A few people have asked recently, “What exactly do you do?” and I struggle to give a simple answer. So here’s a portfolio and a link to some cool infographics instead!
And because I’m feeling extra nice, there’s a link here to some bookmarks we used in a training session with careers advisors on using web2.0
Ange 
Filed under: Dissertation distractions 😉, Web2.0 tools 
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Thought it was about time we had another of these. I just found this crowdsourced collection of tips, ideas and ways to use mobiles for learning (click here). It says in the classroom but we all know that mobiles are for using on the move and that the majority of learning happens outside of classrooms so take advantage of the good weather (unless you’re in Wales) and do something fun!
Ange
(PS more ideas here)
November is Sharing Good Practice Month at the college where I lecture so I thought I’d jump on the Chalkface blog and share two of my favourite things.
I love historypin. It’s a Google Maps mashup where you can upload pictures from the past and compare them to the current street view. You can add video and audio too. There’s heaps of potential for school projects and it’s a great tool for digital storytelling. Have a look at the Beatlemania tour for inspiration!
Continuing with the maps theme, every maths teacher needs to know about the Maths Maps project. Again using Google Maps this collaborative resource links maths questions to physical places. For example, a pin in Real Madrid Football Stadium invites you to zoom in and calculate the area of the pitch. Further more, one map can cover many topics and colour coded pins allow for age or level differentiation. There’s more information on how to join in with the project on the edte.ch blog.
I wrote in my dissertation draft (Version 1037.2) that the reason I was surveying students about their experience of initial assessment was because I thought that they were more likely to give candid responses than their lecturers.
I beleive that academic staff would have answered my questions about assessment based on; what they think they should say, what their organisations policy says is done, and what they think they’ve done. Whereas a student would say; “we did this” or “we didn’t do that”.
Now of course I have to find some evidence to back up my assumption.
Filed under: Initial assessment; the student experience 
After throwing out the non-completers and the time wasters I have a set of 31 survey results. Admittedly not a huge sample but since each of them represents a student in a separate institution, some interesting patterns are emerging.
As expected, all of the students provided their university or college with their name, address and date of birth before their course commenced. All but one reported that they had also provided information about their existing qualifications, and the grades they had attained. All but one respondent provided their university or college with a personal statement.
The next most common information provided prior to the course starting was references, 17 respondents reported giving this information. Less than a third of respondents gave any further information before the course started and even fewer gave any of the information once the course had commenced.
Numeracy ability was provided prior to the course starting in 8 cases and afterwards in 1. Literacy ability was provided prior to the start of the course in 7 cases and not at all once courses had started. Which suggests that 23 of the colleges or universities sampled did not carry out initial assessment in numeracy or literacy. Either that or 23 students didn’t realise they were being assessed!
Filed under: Initial assessment; the student experience 
Analysing the results of my dissertation survey I realised that I’d forgotten to ask my respondents some basic information. At the time the age and sex didn’t seem like relevant information but once the results were in and I discovered that I had around 60 Postgrads with literacy problems, I started to question why, were they male or female, was English even their first language? So here goes Mark2 http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/screeningstudents fingers crossed!
Filed under: Initial assessment; the student experience 
Not content with my MA research and a part time lecturing job I’m keeping myself busy working for Pontydysgu, I say working, I’m not sure work is supposed to be quite so interesting, or fun (it’s not fun Graham, I’m working really hard, honest!). At the moment I’m trying to find out about the use of personal learning environments in training activities. I need to find some examples of good practice and determine what is actually going on at the moment in terms of using PLEs in training. So far I think that the “personal” bit is a barrier to using PLEs and social software in training. I know that people use Twitter to create their own “Personal Learning Networks” but this is done by individuals looking out for their own personal proffessional development, not by your boss tweeting you the latest Health and Safety updates! Or is it? Suppose I should get to work and find out.
I need to interview PLE developers and researchers, teachers and trainers, or trainees. I’m looking for ideas, answers and comments on the following questions…
1) What ICT is used in training activities in Lifelong Learning?
2) What is the level of use of PLEs in training activities?
3) What are the possibilities of PLEs in training/learning?
4) What has been improved by using PLEs?
5) Who is involved in the promotion and development of the PLE: Past /Present /Future.
6) What are the main achievements of the PLE in training/learning?
7) What are the barriers to the development of the PLE in training activities: technological / social /educational.
8) What is the role of the PLE in lifelong learning/training: is it a suitable tool for managing lifelong learning/training?
9)The future of the PLE in lifelong training strategy: what are the main characteristics which can define the PLE as the training tool of the future? Policy support? Etc
That’s a lot to think about
Posted in Dissertation distractions 😉 Tagged: ple, pwd, pwdemploy, pwdproject 
Every year, colleges and universities invest large amounts of time and money into the recruitment of students. The process can involve numerous steps from the obligatory form filling, interviews, conditional and unconditional offers to open day events and induction weeks. The purpose of these stages are two directional, the institution wants to fill its courses with suitable candidates, the student wants to make sure that they have chosen a suitable institution. During this period, vast quantities of information exchanges hands. I want to find out just how much this information is used to impact upon the student learning experience.
Much of the data collected is not used to benefit the teaching or learning process, instead it is collated and used to produce statistics for institutions and to obtain funding. There may be little information in application and enrolment forms of any worth to subject teachers, (they were never intended to be used in that way) if this is the case then the whole process could be a missed opportunity.
Many institutions do collect Initial Assessment data, the theory being that by taking a series of short tests an idea of the students’ levels of literacy and numeracy can be gauged, those falling below a certain level can then be offered further assistance. Having recently been at both ends of this process, as a teacher and a student, it became apparent that Initial Assessment was merely a box ticking exercise. I received no feedback about my own initial assessment and I am still waiting at the end of the school year for the required further assistance to be granted to my own students.
I am curious to learn about other students’ experiences and hope to uncover a more positive view of initial assessment in the UK. I’m not asking the institutions because I want to focus on practice not policy. I would also like to find examples of good practice and ways of improving the system for everyone.
Posted in Initial assessment; the student experience 
Finally got around to finishing the survey last week, tried it out on my sisters and a student friend (thanks all) who suggested a few tweaks to the language.
The final version is here.
Now I’ve got to get it to as many students in the UK as possible. Hope they don’t mind breaking from revision for five minutes!
Posted in Initial assessment; the student experience 
The Search for Spock initial assessment tools;
DfES recommend the following resources via their read write plus campaign http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/readwriteplus/
The Basic Skills Agency has produced “skills check” tools as a way of screening students to see if further initial assessment is required. http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/toolslibrary
Cambridge Training and Development (CTAD) “Target Skills” http://www.targetskills.net/ not much info here, but leads to publications pages.
West Nottinghamshire College have produced a Basic Keyskillbuilder although the links all lead to password protected moodle site where you can’t even log in as a guest user – so no use for anyone wishing to follow examples of good practice.
The only useful one here so far is the Basic Skills agency, available resources are; “Good Practice Guidelines” http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/pdf/Good_Practice_Guide.pdf which is subtitled “for literacy, language and numeracy teachers, subject support staff and adult learner supporters” . Who are these guidelines designed to help?
“Skills for Life is an ambitious strategy that is designed to address literacy, language and numeracy needs of all adults and young people. It covers all post-16 learners on learning programmes at levels from pre-Entry up to and including Level 2.”
So not all adults and young people as it doesn’t include level 3+ courses?
New search;
“Initial assessment in HE” returned the following document written in 2001, http://readingroom.lsc.gov.uk/pre2005/quality/goodpractice/initial-assessment-of-learning-and-support-needs-and-planning-learning-to-meet-needs.pdf which highlights some good points (this is from 2001 not found anything more recent yet…)
The trend appears to be to assess basic skills; literacy and numeracy, upon commencing a course, those who need help with either are picked up and support offered such as testing for dyslexia, there are relatively few references to screening mainstream students and where they are screened, it is only for “basic skills”
Otherwise existing qualifications are used as the startpoint to compare gaining new skills and knowledge against. But this doesn’t help determine what additional support the students need.
Posted in Initial assessment; the student experience 
Cyborg patented?
Forbes reports that Microsoft has obtained a patent for a “conversational chatbot of a specific person” created from images, recordings, participation in social networks, emails, letters, etc., coupled with the possible generation of a 2D or 3D model of the person.
Racial bias in algorithms
From the UK Open Data Institute’s Week in Data newsletter
This week, Twitter apologised for racial bias within its image-cropping algorithm. The feature is designed to automatically crop images to highlight focal points – including faces. But, Twitter users discovered that, in practice, white faces were focused on, and black faces were cropped out. And, Twitter isn’t the only platform struggling with its algorithm – YouTube has also announced plans to bring back higher levels of human moderation for removing content, after its AI-centred approach resulted in over-censorship, with videos being removed at far higher rates than with human moderators.
Gap between rich and poor university students widest for 12 years
Via The Canary.
The gap between poor students and their more affluent peers attending university has widened to its largest point for 12 years, according to data published by the Department for Education (DfE).
Better-off pupils are significantly more likely to go to university than their more disadvantaged peers. And the gap between the two groups – 18.8 percentage points – is the widest it’s been since 2006/07.
The latest statistics show that 26.3% of pupils eligible for FSMs went on to university in 2018/19, compared with 45.1% of those who did not receive free meals. Only 12.7% of white British males who were eligible for FSMs went to university by the age of 19. The progression rate has fallen slightly for the first time since 2011/12, according to the DfE analysis.
Quality Training
From Raconteur. A recent report by global learning consultancy Kineo examined the learning intentions of 8,000 employees across 13 different industries. It found a huge gap between the quality of training offered and the needs of employees. Of those surveyed, 85 per cent said they , with only 16 per cent of employees finding the learning programmes offered by their employers effective.
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