Letting my learners do the teaching

In my web design class yesterday, we did a recap of adding an image to a site.  Well, I say we - I decided at the very last minute to pick on a capable students (who was at that moment being distracted by some other feature of Dreamweaver) to talk the rest of the class through the process.

She started to talk - and I politely asked her to take my seat at the IWB monitor - and talk it through from there.  The rest of the class were delighted, and it was a successful few minutes.  We gave her a round of applause for her efforts, and I then decided to take it a step further and asked another student to talk the class through adding a rollover button.

What was most interesting to me was to sit back and observe the learning process taking place.  I could see who was struggling much more clearly, and found it fascinating to see how the 'teacher' dealt with stragglers.

Not only was this a more engaging method of learning for the students, I think I really learnt something here as well - it gave me breathing space to take stock of what learning was really going on in the class.  I will definitely be doing this again.

Be careful what you Tweet

I'm following with interest the story as it unfolds regarding a guy called Chambers who tweeted that he would blow up an airport if he didn't catch his flight after a heavy fall of snow.  Stephen Fry has given his support to Chambers' appeal, joining many others in saying that the tweet was taken out of context and was clearly meant as a joke.

Not sure if I agree or not - on the one hand we should all be allowed to joke, but on the other hand, we all have a responsibility to censor our 'comments' as appropriate.  There are some things I would say in front of my husband that I would never say in a classroom, and there are some things I would say to my friends that I would never say in front of my husband.

What do you think? http://bbc.in/gcy09m

Learning from my students

In my web design class there is a young artist who is building a site for the local art community.  He often asks me in depth or difficult questions for things he want his site to be able to do.  In the past, this might have worried me as I can't always answer his questions, but today I realised what a joy it is to move beyond the constraints of what can be done easily, and to challenge both his and my learning.

All too often we limit ourselves to the things we are familiar with, instead of taking a step back and asking "what do I really want to achieve, and then trying to achieve it.  This is perhaps one of the advantages of not knowing the software.  My student has a "surely this is possible" attitude which makes us both try that bit harder to find a way of doing what he wants.  Great stuff.

Collaboration on Google Docs

I have discovered the power of Google Docs for sharing.  Forgive me for my enthusiasm, I'm not so quick as some of you.

What a brilliant tool.  I've created several documents already to share with colleagues, and we've all had fun adding comments and using the chat facility.

Above all though, I think this will be really productive.  An easy way for us to share a combined piece of work, adding to it as we have thoughts or ideas.  Fab stuff.

Twitter chat

Well tonight I followed (well, tried to follow!) a Twitter chat on EdChat.

Just about kept up, but it's definitely a skill which could be improved.  Some interesting thoughts on Shared Decision Making, and I'll try and follow others when I can.  A sort of virtual meeting I suppose with people from all over the world.

ESW, Job Skills and the Job Centre

Visit today from the Job Centre, looking at our ESW / Job skills classes.  Seemed very positive, so perhaps some good links will be made here.

Busy busy busy

A fun filled day today, CSS, Google Docs & Google Bookmarks to name but a few.  No luck with the Grand National though