This afternoon I delivered my first whole college ICT inset. I was anxious, I was cutely aware that a ‘technology failure’ would have a significant negative impact on my integrity and on staff confidence. To lead 60 of my colleagues on an ICT CPD session via (relatively new) wireless network on their staff issued laptops, left me buoyed but also relieved.
Q What ICT topic would you have delivered for wholeschool CPD on the first day back after the break?
Having thought quite hard about this issue I decided on the title ‘Working with Files and Folders.’ It was a simple topic but one with scope, but more importantly it was a topic that all staff encompass (as long as they use their network).
Next questions, ‘typically, why is wholeschool CPDs dull?’
Well its hard to personalise wholeschool CPD, I knew that I could not help everyone but I could get everyone to help one another…..? and that was my hook. Second I wanted to take a few calculated risks, I wanted to use teachnology, to showcase some of the tools we have been experimenting with. So here is my CPD session, help yourself.
Email links just before attending the session to the Online poll (polleverywhere)and Google Form. Create shortcuts on the staff shared area for safety.
No verbal introduction – French and Saunders – The Computer Whisperer.
The video set a light hearted mood. The staff where then asked to poll their ICT competencies before moving on to the small team quiz hosted via a Google self-marking form. The results were collected via a form, and although I thought having access to instants results was pretty impressive, I am not sure that it was such a hit with the staff?
We went through the answers and I side tracked on one or two additional College innovations that were highlighted by this task. I wish that I had planned and scripted this aspect more carefully rather than racing through the new College website, events calendar, document storage and remote access, helpdesk and shared resource on the Intranet. I finished with the results of our Everywhere Poll that strongly indicated that our staff have a positive outlook.
| ICT confident and exploit ICT opportunities | 10 | |
| ICT confident and use ICT opportunities | 63 | |
| ICT competent but rarely use ICT opportunities | 20 | |
| ICT less than confident but curious | 0 | |
| ICT bruised and less than enthused | 7% |
Was it a success? On the whole, I hope that the staff found the task practical and engaging. I’ll see what feedback I can gather over the next couple of days. I don’t think the staff were blown away – it was hardly the most exciting topic. In reflection I think that this activity may have been more powerful with 4/5 teams in a classroom run by three staff rather than 20 teams in the main hall. It missed the banter between groups and it was hard to manage so many teams. In the meantime, help yourself to any of the resources.