just to see if I could do !it - I have added a couple of photos

just posted new photos on flickr

that's the good news! - I have posted them on my own 'clay and stitch' site (not intentionally) and would like to move them over to the group pool of photos, but I can't figure out how to do it. I thought it would be good to show you all how the autumn community textile is coming together. We are beginning to assemble it, so will be able to show completed work soon.

library service links with Ad Ed learners

Just thought I would share a great afternoon I had with learners yesterday. Following an Ad Ed textiles course, learners have got together on Thursday afternoons in GL14 Meeting Place and share 'textile talk'. They are working together to complete their first community textile which was started on the Ad Ed course. The Cinderford library service is developing a project 'past, present and future' and is working in partnership with GL14 Community Project to encourage local involvement. Catherine Escott Allen from Cinderford Library came along to meet the group and we gathered around the computer to see how easy it was to use the library web site in conjunctioin with Amazon web site to reasearch books and then check information about them on the Amazon web site and then check if they are available to borrow from the County library service. Catherine also explained that the library service in Gloucestersire also networked further afield in the South West area to access books. Catherine also encouraged us to request books to be purchased - no promises but they like to get this feedback from borrowers to know which books would be welcomed on the shelves. We were all truly spoilt by Catherine who brought a great selection of books along and enabled us to borrow them on the spot. Discussions followed and we came up with some great ideas on how we could develop this partnership between Ad Ed learners and the library service further using IT. We all agreed we had learnt a lot and were all inspired by the books to try out more new ideas.

WAS I DREAMING?

Hi Marie here.
Was I dreaming?
I posted some comments, around being excited to be part of the new dream team, still feeling a novice - although I have recorded learners and event activities on digital cameras before, and was looking forward to further expanding my skills and experience for the benefit of learners. I clicked "Publish Post" forgot to give it a title, viewed it and then double clicked on my name in another window and the posting disapeared - never to be found again!

I am going to feel foolish if the first one floats back in and there are two postings!

However, having received the "Dream Team" camera and printer in the morning I digitally captured our "WHAT NEXT" IAG event that evening that we had for our ACL learners here at the National Star College. The plan is to post them very soon (Oh well, try anyway!)

Hot Potatoes

At the FLLN/LLN Dream Team meeting I mentioned the Hot Potatoes suite of software for preparing matching activities, quizzes and crosswords which self mark. When loaded to a VLE it's also possible to record the scores of individual learners. A link to download the software and guides on how to use it can be found at http://www.sdelc.org.uk/MOD-07-Content-SourceAndCreate/Sub1/HotPotatoes.aspx.

Test Movie

Rob and Julie created their story in Powerpoint which can't be loaded directly into the blog. At the end of the session we talked briefly about using Movie Maker. Have made a very short and simple movie using 4 still images of my daughter, adding some titles and credits and downloading some royalty free music from Derek R Audette. The first site I used for music did not allow free downloading for blogs so it's important to read the terms and conditions first. Also have no idea what the music sound like as no speakers on this pc - but the title seemed appropriate for a girl who never has any shoes to wear!

This is the Area 14 ALDD Dream Teeam - proof that the cameras work and that we worked out how to post a picture!!!

Dream Teams FLLN and LLN

We met up on Monday and had fun with some of the equipment - not least as Julie has pointed out the European sockets and Office 2007. Rob and Julie G (FLLN) created a really original version of the 3 Little Pigs and I hope that Rob is going to upload to the blog to share with you. What great fun this digital story telling will be parents and children. Look out for the Powerpoint.

Area 14 Dream Team

Have just had a very enjoyable and informal meeting at the Natonal Star College with my new Dream team for Area 14 ALDD.
In the group, I have Marie Snell, Jo Hack and Kirstie Workman in my team. Hoping to get a couple of Artshape Tutors on board too. (Harriet West and I will meet up later on in the month).

The team have taken away a camera and printer to play with for a few weeks and then use in their teaching. The Star is off for at least a month over the Easter break so will have loads of time for "playing"

New NIACE Equipment

Hi all
I was able to play around with the new NIACE laptop and projectors yesterday. We weren't able to use the projector, as they all came with european plugs but that is going to be sorted. The laptops are good and have a reasonable size screen. One point, they are loaded with Microsoft Office 2007, which is very different to other versions of Office. If you are going to use the new laptops for teaching or presentations and you are not used to using Office 2007, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to familiarise with it. Anyway, to all of you who will be using the new equipment - enjoy!!
Julie

On reading Karen's posting about the WOA project, thought I'd better tell you about an Action Research Project that I am managing through a successful bid to LSN (Learning and Skills Network) Small in comparison to the WOA bid!
The project title is "Managing Enablers in Learning" and the brief is as follows:-

The aim is to support tutors in formalising their role in managing carers who act as learning enablers in the classroom.
The objectives are to:-
Improve the quality of learning experience for the learner
Motivate care workers to better understand their classroom role
Motivate tutors to understand their role in managing enablers Improve the relationship between Care Sector and Learning Provider

Action research is a term, which refers to a practical way of looking at your own work to check that it is as you would like it to be. Because action research is done by you, the practitioner, it is often referred to as practitioner based research, and because it involves you thinking about and reflecting on your own work, it can also be called a form of self reflective practice.

The idea of self reflection is central. Traditional research looks at the actions of others, in action research, researchers do research on themselves and it will be shown in the final report the processes that they have gone through in order to achieve a better understanding of themselves, so that they can continue to develop themselves and their work.

If you would like to find out more about Action Research please look at “Action Research for Professional Development – Concise Advise for New Action Researchers”
Jean McNiff 2002

I am having my first briefing with tutors from The National Star College and Artshape on Wednesday 19th March.

I will keep everyone posted as to the outcomes of this project which will include the development of some training materials for carers who accompany ALDD learners into the classroom, to support the care staff in their learning enabler role.

Any comments gratefully received.

TechnoTeaching

I'm back from a week at a show at the NEC and catching up with what's been happening. Whilst there, I watched a couple of video podcasts on my ipod. One was an edition of Bonnie Mccaffrey's Quilting Show, featuring Ricky Tims, a well known, American quilter and teacher.

He spoke about his "Tech Teaching" seminars, which make use of similar kit to ours and which allow students to access a richer learning experience as a result of his use of multimedia presentations.

I've posted a link to these free videocasts before, but it could be that some of our newer bloggers could find them interesting too. You don't need an ipod but can watch online on your computer. Of course, if you have a video ipod, you can download them to watch whenever you like. Even at 4am, in bed in a galestruck farm cottage on the outskirts of the NEC! Oh, and don't be put off by the quilting subject content, will you?

Flickr

The first thing I did when joining the Dream Team was add photos of my work ad my learners working to Flickr, and I very soon came to spend some time nearly every evening looking at photos of a wide range of art work from all over the world. I joined several groups, enjoyed commenting on people's work and saving many as my Favorites. I don't know if it's "allowed" but I downloaded a few photos onto my computer. There's a group called Gloucestershire, another the River Severn, so I included some of the photos from these groups when I ran a slide show a fortnight ago for my Community Texties Group, who are doing work inspired by looking at The River Severn. Today I printed some photos out to take to show my "hard to reach" learners, photos of stitching, knitting and crochet. I explained where I'd got them from. This initiated a very interesting discussion - an 89 year old was talking about how wonderful the internet was, how much her grandchildren were learning from it. Another spoke quite passionately against it. Another in the group said how she was changing her mind about the internet. Looking at the photos, most of them said that their work was just as good, which for me was fabulous and a sign of great progress, as lack of confidence is one of the things that holds most in the group back.
Using Flickr is very simple, maybe rather addictive so watch out!

Some interesting videos

Have just been alerted to an American site for P & Q ers, that might be of interest. They show a variety of techniques. I have put the link in the side bar or you could click HERE, and you will be taken to the site.

It may take a short while for the video to appear on the black screen ( that depends on the speed or your broadband connection). Look forward to hearing if you find it useful.

Fabric Origami

MP3 player

Just returned from time with two of my IT literate children and they both played around with the MP3 player. I had found how to record, but couldn't play it back. After some time fumbling around with it they asked the all important question - "Why do you need to record, play back and get it on to the computer"? When I explained - they looked at me in disbelief and said together - "Why don't you have an inexpensive simple dictaphone on the table, so learners can just press one button to record and one to stop."? Certainly the MP3 player we have is not easy - if you give a quick press you get one response and a long press gets another - if your short press is seen by the MP3 player as a long press you go all around the houses again! confused? well I think most people would be. Thinking about it - I think a good combination for learners to record progress, achievement and give feedback on their learning experience would be a combination of a digital camera and a simple compact dictaphone. Oh! the MP3 player did have a good use - on the way to London to see children I was able to listen to my beginners Spanish tape!
Also I had some great and much needed IT support today from a GL14 Community Project volunteer who is setting up our web site. I had been struggling to add photos to a CDRW using MS wizard. I thought you could add a few photos each week each week as a learner may wish to do to their personal disc. I think I have learnt that to add more photos it is necessary to use Nero (it is on AdEd laptop) but I had just been using MS wizard and it wouldn't work. It is not difficult - when you have learnt how to use Nero - but I needed to be shown this. I spent ages struggling to do what is not possible!

oops

Sorry - got so excited I posted that twice!!

No marks for spotting the differences!

Karen

We're in the money!!!

WOA NTLCP

Don't worry you'll begin to recognise the above initials very soon !!!!!

Whole Organisational Approach: National Teaching and Learning Change Programme (Subject Learning Coaches)

Jane and I worked very hard on bidding for some money - and blow me- we were successful!!!!
We were one of 18 out of a total of 80 bids.

We have £35K to spend by July this year! eeek!!!!!!!!

Basically it's to train you and your dream teams to populate a VLE with wizzy resources

Here is a bit of the spec:

The objectives of the project, as per AdEd’s e-learning strategy, are to work collaboratively with 24 partner organisations:

· To use SLC staff skills to develop CPD within SSAs to enable partner tutors to develop high quality e-learning resources for use with ACL learners.

· To populate the ACL VLE with quality resources for tutors working for the 24 different providers Adult Education across Gloucestershire.

· Use small teams of enthusiastic tutors to work collaboratively to cascade quality teaching practices across the organisation and to provide support to staff to enhance their teaching using technologyTo widen participation for learners across the county.


Watch this space - we'll be looking to employ a Web Master/Mistress/ Madam to push this project on as soon as possible.

Impending arrival of Language, Literacy and Numeracy Tutors

Hi

My name's Eugene Conlin and I'm a Language, Literacy and Numeracy (LLN) Tutor for Ad Ed in Glos. Just a quick message to say 'Hi' to the 'Team that Dreams' and that I've previously done some e-learning training and attended some e-learning events and the whole concept of 'e-learning' is indeed a very useful, fun and interactive way to deliver learning and I'm glad people are exploring its uses.

Obviously, types of e-learning, equipment and methods used need to be fit for purpose but on the whole I'm really looking forward to creating some on-line literacy & numeracy resources to support the possibility of 'distance learning', creating a 'blended' model of learning and re-enforce learning on standard courses, so that a wide range of learners with different needs can all be cateted for.

Take care and I'll hopefully see you all at one of Jane's upcoming e-learning events

Eugene

Increased confidence and comfort

I've been consolidating the use of the digital camera, making (very!) short video clips in class. Both myself and the learners have become more comfortable with it. I had been concerned that it could distract from focussing on my learners' needs but now feel confident that it can be used to record progress without interrupting the flow of the session. It's also useful to show the learners the clips, for them to see themselves working in a creative environment can really boost confidence, as well as to help them to see that they're part of the group, which for some is an important soft outcome. I've sent some video clips to one of the centres that bring some of my ALDD learners, they can be used in support of their funding applications. The learner and her key worker gave consent for this video clip to be uploaded.

'What Next" decisions

Lizzy and I have been working with a group of students on a GL14 Community Textile Project. Learners have been gaining skills and working towards creating a textile with an 'autumn' theme. At the last session on March 1st Yvonne Smith from the RFDC came along to offer IAG. It was fascinating to listen to their group discussions (I have recorded snippets on the camera). When asked what they might like to do next, they replied with a wealth of ideas - most of which included developing their own IT skills. Learning how to do power point so that they can make a presentation of the creation of the community textile so it can be shown when we exhibit the finished textile was one idea suggested. They have asked if GL14 Commmunity Project can provide a 'drop-in surgery' for support with IT learning. Lizzy and I have used digital cameras throughout, slide shows, internet to research textile artists and techniques, the docucam etc. and this has had an unexpected outcome regarding the learners' aspirations. They did also want to do more textiles as well!

Submission call - subject 'Paper'

Hi all,

just popped in to catch up on postings - fabulous to read all about how the e-toys are being used in your sessions. Loved the images of the photoprint photos from the ALDD class.

I don't know if any of you or your students or colleagues might be interested in the following but have posted it in case ...

The deadline's 10th March ...

Fi
x

Job & Opportunities - Commission
Black Dog Publishing Seeks Writers
Summary:
Black Dog Publishing seeks writers for their new publication Paper: Tear, Fold, Rip, Crease, Cut. This will focus on all aspects of paper manipulation. Types of work included in the book are drawing, painting, sculpture, collage, paper folding, cut-out, pop-up, and installation.
Location:
UK
Region:
London, UK, England
Deadline:
10 Mar 2008
Flip books, maps, money, packaging and decorations are all examples of paper in use. Habitat's latest range of homeware consists of paper lampshades and wall hangings while Selfridges winter window displays are carefully constructed from the material.
The satisfaction of reading a book, actually buying a newspaper or receiving a letter are experiences which have not lost their appeal in our digitally saturated age. Celebrating one of the worlds¹ oldest mediums, Paper is an analogue remedy to the digital world. The book analyses how far it ispossible to take the medium of paper throughout the disciplines of contemporary art.
As one of the most versatile mediums paper is used in nearly every industry. From factories and cafes to museums and offices, paper is a ubiquitous material depended on by all corners of society. Paper craft has long been an established art form, incorporating folding, cutting and sticking to createhumble 'homemade-style' creations. Those days of awkward cut and paste are over as a wave of artists utilise the craft methods to create high-end, coveted artwork. Paper artists are manipulating the medium, and opposing the ideology of paper as merely 'writing material', in their work. Among theartists featured in Paper are Thomas Demand, who creates critically acclaimed intricate paper sculptures and Rachel Whiteread, whose cardboard box installation at the Tate Modern was a phenomenal example of paper art.
From the ancient process of paper manufacture‹papermaking is considered to be one of the four great inventions in Ancient China‹to the most recent technological advances, Paper also offers a history of the material. From the traditional arts of origami and bookmaking to the humble paper aeroplane, paper plates and recent product design Paper is a critical look at how paper is used today.
Profiling over 50 artists who utilise the medium in their work, Paper also boasts an interactive design which allows the reader to experience the art of paper firsthand folding, cutting and manipulating the book to create their own specifications. Paper is a platform for innovative designers to promote their paper-based work as they are invited to display their 2-D design to create 3-D effect. Pushing the limits of the medium to its extremes, Paper: Tear, Fold, Rip, Crease, Cut is an interactive, intelligentand comprehensive look at paper today.
Submissions:A writers CVAn example of writing
When these are received a 500 word abstract outlining the major points of the proposed essay.
Contact: RAVEN SMITH
EditorBlack Dog Publishing London UK Ltd.10a Acton StreetLondon WC1X 9NGwww.blackdogonline.com
Organization:
Black Dog Publishing
Contact Name:
Raven Smith / +44 (0)20 7713 3017
Contact Email:
raven@blackdogonline.com

thanks goodness for a buddy!

set everythng up on Friday night at home - great all working! - Set up at Workshop on Sat and laptop didn't seem to be talking to the projector - stress - quick call to Lizzy - relax - Lizzy on the way - don't know what we did - shut it all down - restarted and pressed buttons and all was well! Buddies can't always be so near at hand - but it is great to know there is someone to talk to as well as share ideas (and problems) on the Blogg. Textile day went really well - the group of learners are creating their first community textile. Very interesting (and exciting) outcome following the introduction of more technology to support learning is that during the group discussion on 'what next' learners talked as much (if not more) about developing their own technology skills as textiles! This was our last session so IAG was included in the session and ideas for progression routes, taken away by IAG adviser, included - learning to create a power point to tell the story of the community textile - making 'how to do' videos for GL14 Community Project resources - photoshop - a 'drop-in' surgery for IT problems at GL14 Project - and more textiles!

Good tutorial

I find the CRAFT magazine website a useful one to keep an eye on for good ideas and interesting links. Today, I found a link to a useful tutorial about using shisha mirrors in embroidery simply put together using clear photographs. There are some excellent examples of using video and photography in tutorials on this page - beware, there's a morning gone once you start browsing through them all!

Recently I've seen the "real", paper magazine on the shelves in WHSmiths, but think the online version is so much more interesting somehow. I particularly love the slightly wacky ideas and we've just giggled our way through the StarWars Video podcast.

I might have a go at putting a similar tutorial together - do you think I can claim for a manicure on my expenses?