The big day!
After 3 months of planning and publicising, 85 (who according to their feedback sheets were very happy) delegates attended what will now be an annual HE/FE conference organised in association with EIAT Consultancy.
Keynotes were delivered by John Widdowson: Principal and Chief Executive, New Durham College & Chair of the MEG Group, David Jenkins: Director of Educational Partnerships, Staffordshire University, Executive for Associate for Collaborative Provision, and Charlie Woodcock: Executive Director Business & Community Development, Chester University, and I ran two workshops on "Scholarly Activity and Applying for Third-Party Funding to Support it" with Madeleine King.
Not only will the conference pay for two weeks somewhere equatorial in the new year, but 4 colleges offered me staff development work in February/March and one of the delegates asked if I could help her put together a Scholarly Activity conference next Summer.
Full programme details can be found at http://www.eiat.org/hefeconference.php
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Strategic Priorities Conference Dinner
Queens Hotel, Leeds
Spent a very enjoyable evening at our pre-conference dinner discussing amongst other things (leaving the "work talk" until tomorrow) such random topics as phantom whippets and pigeons with the Association of Colleges HE Policy Manager Madeleine King, why there's no real ale south of Sheffield with the Mixed Economy Group's Chair John Widdowson, and how LUFC will be back in the big time possibly at Stoke City's expense with David Jenkins from Staffordshire University/SURF/ACP.
Although the company has been stimulating and the food/wine excellent, unfortunately it's bedtime as there's serious work to be done in the morning...
Spent a very enjoyable evening at our pre-conference dinner discussing amongst other things (leaving the "work talk" until tomorrow) such random topics as phantom whippets and pigeons with the Association of Colleges HE Policy Manager Madeleine King, why there's no real ale south of Sheffield with the Mixed Economy Group's Chair John Widdowson, and how LUFC will be back in the big time possibly at Stoke City's expense with David Jenkins from Staffordshire University/SURF/ACP.
Although the company has been stimulating and the food/wine excellent, unfortunately it's bedtime as there's serious work to be done in the morning...
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Acronymed Out!
As I'm now on a train heading North after attending today's HEFCE FEC Data Day at the Regent's Park Holiday Inn, I'm wondering who decided that everybody in education had to have some sort of snappy acronym to confuse first-time delegates at these kind of events.
In no particular order there was NUS, HEA, IFF, HEFCE, TQI, NSS, IM, QAA and many more mentioned in the presentations, all of which I knew but there were many delegates puzzled by what some of them stood for. Time for conference organisers to include a glossary?
Memo to self - add one to next month's Strategic Priorites pack after I've read the presentations.
In no particular order there was NUS, HEA, IFF, HEFCE, TQI, NSS, IM, QAA and many more mentioned in the presentations, all of which I knew but there were many delegates puzzled by what some of them stood for. Time for conference organisers to include a glossary?
Memo to self - add one to next month's Strategic Priorites pack after I've read the presentations.
Monday, 7 September 2009
Strategic Priorities Conference
Having now agreed to be party to the organisation of a national conference for HE/FE - this blog entry exists only to publicise the date & venue, December 10th, Queens Hotel, Leeds.
Working with EIAT Consultancy it's going to bring together expertise and experience to assist colleges in developing their strategies to manage risk through informed choice.
More details to follow on both the main PlayingwithLearning website, and the EIAT one, but I'll be helping to set it up, publicising it to the world (you heard it here first!) & running workshops on the day.
Working with EIAT Consultancy it's going to bring together expertise and experience to assist colleges in developing their strategies to manage risk through informed choice.
More details to follow on both the main PlayingwithLearning website, and the EIAT one, but I'll be helping to set it up, publicising it to the world (you heard it here first!) & running workshops on the day.
Thursday, 3 September 2009
It's Grim up North (& South, & West & East probably)
Am now sitting waiting for my train home after delivering a day's staff development for a college management team & reflecting on how I don't miss the annual nightmare of enrolment week.
I think everybody working in education would agree that the treatment students receive at enrolment informs their impression of what to expect on their course and needs to be a positive one, but while we've been coccooned from the world in our team building workshop, prospective students have been in the main hall getting agitated by not being able to get answers to their questions as the poor lecturing staff on the desks are repeatedly interrogated on courses about which they know nothing.
Don't have an answer as to how colleges can solve this problem without securing increased funding, but until some system (on-line enrolments? in-depth FAQs? Admission Tutors? available ex-students?) is put into place, they'll always be considered as inefficient by their local community in comparison to any local HEI, even if the course delivery/management is in reality far better.
I think everybody working in education would agree that the treatment students receive at enrolment informs their impression of what to expect on their course and needs to be a positive one, but while we've been coccooned from the world in our team building workshop, prospective students have been in the main hall getting agitated by not being able to get answers to their questions as the poor lecturing staff on the desks are repeatedly interrogated on courses about which they know nothing.
Don't have an answer as to how colleges can solve this problem without securing increased funding, but until some system (on-line enrolments? in-depth FAQs? Admission Tutors? available ex-students?) is put into place, they'll always be considered as inefficient by their local community in comparison to any local HEI, even if the course delivery/management is in reality far better.
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Enhancing the Student Experience conference
After the "star billing" of Monday, today was the rather more usual relegation to "support act" on the "Enhancing the Student Experience" conference bill at Nottingham's Basford Hall. First up was HEFCE who told us that times are hard, there's no money, and their continued role in UK education is not guaranteed etc.
The delegates then chose from many workshops: by me (3 times: "Involving students in Assessment"), Wendy Stubbs from QAA, JISC RSC, Confetti Institute, Nottingham Law School, Trent Uni, Castle College, Leicester College etc and also heard from the NUS about what students want (subject knowedge that will get them a job, social experiences so they're not alone, feedback so they can improve, etc : no surprises, although one did say that their degree certificate would make a good table mat if it was laminated, but while unlaminated served no other purpose! Times are hard apparently.....).
The delegates then chose from many workshops: by me (3 times: "Involving students in Assessment"), Wendy Stubbs from QAA, JISC RSC, Confetti Institute, Nottingham Law School, Trent Uni, Castle College, Leicester College etc and also heard from the NUS about what students want (subject knowedge that will get them a job, social experiences so they're not alone, feedback so they can improve, etc : no surprises, although one did say that their degree certificate would make a good table mat if it was laminated, but while unlaminated served no other purpose! Times are hard apparently.....).
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
RSC Tour
No, nothing to do with the Royal Shakespeare Company, it's three JISC Regional Support Centre conferences.
June 23rd: For the third time in only 5 days, I had the pleasure of visiting Leicester, on this occasion for the local JISC RSC's annual conference held in the Walkers' Stadium where the keynote outlined how difficult it is to find what you want on the web.
Lots of page returns from Google searches apparently...
The second date on my one-week summer tour of JISC Regional Support Centre conferences was out on the west coast (Southport) where I witnessed a wonderful presentation/lecture/demonstration by Russell Prue, an "ICT evangelist & corporate trainer" who agreed in principle to be part of PWL3 (dates permitting).
The third (& last) date on my summer tour of JISC RSC conferences was at the newly built (completed just before the LSC started pulling the plug on construction developments) Epping Forest college, which for some unknown reason is not in Epping, but in Loughton 7/8 miles away. On the way there, my taxi driver kindly pointed out local features of interest ("Jade Goody's buried in that cemetery", "Jade Goody used to live there", "Jade Goody went to that school" - you get the idea by now I'm sure!) while I tried not to make jokes just in case he was a relative or an acolyte of some religious sect that I'm not yet aware of (called maybe the Goodies? - oh no that's been done).
June 23rd: For the third time in only 5 days, I had the pleasure of visiting Leicester, on this occasion for the local JISC RSC's annual conference held in the Walkers' Stadium where the keynote outlined how difficult it is to find what you want on the web.
Lots of page returns from Google searches apparently...
The second date on my one-week summer tour of JISC Regional Support Centre conferences was out on the west coast (Southport) where I witnessed a wonderful presentation/lecture/demonstration by Russell Prue, an "ICT evangelist & corporate trainer" who agreed in principle to be part of PWL3 (dates permitting).
The third (& last) date on my summer tour of JISC RSC conferences was at the newly built (completed just before the LSC started pulling the plug on construction developments) Epping Forest college, which for some unknown reason is not in Epping, but in Loughton 7/8 miles away. On the way there, my taxi driver kindly pointed out local features of interest ("Jade Goody's buried in that cemetery", "Jade Goody used to live there", "Jade Goody went to that school" - you get the idea by now I'm sure!) while I tried not to make jokes just in case he was a relative or an acolyte of some religious sect that I'm not yet aware of (called maybe the Goodies? - oh no that's been done).
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