Brian's Blog

I've moved...

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 18:22:10GMT

This blog has moved.

You'll find the blog at http://exc-el.org.uk/blogs/brian.

You can subscribe to the new blog's posts here , and, if you want, to the comments here .

Wiki

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 18:13:54GMT

There is another Wiki especially set up for technicians like us on my private website called TecHKnow at http://www.techknow.org.uk. Contributions from the profession are welcome though I would advise before you do take the plunge into this exciting world to familiarise yourself with the way things are done. Its not a discussion or noticeboard but rather an area were colleagues can contribute their valuable experience in a collective and collaborative way that all technicians can easily access use and learn from. PS Your Blogg is very good and has been given a mention on my website. keep up the good work Seamus Smith

Friday In Service

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 15:45:02GMT

I gave a short in-service to the Biology department about ALBA data loggers on Friday afternoon. We have had data loggers in the department for a while but few staff have had the time to discover just what can be done with them.

I explained what all the components were, briefed the staff on what the different sensors looked like, how to connect them to, and run the software on, a laptop and then demonstrated three experiments.

The first was very simple one using the Carbon Dioxide (CO2) sensor to measure the difference in levels of the gas in inhaled and exhaled air. It takes only a few seconds and the resulting bar graph gives a great visual representation of the increased levels of CO2 in the exhaled air.

For the second demonstration I simulated a biology practical in which the enzyme catalase is investigated, the end product being oxygen. I used the oxygen sensor to detect an increase in oxygen level in a plastic container.

The alba data loggers have the capacity for up to four sensors to be used at the same time so for the third demo I used a combination of the oxygen and carbon dioxide sensors to show how respiration effects the levels of these gases in a sealed container.

To finish off I showed how the loggers could be used in their remote mode. This feature enables them to be disconnected from the PC and so can be left in a variety of locations to capture data over a period of time. I had left an experiment to run the previous evening, so demonstrated how to download saved data and how to produce a graph from the information that was remotely gathered over a period of ten hours.

As the session went on the Biology staff came up with interesting and novel ways of integrating the use of the data loggers into the syllabus, with some of them realising that they are not as difficult to use as they previously thought.

Hopefully the technology will get more use now and enhance the already excellent learning and teaching experience currently had by the pupils that visit the biology department of Musselburgh Grammar School.

Vacuum

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 08:30:45GMT

The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step - Lao Tzu I am just trying to take that first step with regard to reform of the technicians service in ELC

Vacuum

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 08:25:42GMT

Well Vacuum could be one word for it. I truly do not know who is resposible for the service in East Lothian. Some managers believe it is run by Edinburgh Council who have a central technicians service, but I can assure you that they have confirmed that they have have no jurisdiction over us. When I was at the national technicians conference last year I was approached by a senior member of the educational scientific community who asked me just what was going on in the Lothians as it had been noted at executive level that something was badly amiss. I had to honestly tell them that I just didnt know. There should be an alarm bell ringing somewhere, especially regarding recruitment, but on whose desk it is on is a total mystery to me. All I really want is for East Lothian to make the best use of its excellent support staff, and to provide training and CPD oppertunities for them to be able to provide a well informed and efficent 21st century service to the schools in the authority.

Managing

Thu, 05 Oct 2006 19:52:34GMT

Managers help manage which, in its most basic level, is all about letting staff manage to do the job. In East Lothian's case I do wonder how technicians can truly manage to do their job if there's no-one setting the bar for the next leap forward. Am I being naive or is there a leadership vacuum in the way that the service is run here?

Scottish Executive Survey

Thu, 05 Oct 2006 16:55:08GMT

I met with Ewan McIntosh at lunchtime. When I was at the GLOW mentors meeting last week I had mentioned, in general conversation, that our Chemistry department was starting up a Chemistry club. He came up with all kinds of suggestions and ideas with regard to new media/multimedia so I said I would mention some of them when I got back to school. I asked the teachers involved what they thought and we all had a meeting. The staff came up with some cracking ideas, so watch this space and see what happens !!!!!

This afternoon I received a report from the Scottish Executive Education Department that contains a national survey carried out with regard to CPD and related activities for technical support staff. All 32 local authorities were contacted and asked to complete the survey form. In authorities where there was a central technical support team, meetings were arranged and heads of technician services were interviewed. In local authorities with no central service an appropriate member of HQ staff of sufficient experience was identified and interviewed or issued with a survey form to complete.

In cases where neither of the above scenarios existed an experienced school based technician was asked to complete the form. With regard to East Lothian we didnt fall into either of the first two catagories so I tried to fill in as much of the data as I could but couldnt find out any information regarding recruitment policy, formulae for staffing levels, levels of technical support in primaries or any information as to who is actually in charge of the technician service in East Lothian. In the end 30 councils fully or partially completed the survey forms.

I had a quick scan through the interim report and it seems that many councils are on the ball, others have let things slide since local government reorganisation in 1996 and some have left their technician services to languish in no mans land, unsure of whose in charge and what they should be doing. I will read through the more detailed report and no doubt some of the issues that it raises will appear as posts here very shortly.

SSDN

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 06:43:59GMT

Sounds like a great day Brain - fancy a cup of rocket fuel coffee down in my office to chat over it with me?

Prestonpans Awayday

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 15:20:50GMT

I attended the East Lothian GLOW mentors meeting in Prestonpans yesterday.

There was a presentation by Learning and Teaching Scotland about how the GLOW project is progressing and we were given some idea of the timescales regarding when GLOW will be made available and also given some idea as to when our training as mentors would begin.

The dates will not be set in stone and I guess with such an ambitious project such as GLOW it must be expected that the timelines will slip to the right a little.

It is hoped that GLOW mentors will be able to access the portal in November for about a month to enable us to familiarise ourselves with all its components.It should then reappear in January with more tools and applications to be assessed and played with.

Our training as mentors will take place in the Stirling Management centre and will last approx 2.5 days and will cover subjects such as sharing practice, a curriculum for excellence workshops and the theory of co coaching. It is expected that training for the 600 or so GLOW mentors will take place from May next year.

Don Ledingham then gave a talk about his vision including East Lothian Schools, learning and teaching and the future. Having reads Dons Blog, posted comments, and written in this blog about a topic he had blogged about I was interested in hearing what he had to say, rather than reading it in print. I liked what I heard. At no time did I feel like I was being patronised and I genuinely believe Dons philosophy with regard to community, management attitudes and the future will be a great asset to East Lothian Council.

We worked in groups after lunch and continued to shape the strategies which will affect how GLOW is handled within East Lothian, and the feeling of excitement amongst the GLOW mentors was almost palpable.

We are using wikis to put together our ideas and I will blog more about how things are going when we get things firmed up.

I got the bus home with Ewan McIntosh, after a couple of pints of Gothenburg porter, and we blethered about all kinds of stuff and the possibility of doing a couple of projects in the science department of Musselburgh Grammar School utilising multimedia technology.

All in all it was an excellent day, many thanks to Karen Robertson for organising it.

<a href=" http://technorati.com/tag/elcouncil" rel="tag">elcouncil</a>

Interactive Whiteboard

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 15:36:11GMT

We were told yesterday that we will be getting an interactive whiteboard in the department. We have twelve labs so a debate started on where it should go. Our labs come in a variety of shapes and sizes so it may not be suitable for some rooms. Others are not so well provided with inconveniently placed electrical sockets and there are instances where cables are tripping hazards due to the necessity of have a data projector at the full stretch of its electrical cable in able for it to be directly in front of the current whiteboards.

All our science rooms now have a data projector, none are ceiling mounted and most are used from the teachers desk at the front or precariously balanced on top of piles of books to enable it to be used correctly.

It was a bit like watching a game of pass the parcel with most people hoping that the music wouldnt stop when the package was in their hands.

GLOWing

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 13:04:19GMT

I attended the learning and teaching festival at the SECC the past couple of days. It was excellent. A completely worthwhile experience. I cannot praise it highly enough. My grey matter is still processing all the information to the extent that I didnt sleep very well last night as my head was buzzing from all the stimulation. I will post more about it once I have had a chance to make sense of it all.

GLOW was showcased at the festival, and as a mentor I attended special events with all the other mentors in Scotland and learned a whole lot more about the project. I hadnt realised that the project will be a first for Scotland. Its never been tried before anywhere in the world, and if the professionalism, dedication, and organisational abilities of all the GLOW staff and their partners at RM is anything to go by then it will be an amazing success. It truly will affect everyone who works in Scottish education and I am extremely happy to be given the chance to be associated with it.

During the course of the two days East Lothian Council was mentioned a few times. At a presentation given to all the, approximately 600, GLOW mentors the Wiki which has been set up for the collaboration of the East Lothian mentors was identified as one of the ways which local authorities are getting ready for GLOWs implementation.

People that I met were also very complimentary about the contribution made by pupils from Musselburgh Grammar School who gave a short presentation to the delegates at the learning and teaching festival. They were a credit to both their school and East Lothian Council.

Modernisation

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 15:38:30GMT

In my last post I said I would try and explain how some local authorities have adapted and modernised their technical support services to meet the demand of todays curriculum. So here goes.

When the McCrone report which modernised the terms, conditions and pay of teachers was published in 2000 it contained no reference to technical support staff. Many technicians and support staff felt aggrieved by this as the last major review of technicians pay and conditions was carried out in 1987 so approached their local authorities and asked them to implement a re grading exercise which would take into account the changes in their duties, responsibilities and working practices since the last review.

Many councils embraced the opportunity to update job descriptions and build in flexibility needed to cope with the changes in the years to come, others did not and that is why some councils are so far ahead of others when it comes to coping with needs of the modern curriculum.

Technical support staff with modern contracts now play a wider role in the support of education. As I said yesterday many are trained in basic IT skills which means that IT officers now find themselves utilised more effectively whilst the support staff in the schools look after the daily routines that can so often eat up an IT officers time. Support staff often now take care of the portable appliance testing (PAT) within schools. The money saved by having testing done in school can be quite considerable running into tens of thousands of pounds.

Technical support in primary schools is now quite common. As science and ICT play an ever-increasing role in primary education, technical support is becoming a necessity.

Councils that have increased levels of technical support in secondary schools have been able to offer a service to the feeder primaries. Services range from giving technical support via email, teleconferencing, phone or personal visits to running in service courses showing and explaining the use of scientific equipment to non science specialists. Not only does this save teaching staff time and therefore money, it has the added effect of fostering closer links between the institutions.

It was even reported by one delegate at last years technicians conference that nurseries were now requesting assistance from technical support staff in response to the Curriculum for Excellence.

It wouldnt take that much to set up in East Lothian and its not that expensive either.In fact having a properly organised Technical Support Service results in savings from increased efficiency through teachers and management being relieved of the many small tasks which are uneconomical for them to spend their time doing.

IT Support

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 16:15:40GMT

Thanks fo this contribution - we'll give this suggestion serous consideration. However, the majority of our help desk calls come from primary schools - how do we support them? I look forwards to reading more about how other authorities use technicians in such roles.

Improving Technical Support

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:38:48GMT

Don in his blog today announced that the council is to employ more IT support officers in order to gain the best benefit from the councils increased investment in ICT over the next few years which is a great forward looking move.

There are, however, other options that could be also considered. Many local councils have anticipated the future need for increased technical support by training existing technical support staff in schools to assist in the day to day administration of IT systems. Support staff in many local authorities process new hardware coming into schools and after ensuring its electrical safety record it on the schools inventory. Day to day updating of software and showing staff how to get the best of their IT equipment is also an element of their duties.

For example, I was chatting to Ollie Bray who is an acting depute Head Teacher at Musselburgh Grammar the other day and he said that he spent quite a bit of time handing out passwords etc to the new staff at the school. Thats exactly the type of task that should be carried out by technical support staff and it would free up the time of senior management.

For this to happen in East Lothian the whole system would have to be reviewed. Technicians job descriptions and contracts are nearly twenty years old and would have to be updated to take the new technology into account. The correct training would need to be identified and better links between the IT officers and technical support staff fostered.

Its all eminently achievable in East Lothian, and the local authorities that have instigated such initiatives are currently reaping educational, economical and logistical rewards

In my next entry I will explain how some local authorities have modernised their technical support service to enable staff to support the modern curriculum and its changing needs and demands.

Single Status Stalemate - The key to it all

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 15:28:34GMT

Received an update on the single status negotiations taking place within the council. It seems that UNISON have withdrawn from the negotiating table on advice given at a national level. As far as I am aware no further progress will be able to be taken until UNISON return to the negotiating table and agree to the councils proposals in relation to pay, grading and conditions of service. All the council employees have been waiting a few years, lets hope that it wont be another few years before its resolved. Most people who I have been in communication with are frustrated and as time passes some employees are feeling quite anxious about the outcome of the whole exercise.

On a more positive note my master key arrived today. It was supplied by FES to our senior depute and I signed for it at lunchtime.

This means I should be able to access all the areas I need to access to be able to perform my duties without running up and down the stairs all day like a mad thing searching for a suitable key.

Key update My master key doesnt work !!

More technicians please!

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 15:42:58GMT

I'm with you on that one Brian. In a school this size there should be (as in my previous schools) a dedicated Physics technician, as well as an AV tech. Just think of the improvement in teaching/learning quality (not to mention John's blood pressure) if the "model power lines" and other such demonstrations appeared ready to go after a simple requisition...

Flying by

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 13:40:06GMT

This week has flown by. The science department is always busy and industrious but seems even more so with the addition of two Newly Qualified Teachers which brings the number of staff in the department to nineteen.

Its changed out of all recognition since I started in 1987. I think at the time the school roll was under 800. There were around seven science teachers with two science technicians.Now the roll is around 1400 and there are seventeen science teachers in the department and still only two technicians.

I often quote the above figures in mitigation on the very rare occasions when something goes wrong, but more often than not Im met with a blank stare. I would have thought that science teachers were quite good at maths, but hey, there you go.

CPD Opportunities

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 13:34:28GMT

Well thats the end of the first week back for the pupils. It has really flown in and everything seems to be going smoothly with everybody in the department getting back into the swing of things.

I have a few CPD opportunities coming up and I have asked for permission for to be out of school on those days. Unfortunately they all seem to occur in the next 2 or 3 months but theres not much I can do about it as CPD opportunities for support staff are so thin on the ground I really have to try and make the most of them when they occur.

In East Lothian, I have, in the recent past come across managers who are convinced that support staff are not entitled to CPD when of course all staff members of ELC are entitled to advance themselves professionally. It seems though in education that CPD for support staff is not as high a priority as other parts of the council.

I have been working with agencies such as the Scottish Technicians Advisory Group and the Scottish Schools Equipment Research Centre to remedy the lack of provision for Science support staff in East Lothian and to try and get it to the levels found in other local authorities. Its a slow process but footsteps are being made in the right direction and I hope that in the near future East Lothian will be fully involved in the project by the Scottish Executive to provide relevant CPD and related activities for school science support staff.

Wiki's

Thu, 24 Aug 2006 15:10:32GMT

This afternoon I managed to find a bit of time to contribute to the Wiki that was set up for the SSDN (now called GLOW) mentors in East Lothian.

Now I will admit to having heard of Wiki's but hadnt really understood fully what they were about. If any one doesnt know what one is, then I think a simple way of describing it would be as a noticeboard that allows users to add to or edit content. It really does give one a feeling of inclusion as each posting has as much merit as any other reagardless of who it was posted by.

I posted a few comments and hope now to get a bit more organised so that I can contibute on a more regular basis and take a more active part in how the GLOW mentors think that the whole project should progress.

Technicians National Conference

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:50:31GMT

I put out an email to all the technical support staff in East Lothian today asking for applications to become a delegate at the technicians national consultative conference in November.

The consultative conference is part of a project set up to address priorities identified by the Scottish Executive in a report called Why Science Education Matters: Supporting and Improving Science Education in Schools

This report made recommendations including

1. "Technical support in schools must be strengthened so that pupils can experience and stimulation of hands-on practical work.

2 ".....such staff members should be seen as an integral part of the science provision, having access to appropriate CPD and career enhancement opportunities".

The main aim for the inaugural conference last year was to gather data to determine current provision of CPD for technical support staff in the primary and secondary sectors throughout each of the 32 local authorities, and to identify the best way forward for improving support for science and technology education.

As a result of last years meeting several CPD opportunities for technical support staff were identified. This led to the courses being created, then piloted in some local authorities, most of which are currently awaiting accreditation from the SQA before being made available on a national basis.

I hope that this years conference can continue the good work being done and that East Lothian can be at the forefront of this worthwhile project.