Keep juggling

How many balls can you keep in the air at one time? One of the most interesting stands at the World of Learning Exhibition and Conference in Birmingham this week was the Blue Beetle Training stand, which among other rolling performances featured a 10 minute tuition on three ball juggling. Reminiscent of Simon Finch's finest Pelecon 2012 keynote moment, the presenter - Graham David - worked manfully to convince passing, reluctant delegates to stop for a while, and engaging them by showing them how easy it was to learn to keep three balls in the air continuously. It was great audience participation, and quite entertaining to watch, too. Yet there was a serious underlying message to be received, too.

Juggling is not easy, and takes a lot of practice. But in one sense we are all jugglers, because many of us regularly keep many 'balls in the air' including a full-time job, childcare and family duties, voluntary work, and so on. How many of us would like tuition in how to do that successfully? Take the job of teaching - how many things do we need to do simultaneously to be an effective teacher? What skills do we need to not only keep our heads above water in our jobs, but also to excel, to become the best we can possibly be in our chosen areas?

Blue Beetle Training is one of a number of companies popping up in the learning and skills sector that focus on developing creative and innovative new ways to learn. We certainly need more of that. Creative learning is going to be a growth area in Learning and Development, because many are tired of the old ways of training in rows. We have the technology, but that is not enough. We also need a sea change in the way learning and development are conceptualised. Learning by doing, particularly if that 'doing' is situated in work practices, is arguably one of the most effective ways of training employees effectively. Problem based leaning, simulations, learning by making (constuctionism) and experiential approaches to personal development have all been shown to be highly effective. Couple these with social learning mediated through the personal tools and devices that most employees carry around in their pockets (but many employers currently ban), and you have a very powerful, sustainable and lifelong method to be workers skilled and productive. Exactly what will your organisation be doing in the coming years to teach your employees how to juggle?

This week the World of Learning Conference and Exhibition celebrated its 20th anniversary at the NEC, Birmingham, UK.

Photo by Steve Wheeler


Keep juggling by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

The Pelecon flies again

We have enjoyed 6 successful e-learning conferences in Plymouth over the past decade. In recent years, the Plymouth e-Learning Conference (or PeLC) has grown from a small local one day teacher conference, into a large, international 3 day event which showcases the very best and latest in digital pedagogies. Over the years, we have welcomed a galaxy of world class keynote speakers, such as Stephen Molyneaux, Gilly Salmon, Josie Fraser, Stephen Heppell, Sherry Terrell, David White, John Davitt, Graham Attwell, Mike Blamires, Jane Seale and Mark Stiles.

Other who have presented papers and workshops at the event over the years have included James Clay, Miles Berry, Shirley Williams, Pat Parslow, Helen Keegan, Malinka Ivanova, Neil Witt, Carmen Holotescu, Mike Phillips, Doug Dickinson, Craig Taylor, Matt Lingard, Lyndsay Jordan, Bex Lewis, Andy Ramsden, Dan Roberts, Thomas Fischer, Doug Belshaw, Catherine Cronin, Richard Hall, Sharon Flynn, Mark Childs, Fiona Concannon, Thomas Kretschmer and far too many others to list here on this blog. We have also welcomed many student presenters over the years, and showcased our own Plymouth University robotic football team and vision immersion theatre. Most delegates who have attended will tell you that Pelecon is an exciting and inspiring conference at many levels.

The 2012 Plymouth Enhanced Learning Conference (yes we replaced 'electronic' for 'enhanced' last year to reflect the shift in emphasis from tools to pedagogies) is number 7 in the series, and has been rebranded with a new logo and new website. This year's lineup of invited speakers is bigger than ever, as you can see from the picture above. Our four keynotes are Jane Hart, Alec Couros, Keri Facer and Simon Finch, and for the first time this year we also have 3 spotlight speakers in Leigh Graves Wolf, David Mitchell and Helen Keegan. Once again we are planning an evening Teachmeet, Student Voice Showcase and other shows that run parallel with the conference. One of our new ideas is to have a 'Failure Confessional' where we talk about what went wrong, and all learn from our mistakes. We also take over exclusive occupancy of the famous Glassblowing House restaurant on Plymouth's historic Barbican seafront for our social event on the second night of the conference. Many people have said that Pelecon is one of the friendliest conferences of its type, and this year's event will be no exception. With its idyllic setting 'twixt moorland and sea, wonderful weather (we have excellent connections) and the famous Devon cream tea (calorie free), what better place could you spend your time between 18-20 April this year? Full cost for the entire three day event is just £200. We hope to see you at Pelecon this year!

Visit the Pelecon website for further details.

Fishing boat image by Jose Luis Garcia


The Pelecon flies again by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Teach less, learn more

I have now had some time to reflect on this week's Plymouth e-Learning Conference. For me, No. 6 has been the best of the series so far. A growing collection of colourful images of the conference can be found at the Flickr Group Pool for sharing and download. Several people came to me after the event and said that they thought the conference had morphed, turned a corner, transformed into something entirely new. And to be honest, there did seem to be a new ambience around the conference this time that I had not previously encountered. Was it that we included children this year, on Day 1, for the student voice technology showcase? Possibly, because they certainly added a new and very welcome dimension to the event. Looking around the room as they spoke, the audience was all smiles, and many people have stated that it was one of the highlights of the conference for them to listen to groups of such articulate and confident young people showing us oldsters how they used technologies to enhance their own learning in the classroom. We will reprise this next year, that's for sure.

Was it perhaps that Day 1 was a free day, to which anyone could come, to pitch in, watch the robot show, take part in the open workshops, and generally share their ideas in a very friendly and open environment? Overall, the ethos of PeLC is that everyone is included, there are no hard and fast rules, and everyone has a voice. People are even allowed to say they don't know and to share their failures as well as their successes. Northern Grid for Learning's Simon Finch identified this as one of PeLC's unique features:

"Where Pelc differs from other conferences is in the behaviour conventions of the audience. There are, at most conferences, unwritten rules that discourage movement of any kind. Many conferences feel more like auction rooms with each delegate scared to move a hand, reach inside their bag or even shuffle in their seat to ease a creeping cramp. At Pelc I constantly took pictures with my Android and then my camera, and then tapping and reading tweets, sat on the floor and uploaded images to Flickr via my laptop, stood on the stairways and left and entered sessions at will. This freedom to take ownership of my learning is a rare experience for me and one that has ensured that I have taken far more away from this conference than any other more ‘analogue’ conferences."

Perhaps it was the presence this year of a Teachmeet, where teachers and trainee teachers were invited at random to talk for just a few minutes about their recent classroom experiences - sharing best practice with each other in an informal, fun and entertaining atmosphere. Or perhaps the presence of the Twitter screens showing #pelc11 tweets live as they happened, or possibly the live streaming of some of the key sessions (219 people were watching Teachmeet from outside the conference at one point) served to create the connections people needed to be able to enjoy the event in a new dimension.

Maybe it was the world class quality and quantity of our invited speakers. PeLC prides itself by inviting exciting, authoritative and engaging speakers each year, but this year we pushed the boat out, with four keynotes and several invited workshops. John Davitt, in his quirky, off-the-wall session: 'From Silo to Orchestra: The staccato progress of eLearning' encouraged us all to perform our teaching in a different way, using different steps, alternative tempos and creative melodies, so that learners were engaged in many new ways.

John Sheffield, a new blogger, and one of our student teachers, was present for Davitt's keynote and noted: "he said 'Teach less so they learn more'. I think this is quite profound, that in effect we as teachers can get in the way of a child's progress. Just look at what the children at Saltash.net achieved without teacher input, or the children of Sugata Mitra's Hole-in-the-Wall project. The final thing he mentioned that resonated with me is that 'It's not about computers, it's about tools, activities and risk'. This was quite inspiring, and linked nicely back to his first quote. We have a wealth of exciting things, but if we don't try them and use them effectively, then they go to waste. There should be no fear of trying something new."

Stephen Heppell also gave an inspiring speech on designing physical learning spaces, drawing on what we had already learnt from virtual spaces. He showed examples of a number of 'playful learning spaces' including rooms with no corners, 'fidget seats' that you fall off if you sit still for too long, classrooms where you remove your shoes and go barefoot, and even a classroom where they bake bread in an oven. These kind of sensory experiences, said Stephen are important for us to consider in the wholistic education of young people. "This generation of learners will astonish us", he declared, but only if we astonish them by providing stimulating and relevant learning environments.

PeLC will continue to astonish too I hope, with new ways of engaging delegates each year. Next year, the theme of PeLC12 (April 18-20, 2012) is 'Create, Connect, Collaborate: Learning in New Dimensions'. We aim to create an even more dynamic event for all who participate, and we aim to connect more than ever, thereby fostering new ways to collaborate. We certainly plan to hold more Teachmeet type open forum sessions, and how about this - a Failure Confessional. Instead of talking about our successes as educators and learners, we will encourage presenters to talk about their failures. What will we learn from this? We don't know until we try. Are you with us?

Images courtesy of Jason Truscott

Teach less, learn more by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Hand holding

As you will have seen from my previous posts, I spent 3 days in London this week, attending the HandHeld Learning Conference. I had some money in my research budget so I decided to avoid the numb bum syndrome this year, and fly up from Plymouth to London. I arrived at London City Airport at around 0930 where we landed in the rain. The Dockyards Light Railway took me to Bank and having looked at the map, I decided to walk the rest of the way to Chiswell Street. I wish I hadn't. No sooner had I emerged from the underground and turned a corner than a fine member of the London Transport drove by in his double decker bus and swamped me by driving through a puddle. It was my Bridget Jones moment, and for a second, I imagined myself wearing a white dress (Steady on now - Ed). I jest of course - I don't cross dress. I can't even cross the road. No, seriously, I was furious and called the bus driver a very rude name. He didn't hear me. Nobody else took any notice either. People walked by quickly with their heads bowed against the weather. Well, I told myself, this is London. And so I dragged myself onwards....

The walk up Moorgate, dodging the rain and the puddles and the maniac bus drivers, and on into City Road seemed interminable. At Moorgate tube station I did happen across a great fast food counter that served some of the largest vegetable samosas I have ever encountered (and at £1 each, superb value). Breakfast done, and wiping the crumbs from my face I finally wended my weary way, slightly damp and steaming, into the Handheld Learning venue - the Brewery. The gentleman in the bowler hat and top coat who meets and greets you outside in the cobbled courtyard is an excellent bloke - he is one of the best features of the Handheld Learning Conference - always cheerful and always willing to assist.

Inside, many people were already milling around in reception, where I was presented with a bag with my programme and a theme park style wrist band to wear. Wot no name badges? Nope. You are expected to introduce yourselves properly.

And introduce ourselves we did. It was great to meet up with so many Twitter people (Tweeple) whom I have got to know over the last year or so, and have enjoyed conversing with. This list is not exhaustive, but it gives you an idea, as I bumped into Simon Finch, Michelle Gallen, Drew Buddie, Ollie Bray, Leon Cych and Dughall McCormick - all of whom you should follow immediately, because they are jolly decent blokes (and I include Michelle in the blokedom of blogging). It was also good to mix it up again with Dave Sugden, Lilian Soon, Stuart Smith and the ever-present James Clay, all of whom put on a great show for the fringe events - HHECKL. I also got to speak to Donald Clark, James Paul Gee, David Cavallo and Zenna Atkins, all of whom were featured speakers at the event.

The talks I attended at HHL were generally very well presented (unlike this blog - Ed). I make a special mention to John Traxler here, whose talk on the role of student owned devices was excellent. The food was sophisticated although a long time coming, the drinks were overpriced, the entertainment from the band at the awards ceremony was excellent, and the wifi service superb. Not bad at all really.

Getting back to London City Airport through the rush hour traffic, and in the pouring rain (which never seemed to cease during my 3 days in London) proved to be a bit of a nightmare, but I wasn't going to risk the long walk back down to Bank and another Bridget Jones moment. My bowler hatted friend assisted, with umbrella in hand, risking life and limb to plunge himself into the fast moving traffic, hailing me a taxi. My taxi driver then did a stirling job veering in and out of the back-up traffic, to make sure I didn't miss my flight. Of course, I rewarded him appropriately.

So here's to next year's event - if it's anything like HHL2009, we are in for another treat.