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.

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!

Friday Reflection

In ancient shadows

Well last week in November been and gone!  Have spent an interesting week working in Ely and refining the Haverhill Online Learning Community(HOLC).  The poor camera phone photograph shows the view from the window towards the cathedral (better images can be seen on this Google Search).  Ely Cathedral  is a successor to the original buildings recorded in 673 AD.  These were founded by St Etheldreda  who was a daughter of King Anna of East Anglia.  Thus the site of  worship and learning pre-dates the founding of the English State.

Ancient learning is further emphasised in the city (city in the old sense that it has a cathedral) with the King's School Ely  founded in 970 AD turning such old boys out as Edward the Confessor, the patron Saint of England before the popular symbol of St George took over fully in the 1300s.

Ely has had it's rebels in the past.  Hereward the Wake who opposed the Normans taking over and whom some think was the basis for  Robin Hood legend, used the  fen (wet) lands around the Isle of Ely to avoid capture .  The other rebel of note who left an indelible mark on British History was Oliver Cromwell.  Oliver Cromwell lived in the city for 10 years prior to turning the English Parliament on it's head and creating a republic that lasted for about 13 years.  Ely has had a lot of influence on shaping what we now call the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland over the last 1300 years!

Side step into history over  and back to task!  The Reflection for the week!  Have continued to use what I have learnt from the OFLC (Online Faculty Learning Community) of Bank Street College New York to develop our own local Online Learning Community.  We have incorporated a SlideSpeech generated presentation as a link on the homepage of HOLC.  There have been many emails off to various different people and have received some very positive replies.  We have contacted the makers of StudyRoom  (as used by edX and Coursera) and have been granted a private room in principle  for HOLC for which we are very grateful.  Hopefully this should be set up and being used by the New Year!

Coding has started to be be looked at again but not to the stage where I can upload anything yet to the OFLC.  Getting excited though at the possibilities as I delve further into the coding.  Want to get a Raspberry Pi  and programme in Python on this platform, may even be able to run Chrome OS on it as well will have to look into this?  Really cheap basic access for less than £40 (with appropriate accessories).

So next week continue programming with course. Gather collaborators for HOLC locally and further a field. Have an idea of trying to get U3A  members in Haverhill involved in Local History projects, the Church Crawlers and Historians, Digital Camera Group, Garden Group and Art Group.  Already put the information out to local members so will see what happens.  Contact the myriad of local groups and charities (even our county council libraries are being run by a charitable trust on behalf of the council) and present the case for peer to peer learning!

Couple of more weeks of potentially travelling to Ely until the end of the school session.  I have a good journey along picturesque country roads.  The only major "traffic jam" is waiting for the race horses to cross the Fordham Road from  Exning (village where St Etheldreda was born, link back to first part of the reflection, knew I'd be able to get it in somewhere) as they go out to exercise on the gallops!  Very pleasant to watch as they come of the mist!

  

Friday Reflection

Treading Water!

The Friday reflection has come round again, well Thursday evening. It is Friday already somewhere in the world. Have been having a bit of week of treading water.  A week of considering whether that hillock is the top of the mountain or only anthill that could have been avoided without disturbing the occupants.

To start off with, something that I have learnt this week.  I found out when  reading and posting to Google+  that there was a hump day.  Being in the UK I was a little puzzled.  Camel support day?  But I was politely informed it was Wednesday by another name.  So over the hump I went.

I have had a little review my own personal experiences of completing courses and lack of engagement afterwards.   This led me to conclude that there is a place for the Everlasting Class to become a new forum for professional dialogue.  A Networking opportunity not limited by geographical boundaries.  In a small country like the UK relatively short distances with congested infrastructures are such barriers.  Google+ Hangouts  can be a solution.  I was unable to attend a local meeting of Best of Haverhill , owing to a few conversations via mobile phone, discussing a very worthy topic of reconnecting Haverhill back to the railway.   We had our rail link removed nearly 47 years ago in a so called rationalisation.  In my apologies for absence on the Best of Haverhill Event Facebook page I suggested that a Google+ Hangout or YouTube channel broadcast would be ideal for small business owners to be informed of such an important topic. We will see what comes of that.

On Wednesday (my Hump day apparently)  I blogged on the topic of the changing mantras of UK education.  The article that prompted my meandering  was  thought provoking as it gave insight on the influences of our current Minister for Education.  The book that he was most influenced by according to the article promoted the ideas that there were no individual learning styles.  That rigorous testing was good for the development of learners and should be the norm.  Without having read the book yet I am not in a real position to comment (sitting on the fence?).  I haven't found a Kindle version of the particular book.  Amazon  do have it for sale in print version.  However, I predict that that the book may be a mini-bestseller as every Head Teacher, Deputy Head and journalist will clamour to buy a copy in a bid to understand the future path of education in England and Wales (Scotland has it's own apparatus for mass education).

After one of the pillars educational thought had been questioned how did this affect my perception of Open Learning Communities (OLC also stands for Online Learning Communities).   A reference to the Royal Society in Tuesday's blog and it's origins prompted a comment from one collaborator of the Bank Street OLC.   The  original format for Royal Society meetings was a kind of "show and tell".  He was interested how this element could be introduced into Google+ Hangouts.  Smartphones were mentioned as a possible tech solution.  The new Nexus range launched this week could be in the part of the enabling technology.  Especially if there are front and back mounted cameras that can work independently in separate Hangout Windows.

So how did I do with the plans for this week.  Well I have edged a bit further along the path to coding and producing a Google Course Builder application.  Still a little way off.  Have to catch up with the edX and ALISON courses. Did use Study Room   for the edX course.  Interesting experience, a bit like a game navigating the Avatar to interact with other students.  Have not yet blog posted the updated Virginia Tech thoughts.  May look at the context again to see if it is Learning Style independent.  First thoughts are that it is since it works on the student-instructor continuum.

So for next week.  I will look at how OLC could be set up in the local area for Haverhill and float some ideas.  The coding courses really need to be caught up with and put back on track.  Long Term plan may need to be completed!

Well just about cat is in front of fire.  One side is done the flip side soon to happen.  Think I will join her next to the fire as it starting to become very wintery in Suffolk!