I’m not bitter…. I’m better!

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve had a lot of visitors to my blog over the past week. Is it because of the WordPress DoSS attacks?  Is it because OU H809 course students are searching for info?  Is it my ex-employers checking to see if I’ve written anything about them?

Well don’t worry – I’m not bitter. Why should I be?  I had 11 great years at the college; lead on some amazing projects, built up a really sound and cutting-edge system.   Made a lot of fantastic friends and colleagues, especially when working on national projects such as BECTA TEN and MoLeNET.

I’m leaving on mutually agreed terms – by a Compromise Agreement.  So I wasn’t sacked and I didn’t resign.  It is time to move on, head held high.

What next then?  Well, it’s rather an uncertain future – employment options look bleak but I’m optimistic about things.  I’ve already looked at starting an MSc at the University of Liverpool – The one I started with The OU is possibly not one that I can transfer across easily… as it is an entirely different subject area.

I guess I’ll be looking for a job after April 1st to get me going and see where it leads.

Any offers will be gratefully appreciated.  Hint hint.

What’s new pussycat?

Deep down, I knew it wouldn’t be long before I was back blogging again.  If you’ve been following my blog and general online exploits for a while, then you’ll know that just before Christmas I’d become a bit disheartened with the way Learning with Technology/eLearning/mLearning (whatever we call it now) was looking.  After the golden years of BECTA TEN and MoLeNET, projects had dried-up and we were all looking inward, reflecting on our experiences and putting good practice to use.

I’ve also recently blogged about closing a lot of my web2.0 accounts on sites that I’ll never use or found to be rather useless…

So what have I been up to?  Well, I’ve managed to steer my Facebook life to ‘social only’ – no work related things on there anymore. I have found that I’m not Tweeting so much anymore-  I created a new Twitter account, so that I could split work and social Tweets.  That hasn’t been quite as strait forward as I’d anticipated – Most of my online accounts link to @colhawksworth whereas I’ve created a work account @BSFC_CompServ that has no real online presence apart from our departmental blog http://compserv.bsfc.ac.uk so I’ll have to work on that one.

I have signed up to a few professional networking sites.  I’m on LinkedIn and eLance, plus I’m making more use of my BCS membership.

LSIS – STEM (Northwest)

I’ve been invited to give a presentation & a short workshop on “Developing the use of Mobile Technology and Virtual Learning Environments for STEM subjects” for the LSIS North West Regional STEM meeting, tomorrow at Daresbury Labs.  Now, as I don’t yet know how many delegates will be there… I’m a little unsure as to how I’m going to tackle the workshop.

 

In action...

 

The presentation is not a problem – anyone who has witnessed my previous attempts will testify that I’m not one for over-rehearsing. In fact, I tend to run with a general theme of a few relevant (or sometimes irrelevant/irreverent) slides topped-off by a stream of verbal consciousness. And that’s largely it.  OK, I ramble on and probably repeat a few things over – but they’re usually points that I want to ensure people remember.   I’m not a pro-presenter and I hate sitting through boring slide shows – so I like to try and be informal and feel that I’m chatting with people rather than talking at them.  Maybe that’s why I like the Pecha Kucha style?

So, to the workshop… Eeek!

Well, I’m going to run through our VLE (Moodle), nothing too techie (that really DOES switch people off!) – if anyone wants technical info, I can always go over it afterward.  Really, I guess it’s a matter of demonstrating what a VLE can and can’t do for STEM subject areas…  I like to give a realistic and truthful demo – after all I’m not a salesman.  If something doesn’t quite function in a usable way – then I’ll offer up an alternative.   Personally, I think the Wiki feature in Moodle is awful – so why not use something like Wiki Educator?  The blogs are also naff, so why not use WordPress?  Whatever tools you choose, shouldn’t really matter, so long as they function and they are relevant.

As for the mobile learning – well that’s going to be an overview of our MoLeNET Project… ‘thin.clusion‘.  The Phase 3 MoLeNET dissemination will be available in December.

——–

I’m sure I’ll add another blog entry about the event tomorrow evening.

afterglow

You know that sinking feeling you get?

The one right after a big event is over?

The feeling of emptiness and reflection?

Well, that’s essentially how I’m feeling right now.  BECTA TEN & MoLeNET have both been and gone (I’m sure I’ve written about this before) and there is unlikely to be anything similar on the horizon for a while, due to cutbacks in education and more specifically, educational research.

Yes, I’m putting the same amount of energy and enthusiasm into our work within the department and college.

But…

And this is the but – what we do here will only make a difference to our own learners and perhaps a few other groups of people who use our systems and facilities.  What about the learners in schools and colleges where they are not so lucky (and I use the word ‘lucky’, deliberately) to have had large-scale funded technology projects?  Or where there is no positive dialogue going on between learners, tutors and technical staff?  Or where there is no real emphasis being put on the benefits of technology in teaching & learning?

It might sound a little odd – but I do genuinely worry about learners NOT getting access to technology or NOT having equality of opportunity due to a lack of funding, staff motivation or institutional policy.  It’s not fair and it shouldn’t be happening in the UK in the 21st Century.  Why do I care?  Well, there are a number of reasons… chiefly, I feel that the education system let me down quite a bit – because we didn’t have equality of opportunity at the schools I attended.  Yes, things have improved since then, but in all reality – 25 years on, there still appears to be a lack of an effective and cohesive, education policy (and practice) in this country.

We’re now faced with a period of ‘austerity’ across all public sectors.  Well, this will have a knock-on effect in years to come.  There will be learners in schools, colleges and universities now, who will not be able to get a job or have the relevant skills and qualifications for the jobs that will be available to them in the future.  This is essentially what happened to us in the 1980′s and it created whole generations of unemployed and unemployable people.  We still feel some of the fall-out now.

Education & Technology projects are key to embedding effective practice for the future generations of teachers and learners – what we do now, will affect the future state of education.

So, what should really be a feeling of warm afterglow, is more likely to be the cold dying embers of sustainable technological development…

by mynameisharsha

MoLeNET Conference 2010

QEII Conference Centre

Sleeping has never been one of my favourite pastimes…  I know that our bodies and brains are supposed to rest in order to rejuvenate but I’ve always found sleeping to be such a waste of time and a bit of a chore.

So, having gone to bed at around 1am – I was up again at 4am to get ready for the MoLeNET Conference & Awards, which this year was held at the QEII Conference Centre in London.  The taxi was on time and so was the train (5:25am)

2 hours 10 minutes passed by so slowly, especially stopping at such delightful provincial towns as Runcorn, Stafford, Crewe and Milton Keynes… but fear not  I arrived in London 3 coffees later and after some deliberation took the tube to Westminster.

The MoLeNET conference had a definite tinge of sadness about it this year – I guess due to the lack of funding of worthwhile research by the current government.  However, we made the best of a depressing situation and put on a decent display of mobile learning practice and pedagogy.  It’s great to see how people are tackling what are fundamentally the same issues in so many different ways.

MoLeNET 2010_1

I was privileged to have addressed the conference by giving an insight the the thin.clusion project and had a conference stand (in the corner – was that deliberate?)  I must admit, I wasn’t really prepared to speak to the entire conference – I thought it was going to be a small session…

I’m really proud to have had so many people interested in the project and I’ve now been approached by a few different JISC representatives, to do Case Studies about LODs.

So, the whole conference went well – it was very different to the conferences I’d been to before as a delegate… it’s a shame, because I was on my own, that I didn’t get time to go and look at other stands and chat to anyone away from my stand.

I came away knowing that the 19 hour round-trip had been worth it, even though the

weather had been cruel (I was soaked through trudging around London) – there’s a lot to be said about paying £70 more to get home early, rather than waiting for the first off-peak train at 19:05.

Oh, the joys of Nuneaton station in the dark autumn rain…

Anyway  – I got home, sat down – reflected on the day and couldn’t really believe it was a year ago that we’d gone down to the LSN to pitch or project…

Check out my conference photos

or my audio blog – Setting up for MoLeNET Conference

thin.clusion

Confession

Forgive me father, I have sinned – it’s been two months since my last blog entry.

So, what’s been going on then?

Well, BECTA Technology Exemplar Network is finished, MoLeNET has also finished and we’ve completed our college enrollment.  BECTA TEN was enjoyable, I made some new contacts (as well as renewing old ones) I got to learn about life in the WBL (work based learning) sector and found out about some amazing work with the homeless & refugee community on the south coast.

MoLeNET was a great experience and our project generally went well.  The technology element was outstanding and I pay public tribute to Martyn Coleman and John Paul Szkudlapski for their technical wizardry and commitment to ensure the technical aspects of the project were flawless! Thank you guys

I think if there’s one thing I’ve learned from working on projects, it’s that with the best will in the world – personnel will let you down far more often than technology will.  That said – I loved working on the project and would get involved in more, if the opportunities arise.

Back at college – it was another hectic summer of upgrades and installations, which (if you’re interested) you can start to read about on our new departmental WordPress site.

reasons to be cheerful, part III

This is a follow-on from my post about the BECTA ‘Time to Innovate’ Conference 2010.

Reasons to be cheerful, part I

OK, I’ve slept on it – perhaps I came to the conference full of optimism due to the success and scale of the 2009 BECTA conference?  Perhaps I was interpreting ‘time to innovate’ as a call to arms – “be innovative with learning technology”!  Perhaps I was feeling good because we’ve been part of BECTA TEN Phase 1 & 2 and we have a MoLeNET Phase 3 project, and also had good case studies written about our effective practice with technology.

Reason to be cheerful? I know that we’re on the right tracks and are committed to utilizing learning technologies for all the right reasons.  I’m lucky that I’m allowed space, time & funding to be innovative in my job role.

Reasons to be cheerful, part II

It was interesting that James Clay posed a question to the conference Q&A panel, on the lines of – ‘How can we innovate, learn and progress, if funding streams, statistics and OFSTED, etc. penalize innovation?’ correct me, if I totally misrepresented that, James There were also some good Tweets within the conference stream which were still questioning and challenging, rather than just (virtually) nodding along with what the speakers had to say.

Reason to be cheerful? People are still prepared to be innovative and challenge the conventional.  I’ve always worked to a personal maxim: “If I don’t innovate, I stagnate”.

Reasons to be cheerful, part III

I’m back at my desk, facing some new challenges… the coming financial year will be tight (we all know that), changes at the LSC mean we go back under Local Authority control from April 1st -  I’m not yet sure what that will mean for us.

Reason to be cheerful? I have a great job, have wonderful staff, am involved in some amazing projects  – and possibly most importantly… I am part of a fantastic extended community of practice stretching around the globe – fellow practitioners and educators who are prepared to be innovative, share what they are doing and encourage others to do the same.

If you’re happy and you know it – clap your hands

Shibboleth Implementation at BSFC

BECTA TEN Profile

MoLeNET thin.clusion

National 'snowday'

National ‘snowday’

Originally uploaded by colhawksworth

Never mind the British obsession with the weather; us urbane international hipsters (or should it be erstwhile self-deluded village dwellers) take-up the challenge and crack-on with a bit of mobile working (didn’t it used to be called tele-working?)

What’s the problem? we’ve got Internet access, devices, information and learning systems to connect to, oh and that Web thing too. Do we actually have to ‘go’ to a place of work? Aren’t we already there – we can work ‘anywhere’. (BTW: the coffee is damn fine at home)

.fin.

Logic tells me that this blog post *should* be in chronological order… however, I suspect that as with most of my other blog entries, it will wind-up being a stream of consciousness.  This will be a ‘blog-in-progress’ – as I remember all the noteworthy things that happened in 2009.

This year (2009) seemed to be hectic all the way! – considering the recession there were  plenty on conferences to attend and project funding to bid in for.

• I didn’t have a good start to the year and for personal reasons ended up not being able to finish my OU Post Grad studies.  Though, as the year went on, I missed studying and  decided to start a CTTLs course – so I can teach Post-16 courses.

• Our college successfully managed to get a MoLeNET Phase3 project – and so far it’s been a wonderful and inspiring experience.

• I made lots of new contacts across the globe via tools such as Twitter, FriendFeed, etc. It’s rather incredible to think that I have far more dialog with folks I’ve never met, in other parts of the world – than I do with some colleagues at my own college.  I guess that’s something a psychologist would probably have a field-day with… though a sociologist might simply shrug and tell me that it’s because we have a commonality and Community of Practice, rather than simply working at the same location with nothing else in common.

• I got an iPhone – a major improvement (as far as I’m concerned) to the iPaq Windows phone I previously had and the Palm Treo before that, etc, etc.  I love Apple and I love the iPhone – yes, I am aware that there are major flaws [3g had no video, etc] BUT Apple tech is simple and functional.  Whenever I have to use a MS Windows PC now, I find it such a pain and far too cumbersome.  I want my tech to be as intuitive as it is functional.

take note

I was on the London – Liverpool train on Tuesday evening, on my way home from the MoLeNET Conference and decided to add a blog entry about the event on our thin.clusion blog.

I copied and pasted notes between aNote (which I’d written at the conference) and WordPress 2, on my iPhone… however – Although the App had been saving a draft copy, a number of times the file did not save and so I ended up losing quite a few minutes worth of copy/paste/update/reformatting.  I did get frustrated and gave up after many attempts.

It made me realise that this note-taking and updating process is exactly what we will be asking our learners to do on the thin.clusion project.  Now, I’m a patient guy – but even I gave up on the blog entry after about 40 mins.  So how will this process work for our learners?  Will they give up if the technology lets them down?  I would imagine so. In which case, what can we do to address this?