The Snowball effect

At last Wednesdays class I learned a new activity, indeed it's more of a technique for gathering the collective wisdom of groups, and at the same time kick-started a design task that my Project, DigiSkills Cymru, was given a matter of hours previously.

The activity was called "The Snowball Effect", and here's how it played out:

Step 1: We were each given some sticky notes and asked to write a short sentence describing "An Inclusive Learning Environment. Here's mine

Step 2: We then paired up and tried to combine our two definitions, taking the best bits from each and trying to find the common ground. I was fortunate to be paired with our new coursemate, Fareeq, who had been a little more expansive than me. Here's his definition

 And this is what our combined definition looked like...
 

Step 3: We then added another perspective, that of Hajira, another lovely new coursemate of ours who happens to be Fareeq's wife.

Together, we produced a really great definition.

 Step 4: Finally, we joined the other pairs and groups to draft a definition based on all of our combined efforts.

I think it's an excellent description, "A friendly communal environment where everyone,regardless of their abilities and differences, feels included, comfortable and enabled to interact, learn and improve their skills"

This was a really valuable experience for me. It shows the power of crowdsourcing and is intrinsically linked to one of the core parts of my Project, namely to create digital learning hubs in public service workplaces.

Earlier that day I had a meeting with Cartrefi Cymru, a nationwide social care provider, and UNISON's Connecting Learners in North Wales Project, about potentially creating an interactive learning space in a new supported living service right here in Bangor. The space would have to be inclusive of the staff and the residents, and I have been invited to lead the co-design of the space.

I've chosen to adopt a methodology called Human Centered Design to ensure that the space meets the users needs and desires and as part of this, on Monday we held a hastily organised Group Interview session with the staff who will work in the new service.

Given the similarity to the task we were set in class last week, it seemed to me to be the perfect opportunity to try out "The Snowball Effect", and here is the result.


So, my reflection is that it's a great idea to continue to apply the lessons I'm learning as part of the "Award in Education and Training" course to my every day work as much and as soon as possible. In this way, I hope that my learning will "stick" as it becomes integral to the approach of the Project.

Perspectives on diversity and equalities in Adult Education

Last week was the second session of the course and I was very glad that we were joined by two new classmates, adding a lot to the diversity of perspectives in the room.

Our tutor, Tudur, addresses the Award in Education & Training class

In week 1 we had been asked "what does it mean to treat someone equally?" - the answer being to treat everyone differently according to their individual needs, rather than treating everyone the same (what I call a minimal or anaemic definition of equality). This lead nicely onto the second session, which focused on legislation that impacts upon the post-16 education sector, particularly Health & Safety, codes of conduct and Equalities legislation.

The first task we were given was on risk assessment. We split into two groups and Glyn (a trade union activist of long standing - I choose my allies well!) and I worked together to complete a Health & Safety check list for the classroom environment. We went down the list identifying and taking action to mitigate the issues that we found in and around the Conference Cube (the perennial problem of trailing power cables and an uncovered floor power point being the two most pressing, both mitigated by making everyone aware of the risk).

The Health & Safety Executive's classroom checklist

It's certainly a good discipline to get into as it forces you to think critically about the environment within which you teach.  Not only "is it safe to teach here?", but also wider issues such as "is it comfortable in here?", "is the venue it accessible to all?" and "can everyone see the screen without getting a cricked neck?". And I came to understand more clearly that, as Tudur pointed out, there are some risks that you cannot control; the biggest risk for us in attending our course on these dark Autumn evenings is the drive or cycle to and from the venue, which isn't something that he as a tutor or WEA Cymru as a provider can do very much about short of providing us with clear directions. This brought to mind the futility of corporate ICT systems managers (sometimes with the full support of trade union reps) blocking access to useful online tools in the workplace in order to eliminate the risk of staff misuse.

Tudur then lead the discussion onto the history and current operation of equal opportunities legislation in the UK. As something of a constitutional scholar and because I'd been on a fantastic training course with the Equalities and Human Right Commission (EHRC) who oversee compliance with equalities legislation, I was able to contribute significantly to the section on the Equalities Act 2010 and outline some of the differences between it and the Acts it superseded. The most interesting features of the Act are that it specifies 6 characteristics (gender, age, race, religion and beliefs, sexual orientation and disability) that are given rights protecting them from discrimination, that it requires anyone providing a good or service to comply with the legislation (by making reasonable adjustments) and protection from discrimination extend to those associated with someone with a protected characteristic (to the carers of people living with disabilities, for instance).

We also discussed the interesting idea that reasonable adjustments made by service providers, such improvements in accessibility to buildings made by businesses and public services in the wake of the Equalities Act). This was interesting as we reflected both upon how it took legislation to make people and organisations take action and change their behaviours and how compliance  has had positive effects on people not directly targeted by the Act - the clearest example adjustments made to allow disabled access to buildings helping millions of parents pushing babies in buggies to move around. A win-win-win situation.

The second bit of group work asked us to think beyond the Equalities Act itself to consider how we design and deliver inclusive educational experiences that take account of the equality and diversity of adults. Here are the notes on our discussion, displayed on a Prezi presentation.



The session has made me think a little deeper about the accessibility of the work of the DigiSkills Cymru project that I manage, the resources we produce and the learning opportunities that we deliver. Inclusivity, particularly digital inclusion, are central themes of the project and I'm already trialling the innovative Browse Aloud inclusivity app on our website. But I'd be interested in learning more and continuing to make our project more accessible, and perhaps I should invest in the e-learning course produced by the EHRC,which takes a deeper looks at web inclusivity.

And, building on the theme of design that also underpins much of my everyday work, I'm also very interested in the concept of Human Centred Design and it's application in education. On first viewing,  by adopting these processes, addressing matters of equality and diversity will become integral to everything we do. Today I have a meeting to discuss proposals for a new workplace Digital Learning Hub with a 3rd sector social care agency dedicated to supporting people who live with learning disabilities. The space needs to work for both the staff and the people supported by the agency, so issues of equality, diversity, inclusiveness and accessibility will be front and centre of our design process.

A flying start

This is the first post of my new reflective blog, The Learning Mirror, which I hope to use to gather my thoughts about my development as an adult education tutor-in-training as I work towards the Level 3 "Award in Education & Training" with WEA Cymru. The course has replaced the PTTLS (Preparing To Teaching in the Lifelong learning Sector) course and this is the first time that the WEA have delivered the new qualification.

Just to give a little background to me, I currently run a lifelong learning project for UNISON based at WEA Cymru; I develop (and often deliver) unaccredited digital skills workshops and recruit volunteer Digital Champions for public service workplaces. If you're interested in my day job, take a look at http://www.digiskillscymru.org.uk and as the weeks progress, I'm sure this blog will address some of the work of my project and some of my previous experiences as a learner, an educator, a learning technologist and a public servant. I'm quite sure it will also reflect my passion for developing digital literacies and using digital technologies to enhance learning experiences.

I also want to make it clear that whilst I've got a good amount of experience in Higher Education teaching, workplace training and informal group facilitation, and have attended a number of courses on the subject in the past, this is the first time that I've formally enrolled on a teacher training course. 

Setting the Scene 

So, the course began last Tuesday evening in the fantastic venue of the Conference Cube at Ty Menai near Bangor and is taught by Tudur Evans, an experienced teacher and trainer who also happens to be my line manager at WEA Cymru. We were a small group of 3 learners last week, but hopefully this will rise to a healthier 6 or 7 this week.

My first reflection is that the choice of venue for the course is great; a modern room with a good wifi internet connection and resources. I'm a big fan of modern architecture and design, and I go along with the idea that the environment within which people learn is an important factor in framing the whole experience. It can help to set the expectations of the learner and getting the venue right sends the message that the learning experience is important and has been properly considered. To me, the Conference Cube venue screams "innovative", "cutting edge", "professional" and "important". These are themes I'd like to carry on into my learning and practice.

On to the content of the session itself.  The key topics we addressed were Individual Learning Needs, the Attributes of an Adult Education Tutor and Setting Class Rules.

Individual Learning Needs

 

The first task we were set was to look at Individual Learning Needs, and specifically what questions might be asked of an individual (or group of learners) in order to establish their specific needs beyond the learning objectives of the course or qualification, ensure that overall the learning meets their expectations and that it makes sense within their individual learning journey.

I struggled a little with this task, possibly because I was tired after a long day at work, and found it a little difficult to separate out individual learning needs from some of those issues that may be addressed prior to the learner entering the classroom, such as the identification or disclosure of learning differences like Dyslexia. But once I had this clear in my head, thanks to the patience of my fellow learners, Debbie and Glyn, we drew up a list of questions that might help a teacher to understand the needs. The answers then should form the basis of an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) for each learner, but it was stated that this process often will be carried out with the whole group as many individuals on a well constituted course (i.e. with a broadly similar group of learners) would share many needs. The ILP sets a baseline from which the learner and the tutor can judge progress and measure achievements. This plan would be made up of SMART targets or goals, i.e, ones that are Specific Measurable, Attainable or Achievable, Resourced and Time Bound or Timely. It will be interesting to get the chance to create an ILP for real in the weeks and months ahead.

 

Attributes of an Adult Education Tutor

 

We were asked to recall the best and worst teachers we'd ever had the pleasure and misfortune of learning from and write down their attributes. The hard part of this for me was choosing one teacher - but in the end I settled for my former British Politics tutor and PhD supervisor, Professor Philip Norton from the University of Hull. His style of teaching is rather unique (2 hour seminars with tea and cake, all the 18 year old learners being addressed by their formal titles.. ."Mr Speight", "Miss Pilling", etc) and involved respectfully challenging received wisdom and lazy assumptions in a way that made each of us on his course us think deeply about the merits of our own positions whilst having a firm understanding of the foundations of opposing views. As a schooling in how to be a thoughtful and consensual politician it was second to none (and this is reflected in the number of Hull graduates employed in politics at Westminster and beyond, the so-called "Hull Mafia")

After sharing our positive and negative experiences, we worked together as a group to put together a Job Description for the role of Adult Education Tutor. Here's what we came up with:

 

The big challenge here was differentiating between duties and responsibilities, skills and characteristics, but I think we managed to put together a really comprehensive set of attributes. I particularly like the final characteristic we noted down, that a good tutor will "challenge pre-conceptions". It brought me back to something that the head teacher in my 6th form once told me, that the root of the word "education" is "bringing into the light" and reminded me of the progressive role that teachers play in the development of a civilized society.

Class Rules

 

We learned that an important first step for a tutor to take with a group is to set the ground rules for the class. We reflected that rather than the tutor laying down the law and expecting unquestioning compliance, a more effective method is to allow, within reason, each group of learners to generate their own rules. This approach encourages a sense of ownership over the rules, and enforcement becomes both less necessary and also peer-driven - "These are not my rules, their your rules". 

I used this technique when teaching groups of undergraduates in political science seminars , and it was generally successful. One problem was that recording and displaying these rules was difficult, so adherence did tend to slip. Also, sometimes they were a little ambitious and even too strict so that rules like "if you've not done the reading you will be asked to leave" were rarely if ever enforced. 

Our final task was to collectively agree on class rules for the "Award in Education & Training", and here they are (bad spelling included):

I plan to stick rigidly to one rule in particular, "Ask Stupid Questions"

My final reflection, and resolution, is that my next post on this will be shortly after tonight's second session and not left until the last minute again!!!!