Category: Professional Learning

3 Steps to Improve Your Next Workshop

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I have been facilitating lots of different sessions recently with teachers, school leaders and architects. Here are a few tips and ideas to help improve your next workshop.

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1) Don’t be afraid of providing independent reflection and thinking time.

All too often, we run workshops in the whole group mode or table group mode. We have to keep the individual mode active to improve the flow of thinking and dialogue.

Typically I use the individual thinking time as I would when running idea generation activities. Most of us are more receptive to other people when we have had time to think on our own. All you have to do is provide time for workshop participants to collect and capture their thoughts before launching into other modes. Compare the workshop scenarios below and reflect on which you think would be most effective:

(A) Take a look at the provocation on the screen [it reads] “If learning were a shape it would be a spiral” [no thinking time] What do you think? [to the whole group]

(B) Take a look at the provocation on the screen [it reads] “If learning were a shape it would be a spiral” [no thinking time] Talk to the people on your table about what you think.

(C) Take a look at the provocation on the screen [it reads] “If learning were a shape it would be a spiral” Spend a few minutes reflecting on your own about this. You might like to draw and make some notes. Gather your thoughts and be ready to share in a small group. [Lots of thinking time, pressure off]

(C+) Now you have had some time to think about the provocation. Talk to the people on your table about your ideas. Make sure you think carefully about stepping up and stepping back so everyone can share.

(C++) It sounded like you have had some time to explore that idea – I overheard a few points I would like to focus on, but who will share something that resonated with them [whole group dialogue, with a few points at the ready to provoke further and draw people in]

Your Next Step: Design your workshop to balance individual small group and whole group dialogue and thinking modes.

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2) Create the right conditions for high-quality dialogue

The most common piece of feedback I get from my workshops and sessions is about time. People wish for more time and hope they can recreate the experience in the future.

More specifically, they express gratitude and appreciation for the time and space to engage in authentic and meaningful dialogue with their peers.

It might sound almost too obvious, but stepping out of the “work” structure and engaging in dialogue about the work, is rare. My workshops put dialogue at heart.

Participants in my sessions enjoy the opportunity to share, discuss and explore with colleagues. It would help if you thought about ways to create these experiences too.

Your Next Step: Plan a little less, allow more time for dialogue, design simple ways to capture thinking, allow more time for dialogue.

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3) Respond to the people in front of you

“Football isn’t played on paper” as the saying goes, we might have a great plan but making it happen can often be the biggest challenge. Let’s keep running with the idea of “planning less” a little further.

I would say that in close to 75% of the time, I have more than I need for a workshop. My ideas flow, but the experience might not allow for deeper thinking and a better experience of meaningful dialogue.

Although I might have spent time refining a workshop plan and shared this with the client beforehand – I never shy away from going off-script. Respond to the people in front of you – use ongoing feedback to check in and gauge the progress they are making. “Everything ok? Do you need some more time?”

If you set up a chunky provocation and create the right conditions for deeper thinking and dialogue – you have to allow participants the opportunity to ensconce themselves. There is nothing more dissatisfying than being pulled abruptly out of this type of activity.

You want people to express appreciation for the time you designed for them, not lamenting the workshop as a missed opportunity.

Your Next Step: Design the workshop with rich provocations, allow time to get ensconced, respond to the needs of those in front of you.

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Are you designing workshops or staff meetings and want some inspiration? What are your biggest challenges when it comes to facilitating professional learning sessions?

dialogiclearning.com

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This first appeared in the 137th issue of the Dialogic Learning Weekly Newsletter

My EDtalk Interview from ULearn14

28 Days of Writing, Conference, Curiosity, Design ThinkingPublished onUpdated onLeave a Comment on My EDtalk Interview from ULearn14

During my trip to New Zealand last October I was contributing some sessions on design thinking for learning to the impressive ULearn conference in Rotorua. Strangely it was the first time I had spent any time in New Zealand running workshops or working with teachers.

It was a memorable week for lots of reasons and the following film was crafted for Core Education‘s Edtalks, in which I outline some ideas around design thinking for learning in our schools.

Tom Barrett from EDtalks on Vimeo.

Tom Barrett of NoTosh in Australia believes there is a place in schools for rigorous creative processes that are built on a similar set of values in the pedagogy we use. He explains Design Thinking, which allows learners to engage with an approach based on curiosity and creativity, and to have an impact on the world around them.
Tom talks about the way technology can speed up “the finding out” – the move from unknown to known, and he challenges teachers to find ways to protract the uncertainty. If children can “stay in the question” for longer, we will allow the inquiry and creative process to begin.

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I hope you enjoy the little snippet of my actual voice and not just my writing voice – feel free to drop a comment below if you have any questions about what I share. If you are interested in learning more about my work with schools on design thinking for learning you can also check out NoTosh.

10,000 Young People: Designing the Future

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Ever wondered what 10,000 young people could do to solve some of the world’s greatest problems? That’s what NoTosh is wanting to find out this month as we help reinvent the world’s most important ICT event, ITU Telecom World 11.

The October 24-27 event is the flagship meeting of the world’s telecoms industries, brought together by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the specialised United Nations agency responsible for information and communication technologies. In the run up to the event, and during it, we’ll be showcasing the ideas of young people, aged 8-18, alongside the debates, panels and corridor discussions of these influential delegates.

I recall how I felt after attending WISE a few years ago, a little numb with all the talk and a firm realisation that the conference was too far removed from the experiences of teachers and students. I am confident that this will be different.

5019040919 610acfe576 bIt’s a real chance for your students to make a global impact on problems that matter, wherever they are. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime real world project-based learning opportunity, that ties into most teachers’ curriculum at any given point in the year.

We’re providing some brief points of inspiration to get you started, over the seven key themes, and will then open up a wiki space where teachers can collaborate and add to each other’s resources on the areas. Our first theme, appropriately, is how can we provide an education for all?

By October 24, we hope to have videos, photos, blogs and examples or prototypes of what young people believe might help solve challenges on their own doorstep. We want you to tell us how technology could be harnessed to:

  • alleviate poverty and hunger
  • improve education for all
  • address gender inequality
  • make sure everyone has access to health care
  • protect our environment
  • make disabled people’s lives easier
  • close the gap between the developed and developing world
To take part, you just have to sign up your interest, and from there you’re able to submit posts to the project.
Photo by Steven Kim

A TeachMeet Hub at the Learning Science Research Institute, University of Nottingham

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I am delighted to say that after a meeting with Charles Crook, the Director of the Learning Science Research Institute (LSRI) from October 2011, there is the open invitation to use their facilities for community events.

The LSRI at the university of Nottingham has meeting rooms laden with monitoring equipment to capture, stream and archive events.

The National College for School Leadership has supported TeachMeet events for a number of years and I am pleased that the university might make such a generous offer to continue to help the community. The main space at the LSRI can hold between 20-30 people however there is the potential for other university spaces to be made available too.

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Diagonals by blinkingidiot
Attribution-NoDerivs License

I am seeking some reaction from you all about a few different elements, so please take a look and let me know what you think.

TeachMeet Hub

  • The space offered by the LSRI could be used by the TeachMeet community, in fact that is what instigated the meeting, on a semi permanent basis to host events.
  • It would be good to develop regular events in the space provided, once a month say.
  • The frequency of events would mean we could be more open to specific topics being covered or explored in more depth.
  • Whole schools could use the event space to conduct there own TeachMeet style event.
  • A range of colleagues from the university and LSRI could contribute relevant research to specific groups.
  • Local links made with the university.
  • Small TeachMeets up to 30 people.
  • Captured, broadcast and archived using the professional facilities available.
  • No cost to use the space.

Purpos/ed Assess

  • On the back of the current Purpos/ed campaign about assessment I am keen to hold a small event in the space offered by LSRI.
  • The informal meeting would extend the debate and discussion that has continued around the agenda of assessment in schools.
  • We would explore the challenges we face, practical solutions and what we perceive to be future directions.
  • Again it would be up to about 30 people.
  • Early September.
Please let me know your thoughts on the potential of these ideas, your own suggestions for making the most of this generous invitation, whether you could attend a Purpos/ed event or how you might like to be involved in moving this forward.

 

Purpos/ed: There Has Been Quality Talk, Now is the Time for Quality Action

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5673378011 9ebaea18f8 mThe inaugural Purpos/ed Summit for Instigators took place in Sheffield on the 30th April. Doug Belshaw and Andy Kemp did a really great job of gathering a bunch of enthusastic educators from all sorts of backgrounds to this, the first of many face-to-face gatherings.

We all had the chance to listen talks including short 3 x 3 sessions which were snappy and succinct and added further layers of opinion to the growing debate around the purpose of education.

I enjoyed attending and felt encouraged to see the group coming to together so coherently, Andy and Doug clearly have big plans for Purpos/ed and rightly so.

The only thing that disappointed me was the lack of direction we were given to put our efforts into action.

Read more over on the NoTosh site where I explain in more detail about the event.

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Pic by Learn4Life