Many Meetings!

There seem to have been loads of meetings of one sort or another over the past couple of weeks. On 21st Feb we had the ILT Champions meeting at Newtown – some interesting presentations, including one on the subject of e-assessment from Allan Perry of WJEC. This is still at an early stage for WJEC – they have 2 pilots running at GCE level (business & ICT) with first assessment Jan 09. Allan raised some important issues about e-assessment including: the fact that question-writing is a completely different process from the usual examination paper; the comparability of paper-based back-up exams, especially when the online version had video, animations etc as a key component (though currently, paper and online exams look exactly the same); lack of hardware; problems with large cohorts eg. need for large question banks. Overall, though, they are pleased with progress and especially with the positive response from learners.
On 22nd Feb, I attended a meeting of Fforwm ITT (Initial Teacher Training) network. Issues discussed included the TQFW, mentoring, finding, minimum core – and on the last subject, I gave some of the ILT Champions’ feedback about the ICT part of this.
Monday, 25th February was a busy day, with Lis and I meeting up with staff from the School of Education at Swansea Metropolitan University in the morning, and then going on to the WAG building at Bedwas that afternoon to meet up with Christine Major and Michelle Sayers, LLUK, about RSC Wales’ role in the SSA (sector skills agreement) currently being drawn up.
Then on the 26th we had a team meeting! Best lunch of all the recent meetings, and good to see Karl too!

(couldn't find an appropriate picture on this PC, so red kites will have to do -usually see a couple in Mid-Wales on my visits)

Visiting Time!

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been to-ing and fro-ing around Wales a fair bit, visiting Coleg Sir Gar in Llanelli and Coleg Glan Hafren in Cardiff in late January, and then embarking on a North-East Wales tour in February. First stop up North was Deeside College, followed by the Welsh College of Horticulture near Mold, NEWI, and Yale College in Wrexham. Justin or Pete came to some of these meetings, and also Mark Thomas from Fforwm . It was good to see ILT Champions ‘in situ’ and to discuss their many interesting projects. One key theme was collaboration, both with other colleges and local schools, and Moodle is often the ‘agent’ for this. We asked about Web 2.0 usage, which was nil in most cases, and we also inquired about future support from RSC Wales. There were some requests for possible training in topics such as podcasting and mind-mapping, as well as updates on topics including e-portfolios and funding.
At NEWI, we discussed aspects of the new ICT minimum core for TQFW (teaching qualifications framework for Wales) and I picked up some useful points (though I wasn’t happy about being recorded!).
When not travelling, I’ve been doing various things like arranging other visits/meetings, doing online seminars (one on Moodle using Elluminate, which is v. similar to Instant Presenter – the actual presentation wasn’t that good!), contributing a bit to the ITT task group wiki on JSLnet, going to Welsh lessons. (the pic is of Powis Castle near Welshpool - haven't actually been in!)