#Bett16 #Bett2016 Not At Bett don't despair - A Survival Guide for following #BETT Week

It is really a great privilege  to get in and around the largest educational technology conference in the world. I hope folks who are in and around the conference appreciate that and make the most of social media to share their experience of the event.

But you can now engage with it from your mobile device - wherever you are.

Here is a quick survival guide for those who can't make the conference in person this year but want to follow what is happening through twitter or by other means

The main conference hashtag is #BETT2016 . There are a range of tools that will let you monitor the twitter feed and filter out the sales patter.  Filtering out the sales patter is what you need to do too  if you are there in person.

It is worth having a look at the sections of the programme you are interested in http://www.bettshow.com/

The three strands I have an interest in are the  FE and Skills , Technology in Higher Education, and Leadership in Education .

The buzz starts before BETT with the Education World Forum #EWF2016 for policy makers and ministerial teams http://www.theewf.org/  . This conference usually runs on Monday , Tuesday and Wednesday with Wednesday being the day the internatonal policy delegates are brought over to the BETT Conference.

The EWF can be a bit of an advertorial for the English education and skills system -which often masquerades at this international event as the "UK Education and Skills system"  - so great to see that this year Angela Constance the Scottish Minister for Education has a speaking slot http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Scottish-education-on-the-world-stage-2164.aspx .

There won't be a lot of tweets from #EWF2016 but worth watching out for links to the keynote's presentations.  https://twitter.com/hashtag/ewf2016

On day one the Education World Forum ,  Education Fast Forward held a session for the global delegates on literacy challenges around the world.

You can find tweets and links from this morning's debate #EFF16 and you can find a recording of the debate here http://www.effdebate.org/eff16/

Over the course of this week I am looking forward to seeing some updates on JISC work around FE and Skills and the work that has been done to date by the FELTAG Coalition Group http://feltag.org.uk/feltag-coalition/


Wed
Look out for English Minister for Education Address to delegates.
Watch out who wins the #Bettawards in the evening - often a reasonable indicator of interesting work.

Thursday
Usually day that vendors like Microsoft and others get to show off something new and make announcements.

Friday
Teachmeet - can be worth a follow - though Teachmeet Bett is on an epic scale
http://teachmeet.pbworks.com/w/page/103885843/TMBett16  #tmbett16

Around Bett time worth following - some of these folks - I will come back and add some more

https://twitter.com/innovativeteach
https://twitter.com/bobharrisonset
https://twitter.com/eyebeams

#BYOD4L Day Two of On-line Course

I am taking part in a open on-line course https://byod4learning.wordpress.com/ 

Today is day two and I was set some questions -


 1. State how you currently communicate with others in your private and professional life.

I use a range of tools to support my work and my professional development.  Here is a list of the current tools that I use regularly and a timeline of my adoption of these.  It does not happen overnight.

If you have a look at some of the earlier postings on this blog you will get a feel for the range of tools that I have used in the past.

I use Facebook and some other tools only in my private life .

I am comfortable managing both my professional digital identity and my private digital identity.
You can find me on most of these platforms - I adopted the moniker 'joecar' as the  internet arrived and I was living and working in an area of Glasgow called Cardonald  -so Joe at Cardonald College became joecar. If you do an internet search or a search on one of these platforms you will find me as joecar or joecar80 and sometimes as Joe Wilson.

With foresight I could have adopted a more professional by-line but it still reflects my approach to much of this area.  Everything is in Beta and you should have a healthy questioning distrust of experts.


2. Discuss at least one of the scenarios and identify how this/these links/link to your own practice

These apply to both scenarios -

In both scenarios learners and practitioners need to adopt an open and collaborative mind-set and see the value that investing a little time in sharing brings.

Learning now happens beyond and institution. Private sector organisations are threatened by the porousness of information flows but in reality it is something that we all need to embrace.

In my practice I try to exemplify this :

By sharing lots of relevant links and ideas and encouraging people to network through relevant on-line social platforms .It is worth following some key individuals on twitter or other social platforms even if you are just lurking - experience builds confidence.

By encouraging others to become open practitioners while supporting and protecting them around managing their digital identities.

By encouraging teachers and learners - we are all learners - to share their learning journeys and share useful resources openly.


3. Explore opportunities to enhance your communication strategy with peers, tutors and the wider community using smart devices to support inclusive learning and teaching in and outside the classroom.

At moment I am interested in Pinterest as a vehicle building quick e-portfolios for learners .  Learners in the know do a lot of collaboration through tools like Snapchat and Instagram.  If we want all learners to have the same opportunity we need to ensure that they all  have excellent digital literacy skills .

Presentation from #IODScotcon

Last week I had an opportunity to speak at the Institute of Directors annual Conference in Scotland . I ran a workshop on ways that organisations can shape what Colleges deliver. My slides are a combination of slides from CDN , from Colleges Scotland , from SCQF from SQA and from Education Scotland - as all the public partners in Scotland are focused on Developing Scotland's Young Workforce and working in partnership with employers .

How Learners want you to use technology #ScotEdChat

I have run this as a session a couple of times . Once with the assembled staff of West College Scotland and a couple of times more intimately with the boards of some Colleges looking for the answer to the 'what next " question or even the what's happening now question.

It's actually more about the things that are easily in reach for the technically terrified than it is about global change and  the massive global changes that are happening in learning delivery.

I focus on things like what I would do with my Youtube channel if I was still in classroom . No it wouldn't be a homage to my 14 years in the classroom it would be a set of great learning resources borrowed from lots of other people and organisations etc

I give examples of how I continue to use all of the tools listed on the early slide.  I should really have a much longer slide of all the tools I no longer use - to illustrate that we should not fear obsolescence in moving the learning dialogue forward.

I pick examples where folk have said it couldn't be done !  - teaching art and photography to degree level on line for instance - both Scottish and UK examples .  You don't have to be rich to innovate and disrupt in this space any longer. Open is a way of doing things and not just a brand in Education.

I highlight not the big things happening in USA and global spaces but Tute and tools that are helping learners - better to have a tutor supporting young learners on line than old model of the tutor visiting your children at home.

And I encourage folk to get on and move into this space and use the networking tools that are available ,  before it is homogenised by commercial publishers, who want to own if not our learners souls, then at least their full browsing and on-line purchasing history.

Someone pointed out that 'facebook' is not on this list . Yes I use facebook and lots of other tools but not in the learning space - that is another slide deck on managing your digital identity.

I've probably still to do some attribution on some of these slides - but will get there .

How to use technology with learners from Joe Wilson

College Development Network - Leading Creating Sharing #Scotedchat

Yes we do have our own website but I do keep being asked 'so what does the College Development Network do ? " thankfully by folk out with the college sector . And we have been doing a refresh around values mission and all the things that give an organisation and the team that necessary set of purpose and focus -

So here is some shorthand around what CDN does.

I thought I'd include the #scotedchat tag as some innovative folks were trying to promote this over the weekend . Learners know all about life long learning and learning journeys . We need to remind ourselves sometimes that it is too easy to work in silos - sharing really helps across systems

College Development Network Strategy from Joe Wilson

#dangeroused Festival of Dangerous Ideas

I made a promise today to do a quick post on the launch of this year's Emporium of Dangerous Ideas held in Govanhill Baths.

We were challenged to describe the change we wanted to make and explain what was holding us back.  

In terms of change 

I'd like learning to be a much more collaborative activity to reflect both how learners learn and the speed that we all now need to work at .  

I promised that I would do more to tell others that is what I think , hence this blog post . 

I also decided the best way to get this change was to reach out to other people who work in education, learning and training . Those of you that know me know I have been doing this for a while .  But perhaps I need to tackle things in different ways.

I am a great believer in everything being in beta .  But most people are scared of this.

The most interesting and notable things I've achieved I've achieved working in , with or leading great teams. So I know I can eventually convince people, but to make the change I want we need more people to embrace new ways of working.

I was challenged too on why I was not doing more to make this change happen . 

Why I was not leading this change .

On reflection I don't mind challenging thinking but I probably spend too much time with those who are already convinced that this is the future and not enough time with those who don't look at new ways of working and communicating online.

I probably don't spend enough time thinking about the barriers that are holding back others from jumping in at the deep end and finding the right ways to motivate them.

In the nicest possible way over the next month or two . I'm going to encourage more folk to jump in. 

All Change - Reflections on College Development Network

http://www.collegedevelopmentnetwork.ac.uk

I've arrived and I am taking some great people on a journey that is in some respects back to the future. When I worked here in a previous life the organisation benefited from 30% of its funding coming from the funding council and we generated the other 70% through charging for service delivery and through project based funding from a range of sources. We need to get back to this model for long term sustainability.

With the support of an energetic chair , a supportive board , and the support of College Chairs and Principals , change is now under way on a number of fronts. 

We have  new organisational structure . I am currently filling a Marketing and Communications Manager and Business Development Officer post and gratified that we have a very strong field of applications. We've also shuffled roles and responsibilities to make us more outward and delivery  focused. 

We've finalised tenancy agreements with Colleges Scotland , JISC and the Energy Skills  Partnership, who we host in our offices at Argyll Court. We've got some modest plans too for an office re-configuration.

We've switching over to Microsoft 365 and moving mail , documents , the works up into the cloud to improve our productivity 

We've just appointed a developer for a new wordpress based website . Which will make content management and workflow much easier and will make blogging and telling the story of what we do much easier for all of our advisers and for our customers.

After a brief hiatus ..but we haven't got a social software policy !  < we did > and a bit of training, I've got all the advisers onto twitter . The next bit is reflective blogs . Social software is the way of doing the business of learning and  not just an adjunct for the enthusiasts. We all need a personal learning network.

Still work in progress but our subject and specialist networks will move out from the big database of contact emails and 'once again ' are moving back towards becoming online networks where we can stimulate these into becoming communities of practice . With all the change that has gone on in the sector not least in personnel this is a major task.

In terms of informing what we do, we  have a robust collection of Principals , Depute and Assistant Principals from across the sector  on our development committee and we have once again a system of named contacts in place and an annual engagement schedule for every College in Scotland . This combined with ongoing communication with Scottish Government, Education Scotland , Scottish Funding Council , Skills Development Scotland and other relevant stakeholders across the public and private sector should mean that our offerings are in line with both what our customers need and in line with meeting the national outcomes and most of all the needs of learners. 

Work in progress here includes a new handbook for College Board Members and an agreed programme for College leaders for first line , second line and senior managers in the sector that reflect the strategic and operational needs of the new regional college structure and allows lots of scope for innovative and dangerous thinking.

Looking forward the challenges for the sector are - managing at scale across new regional college structures and ensuring effective regional outcome agreements  , the challenges that a new funding formula will bring , the development of new approaches to external quality evaluation from Education Scotland and towards new standards for entry and CPD for College teaching staff, to be in place by 2017.

These are the big ticket items . Above all I want to support a sector that delivers much more flexibly either on line , blended or face to face that serves the needs and aspirations of Scotland's life long learners and beyond. 

We will achieve this through leading , creating and sharing which will be  under pinned by the creative use of technology and by building a culture of collaboration , sharing and trust 

If you have ideas that will shake the pillars of learning . We have a great team and we are ready for business .