Spreading my tentacles far and wide

I love smileys… >:-D

They convey so much more meaning than just normal text. Hence why they are also called “emoticons” an icon conveying an emotion. The one above  is a cheesy grin with horns… so you may gather from my title that I have been a little minxy!!

As well as running with technology, I am providing support for my organizations other “big push”… Evidence Based Teaching. For over ten years we have allowed our teaching methods to stagnate to the point that we now have a generation of students who have known no other form of teaching – slides/powerpoint and a person spouting “stuff” at students who promptly give up the will to live and drift off into the depths of oblivion.

Don’t get me wrong, Powerpoint has it’s place, but it is rarely the best medium for a teacher led lesson. What Evidence Based Teaching does is introduce strategies for students to learn pro-actively. It is based upon the research carried out over hundreds of thousands of lessons across the world and  is “evangelised” by a very well regarded chap called Geoff Petty. You may have heard of him.

We have received some training in EBT from a couple of consultants, Ian and Oliver at Model Learning, and this has been a huge help for the programme. Some of our teachers have adopted the styles and seen fantastic results, others have shied away from the apparent lack of control… I think that I’ve mentioned control before.

So where do I feature in this… well on the fringe really, but also at the centre. Sounds like a dichotomy really… like being both male and right!!! It’ll never happen.

The support that I offer is primarily in recording the experiments that the teachers carry out and publishing the results on our VLE. But I also like to spread the good work that they are doing in order to convert people to the cause. The funny thing is that with a little effort to adapt a lesson we can teach a whole lot more in the same amount of time.

Let me give you an example…

We have a lesson that consists of sitting down and watching about two and a quarter hours of Powerpoint at the end of which our students know how to fill out about seven different types of form. It seems a lot yes, but they do get a lot of time to practice one of those forms in other lessons. They have had complaints that our students cannot remember how to fill out the forms at the end of their year long course… can you think why?

So I got talking to a fine young chap, and he will thank me for calling him young, who said that they were now looking at increasing the amount of time that they gave the students to practice. FANTASTIC!!! 3 more hours of forms!!!!

So I stuck my thinking cap on and had a thought, why not introduce a scenario based around a “control desk” in a workshop.  Hmmm… could be good but how would it work in real life???

1. Student A fills out paperwork for Student B.
2. Student B goes away and carries out the task and fills out the relevant form.
3. Once complete Student B returns to Student A
4. Student A then compares Student B’s answer against a “model answer” and marks and advises them accordingly
5. Student B then takes the desk and raises a task for Student A
6. Throughout this the teacher supervises the marking and raising of tasks.

The teacher should only intervene if there is a point that the student on the desk needs to know. They should really only need to talk to Student A as they should then raise this point with Student B!!! What is more, with three teachers in a lesson we can run 3 pipelines of tasks giving all the students more 1-on-1 time and improving lesson flow. The students learn both by doing and by teaching and they also become familiar with the task control role that they may have when they complete their training.

You could argue that by letting the students see the answers they will know what faults are on the equipment and can cheat. But seriously… how can you cheat by knowing how to fill in a form?? Yes, you might know what the final fault is but you still have to carry out the work correctly and interpret the readings correctly too. Otherwise it is easy to see by the way that the job is written up.

So how is this being devious and cunning…. well the teachers that run this lesson are not part of the EBT programme. But they are keen to move forwards and improve their lessons, but still don’t see the point. What I have done is to take the concept to them and show that they can use it within their lessons. They can do this without increasing time and without requiring additional resources – the two things most precious to our instructors.

Will they take up the mantle?? We’ll have to wait and see, but I think that they will.

dy/dx

If I had drawn a graph of progress up until a week ago it would look something like this: —————

At least that is against my own personal goals for what I am trying to achieve.  Things have changed.

I have got my development suite that I have been asking for for ages!!!

Well when I say got, it should be here by the end of the week!!!. When I say ages I’m talking over a year. It seems like a silly statement but this has been really important to me as it will help me achieve a number of goals, from the creation of complex content using Adobe Flash through to the ability to generate proper podcasts using Adobe After Effects and Premier.

But the biggest reason for my suite, for me at least, is that I want to get all the staff in our establishment trained up in all the new technologies that we are trying to introduce. I’m a firm believer in positive intent, that if you act positively and honestly then others will to. I know that there are always some who will take advantage, however the others will see this and generally either make them feel bad or to just disown them. I’ve seen both happen and the latter is not pretty but they haven’t done it again.

My theory is that if we invest in our staff then they will pay us back in at least a small way subconsciously. Even if it is just a slight shift in attitude then it is still an improvement on what we had before. I am to achieve this by teaching our teachers how to use technology creatively so that they can create better media and supporting materials for their lessons. The theory is that if you have built it then you will want to see it succeed. And I want to give people lots of reasons to succeed.

So here’s my plan:

1. Get everyone trained up on Moodle, how to use it and how to build with it.
2. Get people being more creative with their lesson materials, give them ownership and fun.
3. Get people making more interactive media for student support away from the classroom.
4. Get people teaching each other how to do good stuff in all of the above. This is really important!!!!

The reason why number 4 is so important is simple. If I tell you that something is good then you might or might not believe me. But if your friend was to tell you exactly the same thing, then you would believe them more than me. The other reason behind 4 is to encourage the spread of best practice. We want our teachers to feel that being creative, innovative and fresh is good.

By encouraging the fun aspects of the new technology the acceptance of it will grow. By getting more and more people on board, the inclusion of it within lessons will grow. By better supporting our students they will grow and the instructors will gain better results.

The benefits to all really do outweigh the costs. I just hope I can get enough people through the doors.

Subliminal motivation

I get a lot of negativity in my job. In fact, having read what I’ve written so far the one thing that I am negative about is negativity.

It’s not that I don’t mind people being negative, it’s more a case of: why do they have to be so narrow minded?

The answers vary from  lack of interest to fear of technology and the unknown. There can be personal factors such as low self confidence, or arrogance that there can be no better way. But ultimately giving the ownership and responsibility for learning to a learner is both the hardest and greatest thing that a teacher can do.

Hardest because a teacher must have control over a lesson in order to achieve the required outcome. They need to know that the students know what they are meant to know and how do they know that they know unless they have been able to tell them in the normal way? To give up control. To free something. To allow something to exist with no interference is something that is abhorrent to some teachers. They need to control because if they don’t what else are they going to do?

Greatest because a free learner is an interested learner. A responsible learner does so out of pride and professionalism and takes ownership of their successes. A responsible learner has nobody else to blame when it all goes wrong!

But I work in a culture where failure is not an option and, ultimately, giving ownership to students is seen as a risk. So I have to chip away at the culture bit by bit… or in this case: email by email.

You see, what I have started to do is to change my signature file from something quite serious to something more positive and light hearted. Let me give you a bit of history…

… about two to three years ago I spotted someone’s signature that said “Please do not print out this e-mail unless you absolutely have to… blah blah blah” and I though I could do the same thing… but funnier.

My signature read: “Save trees… eat a beaver!”

Now I know that there are about six people at work who have adopted it as their “green” slogan at the bottom of their e-mails… it says, “I’m funny, but environmentally aware”

What I have done now is to place motivational quotes at the bottom of my signature. To try and break down those barriers – not by arguing with people but through subliminal motivation. They may not agree with it outright, but it will stick somewhere. I keep changing them too so that they do not stagnate. So here’s a list of some that I’ve used to date:

“Within you right now is the power to do things you have never dreamed possible. This power becomes available just as soon as you change your beliefs.”

“My Mama told me when I was young, we are all born superstars” – Lady Gaga

“The biggest obstacle to success is the fear of failure” – Sven Goran Eriksson

The idea is to change the personality who made the quote to engage different audiences and to try and change the message so that it does not seem like brainwashing – as I’m not ready to recruit my zombie army yet. I’m still waiting for that breakthrough moment but in the meantime the quotes work for one person at least: ME!!

History

How do I kick this off???

Well I thought that the first thing to do would be to give you a brief synopsis of the past year: where I’ve come, from what I do and where I am intending to go.

Well… I’m a “happily married” father of four who used to work in the UK Armed Forces. I left after completing 12 years working with IT, communications kit and students. When I left I got a job as a teacher with my current employer and haven’t looked back. Cutting the “shackles” of Forces life has given me a new lease of life: I am embracing my creative side both from a design and a management perspective.

The role that I was employed to carry out has changed. I am now managing and developing the technology with which our establishment delivers it’s training. I am creating the concept that hopefully others will see, like and take on board. It may not be new to some employers, but to mine it the equivalent of moving from gas lighting to electricity, and that change is hard for some.

In short I am trying to move my place of work away from endless Powerpoints to a more interactive and enriching learning experience for our students. I am trying to do this using Moodle as a delivery platform as this meets a number of business needs while allowing us the freedom to provide both gradual change and easy integration.

But that is not my only role. I also develop proofs of concept: showing teaching staff what they can achieve and how they can use it. This ranges from developing Computer Based Training Packages, through to wiki’s, forums, online testing, online student feedback and much much more.

I am also the lead developer for my organization: responsible for producing deliverables that can be used in lessons. This  ranges from templates for Powerpoint through to video and web editing: if it involves creative tech then it comes to me. In fact if it involves teaching and tech then it comes to me.

So where am I going…

My aim is simple – to provide ubiquitous access to interactive and engaging learning materials to our students. Sounds posh but all it really means is that I want our students to be in charge of learning that they enjoy.

Can I do it??

As I keep telling my colleagues: anything is possible!

You just wait and see!!