PWL 2 : Still glowing like a RediBrek kid outside Sellafield!

Scarman House, Warwick
After 11 months of anticipation and 9 months of planning, Playing with Learning 2 : Making Connections finally arrived to showcase what conferences should be about.
Starting with yours truly doing the welcomes and setting the tone for the day, we then had Gary King, Britain's No1 Graphic Facilitator, explaining how/why he was going to create this year's conference image (last year's is below).

My good friend Kev Brace from the local JISC RSC demoed some interactive voting buttons supplied by Promethian and showed how we were going to use them during the day, followed by Dr Colin Beard and Pr Alan Mortiboys staging a "Desert Island Discuss" - yes, with music - about teaching with emotional intelligence.
Prior to an interruption from a pair of puppets beamed in from California (really the room next door via Huddersfield and back - courtesy of Direct Visual), Kirsten Hardie described her NTFS-recognised "On trial" teaching technique that would follow what proved to be an excellent lunch. Using students - yes we actually get them to participate - and volunteer delegates as prosecuting/defence counsels etc, we put the nation's educators on trial as "not using technology effectively to the benefit of their students". Guilty, by the way. After attending a choice of one from four workshops (while I helped to disassemble our television studio), the delegates gathered again in the main auditorium for 45 minutes worth of final summations from Gary King, Kirsten Hardie & me, before exchanging their feedback sheets (see below) for a free copy of Alan Mortiboy's latest book.

Sample comments include:

• "The best event I've been to since 1994" (We can probably assume that he/she started teaching then, not that 1994 was a landmark year for education!).
• "Not just talking about innovative delivery, actually doing it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - why can't all staff development be like this?"
• "A truly wonderful day out, thank you, thank you, thank you"
• "Will be including some of this in my teaching from tomorrow - first time I've ever been able to say that"
• "Thanks for a great event. Truly inspirational"
• "I just wish that all my colleagues had been there too. The ripples of the impact of this event will spread ever outward. It was terrific to be involved in such a high quality event."

Lights, camera, action!

As Playing With Learning 2 now includes a hamper of puppets (think that's the correct collective noun: apologies for showing off if it is; serious embarassment if it isn't), I had to find out if the company filming the day could set up some sort of teleconferencing facility in Scarman House so that the puppeteers could work in a different room - one reserved for the afternoon workshops - to the main event, preferably at no extra cost.
Technically, it turns out to be no problem at all - probably! - and after I've outlined how much more beneficial to them the footage will be for their own promotional work, it fortunately won't cost any extra except a couple of beers the night before & additional stress on the day while I worry about something else that could go wrong...

Master of Puppets

Denby Dale (home of the world famous pie)
Spent this afternoon with a puppetry company called Get Your Head Round It! who currently specialise in teacher's lesson plans, DVDs and semi-improvised workshops covering four subject areas: Sexual Health & Relationships, Careers, Drugs & Alcohol, & Citizenship. Although their work is aimed at teenagers, it had been suggested to me that they might make an interesting addition to Playing With Learning 2 if they/we could come up with a suitable scenario/characterisation to include in Kirsten Hardy's "On Trial" part of the conference. As they're keen to work at a higher educational level, and the conference's intention is to explore the boundaries of innovative teaching & ways of engaging students, I travelled across West Yorkshire with a distinct feeling of doubt that there could be any kind of degree-level pedagogic value in adding some talking dolls to the grand day out, even if they are life-sized & operated by professionals.
Four hours of discussions later, and our student witnessness for the prosecution have been briefed and signed-up, ready to tell all about why it's the lecturers fault that they don't attend, work or achieve. Although it'll necessitate interviews by a remote link (as is sometimes the case with vulnerable adults/children in real court cases), having caricature students will prevent any associations with real institutions/individuals, and allow for exaggerated situations and comments on both sides. As Direct Visual are filming the day, the enhanced impact of the puppetry (would you ever have watched Spitting Image if it had been real people making those "jokes"?), ought to make the final DVD more interesting to people who weren't there, and hopefully help to engender comment/debate about the techniques used on the day - even if it is only "so were you responsible for that the conference with the puppets then?"