duck would be enough as a
starter! You can guess the answer and then just how 'full' we were when
we'd done! I've not had the time (and won't get it any time soon) to
write up a fuller description of the food (on
MySpace) but trust me - it
was good. On Monday evening Claudia Hesse from NIACE was with us and we
ended up on the Old Girl's School again (see
MySpace link for previous
visit) and once again it was a tasty and not too expensive meal. Well
done York. When I'd dropped Vic off at the station in York, I called in to
see Rob Arntsen at MKM as
he wanted a chat about a proposal he'd been offered by a huge project in
schools. Much of this is under wraps at the moment but as time passes
and if MKM are successful, it should be an exciting venture. Watch this
space.
This will be just a brief entry. I'm away to York shortly, to
meet Vic Dejean for dinner. We need to chat about our two day
presentation, starting tomorrow for NIACE WBL e-Guides. Not sure that
I'm happy to be going on a Sunday - especially as the weather is
gorgeous - but sailer vee! We will be at the Innovation Centre on
the Science Park of York University - so quite close to TechDis. More
later if I get the time. SLC e-Facilitation kicks in this week too - so
busy busy busy!
I'd planned to take half a day on Monday, to finish a
proposal for some work I have been asked to consider for the Women's
Institute. It's not a huge piece of work but it's interesting and has
exercised some of the more dormant bits of my brain - I've enjoyed it. I still
had
to do a little to it this morning because it took me longer than expected to
deal with all the emails that had accrued (lots of people didn't go on holiday last
week!). Then, I had to drive over to Castleford to meet
John Whalley
and
Stephanie
Razmjou to discuss the work I'm doing with them for the
LSN. Apparently this
work begins this week (no rush then?) and the preparation I'd made
before I went to France now seems to be in tatters. I've spent four
hours this afternoon knitting it back together. Fingers crossed it will
be ok. It's been a good few days food-wise! Not only have I just
returned from the home of ugly but tasty food (in France they still have
'tops' on their celery - shock, horror!) but yesterday I found a shop in
Slaithwaite that sold
tripe! and today our organic delivery included the year's first
broad beans! Excellent fodder. To top all that, whilst I was in
Slaithwaite, I picked up a bunch of tasty fresh asparagus - so tonight's
meal will be a real treat (I ate the tripe yesterday because no one else
in the house likes it!) I'm in London on Friday to deliver the work I've been doing for
Clare Killen (which is related to the work mentioned above) and on
Thursday I'm meeting Sally from the Women's Institute in Manchester, to
present my proposal, so it's a busy week. In fact it's a busy month -
next Monday and Tuesday I'm in York with Vic Dejean to deliver another
e-Guides session for NIACE.
Towards the end of the month I'm visiting three of the RSC's summer
conferences - two for
MyKnowledgeMap (Southwest and Yorkshire and Humber) and one as
myself - in Blackpool for North West.
It's been a while. I can't
remember that last time I had more than a week away from the internet!
But that's what it's been - over a week! I'm just uploading pictures to
Photobox. Sharon and I spent the last week in Normandy with friends. The
weather wasn't all that spectacular (except for yesterday when we were
to drive home) but it was still nice to get away and to spend time away
from traffic. The roads in France are brilliant for just 'taking a
drive' and the weather being what it was - that's pretty much what we
did. Tony and Gill went out walking a lot and Sharon and I managed to
get in a fairly good bike ride one day too. All being well, my meeting with Cathy last week - will lead to
some work. We discussed some research that I might assist with. Other
work might be forthcoming for Clare Killen too - but we'll see what
happens. So - all in all, things are beginning to look a bit more
promising. More later in the week, when I've had the time to get my feet
back under the desk!
Mobile phone call made from the top of
Everest!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6676901.stm
It beggars the question - "why can we still not be assured of a mobile
connection on the top of our mountains?" (or in fact most of Wales). I
often go walking up in the high Pennines where a slip of a fall could
need emergency services - but the only thing I can do with my mobile
phone is take photographs of the offending hazard. There was once a time
when mobile phones were so big I could have used one as a splint, but
progress has made them too small for even that. So - big-boy phone
operators - why no universal signal?
Stayed at the Robinson Centre of
Wyboston Lakes last night. I'm in the
middle of a small piece of work with Clare Killen at the LSN. The rooms
are comfortable enough and the food was fine (excellent in fact -
although a colleague had a ropey bit of Lamb). However, it's just a
little bit regimented. Maybe a little twee. I was to meet Cathy Ellis
here this afternoon but as it would be very difficult if not impossible)
to get an impromptu meal we've agreed to meet in Peterborough from where
I'll catch the last train home. This will give me an extra day to tidy
things up, send May's invoices and generally get ready for holiday on
Friday - yippee.
We've just had Sunday lunch
outside! Brilliant, that's the first meal outside since last June (in
Czech - the one day it didn't rain). We did eat outside in America last
summer but we were always in a cage (screened porch!). We usually eat
dinner late but brought it forward today because of the break in the
weather. Usually, when it's overcast up here, we get a fairly annoying
wind blowing up the valley but today it had blown up someone else's
valley so we had mainly sunshine with intermittent cloud - which was
great. It's what Sundays are for. I finished the week with some playtime work on
Compendle,Hot Spot Toolkit
and Storywriter
Toolkit for MKM. I made
some notes to ask Dave Waller about - but I'm still waiting for the
updated software to finally manage it properly. Then yesterday I went
walking with
John Rousell again. We went up around Chew Reservoir last week
(climbing up the stream and waterfalls) and coming down off the top
nearly killed me, my legs were stiff for days. I managed much better
this week with some serious hill-climbing. This week was looking like a quiet lead-up to my holiday on
Friday but now I am in St Neot's Monday and Tuesday to do some work for
Clare Killen at the LSN. I'm meeting Cathy Ellis then on Tuesday evening
to discuss a project she has been working on and which she thinks I
would like to come on board with. Then I have to write up the JISC
report (in draft at the moment) for Sarah Knight who returns next week
from maternity leave. But I also want to leave time on Thursday to try
and make sure that I pack everything I need for France. Thanksto those of you who have been leaving
comments - they are useful.
Click here to see comments
There's an interesting
debate going on, on the Champion's discussion list. I got involved back
in March,
when I first met
Margaret Bennett, the
Director of Communications and Partnerships at QIA. I'd said then that
FERL and ACLearn were treasure troves, loved by a huge body of
practitioners and that these should be tampered with - only with great
care. It turns out that my comments were quite prophetic. Just last week
James Clay had posted a comment to the list about how he could no longer
access resources previously held safely on FERL. This was reinforced
later by Ron Mitchell, (and others) also bemoaning the loss of some
links and resources. Because Margaret had asked me to let her know if
there was anything she could do, I'd forwarded James' original message
(less I.D.) to her and asked if there was a problem. Only when Chris
Kelland rang me on Monday, as I was driving our of Gloucester did I put
things together. My own resources on FERL needed some sort of copyright clearance
and it was these that had caused James (and as it happened, Ron) to
complain. Dewsbury College had been written to but because
I am no longer employed by them I
didn't know this. What's more they hadn't replied - therefore the
resources were not available on the
Excellence web site. I have
now forwarded my personal permission. Our ongoing bone of contention was and is that the FERL and
ACLearn sites shouldn't have been killed before this administrative
process was complete. As I said earlier, I was in Gloucester on Monday. I delivered Optivote
training to trainers at the Archdeacon Centre there. It was a really
strange event, because there was only my computer and one other with the
software installed. Apparently, the technicians had tried loading the
software onto one laptop (one of many) and had come across the
registration screen (which for some reason asks for an unrequired code)
and given up. So I had eleven people in a three hour session with little
chance of hands on! And - no Internet. Talk about paddle like mad! I
then drove over to Oxford - what a lovely drive! Much better than the
one I'd had to Gloucester. It had taken me five hours to get there
because the traffic had hardly got above 30mph for most of the way. I
stayed in a B&B in Marchem. I was there to meet one of the trustees from
the Women's Institute.
Their college,
Denman
College is in Marchem. We had a nice dinner together, and discussed
our business together over a drink afterwards. I'd freed up all of Tuesday because I wanted to see
my friends in Milton Keynes,
but first of all - because I was so close to her home, I had coffee with
Ellen Lessner. It's always good to see old friends and like always, it
was good to see Ellen and to chat about things that interest us. We only
had an hour, but it's an hour that the ever changing face of F.E. cannot
take away from us - it's our CPD, our mental nourishment - that cannot
be had in any other way. Thanks Ellen - it was great to see you.
Less than two weeks to go now, to our holiday in Normandy. I
can't wait. We're only going for a week but I'm ready for it. We will
stay at a friend's house close to Pont Farcy (just) in Calvados. The
village sits in between St Lo and Vire in a very pastoral area of the
region. We're taking our bikes this time, something we've promised to do
(but haven't) for a couple of years now. The won't be the pinnacle of my
bike riding exploits, but will at
least allow us to see some of the places nearby that are too far away to
walk to and too close to drive to! I've played a bit more with Jaiku
recently. Cheryl from Huddersfield Uni, has been playing too and during
a recent conference she was sending all her notes, via text to the site.
As a 'friend' I also got to see these notes and was able to send queries
through the site. However, perhaps therein lies a problem - I'm not sure
she was able to read the queries - because although she was contributing
to the site - she was not actually on the internet (where she would see
the site's contributions). I'll have to have a closer look at how this
might be achieved. We've exchanged pictures using this facility - which
is good and James Clay has managed to get pictures (somehow) INTO his
post but I think he did that through RSS from Flickr. I'm off to Gloucester first thing tomorrow morning. I'm
demonstrating Optivote to an area
of the local council 1.30pm - 4.30pm and then I'm off to Oxford for a
dinner meeting. I will be in Milton Keynes all day Tuesday and on
Wednesday (unless things change - which they could) there's an ALT FEAC
telephone meeting 11.00am to 12.30pm. I'll spend the rest of the day
(and Thursday) playing with
MKM'sCompendle suite. I went to
York on Friday last, to meet Dave Waller and some of the MKM team. It
was a great day and was very interesting to see some of the products
they are turning out and to hear about some customer use.
Compendle is something I
thought would work, right from the first time I saw it and now that it
has grown and improved (along with its stable mates -
Hot Spot Toolkit
and Storywriter
Toolkit its ready for a wider audience. I will be working with MKM
at the Yorkshire and Humberside RSC
summer
conference on 22nd June, so need to have a better handle on it than
I have. I think that I have a stand of my own at the RSC North West
conference the following week but need proper confirmation before I tell
you all about it. NIACE e-Guide work kicks off again in June.
There was an interesting piece on the local
T.V. news last night. It concerned a battle between the
Tan Hill Pub in
Arkengarthdale and
KFC
(not a company I would normally mention on these pages). The Tan Hill
has two previous claims to fame: 1) it is the highest pub in England @
1,731 feet above sea level (see)
and 2) it is the pub used to feature in the 70's film ''An
American Werewolf in London'. KFC's previous claim to fame is
that it sells every part of the chicken and manages to get (I was told
but can't remember exactly - so this is a guess) about 14 portions from
every chicken (see chickens being reared
in the UK). Anyway ... KFC object to Tan Hill's use of the two words Family Feast
on their Christmas Menu; apparently it offends their (KFC's)
registration of the two words as a trademark or something. So today's
question is - how can anyone register two words such as this and then
litigate every time someone uses them? The Tan Hill pub's point of view
is that on their Christmas menu (Christmas being the 'family' season) -
they offer a feast for families to tuck into. Perhaps it's something to
do with the alliteration! I think that every pub in the land should
develop a menu section called Family Feast - to test this nonsense
(obviously the Tan Hill couldn't afford to battle alone?)
Comment on personalised learning:
“It is the holy grail for any conscientious teacher - how to get the
most disengaged of pupils to re-engage in learning.” – [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6511361.stm]
but what does ‘personalised mean? Does personalised mean that each learner can decide what he or she
learns? and when?. Does it mean that the teacher has to provide a
different type of resource for each imagined preference? It's a tricky
subject and one that deserves much thought and discussion. Can Web 2.0
technologies help to define what 'personalisation' means? Various
conferences and events are being planned which will discuss the subject
- but are you prepared for the answer? Is there an answer?
Wireless Worries
We often see some debate about the alleged health problems brought about
by radio masts, mobile phones and wireless networks generally.
James Clay (click button above) recently made a contribution to this discussion on a closed list
and with his permission; I reproduce some of it here (his contribution
referred specifically to wireless networks):
I don't disagree with the impact of the electromagnetic spectrum on the
human body, but there are other sources which have a much higher level
of
radiation than wifi networks, e.g. mobile phones or microwaves. BBC Article - Wifi Worry
Some schools are removing wi-fi networks after complaints from parents
that
their children suffer headaches. In what sounds like a re-run of mobile
phone radiation panic, is there evidence for harm? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6172257.stm Guardian Article - Is there any proof that Wi-Fi networks can make you
sick?
Strictly speaking, no. Our trawl of the World Health Organisation (who.int)
and National Library of Medicine (pubmed.com)
databases shows that there
have been no scientific papers published that have studied whether Wi-Fi
networks cause any physical symptoms. http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1959714,00.html Wi-Fi: Children at risk from 'electronic smog'
Revealed - radiation threat from new wireless computer networks http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2472133.ece Do Wireless LANs Pose a Health Risk to the Consumer? http://www.wlana.org/learn/health.htm -
slightly biased Finally -
A story from Bavaria:
One of the big TelCos installed a mobile phone antenna in a small
town...Immediately dozens reported headaches, bad sleep, sickness.
Etc... After 8 weeks, the TelCo published a report, due to lack of high
voltage supply, that antenna was still not in use. ... just metal, no
"bad waves"...”
So what is the story – should we worry? Is it too early to say that
wireless networks are dangerous? Do we still worry about mobile phone
radiation? - are we right?
I've got a 'came from nowhere' busy
\week coming up. On Tuesday, after the bank holiday, I'm at
South Leicester College to
deliver some Optivote training on
behalf of Marc Keable. Then
on Wednesday I'm at the University of Huddersfield to help with the
delivery of a project some of us have been working on over the last
year. On Friday I'm going to York to visit
MyKnowledgeMap and to spend
some time with Compendle,
their re-aggregating lesson creation tool. Next week sees an early start
on the Monday, because I'm doing some training for Marc again - this
time in Gloucester. I have an evening appointment then, Abingdon so I
hope to see Ellen Lesner while I'm in the vicinity. Then, I'll call in
on friends in Milton Keynes before coming home in time for an ALT FEAC
telephone meeting on the Wednesday. And for now, apart from some
finishing off office work, that's it until my holiday in France at the
end of the month.
I've been a bit busy this
week with office work and research - so I haven't had much chance to
contribute some of the things I'd hoped to do - but I will eventually
... I've just broken off what I'm doing to embed a video clip from
TeacherTube (which is well
worth a look anyway).
The clip is seven (7) minutes long and is just
writing and music - but it brought a real happy smile to my face as I
watched it. Just click to view:
Many thank to Dave Trevena for bringing it to my
attention - brilliant
The
TechDis pages on mobile learning have just been released. Comment to
follow but thanks to the redoubtable Alistair McNaught and his team of
little helpers, this promises to be a wonderful resource.
http://www.techdis.ac.uk/index.php?p=9_5_32.
Sunday. We delivered the final planned, Innovations workshop on
Wednesday at Salford University. At the end, we all felt that it had
been a really good
day with interest and interaction throughout. It's a shame that there
are no more on the horizon because we really felt that we made those
attending begin to think about the implementation of mobile learning
from both pedagogical and wide-scale implementation points of view. If
we were to repeat the programme I suspect that we would make a bigger
point of the break out sessions - which were aimed at making the
delegates really think! We did try to pack a lot into each day though with
reviews of what m-learning 'is' and what it has become - with a later
look at what it might become. We looked at issues of accessibility (to
kill the myth that 'm' can't be 'accessible') and at the pedagogical
reasons and advantages for use of 'm'. Our aim to discuss implementation
issues came down to asking each attendee to 'think' about the barriers that
might be encountered 'back at the ranch'. This week's audience agreed
(overwhelmingly) that the biggest barrier to implementation was staff
skills and fears of the technology!
[which of course echoes my belief that this is the main barrier to
effective and wide-spread take up of 'e' generally]. Technician resistance came third
(but I can't remember what came second - something linked to the staff
fears I think). THE PICTURE shows a
really groovy tap, found in the Gents at the Holiday Inn West
Manchester, where we stayed overnight. More of a bird bath really. I was in Blackpool again on Thursday, delivering my last input of
the year to the ILT Champs there. I really struggle to know what to
prepare for them these days. They are such a talented bunch anyway! I
decided to look back at some of the resource banks that were available
and those apt to change.
http://ferl.becta.org will eventually disappear into the
http://excellence.qia.org.uk/Excellence Gateway. For the moment Ferl (and
http://www.aclearn.org.uk) are
available at the old addresses and also as links from the Gateway's
front page but eventually, if I understand the plan correctly, both
sites will disappear and all the resources will be linked fro within the
QIA's Excellence Gateway. I worry about what will be lost and have
voiced that worry to the QIA. Anyway, we looked at the Gateway and again
at FENC's repository (Blackpool are members). We looked at the under
advertised
LSN resources again (I'd prepared exercises around these resource
banks but ended up in a room without computers) and discussed at length
the NLN materials and how they are accessed now. At Blackpool they have
downloaded all the materials and made them available for the Moodle
courses that staff build and "it is working fine". We discussed updating
issues and they found this useful. We further looked at Web 2.0 stuff
and I felt some resistance - but Christine said that she was happy with
that as we need to keep pressing the changes in our clientele. Friday was spent compiling the bones of a report I have to submit
by the end of play tomorrow. I quite enjoyed writing it once I got
started. Next week, like most of May, is a quiet one (as far as leaving the office goes) with
the report to finish and some other work to pick up from Huddersfield Uni which must be finished by Thursday pm. I also have to prepare some
work for two events I'm delivering for Marc Keeble over the next two
weeks - http://www.optivote.com
training. I might have to go to London on Friday - we'll see. There's a surprisingly active discussion on the Champs list about
the cost of ILT (e-Learning) and it's interesting to see the various
viewpoints being put forward. My position is one where no savings can be
made unless staff are trained and willing to use the variety of
e-Learning tools and techniques now available to them. Others take the
view that money can be saved with an economy of scale (James Clay), or
that money has to be spent just to keep pace with what's happening out
there (David Foord). Other suggestions range around these issues - one
even suggesting that we bring back the pencil (I'm worried that this
person was serious). It is is essential in my mind (and echoes my
postings to the Champs list) that teachers are trained in all aspects of
'e', if only to tread water (Dave Foord's argument) because they, the
teachers, are the most important resource in a young student's college
life. Without the necessary skills to undertake, participate and deliver
with 'e' the teachers will become an irrelevance - something to be
avoided at all costs. But some research is already predicting this
shift. Students are taking their learning into their own hands (and
handhelds!) because nothing offered in 'college' (whatever) suits their
(not preferred - but essential) learning styles.
25th April 2007
I've been playing with Jaiku over
the last 24 hours. The 'Offline' badge above takes you directly to my
page. I'd asked James Clay for
his permission to use something I'll be posting later and told me that
he was now 'micro-blogging' - so off I went to have a look. I like it.
It's well worth a look because you can easily send SMS to Jaiku and this
is instantly logged on your page. You can also send pictures - but here
you have to follow the link they post on your site. However, the fact
that you can also collaborate with colleagues (learners?) in this way is
quite exciting.
What do you think? We're delivering the last planned JISC Innovation event right
now, in Salford. Going well (see the Jaiku)
Here's a clip showing how popular SMS texting is in
the States. (some of you Sunday early birds may have seen it
embedded before I removed it - it didn't work in Firefox). The embedded video
had been an experiment, just to
see if something can be done as you can NOT see
- it didn't
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3681938.stm - this is the
direct link. It is just a fun link to the BBC video report about the texting
competition. However - perhaps I'm just a parasite feeding "on
the stories and opinions that traditional media provide.”
- certainly, that's what Oliver Kamm of the Times, accuses Bloggers of being. He suggests that those of us who write blogs are “poisoning
debate” and that we “typically do
not add to the available stock of commentary". He fails to
realise that bloggers widen the debate by bringing often obscure
commentary to a wider (specifically interested) audience. The comments
above, can be found in today's Sunday Times
culture magazine article, written by
Brian Appleyard. He has compiled and written a fairly scathing
account of Web 2.0 and its future effects on humanity. To me, most of it
is self interested scary tosh - he is a journalist after all and just
like some teachers used to be afraid that e-Learning would see them out
of a job (it won't), he is reflecting an unfounded fear for his
profession. It seems strange to worry about Web 2.0's detrimental effect on
the future of mankind when big business is fighting back big style -
YouTube now in competition with Fox etc. and as 'corporate' takes
over from 'personal' one commentator has to wonder: “it’s
still not clear how user-generated contact is going to fit in and it’s
still not clear that all these companies won’t do a deal with Google
over time.". And what about the owners of
MySpace adding a
news service to this predominantly social networking (and big style
advertisement carrying) site. What do you think? I believe
that the human race will continue to evolve with or without technology.
We will adapt, as we always have, to whatever is thrown at us.
Sometimes I wonder if there is such a thing as
original thought. I'd decided last year that I would stick close to
Web 2
technologies and research them as best I could with my limited means.
This was mainly because of the great potential I could see for
non-institutional use. I'd thought that a short paper delivered to
ALT-C 2007 would be the
outcome but I dropped that idea fairly early on because the whole Web 2
thing was like shifting sands - it kept changing. I don't mean that Web
2 sites came and went; they just kept coming along.
Google Labs were turning things
out like there was no tomorrow.
A report yesterday, from the BBC [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/6574839.stm]
adds even more to the list and discusses the phenomenon of change. Web 2
has in fact been around as long as the 'web'. Even Tim Berners Lee
is reputed to have said that there's nothing new in Web 2. But new
technologies have evolved that allow more 'personalisation' of the way
web sites work, giving us the plethora of opportunities now to be seen.
Alongside, I've added some more links to those I listed on
March 2nd. Also see the BBC articles on Social` Networking and Web 2
posted on
March 10th. I've not tried any of these sites yet, so any comments
or experiences you might have would be welcome. Please
comment.
It's interesting that the BBC article comes at a time when more and more
people I speak with are becoming more and more aware of Web 2 potential.
It seems as if we've reached a state in the evolution of web development
where another quantum leap is due. Actually, we're mid-leap: Young,
active users of the web are making it their own. As I've said
before, I believe that there there is a Tsunami of young people
hitting post 16 education 'right now' and we're not prepared for them.
However, news, like today's from the BBC (link above) is heartening
because it has a wide and adult audience. Never stop learning.
Quote from -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6565049.stm
"Examination costs are higher because government
policy requires colleges to use external qualifications as a
pre-condition for receiving funding."
What other "pre-conditions" do colleges have to face? Do schools and
Universities get told exactly how to spend their money. I don't know -
do they?
I've just read through my
last posting and feel that I need to expand upon a bit that may easily
be misunderstood ... There is still a lot of
fear though - what do you think? I said this at the end of
the paragraph which looked at the way in which sites like MySpace are
reported upon. The sentence highlighted may lead you to believe that I
think there is a lot to be feared from such sites - but that wasn't my
intention. What I'd meant to imply was that there was a lot to be feared
from the way in which such use is reported and from the general lack of
understanding of such sites and the way they can be (and are mainly)
used. Young people use Web 2.0 technologies in ways we wouldn't have
dreamed possible just a couple of years ago (just a few months ago
really) and many of us fail to see the potential such use could bring to
learning experiences. There is a Tsunami of young people heading towards
post 16 education (H.E. especially) that we are totally unprepared for:
The first waves have already hit us and the big wave is on its way. Will
our intranets and our VLEs cope - more importantly will the
infrastructure that supports these platforms cope?
- When a learner wants to post their own video clip onto Moodle (whatever)
- will we let them?
- When the same learner wants to share this clip with classmates and to
have them comment on it (remember - this could be an assignment based
product) - will we let them? Any comments?
I'm currently in Bristol with John Whalley and John Traxler, ready
to deliver our JISC workshop on mobile and wireless innovations
tomorrow. We're in the
Mercure Holland House Hotel,which is very comfortable. We've just
eaten at a fish restaurant nearby - more on MySpace later. The journey
here was a nightmare; The train from Leeds had no sooner left the
station than it was stopped for 40 minutes while the police chased
someone off the line! This lead to a late connection in Birmingham,
which was itself delayed for some reason! Then - to cap it all; the
postcode I'd put into Multimap for
the hotel, was the wrong one, so I spent a fruitless half an hour
walking around Bristol looking for the right one.
It's been an unusual week. Sharon is still in the
States and Betony and I have been doing step-father/step-daughter stuff.
If you're mildly interested see:
http://blog.myspace.com/dsugden. This
is where I've kept a more personal blog (not that this one isn't
personal, it's just that the MySpace one has just been more
personal this week). There was a huge teenage party in
Durham this week, the sort that makes the news: wrecked house, ruined
carpets etc. It's sad, but they happen.
See here - What made this one unusual was the headline:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/6553763.stm (this follows a
slightly more alarming one earlier in the week). The allusion is that
MySpace is in some way to blame for teenagers getting together and
causing criminal damage to someone's house.
Another nail in MySpace? - What about this story too
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6551689.stm? This time it's
politicians who are being 'hip' and getting 'in touch' with young
people. (Another nail in MySpace?)
What really makes me giggle is the line that says that some "have
also had pages set up for them."
- I rather suspect that they have all had them 'set up' for them. I like
to see new things that work and
MySpace (and other technologies - like
YouTube etc.) certainly works for
a large sector of society and the ridicule and derision that is
regularly poured upon them help can help to set them on their way to
becoming mainstream technologies. There is still a lot of fear though -
what do you think?
The coming week is a busy one. On Monday, I'm off to York to meet
with MKM and to discuss work
they have offered me over the coming year. On Tuesday, I'm travelling
down to Bristol early for the JISC Innovation
workshop there on Wednesday, so I can meet the guys from
Xtensis for lunch. On Thursday, I'm picking Sharon and her siblings
up from Manchester airport and then attending a meeting at Huddersfield
University in the afternoon. And during all that time on the train I
have to plan a few preliminary discussions with other potential
customers. Some are workshop/training ideas and another is the design
and build of a training web site. Phew.
"The
difference between online and offline, the web and the desktop will blur
in the near future" Mozilla's
Mike Schroepfer BBC Report
today
Those of you who read the TES, (Times Educational
Supplement) (FE Focus) on March 23rd about money being wasted on
learners who don't want to learn - may also have read
my rebuttal on this page. Well,
there has finally been a weighty reply in this week's TES. There was one
last week by a private consultant like myself but this week's has come
from the Chief Executive of the LSN (Learning an Skills Network) - John
Stone. He politely derides the assumption that money was wasted on the
use of mobile technologies to engage disengaged learners in
Pembrokeshire. He states that '150,000 young people are not in any
education training or employment' (NEETS) and that their cost to society
if not engaged is huge when compared to the money which Geoff Elliott's
project has cost. I'd like to have seen a bigger attack on the FE Focus
assumption that FE is there only to teach those who want to be
taught, but this will probably have to do. If silly views like those
expressed in TES on 23rd March are being read in high places it is not
surprising that worthwhile initiatives do not attract ongoing funding -
which is essential if they wish to succeed over time.
Once again Geoff - and all those of you who are trying to do something
positive in today's post 16 education system - well done. I'm currently in Wales with Betony, enjoying the weather (although it
has turned a bit mixed) and company. Sharon is in America with all her
siblings, visiting her mum.
www.voiceprompt.co.uk/niace NIACE have now published the web cast from last
week - well worth a look through if you missed any of it.
From my point of view it's well worth watching if only for the last
question and answer session which I
reported live on my blog. Go to
a point 40 minutes in to see me ask the worthy panel about staff
development and to hear most of them skirt around the subject. Hearing
their answers again shows me how clearly many have lost touch with the
classroom practitioner. From the QIA's point of view: subject learning
coaches are the only ones who need staff development (that's the way I
heard the words - tell me if I'm wrong) and as they will now have an
e-Learning input (only now!) - the job is done. From the JISC RSC's
point of view, it is no longer feasible to have staff coming out of
their institution/place of work so why bother? They can always attend
web casts!! - I know that's not what was meant, but again, that's what I
heard. CPD was Geoff Foot's answer so that's ok (but LSN's e-Learning
work is not funded for 2007/08 as far as I understand it). Alistair
suggested sharing (which is always good). CEL seemed to have the view
that e-Learning wasn't what counted but we nevertheless have a
responsibility for our own development - which is an argument I never
fail to see the point of! Don't get me wrong, I DO AGREE that we should
all be responsible for our professional development but our employers
must be just as responsible and make the training and awareness sessions
we need both available AND accessible. As they give more and more work
to do in-house like Andy said - there is less opportunity to learn new
skills. Furthermore, how can we know what we don't know? How can we seek
to know what we don't yet know we need? (e-Learning).
See here
I seem to have been overly verbose since Christmas
and the page I've been using has got quite long. It also seem to be
accepted practice to catalogue these things (blogs) by date so, having
put a year and a half into the first blog page (blog_1),
I'm going to try and list them by quarter. So, alongside (on the right)
I have listed past pages in just such a way. Last week's 'stuff' can be
seen
here. Please let me know if you
like it or not.
Day 2 - Web cast -
http://www.voiceprompt.co.uk/niace/- That's me in the middle of the
picture collage! Last gig yesterday I facilitated Nigel Davies' session on Using
effective feedback in e-learning. Nigel started with a short card
game where the delegates had to list activities under three headings.
Might be used with changes – Are you kidding & Good idea.
Two other headings were not used at this stage – Extrinsic and
Intrinsic.
His stated Objectives were to: *Understand value of effective feedback *Consider appropriate use of feedback styles *Explore one approach for effective feedback.
There was a brief discussion of Gibbs reflective cycle – of
feedback (can be motivational) and then Intrinsic feedback and Extrinsic
feedback.
Later there was a dinner in the main hall, which (all in all) was very
nice. The after dinner speaker was
Russell Prue who was great
entertainment. I spoke to quite a few people afterwards who had mixed
feeling about Russell's presentation. It was good but perhaps a little
overblown for the audience. His message however is sound and similar to
what I say in all my Web 2.0 presentations: There's a Tsunami of
young people coming our way with skills and perceptions that we are just
not prepared for! Alan Clarke opened day 2 in the main auditorium - he talked about
the incongruity of government funding (where they say there is no proof
that 'e' works) versus all the findings that suggest it is effective -
including Harnessing Technology.
Then I was on again. Another good session seemingly well received.
The
session was attended by
Margaret Bennet,
Director of Communications and Partnerships at QIA. She had some nice
things to say about the session but was also concerned that I was
concerned about ACLearn and
FERL being subsumed into the
Excellence Gateway (coming soon!!). She assured me, like Chris Kelland
last week, that the two sites will remain as they are for the
foreseeable future. They are making every effort, she told me, to make
sure that everything that practitioners have deemed essential and good
will survive the coming change.
Then I'm facilitating John Dalziel and eXe again. Possibly more later.
14.30pm It's the panel - plenary session now: On
the panel are: [my view]
Dr. Peter Lavender - NIACE (Host)
Alistair McNaught - TechDis
Margaret Bennet - QIA
Andy Wistreich - JISC
Geoff Foot - LSN
Dr. Alan Clarke - NIACE
Priscilla Kendall - CEL http://www.voiceprompt.co.uk/niace/
- First question - where's the funding for ACL sector (section 97
funding - see DfES web site). AC - agreed about issues. Mentioned
Sheffield College losing money on their online courses because of
funding methodologies. [No real answer!]
But he goes on to say that this year (coming) is unusual that there is
little support for staff dev [not sure I'm 100%
behind that one]. PL went on to talk about the general
state of ACL and the "unintentional"(?) cuts.
- Second question - how can we keep up to date with ever changing
technology versus cost.AW - more or less said forget 'kit'
in\ the sense we've always understood it and "get online" - used Web 2.0
as the example. AM said - "don't" just use what works.
- Next question - What is the future of the e-Guide programme?
AC - will run until summer. From summer onwards there looks like
there is a solution but it's still under negotiation. From March onwards
there is a need to get together with partners.
- Next question - Is good e-Learning practice universal across all
curriculum areas or do we need to develop subject specific
e-pedagogies? GF - general discussion about different types of
'e'. "all areas can be covered by e-Learning ... " MB -
agrees with GF. Wants everyone to use Excellence Gateway.
- Next question - What evidence is available to prove e-Learning used
in blended learning sessions can raise standards (abbrev). MB
- none in ACL but some in other sectors. Some work needs doing to prove
the concept (my word summarising hers!). AC - NIACE have
undertaken raft of evaluative studies ..." but not especially
about achievement. Suggested NRDC report. Went on to discuss other
research which suggests it has value. GF - "does it work" isn't
the right question " but "where does it work" is.
- Next question - How should managers deal with reluctance of staff.
PK - appreciate people's fears. Have you, the manager,
articulated what you mean by use - what are your expectations. What is
the environment (re. fear of failure). Action learning, peer learning,
within subject, co-coaching all work. Lead by example! Finally - manage
performance, is it crucial that 'e' is part of good practice, if so make
it so! AW - agrees but teaching staff want learners to learn and
may not therefore we interested in use of technology for technology's
sake. AM - TechDis Manager Briefings papers. Then a look at
accessibility benefits of e-Learning.
- Next question - Which tools would you prioritise. AM -
creation tools. For learners. Whichever works for learners. AC -
adult teachers and their learners developing podcasts - so Audacity!
AW - JISC RSC will tell you what each tool can do! Contact them.
- Next question - my RSC advisor is helpful but time is limited can can
we get the best from her? AW - RSC forums are good for this.
- Next question - Personalisation of Learning? PK - It's what
good organisation should be ding. You decide in your own context! MB
- It won't go away and QIA will endeavour to embed it [but
what is it?]
- Next question - ESOL cuts - PL - national forum has been set up
and Bill Rammel has made concessions.
Then me! I asked about funding for staff development. I'd hoped to get
comments agreeing with the need but they weren't forthcoming (expect I
think from Alan) MB - aware of problem. Will be embedded! Not an add-on. AW -
people can learn where they are and we should take the learning to
them. GF - we have an obligation to CPD and LSN have worked on
this. PK - all responsible for won development. AM -
cultural change. AC - Agreed with (me I think). [no
real answer then]
This third 'new' page was started on April 1st 2007. It was copied over from
the original file - which was re-named 2007_1.htm. Clicker was on 1,598
Karen (Stafford being her neck of the woods) and she said to get
off at junction 13 and use the A449 (but I had to wait 35 minutes until
I got to junction 12 to do that) via Wolverhampton and Kidderminster. I
decided that I would use a shortcut to junction 4 of the M5 via
Stourbridge - and it was
well signposted so no worries! It was 2.15pm when I stopped for my lunch
just 4 miles short of the motorway (I'd planned to have this much earlier, but couldn't find
anywhere 'reasonable' to stop). I'd made myself a really nice chicken
salad this morning which was (although I say it myself) excellent. A
nice relaxing meal.
were to repeat the programme I suspect that we would make a bigger
point of the break out sessions - which were aimed at making the
delegates really think! We did try to pack a lot into each day though with
reviews of what m-learning 'is' and what it has become - with a later
look at what it might become. We looked at issues of accessibility (to
kill the myth that 'm' can't be 'accessible') and at the pedagogical
reasons and advantages for use of 'm'. Our aim to discuss implementation
issues came down to asking each attendee to 'think' about the barriers that
might be encountered 'back at the ranch'. This week's audience agreed
(overwhelmingly) that the biggest barrier to implementation was staff
skills and fears of the technology!
[which of course echoes my belief that this is the main barrier to
effective and wide-spread take up of 'e' generally]. Technician resistance came third
(but I can't remember what came second - something linked to the staff
fears I think). THE PICTURE shows a
really groovy tap, found in the Gents at the Holiday Inn West
Manchester, where we stayed overnight. More of a bird bath really.