Learn 4 Life

Giving ICT CPD for E-Safety in Second Life

In this interview I talk with Carol Rainbow about how she has managed to evolve ICT CPD for E-Safety inside Second Life.

Carol is an ICT consultant for Oxfordshire and is probably the only person in the UK who is using Second Life to deliver CPD at school Local Authority level in this way.

A lot of corporate firms spend some considerable time building elaborate ‘orientation’ areas to provide solutions for staff training. Carol, however, concentrates on building a community of practice from the start inside Second Life.

Teachers’ log in from their own homes and the training sessions are held later in the evening. She gives people just enough information to be able to get to the training area and communicate effectively.

This video provides a very thorough basic outline in scaffolding how to hold such a session. She will be talking in more depth about the process at the free Learn 4 Life conference in Second Life on the Learn 4 Life Island on Saturday 14th November 11am - 3pm GMT. If you are interested in securing a ticket for this event please register in the form below.

In the video below is a video record of one of her sessions:

And in the following video there is a collaborative exercise in making an E-Safety poster in Second Life.

Please sign up above for the event - there are only 15 tickets left…

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.

Outside the wire - why you should use Twitter - interview with the amazing Drew Buddie

Photo attribution Mr Ush AKA Ian Usher on Flickr CC

Why you should use Twitter

I have just interviewed Drew Buddie (AKA digitalmaverik on Twitter) about his escapades with Twitter over the weekend at the Isle of Wight Conference. He also talks about his involvement at the e-competent tutor meeting today.

Twitter at the Isle of Wight Conference 2008

First off I have to say that I wasn’t at either event but I did talk with Joe Dale at the Isle of Wight Conference on MFL over FlashMeeting. The buzz at the meeting was nothing I had ever experienced before - Joe had obviously put an immense amount of effort into the conference and the delegates where literally ecstactic about the event. I appreciate the hard work that obviously went into that and it was an amazing success. It was a truly collaborative event with people using digital media like Twitter, FlashMeeting, and dynamic web pages to show the world how to run a CPD event for teachers. All that effort and collaboration really showed in the feedback delegates were giving on camera at the end.

Drew gave a session on Twitter and not only that his feedback forms were put online as well! He talks of how students showed teachers a few things as well. Excellent - this is just how to run a conference. I asked Joe if any SLT were there and it seems not. Let’s hope they get enthusiastic staff beating down their doors to demand this is the way they should do things in the future. Perhaps the upcoming NCSL Teachmeet in Nottingham May 2009 will turn a few heads but somehow I suspect word will have got around by then.

He also outlines what happened at the e-competent HE tutor workshop and how Ning was used to augment the day. You can pick up the Tweets of both meetings by clicking these links iowconference08 and ect08.

We need CPD like this now everywhere and for everyone

Both these events were excellent exemplars of how to do CPD. Highly dynamic, collaborative and engaging. But I won’t write any more just listen to Drew talking - his passion for what he does shines out. This is the start of a revolution in Digital Learning and I can see this threading through the teaching community just as the use of USB sticks did when they first came out. But don’t take my word for it - just listen to the podcast.

Drew’s Interview.

Interview with Doug Belshaw

In my last interview of the summer with key individuals in the Educational Web 2.0 world I talked with the amazing Doug Belshaw.

Not only does he write an amazingly detailed practitioner blog
http://teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk/, he is one of the leading lights behind the revolutionary NextGen Teachers Web 2.0 Ning social networking group and he also manages to do all this and cope with newly acquired fatherhood.

I have a lot of respect for his determination and vision. This country needs more teachers like Doug and they should be set up as examples of how to do it for the new generation of ultra professional teachers who are totally dedicated to their craft.

Doug Belshaw is currently a ‘Teacher of Humanities’ at Ridgewood School in Doncaster, an engineering specialist school, and very successful academically with 80% A*-C at GCSE last year. His one-year maternity-cover contract for this academic year has been extended to next and after that, he is hoping to be appointed Head of Department somewhere…

Doug has a very deep insight into how ICT, Web 2.0 and Social Networking technologies can be used in school from a practitioner perspective. If you are a teacher who has started out down this road listen to Doug speaking about his experiences here.

http://blip.tv/file/get/Learn4life-InterviewWithDougBelshaw249.mp3

Interview with Mark Berthelemy

Last August I sat down to talk with key practitioners and thinkers on use of Web 2.0 and professional development in schools. One of the most interesting people with the greatest scope of experience and insight is Mark Berthelemy, Learning Solutions Architect, Capita Learning and Development. He had some fascinating things to say about the whole process of CPD in schools. The discussion ranged over many topics and his expertise and research in this field is second to none.

Have a listen to the podcast here or play the file at the end of the entry. http://blip.tv/file/get/Learn4life-InterviewWithMarkBerthelemy612.mp3