Friday Reflection!

I've seen this before!

Twitter and the real world!

+Philip Spalding  

also on holc.co.uk and twitter: @HOLC1

Half-term week in Suffolk and Essex.  Little call on my time from Cambridgeshire so have been working on the Haverhill Online Learning Community.  Have been confident enough in the content and where we are going to start to use the twitter account!  

Twitter does require a bit of effort as I have found over the years that I have had personal twitter accounts.  Finding people to follow is not a problem.  Getting people to follow and continue to follow is the challenge.  Choosing who you follow back when they have followed you is also a judgement call.  Have had this on Google+ Communities recently where obviously some people passionate in their interests  have invited me to some potentially dubious groups that at best conflict a little with the web presence I am trying to maintain.  Once it's out on the web, it's out or exposed so to speak!  Some of the invites are enough to scare the horses (old English saying)!

Gathering pace this week then, HOLC has tweeted a bit,  but not a lot?  In the #fridayreflection for HOLC I have described the meeting I attended yesterday organised by +Elaine Carr of Best of Haverhill at a local hotels' conference venue.  The value of meeting people such as the local mayor and other stakeholder groups will often only reveal themselves on these stages.  You cannot do it all online in a local community you have to meet face to face!  It also provides that personal connection that builds lasting local networks!  

MOOCs this week have seen Coursera become the largest online campus.  The numbers at 2.8 million are still relatively small compared to total populations of students in universities globally but it is massive grow than in just a year!  I struggle at the moment to find the time and inclination to enage with the MOOCs I have signed up for at present.  Work commitments and other interests such as HOLC are taking precedence.  The fact that I already have a Masters and I am not depending on future advancement  upon completing the course are other factors.  It will be interesting to see the measure of drop outs at the end of the first year from the people like myself who have joined out of curiosity to see how they work.  

Genuine figures of engagement of students who are using the MOOC to further their career as opposed to attending a full time residential campus course will be difficult at the measure in my opinion at the moment.  the question will be are they sustainable from a financial point of view?  Should they be sustainable from a financial point of view as a direct replacement for campus based instruction (or do I mean learning)?  Should they be considered as part of the role of providing access to universal education that Universities/Colleges have to satisfy in order to be allowed to grant degrees?

So my reflection for this week is can the MOOC stand on it's own or is it part of the blend of learning offered by Universities and Colleges for the benefit of society?

Next week getting back with the plan for spending more time on the OLC Google + Community that +Jeannie Crowley facilitates and trying to do some Python Programming on the Raspberry Pi! 

 

  

The first day of 2013!

https://sites.google.com/a/
ukonlinelearningcommunities.org/
ukonlinelearningcommunities/

New Year, New Horizons!

By +Philip Spalding 

First day of new calendar year!  The intention this year is to hit the ground running with establishing online learning communities!  By the end of the year the target is to have at least two functioning learning communities operating in the UK.  One that I have run myself and one that I have inspired somebody else to set up!


The initial community we have set up is the Haverhill Online Learning Community!  The mission of the Learning Community for 2013 is to set up a peer to peer community where people are mentors and learners in rotation. The aspirational targets we have set ourselves appear in the blog post from the community http://haverhillonlinelearningcommunity.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/welcome-to-haverhill-online-learning.html.  This is a "for the people, by the people" learning community.  The blog post forms the basis for our mission charter which will be developed through the year!

In 2013 we have a number of topics we are focussing on a week or fortnight at time.  There is a sense of casting the net wide with suggested topics (that can be found at https://sites.google.com/a/kritirecharge2012.co.uk/haverhill-online-learning-community/calendar).  In the first year of any community we need to gauge the interest of  topics to that community.  We need to find  topics and projects that are relevant to people's interests in Life Long Learning! We also need to make sure that there are a range of mediums and tools to access that Life Long Learning to suit peoples needs.  While we are doing this we also need to appreciate the safety of users since we are appealing to a wide spectrum of the community!

Establishing a blog solely for the Community is one aspect of allowing many forms of particpation!  As the community develops the by line for the posts will hopefully change from +Philip Spalding to other people's views and comments!  We have no problem with people posting opinions that are controversial and may contradict other members but as long as they are done in the best possible way respecting others as individuals.  A healthy learning community whether online or offline,  is one that as the question why!   That is essentially the essence of what we are trying to establish.  The forum to ask Why? Where? What? and involve the local community collaboratively solving the questions or finding new ones.  This is the journey of Life Long Learning.

Over the coming weeks I will be covering some of the technical bits of how to use the Community Resources.  We have a great resource Study Room available for members of the community.  A presentaion will shortly be appearing on the page https://sites.google.com/a/kritirecharge2012.co.uk/haverhill-online-learning-community/the-study-room  .  This is just one of the means of collaborating we have chosen to include.  We have a Google Plus Community which can be found at https://plus.google.com/communities/109558443415099915114, by joining you can chat, hangout via video, and exchange ideas with other members of the community.  The Google Groups section is available for use, as well to keep up to date various projects and exchange information https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups&hl=en#!forum/haverhill-online-learning-community .  A Facebook Group Page exists for those comfortable with communicating through Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/HaverhillOnlineLearningCommunity).  The nature of some of these resources means that we are moderating membership along safeguarding principles.  The use of Google sites and Facebook Resources does assume that in order to join the community you must be over 13.   This is the only age or group stipulation put in place.


So by the end of 2013 we aim to have established an inclusive community for Life Long Learning.  Please, feel free to visit any of the pages.  If you feel you can contribute to the Life Long Learning of Haverhill or are just curious come and join us.  You can email us on Haverhilolc@gmail.com.

New Year, New Challenges!

The IT Assistant asleep on the job
again!

Jobs for today's learner have not been thought of … yet!

Christmas over and done with, New Year fast approaching!  What will be new year resolutions?  Hopefully, somewhere in this seeming unattainable wish list will be something to do with career development,  Life Long Learning and work-life balance.  End of year holiday always  a good time to review and revisit career or income aspirations in this austerity governed period of history!

This year has seen a lot of changes in Technology.  This in my opinion will go down as the year of the phablet and tablet.  Increasingly work and learning is moving to the flexible media of the digital economy.  The cost of joining this rapidly expanding knowledge economy is becoming so cheap that it is starting to become commonplace in all walks of life.  Large businesses are no longer building the must have technology on an empty playing field.  There is legitimate competition.  The promise of the  Silicon Age has definitiely arrived in the developed economies.  The catch up needs to place with developing world.  

The developing world will I believe have a greater input as they do have to contend with pre-existing infrastructure such as copper telephone networks.  The temptation to use pre-exiting technologies rather than starting from new because of the need to recoup previous investment has probably slowed the roll out of Superfast Broadband in the UK.  Only now are we seeing places like Suffolk in England obtaining the services they deserve for growth to happen or rather the contracts being signed.  Businesses and individuals in rural Suffolk still have a wait as the scheme will not be fully completed until 2015.

New years resolutions written with digital economy in mind how might you go about in a rural area to join the  change (yet to say revolution) in work-life balance choices.  I say rural area because this equally applies to   The training choice is between traditional classroom based approaches, a blended approach (combining one to one or group tutoring with online teaching) or a fully online experience.  There are many colleges and universities offering courses that come along with certification.  FutureLearn   the UK offering comparable to edX  and Coursera has been agreed and will happen in 2013.    

Non-formal free learning is a one of my personal likes.  A model for which can be found at Haverhill Online Learning Community .  Get in contact with +Philip Spalding and help expand the network of local Online Learning Communities (ukonlinelearningcommunties.org).  

While I have a bit of time from the "day job" I will also be adding articles linked to my other interest of Teleworking!  Hope this gives at least one person the interest explore the digital economy!  

        

The Friday Reflection

Cold Wind of Change

Online unis and courses have finally hit the headlines in the UK.   This is obviously a reaction to the "success" of Coursera and edX going by comments made in the article about brand presence.  Success was put in quotation marks because apparently retention of students is at most 20% , have seen the quote somewhere on a site will need to find the link.  Is it a case of the shiny new toy that everybody has to have to be cool but then puts it away after a few plays?  Is it the Furby syndrome? This is the Friday reflection!

As I look further into the technologies behind the Klondike experience happening now, I am starting to think of classifying the gadgets mainly on ease of use.  High powered programming can sometimes obscure the actual time spent in preparation compared to actual learner engagement.  If it takes longer to produce than the collective time spent viewing by a learning community is it a worthwhile activity for the instructor?  Can whiteboard and marker be just as effective?

One new development that I am really pleased about is Google+ Communities.   This as I blogged about last week could end up being the major game changer for removing technology into the background and allowing the participants to take the centre stage.  I look forward to developing the experience.

Generally a week of career development and direction review.  I have worked all week in Ely about 35 miles 50 minute drive.  At the same time I have been trying to maintain the momentum of growth for Haverhill Online Learning Community and ukonlinelearningcommunities.org.   Having been offered the opportunity to teach Science in a school in Harlow I had to make a decision of whether to pursue the guaranteed money and not carry on with online teaching interests for 3 months.  Harlow vs new Horizons?  New Horizons won since UK schooling terms of work and conditions are not worth the relatively meagre rewards for the 50+ hour weeks that  teaching has become in the UK.  Easier to use my experience for odd day here and there, be the online teacher from home, write those learning activities that inspire that a National Curriculum does not allow.   Having run a Science and ICT department in a school in Suffolk for a number of years through special measures (entered 3 months after I joined and experienced this for two years) it is easier to say have the T-shirt but don't particularly want to wear it!   The length of time in special measures was exceptional  even though Science went from 42% of pupils reaching level 4 (expected achievement ) prior to tenure to 74% within 18 months.  Pity maths was hitting 29% and English equally disappointing compared to national expectations.  This is without consultant input or massive resources.  English and Maths had the cake but the pupils didn't particularly want it!

A slight diversion into the vagaries of UK improvement there! So Blue Sky Horizons are there! However, with any learning familiarity can breed complacency.  The adoption of technology does not mean that we use the same experience all the time.  Selecting the right tool for the job is paramount especially when considering the intended outcome.

Looking back at last weeks blog  the main task was to maintain momentum for Online Learning Communities.  It has been a testing week finding the enthusiasm to go forward.  But we have got there!

Schools break up in the UK next week. Have not much booked which allows me do the training for my new role as an Online Tutor for Apricot Online Learning , a relatively new concept in UK education.  Also a time to review the yearly goals.  See how how much progress we have made in the work-life balance stakes, nda assess the Wellbeing or "happiness index".  Christmas break in the UK gives people a lot of spare time on their hands to become curious.  This curiosity I hope to hitch to the plough horse (we are famous in Suffolk for our breed of heavy horse the Suffolk Punch) and create a new furrow to plant the seeds of innovative teaching.   Will continue to develop a link with my old school where I was educated and which is now the Academy of the Year.  Look forward to a productive time before the end of the year change! 

The Friday Refletion

Is it Friday already?

Very busy week! Have been to Cottenham, Chatteris and Ely doing the "day" job.  So have seen a lot of the Cambridgehire Fens, water and Newmarket on the way to the above.  Newmarket was the only significant traffic jam while waiting for the racehorses to cross the road going out to exercise. When not working or driving I have been pushing forward the interests of Haverhill Online Learning Community   and the ukonlinelearningcommunities.org.  I have also just cleared the hoops to become an online tutor for a company in Gloucestershire who I visited in November.  Just have to find the time to do all I have promised!   Beginning of 2013 looking good as a time for growth and expansion.


Really impressed with a new feature on Google + ; Communities.  At a stroke it would appear to enable a true community sense to be applied to the online communities set up.    I have set up the Haverhill Online Learning Community and ukonlinelearningcommunities.org Google + Communities to join just follow the links and click on the Visit Google Community group.  You may get a 404 error with the sites but if you follow the Contact Us tab and provide your email address (has to be a GMail account) we can get you involved that way.

Haverhill Online Learning Community (HOLC) have very kindly been provided use of a private room on StudyRoom. This is the resource used by Harvard for edX courses.  By joining you can have access to this resource where you can interact with the rest of the community.  This is a complementary tool to Google + Hangouts from the community page.  StudyRoom allows you to gather around a table, use a whiteboard, chat and generally socially interact.  The tools you choose to use are up to you.  At HOLC we intend to provide as many ways of carrying out Life Long Learning effectively as a community.

Lots of things going on but the cunning plan (reference to Baldrick from BlackAdder) seems to be coming together.  Next week will be a good test to find out how the momentum of the set up process can be mainatained as working in Ely all week.  If I have put enough of the bare bones in place it should not be too much time invested in putting meat onto the bones!  

Oh by the way the picture was designed by me for a business venture while holidaying in Crete.  A bit of a description of what was going at the time when I was a full time teacher looking for a trapdoor to vanish from that particular stage.  Still running, still have the hat but hopefully the battery is nearly full charged, looking forward to just trickle charging!

Haverhill Online Learning Community

The torch is coming!
 (Olympic Torch along Haverhill High Street)

21st Century Learning:  Open, Online and Innovative

Online Learning Communities (OLCs) is a new area of learning experience.  We are all familiar with the traditional role of instructor and student carried out in a classroom.   We all have our own experiences of what worked for us and what did not.  We may have had the elation of receiving a certificate followed by the question what happens next?  Is the learning over?  What if I am still no longer clear about the bits I understood and the bits I did not?  How can I keep in touch?  

The questions may be applied to all stages of life.  Leaving school and entering work or further study, working and growing personally in your chosen area of life, then making the transition into well earned leisure time of retirement all have challenges that  may be helped by community of learners.  The challenge today is that of Life Long Learning.  Online Learning Communities are a way to do this as you pass through the three ages of man.

How can you do this?  I am setting up an Open Learning Community for the Haverhill area.  An Open Online Learning Community.  It is in it's crawling stage at the moment and seeks to appeal to learners from 13 to 99.  I am in discussion with various local Haverhill Groups seeking to establish a 21st Century Learning Community that is both innovative and flexible to move with the vast changes we see happening around us.    A community moulded by and by inspired by it's participants. 

A few scenarios that demonstrate some of the benefits of being involved I have been blogging about in recent months.     

The Everlasting Class:  When did you last speak to your teacher? Did you still have learning questions unanswered on your road to the better lifestyle?

A Personal Reflection on Online Learning Communites:  A personal experience of Life Long Learning within an Open Learning Community

Education in the Third Age:  Ideas on how to keep connected and pass on experiences.

So how to move towards creating a Participatory Learning Community. Some ideas behind establishing the Open Learning Community taken from my own involvement with participating an Online Learning Community (see blogs for details). 

 1.With relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement2.With strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations with others3.With some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced ispassed along to novices 4.Where members believe that their contributions matter5.Where members feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they care what other people think about what they have created).
Not every member must contribute, but all must believe they are free to contribute when ready and that what they contribute will be appropriately valued.

If you would like to express an interest or make a comment visit the Facebook page .  As we gather more interest and other parties become involved the intention is to establish a Haverhill Online Community presence.  Regular updates will be posted