Game playing on the IWB has to be more fun and interactive than watching a video – right? Preston College is generous enough to share it’s CPD so in the interests of using my smartboard interactively rather than it just being a projector:

The point is that by sharing this on Youtube Preston College didn’t just provide CPD in an easily accessible format for their own staff. Any other teacher any where in the world can quickly and easily learn from this video, watch it as often as they need to, practice and refine the technique they’ve learned and possibly in time share it with others. Maybe even make a video of their own learning that builds on this.

Good stuff

I was having a frustrated moment when I asked friends ( loose definition,ok twitter contacts) if people attending CPD sessions really need paper handouts. I’d decided to provide CDs with everything on, a wiki page, and not bother with paper for an upcoming session. It made sense to me and I was thinking of the planet!

Mike‘s reply in particular struck home. Feedback I’ve had from previous sessions has suggested exactly that, especially the “more time, different time”.
I’d also seen another friend saying the only negative feedback she’d had for her last session was about the lack of printed material.
So once again, I need to remember that I am not my learners. I hate handouts. They are heavy, take up space and resources and generally get in the way. Eventually they end up torn, lost or filed in the bin. But then I don’t print stuff out to read. Ever. I get frustrated when I can’t copy & paste or grab quotes. I hate having to type from a paper copy. Oh and Argh! I want to be able to click the links! This is not everyone’s way of doing things.
I have become a creature of the internet. In the main my learners are not. They have to be coaxed and reassured into the online environment. Insisting they can only re-read my notes if they go online is a step too far. I might think they ought to be able to handle it and go off on one about them being teachers but really, what do I want? I want them to be able to access and re-read my notes, to reflect on what I said. I want them to turn my ‘training’ into their own ‘learning’.

As Neil said (in the #lmchat), they take away the training but the learning they do themselves.
Off to prepare some printed handouts. I’ll still give them the CD and do a wiki page. There might be someone like me there

Update :

GMTKT said “read yr blog but yr orig tweet didn’t mention CPD, that puts a slight twist on the answer.” and she’s right. That’s one of the limitations of twitter conversations, just not enough space to give all the details or for people not to know the context or jargon. Also here is what I thought was my original tweet:

Quick question – do you expect paper handouts as well as a CD from a twilight session?

To me, and to many of my followers who are UK primary school teachers the word ‘twilight’ automatically means it’s about teachers and their CPD. Obviously not to everyone on twitter and then, well that wasn’t what she was replying to:

what have I learned today? That some people want paper handouts not online or on a CD even if I don’t think they need them #lmchat

which does indeed give it a different twist. In 140 characters it was indeed ‘what I learned today’ but it couldn’t carry the context within those restrictions.

What did I learn today? Twitter conversations are context poor, limited and don’t thread properly.

It’s Blog Action Day for climate change today but last night Andy Roberts took the initiative and brought BAD to our local folk club:

Andy says on his blog:

Blog Action Day – When The Waters Rise

I mentioned Blog Action Day at the end of performing a version of my song “When The Waters Rise” on the eve of #BAD09 last night at Havering Folk Club

It’s a good example of the blurring boundaries between online and offline interaction. Artifacts, social objects, issues, aren’t situated in just one space whether online or off. It’s all real and there’s nothing ‘virtual’ about it.

To coin a phrase (familiar perhaps to Ultranaughts)

He tangata he tangata he tangata

It’s people, it’s people, it’s people

I’ve moved my main blog over to Linda M Hartley.co.uk

I’ll still blog here about matters educational and about things to do with The Classroom Displays Blog. However my online interests are much broader these days so a new blog seemed in order.

I’ll be writing mostly about writing online and off and about blogging. I’ve got a theme that lets me do very quick microblogging updates as well so there will be a mix of these and longer more substantial posts.

There’s also a lifestream page where you can see almost everything I’ve been doing all in one place. Fun

Do come and join me over there if you think you might be interested. All are welcome but there will be less stuff about teaching and education.

Update - comments closed on this post due to too many spammy comments. It seems to be ranking for the phrase ‘moving house’ and that’s attracting some human spam comments. It’s wordpress folks – y’know, ‘no follow’ links in the comments? Sheesh!

It is not easy being a digital nomad

I’m out of a comfort zone I didn’t even realise mattered to me. I thought I already was location independent really. I work on a laptop and I have for the last 6 years. It travelled up and down the country twice a month all the way through the degree and I worked at both houses, no desk at either, and on the trains.
Now I live in one place but I don’t have a desk so I just perch where ever I can in the house. Occasionally I even stick the laptop in it’s bag and take it somewhere else to work. So I didn’t feel particularly tied to one place, till now.

This latest trip is a bit of a try out for more extended absences from base. Instead of taking ordinary holidays this year the idea is to take extended trips and work for parts of each day. And I’ve been surprised to discover it’s really not that easy.

Mobile Broadband

This is great when it works well but seems strangely intermittent. It may even be affected by the weather! I can get 2G connection some of the time but it’s too slow to do much of what I need to do. The 3G connection is faster but rare.

Location

This leads directly to the issue of where in the house I can work. Some rooms are better than others for comfort or convenience and some for the connection. Everything is compromise. There isn’t an ideal solution.

Work

• Email is fine, reliable but a bit slow to open.
• Multi-tasking with lots of tabs open is not possible
• Blogging’s hard, but not impossible thanks to MarsEdit. I can create drafts and upload them when I’ve got a good connection.
• I can’t add photos very easily, upload takes too long & connection gets lost. Hence no photo in this post, gave up on the 3rd attempt.
• Quickly checking facts and adding links is a bit of a challenge.
• Research for new posts is out of the question

Time Travel

It’s really a bit like time travelling back to a world before broadband and always on internet.

It’s not like coming away and knowing you’ll have no connection. Then there’s not temptation to do any of the ‘normal’ routine of things and the online world is soon forgotten.

The Up Side

On the plus side, like having no internet, it makes it easier to concentrate on a single task, like a piece of writing. On the first day I finally got round to writing a short e-booklet about Classroom Displays I’ve had rattling round my head for months.

Not to mention the walks by the creek, little egrets, the wind in my hair, charming Cornish pubs, watching the surf, green everywhere, birdsong, rabbits in the hedgerows and the pot, and dark nights with no light pollution, no traffic noise, no tubes, no hoards of people.

All of which I would illustrate with a photo, if only I could upload one!

Better preparation

Trouble is that I ran out of well researched things to work on. That’s got to be the major learning from this.

I can work on stuff in draft and upload in a batch, things can get done but I need to do far more preparation and research in advance.

This is a challenge as it’s not my usual way of working. I expect there will be lots of creaking, groaning and moaning till I get used to it.

Why bother?

I’m a bit of a nomad at heart. I’ve never lived in one place for a huge amount of time and I don’t really feel the need to put down roots. I like not having much stuff and being able to just pick up and go. I always wanted to own a yurt (ger) from being very young. (I blame a project I did about Mongolia when I was in junior school !). I love to travel, love the feel of being in different places.

When we work out how make it work we’ll be able to combine work with longer trips and travel more. It’s bumpy just now but it’s got to be worth exploring.

Now to see if I can post this, wish me luck!

Update  – comments now open