Spent today at Blackpool and the Fylde College discussing their wonderful scholarly activity programme, Teaching Quality Enhancement Funding and the FEAlliance which exists to bring together Further Education colleagues by providing networking opportunities that will inform the FE Sector about the communities collective views.
As a result of some workshops our centre ran about a year ago Imperial House Publishing has been commissioned by the FEAlliance to publish a journal which is intended to assist FECs and their partners to share good practice, develop their research capabilities and provide an exciting and valued body of knowledge for further reflection and debate.
The FEAlliance recognises that most FE staff including Academic, Administrative and Corporate, undertake day-to-day work or study for qualifications that yield knowledge, research, assignments, studies and reports that would not only benefit their own department but also staff in other colleges. The journal has been conceived in order to provide a platform for these staff to publish their work and raise their professional standing by sharing good practice and knowledge across educational institutions.
As a result of this meeting, I've agreed to run a joint workshop at the HEA/QAA collaborative conference towards the end of this month which will explore perceptions of scholarly activity in the FE sector, and how Blackpool & the Fylde have supported and developed scholarship through their innovative TQEF project and the FE Alliance Journal, Issue 3 of which celebrates a number of papers relating to HE in FE and should be available for distribution any day now.
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
So far south, it's almost in France...
On what is now my last day before flying to Portugal for some winter sun, I'm now on the way home from two days working on a much-warmer-than-Yorkshire South Coast where I've been presenting to 30+ FEC engineers at an airport in the Sussex Downs, and around 40 performing arts lecturers in Worthing (both part of Northbrook College) on why bother doing, and how to go about, scholarly activity and writing for publication.
So warm, that it's got me wondering whether the four hour journey home & getting up at 5am for a 4 hour flight is worth it, & maybe I ought to just stay in Brighton for two weeks...
So warm, that it's got me wondering whether the four hour journey home & getting up at 5am for a 4 hour flight is worth it, & maybe I ought to just stay in Brighton for two weeks...
Saturday, 6 December 2008
Who ate all the pie?
3rd/4th December, Bolton
As a reward for my concerted efforts at a two-day event on the Student Learning Experience , I got to stay in a very posh hotel (the Reebok) and find out what a £20 steak pie tastes like. Disappointingly, it turned out to be pretty much the same as a £5 one, but was probably placed on the nice plate very carefully and with much pride. After all, how else could they justify £20 for a pie in Bolton?
Other than sampling the culinary delights of the North West, delegates from a diverse range of institutions (e.g. HEA Subject Centres, JISC RSCs, FECs, HEIs and a LLN) discussed student expectations, experiences and encounters with higher education, challenges and priorities for the HE sector in using technology by:
As a reward for my concerted efforts at a two-day event on the Student Learning Experience , I got to stay in a very posh hotel (the Reebok) and find out what a £20 steak pie tastes like. Disappointingly, it turned out to be pretty much the same as a £5 one, but was probably placed on the nice plate very carefully and with much pride. After all, how else could they justify £20 for a pie in Bolton?
Other than sampling the culinary delights of the North West, delegates from a diverse range of institutions (e.g. HEA Subject Centres, JISC RSCs, FECs, HEIs and a LLN) discussed student expectations, experiences and encounters with higher education, challenges and priorities for the HE sector in using technology by:
- considering the effectiveness of resources which have been developed to support the student learning experience,
- considering how to improve access to and take up of resources for a range of stakeholders,
identify additional developments/support that may be required to support the student ‘life cycle’, - exploring how organisations might collaborate further to enhance support for the HE student learning experience.
Monday, 24 November 2008
PWL 2 - The story so far
Spent today finalising the programme for the next HEA HE in FE conference at Scarman House on May 13th - "Playing with Learning 2: Making the Connection".
This year's doubtless fantastic conference will involve Alan Mortiboys (from Birmingham), Colin Beard (from SHU), Kirsten Hardie (from Bournemouth) and a courtroom theme "you, the lecturer, stand accused of failing to engage your learners etc..." (or something like that anyway).
It will also have 4 workshops, a man wearing a papier-mâché head, another graphically-facillitated large painting (might need another house with an extra room for it to go in) and more freebies.
The local JISC RSC are providing voting tablets (delegates=jurors) and technical support for the day, but insisted on some social networking angle so we don't have to pay. Unfortunately, this got translated into a reason for incorporating Second Life so I now need to find someone to facillitate the attendance of assorted daleks, falcons, teddy bears & talking vending machines at my flagship production...
This year's doubtless fantastic conference will involve Alan Mortiboys (from Birmingham), Colin Beard (from SHU), Kirsten Hardie (from Bournemouth) and a courtroom theme "you, the lecturer, stand accused of failing to engage your learners etc..." (or something like that anyway).
It will also have 4 workshops, a man wearing a papier-mâché head, another graphically-facillitated large painting (might need another house with an extra room for it to go in) and more freebies.
The local JISC RSC are providing voting tablets (delegates=jurors) and technical support for the day, but insisted on some social networking angle so we don't have to pay. Unfortunately, this got translated into a reason for incorporating Second Life so I now need to find someone to facillitate the attendance of assorted daleks, falcons, teddy bears & talking vending machines at my flagship production...
Thursday, 13 November 2008
HELP (& advice)
No, not a request for assistance, but an acronym for the Higher Education Learning Partnerships CETL (based at the University of Plymouth) who invited me to make two 7 hour train journeys in order to be part of their 2-day Advisory Board, most of which was taken up with helping them to plan their "HE in FE: A Partnership Perspective" conference next year.
Most of day 1 (2 pm start as some of us had been imprisoned on a train since 6am) was taken up by various HELP CETL employees describing what they've done since inception & their plans for the next year, and an ex-consultant to fdf outlining an evaluation report which I'd read last week.
Day 2 (9am start so that some of us could get home for 10pm), mainly concerned their conference & how to evaluate its success/impact, and who, if anybody, would care if the CETL wasn't going to organise a subsequent event for 2010 (but they might).
Most of day 1 (2 pm start as some of us had been imprisoned on a train since 6am) was taken up by various HELP CETL employees describing what they've done since inception & their plans for the next year, and an ex-consultant to fdf outlining an evaluation report which I'd read last week.
Day 2 (9am start so that some of us could get home for 10pm), mainly concerned their conference & how to evaluate its success/impact, and who, if anybody, would care if the CETL wasn't going to organise a subsequent event for 2010 (but they might).
VETNET LLN Annual Conference
5th November 2008, London
Working with MEDEV's Megan Quentin-Baxter and Gillian Brown, I helped to run a workshop on "Making use of resources to support education: Health and Life Sciences". JISC Intute's Laurian Williamson also contributed to a session attended by approximately one third of the 95 conference delegates.
Participants were given a very short presentation to outline who the presneters are and what they do, then broken up into small groups to examine some of the resources available such as the Assessment Playing Cards and a Student/Lecturer interview DVD.
Our session was particularly well-recieved (anecdotal evidence only at the moment, particularly in contrast to the LANTRA 14-19 one which took place next door apparently), and the University of Gloucestershire's Professor Stephen Hill wondered whether I would assist in their college liaison programme - nice to be asked.
Other sessions over the day included:
The Appeal of APEL
Barriers to Progression for Vocational Learners
Information and Advice (but not guidance!)
Curricular hurdles to vocational progression
Supporting vocational students transition to higher education
Curriculum response to employer needs
Curriculum development to stretch talented vocational learners
There were also a couple a keynotes which were too subject-specific to be of interest to anybody who's not a vet. And even if you were, they might not have been that exciting. Wouldn't have thought so, but can't be sure...
Working with MEDEV's Megan Quentin-Baxter and Gillian Brown, I helped to run a workshop on "Making use of resources to support education: Health and Life Sciences". JISC Intute's Laurian Williamson also contributed to a session attended by approximately one third of the 95 conference delegates.
Participants were given a very short presentation to outline who the presneters are and what they do, then broken up into small groups to examine some of the resources available such as the Assessment Playing Cards and a Student/Lecturer interview DVD.
Our session was particularly well-recieved (anecdotal evidence only at the moment, particularly in contrast to the LANTRA 14-19 one which took place next door apparently), and the University of Gloucestershire's Professor Stephen Hill wondered whether I would assist in their college liaison programme - nice to be asked.
Other sessions over the day included:
The Appeal of APEL
Barriers to Progression for Vocational Learners
Information and Advice (but not guidance!)
Curricular hurdles to vocational progression
Supporting vocational students transition to higher education
Curriculum response to employer needs
Curriculum development to stretch talented vocational learners
There were also a couple a keynotes which were too subject-specific to be of interest to anybody who's not a vet. And even if you were, they might not have been that exciting. Wouldn't have thought so, but can't be sure...
Saturday, 30 August 2008
ICS Annual Conference, Liverpool
26 - 28 August 2008,
Liverpool Hope University
As usual, the necessity to travel on a bank holiday did nothing to dampen anybody's enthusiasm for what is always an enjoyable conference experience (as evidenced by the majority of delegates attending year-on-year).
After 4 preliminary workshops and a formal opening by ICS's Pr G.McAllister, the first keynote by Stanford University's Eric Roberts entertained over 100 Computer and Information Science lecturers with "Rediscovering the Passion, Beauty, Joy, and Awe: Making Computing Fun Again".
Multiple sessions (including ones chaired by me) covered themes such as:
Liverpool Hope University
As usual, the necessity to travel on a bank holiday did nothing to dampen anybody's enthusiasm for what is always an enjoyable conference experience (as evidenced by the majority of delegates attending year-on-year).
After 4 preliminary workshops and a formal opening by ICS's Pr G.McAllister, the first keynote by Stanford University's Eric Roberts entertained over 100 Computer and Information Science lecturers with "Rediscovering the Passion, Beauty, Joy, and Awe: Making Computing Fun Again".
Multiple sessions (including ones chaired by me) covered themes such as:
- Supporting New Academic Staff
- Emerging Technologies
- Evaluating Learning and Teaching
- Pedagogic Innovation
- Groupwork and Collaborative Learning
- Improving Assessment and Student Feedback
- Managing Change
- First Year Experience
- Enhancing Employer Engagement
- Internationalisation
- Outreach and Widening Participation
- Responding to National Policy
- Computer Ethics and Social Responsibility
- Teaching and Research Nexus
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