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TeachMeet is entering its fifth year and the unconference for teachers, by teachers has helped hundreds – maybe thousands, in fact – to try out something new, alter the way they already teach and learn, join a community of innovative educators or completely transform their way of working.

The hope was that the model would spread. It has, but as those who have created and helped pull TeachMeet together over the past four years, we want to see it spread further, deeper and with increasing quality of input from practitioners. This post outlines how we think we might manage this. This is the beginnings of a conversation with those who care about TeachMeet. Add your views in the form of any blog post or comment or tweet – tag it #tmfuture

What are the goals of TeachMeet?
TeachMeet was originally designed to:

• Take thinking away from the formal, often commercialised conference floor, and provide a safe place for anyone to pitch their practice
• Provide a forum for more teachers to talk about real learning happening in real places, than one-hour conference seminar slots allow
• Showcase emerging practice that we could all aim to undertake; sales pitches not allowed
• Be all about the Teach, with only a nod towards tech that paved the way for new practice.
• Provoke new ways of sharing our stories: PowerPoint was banned. We wanted people to tell stories in ways that challenged them, and the audience
• Empower the audience to critique, ask questions and probe, all online, through SMS or, later, Twitter.

Over the years, these ‘rules’ have altered, leading to some great innovations, others less so. The answer to “What is a TeachMeet?” has become a myriad of meanings, some pretty far off the original goals. We need to help and support people to organise, run and contribute to events that build on previous ones. We need to make TeachMeet as accessible to newbies as it was in 2005. We need TeachMeet to once more find its focus.

Supporting the “infectiousness” of TeachMeets
Organising TeachMeets should not be easy. Taking part in them should be. But more support is needed for organisers:

• Sponsorship is hard if there’s no bank account into which funds can be sent
• Without sponsorship, any event over 30 people becomes tricky to organise while also giving people a special night of learning, the time, space and mood that gets people over their self-conscious selves
• Paying for refreshments and venues is impossible if there’s no organisation to pay them the precise sum.
• The best TeachMeets provide social space, social activity, entertaining MCs, good refreshments, good online coverage and some form of online ‘conclusion’ – this needs coordinating by the organiser(s), but it’s not a skill everyone will have the first time around.

We’ve got a superb opportunity to curate the best bits from all these TeachMeets that are happening weekly – this needs a degree of oversight.

A means to make TeachMeet more sustainable, easier to use for sponsors and organisers, and have the ability to do something spectacular
TeachMeet is owned by the community that shape it – but there needs to be a body to manage sponsorship and sponsors, and provide support for new organisers so that they maintain the TeachMeet goals. We assume that if someone is organising a ‘TeachMeet’ they would like to emulate the success of those popular early TeachMeets, and better-supported national conference ones (e.g. SLF and BETT).

What would support from the TeachMeet body look like?

• Seeking of sponsorship all year round – including ways and means to get your message to as many teachers as possible
• Brokerage of sponsorship – i.e. one place sponsors and those seeking sponsorship can come together, in a transparent manner
• Recommendation of onsite support (good venues at discounted rates/free, A/V, event organisation [for bigger venues], catering etc)
• Suggestions for various formats that have worked in the past
• Mentoring from previous TeachMeet leaders including on-the-night help
• Featuring of content and promotion of the event in a timely manner on an aggregated, higher profile TeachMeet site
• A group calendar so that events can be seen by geography and date
• Promotion of TeachMeet through international and national events, using contacts of existing TeachMeeters
• In-event publicity (e.g. if you plan an event at a regional ICT day or national event, then we can help broker paper materials for insertion into packs etc)

But, above all, TeachMeet is reaching a point of saturation in the UK – things are going really well in terms of enthusing teachers about their own learning. We have a great opportunity to carry over a small proportion of the sponsorship and contributions towards creating a TeachMeet culture in countries where teacher professional development in this way is still blocked by barriers physical, financial or cultural. This is just one idea, harboured for a long time but unable to realise in the current setup.

This body can take the form of:

• A Limited company (with a Director and shareholders)
• A Charitable Limited Company, with a board of directors and voting rights for fellow ‘shareholders’ (we could work out some way of people being ‘awarded’ shares based on [non-financial] involvement?)
• A Social Enterprise, perhaps formed as a Limited Company (see more information on what this means and how it might work (pdf))
• A Charity (this feels like a lot more red tape to pull through and perhaps not entirely necessary)

As we take things forward we invite you to contribute your ideas and thoughts to make things work smoothly. We want you to comment, probe and make your own suggestions before the end of June, using the tag #tmfuture

It has been a while and the last year has been a very busy one for me personally.

For the last six months I have been studying a part-time MSc in eLearning with the University of Edinburgh. As part of the course students are required to write a private web-log. Following a recent conversation with my tutor, I thought it worthwhile to note a few thoughts on my own personal history of weblogging and share them openly here too.

I started my professional weblog in October 2006. At that point in time I was piloting the Scottish Schools Digital Network, Glow. I was doing this with my Intermediate 1 biology class. Throughout the nine-month pilot I used my weblog to share my thoughts and experiences with fellow educators globally. My posts offered a window on to what this revolutionary new learning environment could offer teachers and learners. My posts would often include screen shots and hyperlinks that would allow my readers to gain an excellent insight. During this period of time my weblog became a source  of feedback to educators and Learning and Teaching Scotland. It had an important purpose. Following the pilot of Glow I continued to share relevant information via my weblog. In October 2008 I was appointed as an Education Support Officer for ICT in east Lothian. During my time in this role I would share my thoughts on my daily work with colleagues, pupils and establishments. In the context of teaching and learning I would regularly discuss topics such as current projects in East Lothian, hardware, software and web 2.0 media.

Along side my weblog I also held a Flickr Pro account. Flickr allowed me to catalogue educational images under Creative Commons (i.e. images that could be used by fellow educators that were free of copy right or Intellectual Property Rights IPR).

During the last year my professional weblog has somewhat ‘dried up’. Though this saddens me slightly, I feel that it has somewhat lost its purpose. When I was actively blogging I was reporting and sharing information on groundbreaking movements in education. People wanted to read what I had to write. With the explosion of professional teacher blogs and the growth of Twitter I feel that I have lost my blogging voice. I feel that there are now others out there who are in a better position to broadcast. I have become a reader of blogs rather than a contributor. I could share thoughts on Twitter and other web 2.0 technologies but I feel it has already been done (more than once). Colleagues who were once blogger associates have largely become friends over the last three years and I feel I would probably be somewhat ridiculed if I started to ‘knatter’. In addition, at present, I am not teaching. I am project managing. I am thoroughly enjoying my new job and the challenges it brings however I choose not to share my thoughts and reflections here. I am also (as you may have guessed) very pushed for time in my new role. I find my spare time is better spent reading relevant blogs rather than writing.

For me a weblog has to have purpose. I am in no doubt that one day my professional weblog will gain its purpose again and I will start singing with my blogging voice  soon.

I might share some of my MSc private blog posts once they have been marked

Photo Credit: http: hiddedevries

*Under Creative Commons (CC)

Many thanks to Laurie O’Donnell for ‘tweeting’ this earlier.

Youtube link

For those of you not on Twitter, you may be interested to see some new themes for Glow. Click here and pop over to the Glow blog to give your vote

Option 13 is currently my favourite- Pink all the way

I hope you are all enjoying a well earned summer break.

If you are in Edinburgh next week you might want to consider joining me at LeadMeet 2009 on the evening of Wednesday 29th of July in the Highland Suite, Carlton Hotel.

What is TeachMeet?

“LeadMeet is a variation on the now tried and trusted TeachMeet format. This time we are concentrating on educational leadership.

Learn something new, be amazed, amused and enthused. This is an informal gathering of those curious about educational leadership. We are firm believers in a distributed leadership model so please let us know about leadership models and ideas trialled in your school, ask important questions or simply sign up to take part in learning conversations.

LeadMeet is a fringe event of the Scottish Government Leadership Summer School (now in its 3rd year!)”

If you would like to give a presentation or just listen and lurk like myself, please sign up on the wiki here

I look forward to seeing you there

This weekend I along with Louise, Jonesieboy, David and Jennie will be heading up to Islay for Islay High School’s open day and the Education 2020 Teachmeet. I am really looking forward to meeting some new faces and catching up with the usual suspects. If you would like to attend the Teachmeet via flash click here.

In addition to the CPD I am also very much looking forward to the Islay Beach Rugby on Saturday (last year’s write up here). For those of you not on twitter, there is even talk of some fancy dress!

Anyway, I hope to see as many of you as possible this weekend- it is going to be a blast!

Many thanks to Ian for welcoming us all up to Islay

(My apologies for the lack of blog posts but like a number of others I am finding myself using Twitter for same purpose)

Many thanks to Jim Buchan and Ruby Rennie who posted this link on Twitter.

The clip is about an hour long and is well worth watching if you are interested in the future and potential of social networking.

I want Google wave now! 

It has been a good month since I updated my blog. As you know I have started my new Job as e-Learning Community Facilitator for The Scottish Traveller Education Programme (STEP).

STEP is based at Edinburgh University and funded by the Scottish Government. Its remit is to develop and support inclusive educational approaches for Scottish Travelling Communities.

STEP aims to:

• improve the educational opportunities of Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland;
• listen to and represent the views about education of Gypsy/Traveller children, young people and parents;
• encourage the development of a wide, diverse and flexible range of educational opportunities for Gypsies/Travellers;
• promote the development of inclusive practices both to support diversity in education and to address racism, harassment and bullying;
• enable all those engaged in education to know and respect historical cultural traditions as well as contemporary cultural practices and living circumstances of Gypsies/Travellers;
• support and promote inter-agency working which acknowledges the links between education, housing, health and other key social services

To achieve these aims, the staff of STEP will:

• provide information, advice and support to all professionals engaged in enabling the education of Gypsies/Travellers;
• monitor and review educational resources;
• maintain information about resources;
• carry out research and develop a research base for practice;
• respond to Government and other reports;
• highlight issues to do with the education of Gypsies/Travellers in proposed legislation and in policy documents;
• develop and maintain links with colleagues in the rest of the UK and internationally;

Communicate information through:

• print and online material including leaflets, newsletters and a web site;
• hosting conferences;
• writing research reports and articles;
• speaking at conferences and in-service training;
• meeting with colleagues throughout Scotland.

My Role within STEP:

I am the e-learning Community Facilitator for STEP. My remit at STEP is to project manage and facilitate the development and delivery of a pilot e-Learning Community for Scotland’s Travelling young people. This will be delivered through Glow. It is designed to meet the learning needs of mobile and Travelling pupils, and those requiring ‘education outwith school’ services. The pilot will link with Glasgow’s ICT supported distance learning services for children and young people from travelling show and fairground communities.

So far in my new role I have been:

• Planning out the time line for the project and establishing Key contacts with Local Education Authorities, LTScotland and Edinburgh University
• Developing and planning out STEP’s initial Pilot Seminar for the e-Learning Community (this will take place in May)
• Working on setting up an RSS feed so that anything that is catagorised ‘STEP’ written here on my weblog, will be automatically posted on the STEP site and eventually GLOW  
• Researching relevant legislation, literature, policies and practice
• Meeting with Teachers of Travellers and some families

On Wednesday I will be travelling through to Stirling Management Centre to attend a two day course on ‘Glow Learn’ (the Virtual Learning Environment within Glow). I am really looking forward to this as it has been quite a while since I have been able to use the VLE.

So as you can see I have a lot to keep me busy and I am thoroughly enjoying the challenge. I will try and keep posting regularly here, however I am finding myself using Twitter more and more as it is quicker.

Tomorrow I take up my new post as eLearning Community Facilitator for Edinburgh University and the STEP programme. I am very excited about my move and I hope to share as much as possible with you here.

I would like to thank all my friends, colleagues and pupils that I have worked with at Knox Academy during the last six years. I would like to thank the Science technicians for their ongoing hard work, my car share crew for the fun and chat and the janitors for their help, support and good humour.

I would also like to thank Knox Academy for allowing me to take a Secondment as an Education Support Officer last year. It was fantastic opportunity and I feel very privilege to have worked with East Lothian’s ICT team.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with East Lothian and would like to wish all my friends, colleagues and pupils all the very best for the future.

Following the success of the bird autopsy via GlowMeet , the Sea Bird Centre in North Berwick will be holding a second session. On Wednesday the 18th of March the Centre will host a GlowMeet especially for Early Years practitioners. Although the event is taking place in East Lothian, it is open to any authorities that are using Glow.

Emily Dodd, Education Officer for the Scottish Seabird Centre, will tell the story of Percy the Puffin and his homecoming. You can read more about the event here on the Glow Blog.

This GlowMeet will be facilitated by Martin Brown and Stuart Oliphant from the LTS Glow team. For further information contact  m.brown at ltscotland.org.uk.