June 2, 2008, by Teaching at Nottingham

Developing a School-wide community.

Video >>
Jane Evison: “It’s just being part of a group of ePioneers that I’ve got to know, because I’ve not been in the school a very long time, so I’ve got to know a different group of people with something, you know, we have this thing that we share.

Elaine Arici: “But then, working together in partnership like this, on a project that they’re interested in, the working relationship builds up. And so that, again, that, I think that has been a nice part of forming this community. More people getting together, working in slightly different areas.”

Interviewer: “As well as each ePioneer having their mentor for their project, there’s also this wider community of staff involved in the School. How have you been involved in that?”

Richard Pemberton: “Well, we had Rolf Weisemes, was – he was a member of our, kind of, mini group that used to meet with Mike Sharples, because he was also doing a podcasting project, but a video podcasting project. So that was one other person that we, kind of, regularly shared ideas with, and we’re still, you know, discussing. So we’re in, sort of, different areas, but we can share ideas together.

“I think, maybe we haven’t met, you know, as often as a group, the whole group, as we – so we’ve met at these, you know, show and tell sessions…”

Jane: “…and we’ve had some lunch meetings…”

Richard: “…staff conferences, and so on.”

Richard: “In those show and tell sessions, we can actually play it, and so okay, ‘This is this bit’, and ‘this is how it works’, and ‘here’s the transcript’. And that’s what people liked, isn’t it?”

Jane: “Yeah, that’s what they like.”

Show and tell event:

Richard and Jane discussing their work with colleagues.

Matthew Nilan: “My emphasis always is upon developing a culture of support for e-learning, so that people feel that it’s something that they can just become involved in and they know they can’t go too far wrong, because there will be someone who they can talk to at whatever level they need to talk to, about these issues.”

Gordon Joyes: “So we now have a group of people, learning technologists, as well as the mentors around the school, as well as the people who were involved in those projects who are now beginning to act as mentors.

“People can go and talk to those people, and they are knowledgeable about, with different amounts of knowledge, but knowledgeable about the ways that they could either support the inquiry process into how you actually go about incorporating new learning technologies in your teaching, or they know somebody who can.
So we’ve created a much, much wider network.;”

In conversation with: Elaine Arici, Jane EvisonGordon JoyesMatthew Nilan, Richard Pemberton (School of Education).

Extracts from interviews with staff who are starting to use technology in their teaching, and those who are mentoring them. This video was originally published as part of PESL’s ePioneers collection. Produced June 2008.

Posted in Integrating technology