Training INSET And CPD

Archive for the ‘Training INSET and CPD’ Category

Iris_Connect at Balby Carr

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

Balby11 300x168 Iris Connect at Balby Carr

The other day, I was invited up to Balby Car School for part of their Professional Learning Day. My interest was principally upon seeing how the school was using Iris_Connect, an innovative system for self-reflection, observation and professional development that the school had recently implemented.

Iris_Connect, for those of you not familiar with the system, is a service which supports teachers to implement reflective practice for the purpose of reviewing and improving their teaching. Using Iris, teachers can observe their own lessons or invite a colleague to observe a lesson and also add comments based upon the observation. This can be done in real time or by use of recordings. By being able to view recorded sessions, the system fress up schools from needing to arrange for observer(s) to be free at the same time as the teacher delivers the session. The flexibility of the Iris_Connect system is one of its benefits in schools along with potential cost savings.

At Balby Carr, the initiative was being led by Matthew and Lisa, two very enthusiatic teachers. They had been using the system for a while themselves and had clearly been seeing the benefits of it, they had also got a number of other staff to use the system, they too had very positive experiences of it. The Professional Learning Day was the opportunity for Matthew and Lisa to introduce the system to the wider staff and to allow them to have some experience of it. For the day, a few staff had pre-recorded lessons so that other staff could see how easy it was to observe and add comments about the lessons. The system itself is easy to use and staff were impressed that comments they made were timne-linked and so could be clearly asociated with specific points or incidencies within the lesson.

After some workgroup sessions, the staff were invited to submit their comments about Iris_Connect and how it might be used in the school. These comments were divided into ‘hot’ and ‘not’. It was very refreshing to see that the overwhelming majority of comments were in the ‘hot’ category and nearly all the ‘not’ were not really negative points but were people expressing worries or anxieties, almost all of which could be easily addressed. So overall it was a very positive ‘thumbs up’ for the Iris_Connect system.

I stated earlier on that Iris_Connect can be used for self relection or observation by others. Matthew and Lisa, very rightly in my opinion, emphasised to staff that it is probably best to start with self-observation. This is important to my mind because Iris_Connect is primarily about reflective practice; the ability of teachers to observe their own lessons or their own practice, to observe and acknowledge what went right as well as anything that may have gone wrong, with a view to strengthening their skills and improving their teaching.

I think it is also important to start with self-observation because Iris_Connect is seen primarily as a tool for teachers to use. It is important, therefore, that teachers feel comfortable in using it, feel that they own whatever product or benefit that comes from using it and feel at liberty to use the system in support of their own professional development. It is also often true that when a person first starts to use a system such as Iris_Connect to observe their own practice, they are likely to be critical of their performance; this is human nature and it is usually things we may not like that we observe first, it is only when we become used to such a system that we can start to effectively use it to observe our positive practices.

In all, I had a great and positive day at Balby Carr and I am grateful to the staff at the school for allowing me to share in their professionalism.

Reflecting on Reflection (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
Iris Connect – lesson observation with video (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
Reflective Practice and Teacher Development

If you would like to know more about Iris Connect, their website is www.irisconnect.co.uk

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Tags: Balby Carr, Balby Carr Community Sports College, Education, Iris Connect, K through 12, Observation, Professional development, Reflective practice, Teacher
Posted in Training INSET and CPD | No Comments »

Do Learners want Teachers?

Monday, December 12th, 2011

: Image via Wikipedia

Do Learners want Teachers?

It seems a strange question, doesn’t it, but do learners want teachers?

Over recent years there has been a shift in emphasis away from teaching and teachers toward learning and learners. This has been to such an extent that even a major quango spent thousands changing one of its departments from Teaching and Learning to Learning and Teaching.

I will say, though, that I think the change in emphasis is justified; learning is more important than teaching.

A teacher in a school can teach and teach as much as they can but if the people they are teaching do not learn, then the teacher has been wasting time; the role of the teacher is to enable and ensure that learning takes place. Of course, any and every teacher knows this and also knows different strategies and approaches to facilitate learning. At the end of the day, a school is judged on how/what the learners have learnt (or parts of what they have learned) rather than on what teaching took place.

Increasingly, we hear people say that the learner is responsible for their learning and that the role of the teacher is to guide the learner through their learning. The teacher standing in front of the class is something that is frowned upon nowadays, rather the teacher should be at the side of the learner to give support and direction; this is the ‘sage on the stage’ versus ‘the guide at the side’ argument.

While we can accept that the role of the teacher is changing, that learning is now seen as more important than teaching and that the learner now has responsibility for their learning, does this mean that teaching or the teacher are no longer valued?

I think not. It still seems that people want teaching and value good teachers. Let us consider an example; if you wanted to learn something completely new and, all things, such as price, being equal which approach might you choose? You could choose to learn from an online course, from text books or attend classes led by a teacher/tutor/facilitator.

Most people would appear to opt for an approach that involves a teacher over a completely self-learning approach. Even if the approach had just one session with a teacher, it would appear to be preferred over an approach that has no teaching element. It would seem, therefore, that learners do value being taught or, at least, having some teaching input.

Consider the training courses you have been on, though, and ask yourself what have been the most valuable parts of those courses. The chances are that you will say the most valuable parts have been those times when you have been allowed to trial, play, or explore for yourself. These have probably been the times when you have been able to learn what you have wanted to learn or to learn what appears most relevant to you or your work.

Other valuable parts may have occurred when you found yourself ‘lost’ or had made a mistake and called upon the teacher to help you fix the situation and to avoid it happening again.

How many of us, also, have been on a course that we initially thought would be a ‘waste of time’ only to have new light or new possibilities created because of the enthusiasm, passion or skill of the teacher?

So the value of having a teacher would appear to lie in having an expert on hand, in having someone to at least introduce an area of learning to us and in having someone open our eyes to new possibilities. So while it may be clear that the nature of teaching and the role of the teacher may be changing, it is also clear that teaching and good teachers are also highly valued.

Inspiring active learning with limited resources (guardian.co.uk)
Examples of Diverse Learning Styles (brighthub.com)
Reflections (gartmanbarryedm310.blogspot.com)
Fred Garnett on how to create new contexts for your own learning (alchemi.co.uk)

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Tags: Education, Educators, K through 12, Learning, Learning Theories, Methods and Theories, school, Teacher
Posted in Training INSET and CPD | 1 Comment »

How much does Twitter Cost?

Monday, October 17th, 2011

It does frustrate me when I see headlines such as this in the Daily Telegraph http://bit.ly/1lDI7B and then I go on to read how much tools like Twitter or Facebook cost in terms of wasted time.

I use Twitter a lot, and Facebook less so. I mainly use it in conjunction with my work in ICT and education (though I have also been known to tweet about my eclectic musical tastes and my love of Liverpool FC, when they win). A great deal of my use is to enable me to keep a contact with others working in the same or allied fields. In this way, Twitter helps me keep up with some of the latest developments, events and news within my chosen field of work. Sometimes, Twitter keeps me informed before more traditional sources such as TV, newspapers or email. If I have a problem or a question, I can tweet it on Twitter and often get a response from my network of contacts. Similarly, if one of the people I follow tweets a question, I can respond quickly and simply.

So you can see how I tend to use Twitter almost as a training tool as part of my ongoing personal CPD. As such, I would estimate that it is certainly a lot quicker and a lot less expensive than attending an In-Service training course. Yet articles such as we seen in the newspapers do not give any mention of how much these tools save in formal training costs.

Now I’m not saying that Twitter should or could replace formal or professional training but for giving a ‘heads up’ and for keeping me abreast of many latest developments, it appears invaluable. I am sure that many of us use Twitter and other tools in ways that support our work and yet never get a mention.

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Tags: Twitter
Posted in Training INSET and CPD | 2 Comments »

Do we Still Need to Explain Why Teachers Should use Educational Technology?

Monday, September 5th, 2011

There was a post on the inaugural #ukedchat twitter debate posted by @JamesClay which read

“Before you answer how, you need to really answer and explain the why you should be using tech in education.”

Unfortunately, I was travelling home on a rather crowded train and was unable to fully follow the online debate but this post caught my attention and made me think;

“Do we really need to explain to teachers why they should be using technology in their lessons?”

I go into schools often and also meet other teachers on training sessions. I often meet teachers who do not use technology or who use it only a little. It is clear, though, that each of them know that they could and should be using technology or using it more. Quite often, these teachers will express their worries that they’re not using ICT and that they sometimes feel their class are missing out compared to pupils in a different class.

In reality, the ‘why’ teachers use educational technology is well established and accepted, even among those teachers who rarely or reluctantly use it. I don’t feel it would be very productive to continue ‘banging on’ about why teachers should use technology in their lessons; this message has already been received.

What may be lacking in some teachers is the knowledge of ‘what’ technology to use or ‘how’ it can be used. This may often be accompanied by a low level of confidence in using the technology and possibly poor experiences of trying to use it in the past. Where this is the case, we need to be able to provide training to enable the teachers to explore technology and to ‘play’ with it in order to develop their confidence and allow them to identify for themselves the ways in which they might use it in their teaching.

In terms of the ‘what’ to use, it may often be the case that teachers have had exposure to only a limited range of technology. This is sometimes the case where the technology is situated in a special room, such as a computer suite, and can only be accessed if ‘booked’ or scheduled on a timetable. This can be further compounded if the technology is seen as being the ‘property’ or domain of a particular person or department within the school.

I mentioned, in a previous paragraph, the need for training, for me, the word ‘training’ is not the best word to use. What we are talking about here is more professional skills development and peer collaboration. At least that is the way I try to approach teacher ‘training’ sessions. Training seems to imply that there is something you lack and, until you get it, you are not a full professional. This seems to be an almost negative and demoralising, maybe even patronising, approach which doesn’t really convey a positive, supportive and professional approach.

In my many years of working with teachers, I have consistently found that if you give them a piece of kit, or anything, and ask them how it could be used in a lesson, they will come up with 101 suggestions, most of which you will never even have thought of before. Let us not forget that these are teachers; they are intelligent people with lively curious minds who genuinely want to give the best for their learners.

Okay, so we have established that we no longer need to explain to teachers why they should be using technology in their lessons, it is the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ that needs to be tackled. I have also suggested that, in my opinion, changing our approach to training would be beneficial. The question still remains, though, as to ‘How can we get more teachers to use technology effectively in their teaching?’ which was the question posed at the beginning of the #ukedchat twitter debate.

a transcript of the #ukedchat twitter debate can be downloaded here

Top 100 Technology Blogs for Teachers (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
31 Days to Become a Better Ed Tech Leader: Are You REALLY an Ed Tech Leader (ictineducation.org)
Outfitting 21st Century Classrooms with 21st Century Teachers (isteconnects.org)
The Best Blogs for Tech Savvy Teachers (brighthub.com)
Preparing Teachers for the Digital Future (microsoftontheissues.com)
Technology Does Leave a Permanent Record (haroldshawjr.com)
Educational Technology Quotes (slideshare.net)

Do we Still Need to Explain Why Teachers Should use Educational Technology?

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Tags: Education, Educators, K through 12, Knowledge, Professional development, school, Teacher, Technology
Posted in Classroom Technology, Training INSET and CPD | 1 Comment »

Reflective Practice and Teacher Development

Monday, August 1st, 2011

: Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Sometimes it’s best to see yourself through the eyes of others.

I have to admit that, as a teacher, I used to hate being observed. Which was strange because I could always be very critical of my own teaching and my own performance as viewed with hindsight by myself. Having someone else view my teaching was, however, more intimidating.

I think the point was that when someone else was observing me, I no longer felt in control of the situation. The lesson and its setting was often artificially contrived either to show off the best or to avoid the worst of my teaching. Even just having someone else in the room would have an effect upon the pupil behaviour. I think, though, the bottom line was that I rarely felt that the observer was there in a supportive role; they were usually there to catch me out or there to support their subject agenda.

I daresay that no everyone feels the same about being observed. There are certainly positive benefits to be gained from having someone observe your teaching. An independent eye may often pick up things you may not notice yourself, they may notice things you did not even feel were an issue. Even if the independent observer does notice the same things you have noticed yourself, having someone else notice them tends to give them more weight or significance. Having someone else notice things makes them more difficult to ignore or push to one side, as you might be tempted to do yourself.

Of course, any observer is there, hopefully, not just to notice the negative things but also to report to you on the positive aspects of your teaching. Positive things which, again, you yourself may not have noticed or thought worthy of note. Yet positive aspects are ones that you can contribute to the school and maybe help influence the teaching of colleagues.

Despite all the possible benefits of observation, it is still usually the case that the teacher does not feel in charge of the event. Could this be changed by the teacher inviting a colleague to observe a lesson? How many of us have done that? In such an arrangement, wouldn’t the teacher be in a better position and the observer, having accepted the invitation, be in a supportive role rather than merely carrying out a duty? If the teacher not only invited a colleague to observe a lesson but also invited the observer to comment upon particular aspects of their teaching, wouldn’t this be a more professional and beneficial use of lesson observation?

In a traditional observation arrangement, the observer observes a teacher and at a later time feeds back to that teacher. Couldn’t we utilise technology in some way to enable the observer to feedback to the teacher in real time and perhaps suggest changes to try while a lesson is in progress? Sure, we would not want to disrupt the lesson more than necessary but what I have in mind is some form of audio feedback perhaps via an earpiece or maybe text feedback to a teacher’s laptop. Similar, I guess to being a TV presenter?

While on the subject of a TV presenter, many of us do not like being in front of a video camera and we would certainly not regard ourselves as presenters. Nevertheless, videoing a session, instead of or in addition to physical observation, can also have great benefit in affecting teaching performance. A simple video camera stood in the corner of a room or maybe even in the hands of pupils, can provide a fascinating insight into one’s teaching even without any added commentary or feedback. It can also be used to provide ongoing records of improvement or changes for the teacher and maybe even provide some evidence of the effectiveness, or otherwise, of such changes.

For me, the key in all of this is that the teacher should be in charge of all of it. It is used as part of their reflective practice and ongoing development more than as an intrusion imposed upon them.

Iris Connect – lesson observation with video (whiteboardblog.co.uk)
Struggling teachers can improve by watching great teachers in action (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
How to Teach with Reflective Teaching (brighthub.com)
Schools that go it alone do best – report (guardian.co.uk)
IRIS Connect
How does IRIS Connect work

Reflective Practice and Teacher Development

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Tags: Lesson, lesson Observation, Observation, Teacher
Posted in Training INSET and CPD, Transforming Learning | 6 Comments »

Twitter, Training, Teachmeets and Teachers

Sunday, April 24th, 2011

: Image by dougwoods via Flickr

I spend too much of my time on Twitter!

Yet sometimes I’m really glad that we have this tool. One of the times I enjoy it is when someone tweets or retweets a little gem or nugget of an idea that gets me thinking.

Such an event happened the other day when I read a tweet along the lines of:

Training teachers in the tech is only a first step. A bigger task is getting them to use it in the curriculum

I think you can take this tweet in different ways. At first I thought I agreed with the statement that teaching about the technology is only the first small step and that it is more important that teachers then use it in their curriculum teaching. Then I reread the tweet and put a slightly different interpretation on it, as if the person were saying that teaching teachers the tech is the easy part but it’s more difficult to get them to use it in teaching the curriculum; in which case I’m not sure that I do agree with the statement.

I guess if you’re the trainer, it’s all a matter of what you’re more comfortable with; if you’re more comfortable and familiar with the technology than with the curriculum, then you would certainly find it easier to train teachers in the tech.

Perhaps this has been a weakness in the more traditional approach to training? Teachers may have been trained in the technology, what it is and how to operate it, often by someone from the company that made or marketed the product. Hopefully, that trainer had also had experience within education and could at least give pointers to the product’s potential use in the curriculum. Even where this happened, though, it was still a funnel down approach with the trainer passing information and ideas down to the trainees.

In all good training sessions, I believe there must be time for the teachers to be allowed to simply explore or play with the product. They then discover and share their own ways of using the product in teaching. I always strive to make the bulk of my training sessions spent on this hands-on time. Being realistic, however, it is very difficult to do so when the training consists of a single day, or more often, a single hour and there is so much baseline information that needs to be presented.

I’m not always comfortable with the word ‘training’. To my mind the word ‘training’ can often allow the inference that the delegates, in themselves or what they are currently doing, are somehow deficient, misguided or inappropriate. Nobody likes to be told this or even to think it, least of all, teachers.

To my mind, the best form of ‘training’ is more like a ‘nurturing’. I believe that most teachers have the ability to grasp new ideas quickly, to develop them and be able to evaulate them. What they often lack is the time to do so and perhaps this is the most valuable thing that a training session can give them.

I see Teachmeets as a great tool in the professional nurturing of teachers. You can go along and share in what other attendees have been doing. Each ‘presentation’ is short, 2, 5 or 7 minutes. If you like something, then you can go away afterwards and explore it further or arrange to link up with the presenter, if you don’t like something … well you’ve only got to wait 7 minutes at most for the next thing!

The best bit about Teachmeets is that these are professionals sharing their practice or findings with fellow professionals in a non-critical environment, though it is also nice just now and again to have a commercial company come along to give a short, say two minute, presentation of a new product they’re offering or a something they are working on; that just adds a bit of ‘newness’ to the event.

Teachmeets are great but I don’t think they can be classified as CPD or training. I’m not saying that critically because teachmeets are great for awareness-raising and sharing; the training starts when you take something from teachmeets and explore it further. What I see as being the value of teachmeets is the model of teaching professionals learning from and sharing with fellow professionals. It is this model which I feel could and should be applied to more traditional training sessions, perhaps exploiting the use of a facilitator or moderator to ensure the smooth(ish) running of the session.

There is, though, a thorny question that still remains. That is the question of accreditation, how can you assess (assuming you need to) and accredit a teacher’s attendance, contribution, or professional development at such a teachmeet or teachmeet style training event?

hmm?

My bMoble TeachMeet presentation (dougbelshaw.com)
TeachMeet Hits its Fourth Birthday: Coming of Age #tmfuture (edte.ch)
TeachMeet hits its fourth birthday: Coming of Age (islayian.blogspot.com)
#tmfuture: TeachMeet hits its fourth birthday: Coming of Age (edu.blogs.com)
TeachMeet Student Editions – round 2 (stuartmeldrum.co.uk)
How should we teach our future teachers? (msnbc.msn.com)
The UK Education Tribes and why they should join together to effect real change (l4l.co.uk)

Twitter, Training, Teachmeets and Teachers

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Tags: Teacher education, Teacher training, Twitter Inc
Posted in Training INSET and CPD | No Comments »

A Second Look at Second Life

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

image by Learn4Life

A few years ago I first tried out Second Life and, to be honest, I didn’t like it at the time. Nevertheless I decided to give it a second look recently to see if things have changed.

Let me try to explain what it was that I didn’t like the first time. At that time I had a Pentium processor in my machine, a good deal of memory and, for the time, a top range graphics card. Even so, I found Second Life to be quite unusable. The graphics were very crude (rough not rude!) and took a long time to display on the screen. Moving your avatar appeared tricky and cumbersome, in fact doing anything with your avatar appeared tricky and cumbersome, even getting him to look right. As for the flying option, well that just cheesed me off … I wanted to walk properly before I learned to fly!

What I really didn’t like was that you were very restricted in the way you could name your avatar. Although you could give yourself any first name you wanted, your surname was either chosen for you or you could pick from a limited choice. Consequently, I ended up with a name I could never remember and that was not particularly useful when you had to type this in to login each time! Besides, I really wanted the option to use my real name!

When I did get Second Life working (slowly) I found that there wasn’t much you could do with it. Okay, you could meet people but I really just wanted to explore and find out things, after all I don’t talk to people I bump into on the street in real life, except perhaps to say ‘sorry’.

Finally, what really hacked me off was the need to buy virtual currency. You had to pay real money to buy virtual money that you used to buy virtual goods; I’m sorry but that just seemed like a scam to me!

Anyway, that was then and recently I’ve decided to take a second look at Second Life. So what has prompted me to do so? Firstly, I had hoped there would be more to see or do now, I had, in particular, heard about the Learn4Life island which seemed more relevant to my work. I also now have a much more powerful computer and graphics card. I hoped also that many of my other niggles may have been resolved by now.

There certainly have been improvements. I found that Second Life remembered my original Avatar name, which was good because I had long forgotten it, even so, I decided to create a new one from scratch. You still cannot use your real name or even one you completely make up yourself. This is a shame but I did find the choice of surnames a bit more usable than previously, so I was able to come up with a name that sounded a bit sensible!

I still found a problem with the graphics in that they didn’t always render quickly, despite the much faster graphics card. Perhaps my slow urban broadband connection is the problem here (but don’t get me started on that issue). I was also surprised that some of the graphics seemed very poor, almost 1990s style, particularly in the landscape, textures and objects such as trees, but maybe that is a legacy issue.

I still found creating a reasonable Avatar to be tricky, the limited options really didn’t quite match what I wanted to produce. However, it did seem quicker this time around. Moving the avatar was also much easier than before, flying also seemed easier, though I found less need for that.

Second Life has recently introduced a new ‘viewer’ interface tool, which makes it quite easy to use and navigate around the virtual world.

There did seem, however, to be far fewer people in the virtual world than I experienced in the past. I don’t know if Second Life is losing popularity or if more people were now spread over a much larger world.

I did venture a few times over to the Learn4life island and there are certainly a lot of interesting things going on there, except that I didn’t find anyone else on the island. I guess it is the place people visit only when they know something is planned. Even so, I’m quite intrigued by the possibilities on offer there.

The virtual currency still exists and even has a variable exchange rate! My membership to Second Life is still the free level and, I hope, you can do a lot with that. There is a premium level which gives you a few (it seems) more features such as a virtual house, virtual money each week, online help and access to virtual adult facilities (no thank you!). Of course you have to pay real money to get these virtual features which you can only use in the virtual world, which still seems like a scam to me but then, on the other hand, if you can earn virtual money and convert that to real money, it may be more useful. Of course the services offered by Second Life and its developers do cost them money and nobody should begrudge them earning a living; perhaps I just wish there was something more tangible on offer for your real money.

Overall, my second experience of Second Life has been much more positive, the recent changes to the viewer are a great improvement over what went before. I do feel there is a steep learning curve to be gone through before you can fully use Second Life but that is part of the fun of it. There are still a few niggles with the choice of names and avatar design but they do seem more flexible than in my previous experience. Second Life still appears very ‘resource hungry’ and you may find you need a high end machine to make best use of it,m you also appear to need a good broadband connection and I guess some of my problems may lie in my poor urban broadband connection (I told you not to get me started on that…)

If you’ve been put off by earlier experiences of Second Life or not looked at it for a while, I would suggest having another look at it.

If you are on Second Life and see a sullen overweight avatar walking around in a denim shirt and shoulder bag, please say ‘hi’ but don’t be offended if I don ‘t reply; I’m either shy or haven’t yet mastered the speak options!

If you are interested in the Learn4Life island on Second Life, there is a short video introduction here http://blip.tv/file/3404585/

After Frustrations in Second Life, Colleges Look to New Virtual Worlds (tc.eserver.org)
Virtual Living for Uncapped Internet Users (davidonline.co.za)
Second Life’s economy grows 65% to $567M (venturebeat.com)
It’s Easy to Throw Real Stones at Virtual Glass Houses (downes.ca)

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Tags: Learn4Life, Second Life
Posted in Online Resources, Training INSET and CPD, web 2.0 | 1 Comment »

Archive for the ‘Training INSET and CPD’ Category

Iris_Connect at Balby Carr

Do Learners want Teachers?

How much does Twitter Cost?

Do we Still Need to Explain Why Teachers Should use Educational Technology?

Reflective Practice and Teacher Development

Twitter, Training, Teachmeets and Teachers

A Second Look at Second Life

Contact me

Follow us on Twitter

Doug Woods

Archive for the ‘Training INSET and CPD’ Category

Iris_Connect at Balby Carr

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Do Learners want Teachers?

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How much does Twitter Cost?

Do we Still Need to Explain Why Teachers Should use Educational Technology?

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Reflective Practice and Teacher Development

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Twitter, Training, Teachmeets and Teachers

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A Second Look at Second Life

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Contact me

Follow us on Twitter

Doug Woods