The end of term is fast approaching and I expect that you will be glad of the break. I started the calendar year with some ambitious objectives that were definitely going to take more than two-thirds of an academic year to achieve. However, with the help of the Advisory Team, we have made an impressive start and laid the foundations for increased development next year, which include show-casing the Focus Sports Analysis software and projects at the Scottish Learning Festival in September, increasing the network of Focus users in Centres, building a social network forum containing a directory of field-related expertise in Sports qualifications, promoting and supporting the Scotland's Colleges Sport initiative, working closely with SQA to stage Sport-related dual-purpose events and generally building a vibrant, dynamic networking group.
My thanks go to all members of the Advisory Group for their very constructive help and support over the past 6 months. I look forward to working with you all again in the coming academic session. Similarly, I am also looking forward to meeting those of you that I have not managed to meet with this year and working with all of you in the wider Sports Network. Look out for emails from me detailing events that will be held next session. You can also find out information from the Scotland's Colleges website or Practitioners Plus pages for Sport & Recreation, so if you are currently not signed up, to to http://www.sfeu.ac.uk/subjects
I hope you all have a good summer break and return refreshed and revitalised in August.
Thursday, 25 June 2009
Sunday, 7 June 2009
I cannot believe that we are now in June and my last communication was a month ago! I apologise to all of you who may have been logging in only to find no update. This is a very busy time of year for any lecturer, and personally, it has been additionally busy as I am currently collecting data for my MSc dissertation, which takes a full two days per week - I know you'll empathise when I say I really have been trying to stretch the 24 hours in each day into something resembling 36 hours, but it just doesn't work!! Anyway, enough said... you obviously want to know what I've been doing that's related to my post as Mentor: Sports & Rec.
There's been lots of 'behind the scenes' just getting on with organising things in relation to the action points that came up from the Advisory Group meeting on 30 April. I'm working on the design of a social network page for all FE Colleges delivering sports courses, one that will be communally owned and updated and hopefully give people access to the information and individuals who know the information needed. I'm also trying to orchestrate our event at the Scottish Festival of Learning at the SECC in September to showcase the use of Focus software and the types of projects that we've been involved with. We have also just confirmed a joint event with SQA on 28 August, to look at results of EV visits this academic year (SQA input) and how delivery may be enhanced (Scotland's Colleges input). I've also attended an e-assessment seminar and e-portfolio training in order to help support those Centres who wish to develop e-assessment resources and implement the use of e-portfolios with Skills for Work courses. Both of these initiatives I whole-heartedly support as I can see the massive potential for our students, despite the fact that the initiatives are in their infancy and still require development themselves.
Most recently, however, with my Scotland's Colleges hat on, I attended the College People's Week (CPW) Event on Friday 5 June. As my first, I was very impressed. The speakers were first class and the day informative and thought provoking. Obviously every individual takes away different things from such a day, but I thought it worth sharing what I got from the day. At the first session - presented by John Laird, HMI, I learnt that there will be much greater activity from this service and that practice that is 'excellent' will be identified not only from HMI visits but from Colleges identifying this and making HMIs aware of it. The resulting reports will be available through the new HMI website and individuals are encouraged to seek these out to inform their own practices and developments within their individual Centres. A presentation from Claire Donaghey (Subject Mentor - English, Communication and Media) reminded me of the value of extra-curricula activities and indicated the positive results that such activities had in terms of retention and attainment at her Centre. I've been muddling along with the whole ICT thing for sometime and I was therefore pleased that John Edmonson clearly and succinctly brought everything together in one easy to understand, one-page summary of what current day ICT is all about. I am now very clear about where everything sits in terms of platforms, systems and Web 2.0. In terms of content of the platforms, systems and web 2.0 applicaitons, I learnt about some new (to me) sites that I will access to find additional teaching resouces. John also put ICT in the context of achieving Curriculum for Excellence criteria, which was very useful. All this information was intersperesed with activities that promoted discussion amongst colleagues and reinforced thoughts and opinions as well as developed new ones and aided networking with those in the same curricula area. A great day, and I would urge you to look out for next year's event and fix that date in your diary.
On the point of dates - don't forget 28 August at SQA offices for the joint event and 23 September at the SECC for the Scottish Festival of Learning. More information on both will follow, just put them in your diary now!!
There's been lots of 'behind the scenes' just getting on with organising things in relation to the action points that came up from the Advisory Group meeting on 30 April. I'm working on the design of a social network page for all FE Colleges delivering sports courses, one that will be communally owned and updated and hopefully give people access to the information and individuals who know the information needed. I'm also trying to orchestrate our event at the Scottish Festival of Learning at the SECC in September to showcase the use of Focus software and the types of projects that we've been involved with. We have also just confirmed a joint event with SQA on 28 August, to look at results of EV visits this academic year (SQA input) and how delivery may be enhanced (Scotland's Colleges input). I've also attended an e-assessment seminar and e-portfolio training in order to help support those Centres who wish to develop e-assessment resources and implement the use of e-portfolios with Skills for Work courses. Both of these initiatives I whole-heartedly support as I can see the massive potential for our students, despite the fact that the initiatives are in their infancy and still require development themselves.
Most recently, however, with my Scotland's Colleges hat on, I attended the College People's Week (CPW) Event on Friday 5 June. As my first, I was very impressed. The speakers were first class and the day informative and thought provoking. Obviously every individual takes away different things from such a day, but I thought it worth sharing what I got from the day. At the first session - presented by John Laird, HMI, I learnt that there will be much greater activity from this service and that practice that is 'excellent' will be identified not only from HMI visits but from Colleges identifying this and making HMIs aware of it. The resulting reports will be available through the new HMI website and individuals are encouraged to seek these out to inform their own practices and developments within their individual Centres. A presentation from Claire Donaghey (Subject Mentor - English, Communication and Media) reminded me of the value of extra-curricula activities and indicated the positive results that such activities had in terms of retention and attainment at her Centre. I've been muddling along with the whole ICT thing for sometime and I was therefore pleased that John Edmonson clearly and succinctly brought everything together in one easy to understand, one-page summary of what current day ICT is all about. I am now very clear about where everything sits in terms of platforms, systems and Web 2.0. In terms of content of the platforms, systems and web 2.0 applicaitons, I learnt about some new (to me) sites that I will access to find additional teaching resouces. John also put ICT in the context of achieving Curriculum for Excellence criteria, which was very useful. All this information was intersperesed with activities that promoted discussion amongst colleagues and reinforced thoughts and opinions as well as developed new ones and aided networking with those in the same curricula area. A great day, and I would urge you to look out for next year's event and fix that date in your diary.
On the point of dates - don't forget 28 August at SQA offices for the joint event and 23 September at the SECC for the Scottish Festival of Learning. More information on both will follow, just put them in your diary now!!
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