Learn 4 Life

What next for BETT and TeachMeet - beyond the lunatic fringe - why so serious?

This year I overhead a comment to this effect -

“Looking around on the stands and at Open Source, TeachMeet etc. it seems people are being regarded far less as the ‘lunatic fringe’ and becoming more accepted.”

I often think that when you talk about new ideas and concepts applied to education, many people look at you with the same disdain they might display on finding out that you have told them their favourite uncle is a cross-dresser. “Yes dear - we know they do it but we don’t talk about that…”

That a similar attitude seems to persist for TeachMeet seems obvious and, so far, the mainstream organisations have fought shy of the big TM - it’s a well known secret but no-one wants to big it up or go public with it just yet.

But the fringe events - lunatic or otherwise - just may be the salvation of BETT in the coming years…and there has been some movement from the exhibition organisers this year and it’s all good.

The problem with BETT from a vendors’ view

I have worked on a couple of stands at BETT in the past with an excellent educational product but it’s been exceptionally hard to get people’s attention if it’s new or innovative and you are just starting out marketing. If you have ever worked on a commercial stand at BETT it can be a very dispiriting business believe me.

Trying to get people’s attention and being rebuffed or shot a dirty look as they push by in an ever increasing frenzy to get freebies off different stalls whilst running the gauntlet of leafletteers is not a very nice experience or, even, very good for your self-esteem especially if you are going out cold and unsolicited. Unless you can bribe them with a branded gonk or personalised pen - or other inducements and even then it’s a Sisyphean and quite thankless task as they make a grab for the goodies and are gone.

Image Attribution Ian Usher - Mr Ush on Flickr

It’s like a ‘walk of shame‘ in reverse for the stall staff - most people really aren’t that interested - they are overloaded with info and bags and just often want somewhere just to sit down and the last thing they want to hear is a sales pitch - often it seems the firms (as Ian Usher pointed out) do more Business 2 Business than sell to the educational establishment.

The whole process is very decontextualised - people need to be hooked in by some particular serendipity; some amazing Son et lumière (like the LEGO stand this year) and then they will come or only because they have organised to see you in advance of the show.

The bigger brasher firms can build wonderful environments - little pods where they can pamper their punters into handing over the spondoolics and who can pay experienced presenters to wow them into semi-narcoleptic comatose acceptance and submission but the average stall holder has a fight on their hands for people’s attention and money.

Of course some teachers are just there for the jolly - they seem pretty clueless about what they need or even if they really need it and they will snub and denigrate and wriggle out of any social interaction with that look they have that sits between pressurised fear of the unknown and mild irritation brought on by the fact someone has had the affrontery to stop them in their ceaseless peregrinations around the show.

There they hurry by, like the lost souls in the second circle of hell of Dante’s Inferno, like dead wraiths cursed to be ceaselessly buffeted aimlessly around in circles lusting after things they could never have…

I Don’t Know What You Want (But I Can’t Give it Any More ).

Enter TeachMeet Takeover

But on the whole the education profession is more than receptive to “what works” and engages pupils - surprise, surprise they like to watch other teachers talking about their teaching and good resources and like to see exemplars of wonderful practice.

Enter Teachmeet Takeover and something different happens. Suddenly your stand is populated by teachers giving superb presentations (teachers are good at that) and they draw a crowd. This creates more of a relaxed and convivial atmosphere in some cases and in many of the events caused people to learn quite a few new things and, perhaps, even buy some commercial products.

The TeachMeet fringe events create a highly focused social concentration for genuine reflection on good teaching and learning practice.

Unlike previous years I was on the on the Open Source Cafe Stand where a lot of people were genuinely interested in the software and they were pro-actively electing to come and talk and learn from others - there’s a budding community of people truly interested in Open Source software for schools. The Open Source Cafe was run like a bar camp but there were some great fun moments when the Jo Claessens and Andy Wilson arrived from the BBC to liberate London’s monsters to publicise the excellent BBC Open Lab resources

So I was well positioned to ask some friends about what they thought was best about BETT2010 - it was nearly unanimous that it was the TeachMeet Takeover and fringe events that were most engaging. Have a listen to the few short vox pops below :

Lisa Stevenson explained what the TeachMeet Takeover phenomenon was:

I’m going to all the TeachMeet Takeovers because I find that really exciting talking about how you can use things for free and teachers talking about all the things they DO with all the stuff that we’ve got around us…what’s happened is the stands around us have volunteered to let a teacher take over their stand for half an hour and just present about things they use in the classroom using free stuff - it’s got nothing to do with the stand that they are on …I was on Rising Stars this morning and had nothing to do with what they do; they just gave me the time, the computer, the screen and the microphone and I just took over and talked about what I do in my classroom; because BETT’s really kind of like a Trade Show selling things and we want to sell what we do in our classroom and to show, it doesn’t matter if you haven’t got a big budget - there are lots of things you can do for nothing.

Dawn Hallybone also pointed to the TeachMeet Takeover as the main thing she had experienced at BETT. But with reference to most of the “content” at BETT she said :

Have I seen a lot that inspires me yet - no sorry.

BETT took off for me this year for a number of reasons.

The comms tech is getting more ubiquitous and invisible.

Despite the O2 network going down (presumably because of the concentration of iPhone users) people were communicating more than ever on Twitter and their numbers seemed to be growing - the ad hoc comms infrastructure within the building during the show between stallholders, teachers, advisers and almost much anyone else seemed to be starting to come together.

Stand Owners are becoming more receptive to TeachMeet

The blend of communication and “genuine” human interaction at show level was a new element. There seemed to be less of a disjunction between people and more of a positive engagement. The savvier commercial providers got the mix just right - people like Chris Ratcliffe of Scholastic definitely “get it” and were disseminating video blogs of their own about events around their stand including the TeachMeet Talks. Well done Chris!

Thousands of little social interactions were happening all over the place and you could see the human face of the use of tech - people meeting people they knew on twitter but never met in the flesh before - people renewing professional friendships - educationalists are highly gregarious so it worked and I would maintain that it was more authentic than other possible scenarios because all the participants are so engaged with learning. The changes at BETT could almost have been a metaphor for the change I predict coming in education….

The Theme of Fun

Throughout the show and all the fringe festivals there was a definite theme of “fun”. There was a game of Tig going on between Twitter users  - did you miss that? Yes, Tig, Tag whatever you want to call it - people were showing up on stands and tigging people. They could be commercial vendors or teachers or advisors - it didn’t matter - it was fun and it brought people together and broke down barriers to human communication - it was facilitated by apps like Twitter though that made it easier to say where people were and to broadcast out that you were coming to get them. In the Amplified session on Thursday we discussed the role of “play” in work. Here’s a couple of snippets from that conversation. Here Kevin Mulryne, of the National College for leadership and schools and children’s services, discusses the “fun” things that went on in his work at BETT.

At TeachMeet on the Friday it was fun - it always is - one of the highlights was Ian Yorston who told us about his role as ‘The Unreasonable Man’.

The quote in that video clip could be the ethos behind TeachMeet Takeover in some ways…no wonder he got such a rapturous response.

Again - highly entertaining and fun but also very informative…

I predict that as the tech gets more invisible, seamless and ubiquitous so the opportunities for serious fun will increase. As a species we are extremely ludic, playful to the extreme or we should be and learning should be fun - otherwise why do it? The elements of “play” will always conquer the dour naysayers in the long run - people take their play extremely seriously. Take this whole discussion on gaming on the Wednesday at the Amplified Education event….

What we saw at BETT this year was the beginning of a new way of doing old stuff - genuinely engaging educationalists breaking down the barriers to human interaction by using traditional well tried skills. I’d call it “Remixing Education” and it’s beginning to come into focus as people begin to understand that the underpinning technology no longer matters - it’s reaching such a mature level that the organisation and vision can be easily enabled now to cater to people’s individual needs around knowledge and skills and that those are in constant flux anyway as everyone moves forward into the 21st Century and new competencies.

MirandaMod Debates

I always enjoy filming the MirandaMod debates because they are held at BETT and are open to anyone to come and join in. It’s always touch and go if anyone will turn up but as we broadcast out onto Twitter when it is beginning they always do. And contributors always prove fascinating and are the spearhead for a lot of very innovative research. Many people Twitter in from abroad or ask questions around the video stream.

It’s about the people not the tech

It is a constant mantra - all these peripheral social activities at BETT have added up to a marvellous week. Whether you are a stall holder, a teacher allowed out for the day, senior leadership or a pupil it can be good fun.

So why isn’t it mainstreaming?

So I totally agree with Gareth Davies about the fact that the bigger government non-profit agency stands should encourage TeachMeet Takeover.

And the one big question I would ask is:

Why does Teachers’ TV never film or show anything to do with TeachMeet? If they did so - it would become more mainstream and then some proper infrastructure/ funding for dissemination could happen?

Failing that I suggest the TeachMeet crew ask for some funding from all the stands that supported BETT2010 this year to do a drill down mailout to individual teachers as suggested by Tom Barrett in previous campaigns. Getting a personalised letter would be good - even better would be mailshots sent out by all the regional LA TeachMeets and the stands punters who have data about who they have giving an event and informing people of what a TeachMeet is and where they can find one.

It’s heartening to see several messages from people on Twitter saying they are going to hold local events new to their area. What would be even better would be schools hosting an event in a place that is not necessarily the school and build a social evening out of it. There’s enough social scaffolding and event templates for this now.

When the time came - each region could point to BETT and The Education Show and build on this year’s success. And remember it’s not just teachers but everyone involved in educating their children. Why not get a few parents along next time as well …?

Breaking down the silos

Informal learning will be one of the massive growth industries in the coming years - I’ll leave the last word to Dughall Hine founder of School of Everything on his attitude to learning and tech that he espoused at Tedx Orenda on Wednesday Night (if you weren’t there video up soon…)

I’m not one of these people who get really excited by technology - I get excited when technology allows people to do real stuff - it’s fun…

Desktop Broadcasting of Second Life with TwitCam - “Inside Broadcasting”

Here’s another first from Learn 4 Life. Using Twitcam to Broadcast out Second Life from your desktop. Simple blocky but effective if you use a tripod and don’t move your avatar around too fast.

In this broadcast I even managed to stream in a video into Second Life on a media player. The sound is superb but the video being shown comes across as stills but then my broadband connection can only take so much through my Mac.

Oh an I forgot to add I was also talking to Chris Smith @shamblesguru on Skype as well on voice - go and play. A whole new Inside / Outside broadcast model. Voila!

MirandaNet and MirandaMod

BETT 2009 Continued

@eyebeams and @theokk working hard at MirandaMod - cough...

(photo attribution @theokk)

Live Streaming and videos from BETT MirandaMod seminars

Another major part of my activity at BETT was the live streaming and filming of a series of MirandaMod discussions going on throughout the exhibition, culminating in the seminar below given by Dr John Cuthell of MirandaNet and Norbert Pacheler of the IoE.

I have chosen to show the seminar first because all the discussions during the show follow on from that research. It gives an excellent context for the debate.

Terry Freedman also did an excellent job of chairing two sessions and introducing the seminar below.

During 2007 the MirandaNet Fellowship worked with members of the Naace, ITTE and MirandaNet communities to identify effective models of ICT CPD, and the critical incidents that had proved formative in respondents’ lives. Look at the Seminar and see how much of that prefigures what is happening with the TeachMeet phenomenon…

TeachMeet and MirandaMod - a place for reflection

In many ways these discussions are widening the scope around TeachMeet (which I also filmed on the Friday at BETT and coming soon!). The MirandaMod Moots encourage a space for reflection by practitioners  which perfectly complement and embrace that growing grass roots movement.

If you see both John and Norbert’s presentations below you will see how their research findings echo  activitiy going on now in the teaching community. Their research really does seem to have its finger on the pulse. That is why MirandaNet is so important.

But more than that - it was a joy to see practitioners from around the world pop in and join the discussion not only in person at the BETT exhibition, but also virtually as well. In fact Dai Barnes‘ class were viewing a session remotely at one point despite the patchy 3G connection for streaming and even managed to ask a question.

Dr. John Philip Cuthell Mirandanet and Norbert Pacheler IoE

CPD – Critical Incidents - Lightbulb Moments

Caroline Daly, WLE Centre, IoE; Tribal Group

CPD; Critical Incidents; Ideas That Make Things Happen.

This discussion leads on directly from the seminar above - the Critical Incidents or lightbulb moments that people had are fascinating = the personal narratives start with Bernard Dady, BSF Programme Director of Tribal Group

He talks about his early opportunities as a teacher in Sheffield to do action research and curriculum development. Learning through doing, learning through networks and learning through collaboration. He’s working with Mirandanet on Action Research and Accreditation as part of the BSF rollout.

Christina Preston’s Lightbulb Moment was when she was working as a consultant for ILECC an realised that one day courses had neither the depth or the breadth of her experience up to that time internationally and academically.

Lawrence Williams‘ lightbulb moment was in his ground-breaking work with the NHS with his colleagues when he could share the same aims but have different objectives and the collaboration between agencies.

I won’t precis everyone’s contribution you’ll just have to view the videos below and go along to MirandaNet and join. You’ll probably find a few people you know there and many you don’t.

Visual Learning, Multimodal Learning

Inspiration

Project Learning;

Christopher Binns, Oracle Education Foundation

Projects in Mobile Learning

Norbert Pachler, WLE Centre, IoE; Rachel Jones, Steljes

Teachers are Heroes just for one day - Open Source Schools @ BETT 2009 - Why you must use Open Source Software

Open Source Schools

Open Source Schools - BETT Seminar January 19th 2009

Every once in a while you see something that makes you think: ‘Yes this really is going to change education in this country’ and it makes you smile inside because you know what is going to happen further down the line and how revolutionary it will be; it will touch the lives of so many people and transform learning - making it more effective, more engaging, more personal and build a sense of community far beyond the initial event itself.

Pivotal Moments

One such moment was on the saturday at BETT 2009, where a small but significant 45 minute presentation by 4 teachers (Miles Berry, Michelle Walters, Jose’ Picardo and Doug Belshaw) on Open Source Schools will, potentially, change the face of how schools use Software in the UK and beyond and its knock on effect for how people do business in the classroom. A big shout out must also go to Josie Fraser who I know was one of the consultants to BECTA on the project which is going from strength to strength.

Days of Lockdown are ending

For me the days of locked-in licenced computing and the lack of access to pupils to good professional quality software at home are a big issue. So this launch is timely - if you are mulling over the lack of funds in your budget for the year you must see this presentation - it will save you thousands of pounds and enable you to have a way of ensuring pupils can work from home to school and back again fluently with the software and kit without worrying over legal and compatability issues. This will save you money and raise the game in terms of home/ school learning.

Fiming and Mashing the presentations

I couldn’t attend because I was presenting about Second Life (with a live link to Tailand) elsewhere at BETT but Hannah Wise from the BBC kindly agreed to film the session and what a good job of camerawork she did! I’m glad we managed to capture it on video because I think the event needed documenting and the basic concepts spreading as far and wide as possible using that medium.

I’m passionate about the use of video in education to effect change - for me it is the underlying ethos behind this site. See something good, film it or record it to audio and then disseminate it to make things happen. So I Mashed the video with the presentations to create the results below. They will all be available on the Open Source Schools site, please go there for lots more resources as well and please download them and use them in CPD for consciousness raising locally. They are all free to distribute under a CC Education Commons licence. In this time of Credit Crunch and shrinking school budgets Open Source Software will be invaluable but more than that it will underpin and build your learning communities and that is what it’s all about surely? Show this to your head, head of department, LA advisor, parents, local firms, anyone who can make a difference in your local community.

Teachers are Heroes

The teachers in this film are special; early adopters who have given over hours of their time to show their vison for the future - people like this are my heroes - they make the difference and not for just one day but one day, one moment can change things, they have my immense respect. They are passionately engaged with their subject and, most of all, their pupils; they change people’s lives by their devotion and commitment to education. What they do needs to be documented and shared.

Open Source is about People and how they connect

Open Source is not about the software, it is about the people, the inherent freedoms of choice we make in our world and the lives of the young people with whom we engage and isn’t that one of the most wonderful things to pass on to another generation? Making these videos has been a labour of love I hope you find them of use and spread the word far and wide. But enough of this sentimental guff - down to practicalities; watch the videos below, download, show and share them with everyone you know.

The Presentations

Miles Berry, Michelle Walters, Jose’ Picardo and Doug Belshaw - Whole Presentation

Click To Play

Miles Berry’s Introduction (only) to Open Source

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Michelle Walters explains what Open Office is and how to use it

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Doug Belshaw talks about his use of Netbooks and Linux in the classroom

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Jose’ Picardo talks about how to install and use Audacity the free Open Souce audio recorder

Click To Play

Miles Berry talking about Moodle

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Michelle Walters on how to get started with Open Source Software

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Miles Berry talks about the Open Source Schools website

Click To Play

NB: For those of you with a technical bent the links to an iPhone, WMV, OGG Vorbis and loads of other versions of these videos are available at the blip.tv site : http://learn4life.blip.tv/. Just have a look at the controls for embedding in the show player.

Outside the Wire - What lies ahead - Possible solutions and pointers? Making the map…

Image attribution to Bill Gracey on Flickr under this CC Licence

‘The revolution doesn’t happen when society adopts new tools, it happens when society adopts new behaviours‘ Clay Shirkey

That pithy sentence uttered in the new UsNow film couldn’t be more true, especially in the world of innovation in education that this blog constantly addresses.

So far this year I have been pulling focus on informal learning outside the wire of traditional institutions - in 2009 I am going to be more concerned with looking at the research and opinion that surrounds this arena and focus on highlighting and amplifying ideas and practice from individuals that might contribute to change in those places of learning and show concrete examples of how that practice demonstrates workable innovation - I’ll be searching out, interviewing and pushing practitioners, policy makers and others to reflect on how they think change can be brought about and banging on about 21st century learning, identity, curricula and literacy.

I’m not a researcher and I’m not an academic but I do have a passion for digital media and a drive to show others’ innovative practice going on now in schools, colleges and HE institutions. I think the change is happening too fast for academia and part of what this site is about is documenting and mapping those pivotal changes as they evolve through the eyes of those individuals who have the vision to innovate.

I’ve been interviewing people for over five years now and I am beginning to sense a wider change starting to happen so I’ll be out and about interviewing people on video about how innovation, informal learning and bottom up practice might change education in the UK and how it could do that in practical and scalable ways.

I’m not really interested in formalising this activity but more about disseminating how such behaviours might effect change in some small way or get people to consider doing things differently over time in both strategic and localised contexts within their own communities.

I’ll also be challenging policy makers to enter the debate and show some interest other than just through traditional media, soundbites or third party buffers - that certainly will be a challenge.

It should be a busy year.