Advice and guidance?

Tonight I've had the duty of providing an information stall at the College parent information evening.  Although our department doesn't offer any courses, we do have a presence at these events to promote what we do.  We have done a lot in the past but we've not really benefited from them.  So we asked to not attend them.  But now we seem to be asked again.

Parents and their children have been invited to choose potential courses and careers for when they leave secondary school next year.  Because we don't offer any courses and I just had information about our department.  I made myself useful by asking parents or their children if they had decided what course(s) they were looking for, or decided on a career to pursue.  Whilst I don't know a lot about some subjects, I felt proud and helpful that I had been signposting people into the right direction to the right courses.

Tonight reminded me of how important it is to choose the right courses and start to decide on a career.  I had a patchy start in deciding what I wanted to do for a career, and it took a while to find that out.  So I reckon with the right questioning and knowledge of subjects is essential to help others.

When I was speaking to some parents, they didn't know what their children wanted to do.  So I asked them what their children's interests and hobbies were.  If they didn't know, I asked them to try observing their children from now, so that they would get a better idea to help get them the right start come next September.  From my journey, it's important to try and not waste too much time in doing courses that aren't relevant to a career.  But in saying that, it did help me inform and develop my career.

Advice and guidance is important!

Creativity To Ideas Are Born

Me in my creative environment designing and planning for my next course.

Assessing - the last piece to the puzzle

I am now doing the Level 3 Certificate in Assessing Vocational Achievement!  This course looks at assessing competence in the workplace and outside of it as well as knowing and understanding assessment principles and practices.

For me, this is the last piece to the learning and teaching puzzle, if you like.  It encapsulates the entire process.  It is at the assessment stage to know what has been actually learned and/or applied.  It's such a fascinating process learning and teaching!

I'm doing it as part of the qualification I am delivering, Level 4 Certificate in Technology in Learning Delivery.  As part of delivering this qualification I need to see learners (teachers) in the workplace.  Again, it's a fascinating thing to witness and experience and see real competence and growth.

I am so grateful to be doing this assessor qualification!  My manager, Robert Hutton has really invested in me as a person.  He's spent a lot of money and time in what I want to do over the years.  It's so rare these days and I never take it for granted.  He's such an understanding person and see things positively for what and how they should be.

I've learned so much from him since working with him.  I listen and take in a lot from him.  The main and best thing: challenge purposes and question thinking.  You wouldn't believe how much this has helped me.  He's allowed me to become a person that I always wanted to be. With his help, I'm achieving that and more.  It's been a long journey and glad he has been a major part of it.

So, I am a Lifelong Learner, teacher and now a developing assessor!  Right now, I'm feeling damn proud of the journey I am making and sharing.

Giving first aid

I've been given the opportunity to do first aid training at the College.  It's not the first time I've been asked, but I feel the time is right to do it now.

I'm not really good at dealing with anything medical; seeing and dealing with blood etc and talking about it haha!  I am interested in it all, but it does affect me shall I say.  But, after some thought, I have faced some medical challenges this year and was really brave of doing that.

So I have turned it all into one big positive!  First aid for me is a life skill.  Something we should all know.  But in the process it will help me overcome my fear of medical situations.  Doing first aid training will help me feel confident in helping others and allow me to help myself in situations too, inside and outside of work.

It's a three day training course, so there will be lots to learn and apply!  It may even spark interest in further medical and health related learning...

A Journey Of Employability

A little snippet about my journey through and becoming employability.

Evolutionary not revolutionary?

This is rather deep, more so than usual! I’m no scientist, but just going on observation of technology with human intervention.

Humans exist to succeed, that's why we are here today, as the dominant species on Earth. But to get where we are now, our ancestors have taken many learning processes that have had major influences.  Technology is proof of our evolutionary existence. Humans have developed this over many years. It really is evolutionary not revolutionary. From our ancestors to now, we have learned and shared our knowledge throughout generations. This has given rise to new ideas and thought processes.  So it was only a matter of time before humans came up with the concept of advancing with technology.

Using technology in education is now modern learning and teaching. We are surrounded by it everywhere in day to day life. It’s going to be interesting to see where technology will be taken in the future.  Plus, how learning and teaching will evolve with it.  Will it become all automated or will it go back slightly traditional?

It’s funny that technology is our greatest invention and I think it will be our greatest killer, a killer both socially and in our work; jobs and careers. It seems to be replacing naturally given in-person communication, interactions and doing physical jobs. While this is good for some educational and work situations (which is what it should be used for, not a replacement), it does have a major impact on social and communication skills.  Or, will humans evolve alongside technology and our natural in-person social and communications will become secondary?  I think it has been proven to be happening now.  Technology needs to be used smartly and wisely.  I once said:

• Loud and clear, the message is - technology does assist learning and living.
• We as individuals (YOU) need to decide when to switch off technology and spend quality time with family, friends and the natural world. 
• Technology is not the enemy. But it is here to stay. So we need to manage ourselves better with it.

I love using technology, but it does come with some consequences.  I think humans will come full circle at some point. A benefit to Earth or not, it will be decided by the laws of nature as it always is.  As I've said many times, the end of world is humans imploding on themselves not just a dying planet.

EDIT: a new related blog post 'How is learning technology evolving?'.

EDIT:  August 2024.  A somewhat related conversation.  In one of mine and Gary's Sunday morning baths, where we tend to do deep dive conversations.  We talked about a video that I watched earlier that morning on the ancient rainforests of UK, mainly in Scotland.  In the video it mentioned about how the early formation of national parks were created through rulings of William the Conqueror.  Which led us to talking about our views of people owning land - which we don't agree with as that is how some people, often the 'born into the rich' due to stolen land from rural dwellers/Druids.  I also refer this to early adopter tactics where if someone is the first of creating/finding something and builds success around it.  Then depending on the type of person they are, they might ring fence it and establish inappropriate but potentially profitable means around it.  Gary later shared thoughts on how the generation before us will be better off than ours, e.g. pensions etc.  I said that life has become so complex, yes research and intelligence has increased and helped in many ways, but it causes more upheaval and I feel it is at the expense of our mental health, peace and freedom.  Perhaps Druids and other shamans had/have it right.  All this circles back to what I foresee in humans imploding on themselves due to the complexity and processes we've created - it's just not all sustainable and ethical and something is going to give, and that will be people's sanity.  In our lifetime I think we'll see a huge unrest movement, bigger than the riots we had recently.  Maybe this imploding will be linked to climate change and lack of food resources - we've seen how quickly that can change due to heat waves and flooding, and we can't fully rely on lab grown food.  Of which climate change can force people to move countries, and we know how this country (UK) has reacted and pre-empted with Brexit in preventing immigration here.  As we agreed, the worlds problems would be solved by the rich; sharing money to solve real-world problems - nobody needs that enormous amount of money, it should be capped. But greed and the desperation to be superior to others tends to win.  And these rich people are not always intelligent innovators they profess to be, but wealth passed down (born into the rich again) and business tactics.  I feel being in a bubble with close loved ones and contributing to society is best way forward for now.

New Year - 2013/2014

Well, it's the start of a new year tomorrow.  I'm excited of what this year will bring at Barnsley College!  As always, there will be changes and challenges, but that's what it is about.  it would be boring otherwise!  You have to embrace it and take the positives out of it all.  That's what I do.  You have to move with the changes.  There is no point in being upset and stubborn about it.

We have three new University placements starting with us, replacing the last three.  But we have a new third permanent member in our small department. One of the placements from last year.  They will mainly be looking after Moodle and bringing it in-house.   So there is lots going to be happening in our department.  Each University placement we have had so far have added a lot to the department and the College.  It's because each of them are unique in their own right and have different skill sets and knowledge they bring to their roles.  They're all usually have different career aspirations and directions, which again has proved to be a benefit, by contributing to department ideas and taking things into different directions.  Just like anybody does, as they come into the world.  This time, I may be taking more of a coaching and mentoring role and working with them more closely, but to my specialist area in learning and teaching.

For me, my role may evolve, but I shall see what happens.  Be great if it does or the College allows me to evolve.  I grow a lot every year and because of this new ideas, skills and knowledge come out of it.  So it's a benefit in disguise!

Let's go, bring it!