Our Community of Practice - TEL Is Already Working Well!

The Community of Practice has only been launched today and our college has already seen the benefits. One PGCE student requested staff (via our CoP located on our Moodle) to view a short video and answer a questionnaire. The topic of the research was Makaton and through this simple communication conduit we were able to bring together a fully qualified Makaton staff member and the PGCE student together. This would not had happened without the CoP. Makaton will now be highlighted at our college which will help support Equality and Diversity. AND THIS IS ONLY THE FIRST DAY OF THE LAUNCH OF THE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE! :-)

Our Cascade Model using PDAs and TLCs.

National and in-house research has identified barriers to using technology in learning and teaching include a lack of information and a lack of clarity about what teachers can and cannot use. From September 2010 we will be using a cascade model to improve communication both up, down and across the organisational structure to develop a Community of Practice.

The Professional Development Advisor (PDA) and Technology Learning Coach (TLC) roles are the building blocks of a framework to monitor and have influence on the decision process to utilise Technology Enhanced Learning (aka e-Learning, ICT and ILT). The decision process will be lead by pedagogy.There will be two main roles in each Centre:-

1. PDA
a) One for each curriculum centre (more if curriculum is offered in other campuses).
b) Trained by Advanced PDA with continuous updating (weekly)
c) Key driver is the use of e-learning/technology in Curriculum Centre
d) Ensures communication within Centre, with TLCs (see below) and with Advanced PDA, PDAs and national Communities of Practice
e) Evaluate perception of technology/e-learning in Curriculum Centre (using government supplied on-line survey (Generator) which will enable comparison of trend across curriculum areas and across colleges)
f) Audit what resources are available in the Curriculum Centre and where they are
g) Identify areas of need from all Curriculum Centres
h) Ensure resources are where they are needed
i) Identify good practice to share
j) Meet with Advanced PDA once a week – cascade of information (including demonstrations of TEL) to and from Advanced PDA including the sharing of good practice by PDAs (beginning of a Community of Practice)
k) Makes sure TLCs have training and resources they need
l) Each PDA have three TLCs at a time
m) Take realistic steps – the most important tasks will be identified and clear SMART goals set for completing them
n) Hopefully, the role will attract time (remission) next year, but this is nowhere near definite.

2. TLC
a) Someone who wants to use technology in teaching
b) Someone other teachers come to for help (peer support)
c) 2-way communication with PDA
d) Identify a project that they wish to develop and complete (could be as simple as a set of interactive PowerPoints)
e) Receive training in technology they want to start using
f) Advanced PDA has small funds to help buy some of their time to release them to complete agreed projects. Other possible sources of funding could be the Research and Scholarly activity fund.


The PDA training has been contextualised to the needs of our college and will be delivered by the Advanced PDA, with support from members of the TEL- Community of Practice

We currently have seven PDAs and twenty one TLCs I am hoping to have at least five more PDAs for the second wave of PDA training (July) with all Curriculum Centres and Campuses represented with PDAs and TLCs in the third and final PDA training sessions in the new term.

Is TEL an expert witness for Tuckman's model?

Since 1993 I have been involved with Computer Based Learning (CBT), E-Learning, ICT, ILT, IT (for a little while) and currently... Technology Enhanced learning (TEL). A thought came to mind as I 'people watched' while travelling in a crowded train to work.

If TEL et al was a person, not only would she/he be happy to be called just about anything (CBT, TEL etc.), but would be an expert witness for Bruce Tuckman's (1996) model of 'forming, storming, norming and performing in groups' due to the many meetings, learning and teaching events, conferences discussions, projects dissemination's... she/he has attended.

TEL et al has seen it all!




Reference:
Tuckman, Bruce W. (1996) Theories and Applications of Educational Psychology, New York: McGraw Hill. Third edition with D. Moneth published 2001.

Reflection on the first session of the PDA Course

This is going to be brief. The team is made up of 7 (one joins next week). We all worked very hard and all wish to start to make a difference to learning and teaching. Our first focus is to find some low hanging fruit to prove our direction is effective.

Now the scene has been set we have all started putting the communication conduits in place. This is now done at a basic level.
We are utilising new email addresses to ensure separation from personal and work identities. Exciting times... will reflect again later in the week after I have taken it in a little more.

Communication and walking on egg shells

I am entering the phase where my work on improving communication is starting to produce what were previously hidden thoughts and views from those that may have felt excluded from the decision making process in the pass. The perception (may be real) of being excluded has encouraged many to put forward ideas and therefore is now actively challenging the 'status quo'.

This of course is exactly what I would like to see... the beginnings of a professionally based improved communication conduits which produce high quality reflective debate on important issues that embodies the soul of learning and teaching.

However, I recognise that I will be experiencing a period of time that may resemble a feeling of 'walking on egg shells' until common ground is identified from discussion, debate and reflective action plans.

Why have a PC?

A long time ago when I was studying for my first degree I suggested (with many others) that mobile phones and televisions will be the norm to receive information learning technology (ILT). I would like to update this statement by suggesting that qualification based learning via mobile phones and televisions will also become the norm over the next twenty years.

The reason for my (brave?) statement is based on a comment my school aged son made during a session on his PS3. The comment he made was... I can play games, watch iPlayer and browse the Internet all from the PS3... so bring on the learning!

Reflection - 'Twitter for the Teaching Professional' session

The first Technology Enhanced Learning Series session had to be moved to D438. The room is laid out with PCs, but the room is not designed for teaching as it is normally used as open access for students. The session had six staff members attending which is one more than I will be able to accommodate in the normal training room.

The session plan had to be changed as it was not possible to have a digital projector and screen. I enrolled all the staff onto the new Community of Practice site on Moodle to allow the staff to view the presentation I was going to project onto the wall.

Not so good...
The session was a lot slower than I had hoped as Twitter did not make the new users available for others to follow during the session (took too long). This meant that I had to re-assess how I was going to teach it. I decided to use my own Twitter account to show the type of professional people I followed and how to find others. One staff member quickly found my link to sceenr and downloaded it... worked well.

Good...
The Technology Enhanced Learning Series is now launched.
Twitter is understood by more staff especially how easy it is to protect yourself and if necessary delete the account.
The Community of Practice Moodle site is also launched with staff members registered.

Reflection...
The main positive outcomes of the session were to allow the staff to see the how easy it was to setup a Twitter account (and also to delete it if necessary). I was able to highlight how I use it with my professional peers. The Community of Practice site is now live and more staff are aware of both the Child Protection Policy and the Safe Guarding Children policy. I will now encourage the attendees to share their Twitter names and get them linked to each other.

The most IMPORTANT lesson I personally learnt was to set-up a set of accounts for Twitter and Facebook etc for staff to use in these sessions. They may then setup their own personal accounts at the end or after the session.