Going South January 30, 2007
Posted by Brian in : Uncategorized, lect , 2comments
Chris Stevendale, a fellow blogger here at Musselburgh Grammar School, asked me to give her a hand with her blog now that it has been moved from Exc-el’s old platform to the Word Press Multi User (WPMU) format that we now use.
After a quick text to our Exc-el supremo, guru and all round good egg David Gilmour to confirm that her new blog was all ready to go, I gave Chris a quick spin around the new layout.
After a few minutes explaining to Chris what everything was, she went on to upload a photograph to her blog and then embedded and configured it into her latest blog post.
Chris is hoping to blog regularly and keep everybody informed of what she is up to and post a new photograph every day when she goes on her League for the Exchange of Commonwealth Teachers (LECT) visit to South Africa.
Good luck Chris, it sounds like a really interesting trip. Now if I can only get them interested in a technician exchange !!!!
Social Media / Web 2.0 Whats that then ?? January 24, 2007
Posted by Brian in : GLOW, Uncategorized, social media, web 2.0 , 4comments
I noticed a story in the Edinburgh Evening news about a guy who had posted a video compiled from pictures of burnt out cars in Craigmillar on youtube. He did it to highlight the problem of joyriders in an attempt to get action from the council.
Its unusual in the fact that it’s a story about social media being used in a positive way to effect change. So often the press portrays social media as the harbinger of doom, with stories usually revolving around groups of youths videoing themselves misbehaving or a “celebrity” arguing that their civil liberties have been infringed after being caught on camera in a compromising situation.
Commentators that don’t understand the whole web 2.0 / social media “thing” choose to highlight the negative, and, alongside kneejerk reactions from the general public, call for it to be banned and shut down immediately.
If those concerned who wished social media sites closed looked a little past the hype they may be pleasantly surprised by what they see. They would see people sharing ideas, situations and information, to mention but a few things, in an infinite variety of ways that could not even be conceived of fifteen or twenty years ago.
GLOW, the Scottish schools national digital network, will be a gateway, ushering staff, pupils and anyone else with a vested interest in education into a new era. One of its underpinning philosophies and, for me, one of the most exciting aspects of it, is the inclusion of social media / web 2.0 applications.
In East Lothian, pupils and staff currently showcase and share their work on flickr,
a free website where you can upload and share your images with families and friends (or simply just search for images that you cant find on google).
Videos of fun experiments in science have been posted on google video, also free, enabling friends and families to experience modern science from the front line.
Policies are being developed via wiki’s, which allows anyone to comment on or change online documents.
Bubbleshare is being used in exciting ways to present information within classrooms.
These are just a few examples how the power of social / media web 2.0 applications is being harnessed by one relatively small local authority.
With GLOW providing a safe, secure web 2.0 learning environment, the use of social media will become commonplace and the experiences of staff and pupils in schools will begin to reflect the multimedia environment that we all live in these days.
If you are unsure what its all about, then please click on some of the links above and have a look for yourself. An excellent place to start would be the flickr account of Musselburgh Grammar School and see just what kind of images we have been posting recently.
elcouncil, glow, edu.blogs.com , web 2.0, social media, youtube, bubbleshare, flickr
TES article, Edu.blogs January 19, 2007
Posted by Brian in : TES, Uncategorized, edu.blogs , 2commentsA small article about me being a science technician, glow mentor, and having a blog appears on page six of this weeks Times Educational Supplement.
I hope it goes a little way in raising the profile of science technicians and highlights a couple of issues affecting us.
Ewan McIntosh on his edu.blog (pictured right) picked up on it. He wri
tes some very complimentary words about the technician service and highlights the fact that my blog has stimulated interest in issues that are often brushed aside by management and the like. You can read what he has to say about technicians by clicking on his name above.
Ewan is somewhat of a “grande fromage” when it comes to blogging in education and I am grateful that he took the time to highlight my blog. Many big hitters read what he writes and again his post will hopefully serve to bring our profession, and the issues that affect us, into the eyeline of those in a position to help effect change.
elcouncil, TES, edu.blogs.com , science technician, Ewan McIntosh
Workload January 18, 2007
Posted by Brian in : Uncategorized , 2comments
Tracey commented about workloads as a safety issue.
“Task inflation” is a common complaint from support staff. As tasks are shed by teaching staff in the wake of McCrone they have to be delegated to someone, often “the someone” is a member of the technical support staff. The introduction of intermediate courses in each of the separate sciences has also added to workload.
Sometimes sacrifices have to be made and standards are often the first casualty. No technician I have ever met likes to admit that their standards have fallen, but sadly its often a fact of life these days as more and more is asked from technical support staff.
There are set levels of ratios of teachers to pupils but in many local authorities no such formula is applied to technical support.
Some councils use the school roll, or the amount of hours of science taught, when calculating levels of technical support. Others use no guidelines and the technicians are left to get on with it, often being the first to suffer when budgets are tight.
For example when I first started at Musselburgh Grammar there were approx eight teachers of science and two technicians, the school roll was around 700.
Next term we will have nineteen staff in the science department and the school roll is now around 1300-1400 and we still have only have two technicians. Its not surprising that I feel that I cannot provide the same standards of service that I did when I first started, there simply just isn’t the time.
So what is the answer?
· Local authorities that currently do not use any formula in determining levels of technical support need to review their staffing levels and work with advisory groups such as SSERC and STAG to agree a formula to be used in their schools.
· Reducing technical support staffing levels should not be seen as an easy way to trim budgets.
· Technicians should take any opportunity that they have, to remind anyone who is listening, that for science to flourish within schools and for attainment to be raised, it is critical that experienced, well trained, motivated, technical support staff be in place in sufficient numbers to provide an efficient practical service.
elcouncil, safety, workload, science technician
Safety January 17, 2007
Posted by Brian in : STAG, Uncategorized, safety , 2commentsAt the last scottish technicians adivisory group meeting it was brought to my attention that CLEAPSS , the advisory service for English local authorities, have recommended that rubber bunsen tubing should be phased out and replaced with neoprene tubing. I also learned that most technical support services recommend the use of goggles in classrooms rather than safety glasses that we currently use in Musselburgh Grammar.
The “red” rubber tubing” in common use these days is pro
ne to leakage around the connection with the bunsen, and in my experience becomes perished through time and also on exposure to certain chemicals. Neoprene tubing is less perishable and not as susceptible to chemical attack.
Although safety glasses provide the necessary protection needed within a science classroom there have been incidences throughout the country where injury would have been avoided if the pupil had been wearing goggles instead of safety glasses.
The glasses may be more comfortable to wear but they often do not afford 100% protection due to the differing sizes and shapes of pupils faces.
I mentioned these points to the head of chemistry and the head of science when asked if I had any ideas how extra money could be used in the science department. After further consultation with the senior technician and the depute head teacher it looks as though there may be money available to equip the thirteen labs with goggles for the pupils and neoprene tubing for the bunsens.
Although there was little danger of an accident to staff or pupils it makes sense to reduce the risk even more by taking these sensible measures if funds are available.
I would be interested to hear what science departments do in other schools and local authorities. If you want to comment just click on the comments button below or you can email me by clicking on the button on the top right hand side of the blog.
elcouncil, safety, neoprene, science technician, cleapps
Times Educational Supplement January 12, 2007
Posted by Brian in : Uncategorized , 3commentsI received an email the other day from a journalist Douglas Blane. Douglas has written many articles about education for the Times Educational Supplement.
He had stumbled upon my blog and wondered if I would mind talking to him about what life is like as a technician these days with the view to him writing an article for TES.
After I checked the necessary protocol with my head teacher Ronnie Summers I had a chat with Douglas over the phone. He asked me about my role as a GLOW mentor and what I was hoping would come of the Scottish executives report into CPD and related activities when it is published later this year.
Douglas used to be a science teacher and I was impressed by his knowledge of the issues currently affecting technicians across the country. I am hoping that his article will help raise awareness of some of these issues as well as the general profile of support staff in schools.
His article should be published within the next couple of weeks all being well.
Technorati Tags elcouncil, TES, cpd, science technician,
New Year Thoughts January 9, 2007
Posted by Brian in : Exc.el BLogs, GLOW, SSERC, STAG, Uncategorized , 4commentsHaving a bit of time to myself over the past couple of weeks I had time to sit down and think about the coming year. Here are some of the things I thought about.
I am looking forward to my role as a GLOW mentor. I should be attending my mentor training around at the end of May with the project itself hopefully being rolled out towards the end of the year.
In the first quarter of the year the full report carried out by SSERC and STAG into CPD provision for technical support staff will be ready to be published. It was commissioned by the Scottish Executive and will be extremely important in helping to map out the future of the technician service in Scotland. My hope is that local government education departments take full stock of what it contains and act on its recommendations.
As a member of the Scottish Technicians Advisory Group, and with their support, my aim is to try and improve accessibility to CPD for technical support staff within East Lothian and to assist and advise the council should it wish to implement the recommendations contained within the Scottish Executive report.
At the national technicians conference in Crieff last year one of the points discussed was that technicians should work to raise the awareness of the important job we do in the learning and teaching process. Having received many positive, and the occasional negative comment about my blog I think I have succeeded in doing so however little that it may be.
I am still very much new to the blogging game and not too sure how much I have done to promote the work of support staff. I have had many emails from people far and wide with words of encouragement so I will continue to blog throughout 2007 with my aims being to further raise the profile of support staff , air issues that may have no other forum for discussion and generally try and inform people of the work that is entailed in being a science technician in a large school within a relatively small local authority. 
By last and no means least single status / Job evaluation is still to be finalised in East Lothian. We should be hearing more around mid February. It would be great if the unions and the council came to mutual agreement. Things around the country have got a bit messy in some councils and the thought of going through what other employees and local authorities have gone through doesn’t bear thinking about, especially as the exercise has dragged on for around six years here.
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