Because legal continuing professional education — usually referred to in the U.S. as “continuing legal education (CLE)” or “mandatory continuing legal education (MCLE)” (see, e.g., this map of state bar requirements from West LegalEdcenter), and in the U.K. as “continuing professional development (CPD)” (see, e.g., the Bar Standards Board regulations and the Solicitors Regulation Authority requirements) — involves many legal informatics issues and contexts — including legal publishing, legal education, legal professional development, legal ethics, legal information behavior, legal communication, legal technology, and legal social networks — this blog will occasionally comment on developments concerning CLE.

Of particular note in recent months is the use of social networks by CLE providers. Many CLE services and content creators are using social media to market their programs and connect with lawyers and other customers.

One way to gain a sense of how CLE providers and content creators are using social media is to peruse the lists — created by Tim Baran of uMCLE.com — of CLE community members who use Facebook or Twitter. Tim plans to add a LinkedIn list shortly.

Since CLE providers are both educational institutions and publishers, monitoring the CLE community’s use of social media is a useful way to gauge the role of social networks in legal education and legal publishing.

Chance pe Dance is supposed to be a movie based on a struggling actor turned Dancer.. so the promos and songs give an idea.. Though I’m not much sure about it myself.. But the songs are pretty okay.. Considering the fact that the songs are required for a dance based movie.. With Adnan Sami as the music director and him not singing a single piece is a low low… but he still done a not so bad job… Verdict wise I would say not too impressive..so that would be a 2.5/5 since its aimed at people like me who are dance crazy and dance maniacs it’s a lackluster for them too… As for mere mortals I don’t think this album has much to offer.. even for the dancers there are just a few numbers that can be catchy and dance-pirational… but otherwise its just a meager okies dokie nothing too great about it album..

Personally I feel Adnan could have done loads better job..but sigghh..!! this is what he has to offer.. and this is all I have to review..

One more Dance -  kunal Ganjawala -  groovy number.. a wee bit of HIP HOP FEEL put in… definitely gets me moving, grooving, shaking nodding… breezy lovely number… definitely Danceable song  CERTIFIED DANCEABLE

Pal Mein hi – Soham an Shreya..  no reasons to say why you should like this song… cmon it’s a Shreya number… it’s a duet and romantic song and yes it rocks… its different and yet passionate number.. the music is cute and mindblowing esp for this song.. the use of guitar interludes magnificent..CERTIFIED MUST LISTEN

Pe Pe Pein -  Neeraj Sridhar and Saleem Shehzada -  most of you must have seen this one too in the promos so again there;s not much I can say.. though there;s one point I would like to make… when I first saw the title of the song I thought it had something to do with the English song Pepe pepein.. but later when  I heard the song I realized they are singing the shadi wala shehnai signature tune   since the song starts with the shehnai number it sounds a lil comical to listen but later with the Rap and hiphop effect.. super song according to me… it reminds of the Twist number from LAK that’s cos of the Indian feel to a danceable song and both the songs had neeraj as the lead singer… CERTIFIED MISSABLE

Pe Pe Pein (DUET) – Neeraj, Saleem & Tulsi kumar -  another version of the same song… only addition is the female singer.. and a few added music effects here and there.. this again is pretty much the same as the previous number… ek hi mushkil se bardaasht hota hai do do version ho tho main kya karoon :| so nothing great.. kinda  CERTIFIED MISSABLE..  (see I’;m so honest even if it’s a SHAHID movie… yo me saint me )

Pump it Up -  Vishal Dadlani – This again is one of those numbers aired during the promos of the movie… mindblowing… what else can u expect when there;s vishal dadlani singing the song… the music in some places reminds me of Krazzy 4 song.. a few bhangra interludes has you hankering for more … foot tapping body shaking.. head nodding groovy number… and with shahid showing his slurpilicious 8 pack abs what more can I ask for….The only number every KB I downloaded CERTIFIED DANCEABLE

Just do it – Chance pe Dance -  this ones an amazing song.. it’s a rap n hip hop.. cos it showcases all the different types of dance styles.. bhangra, hip hop, jhatka matkas… I must say I loved the rap effect.. add in a zing of harmonium and a dash of classical interlude… and you get a piece which has u lapping it up like crazy… superlicious number.. and the lyrics – kewl funny and in trend with the current slang words too..the only other number which is worth every KB I downloaded CERTIFIED MUST LISTEN

Pump it up Remix – DJ A Myth -  now this is what I call a remix.. when you get in a professional DJ and get a remix of the song done.. that what remix is all about.. but the song which is already a hip n cool number how much more happening and fast paced can you make it,.. well.. u will just have to listen to it to believe it… its simply fab it gave me perfect dhuaandhaar shiny lights crazy coloured smoke pub effect… love the original… love the remix too CERTIFIED DANCEABLE

Rishta hai mera – Shaan & Tulsi Kumar – inception of the song sounds soulful and slowly the pace picks up… and yet the song is simply wonderful yo listen to…Shaan at his best and tulsi sounds as if she’s singing for a teenage super star ala hanah Montana naa naa not exactly that way but the song is cute in its own way… not too impressive but definitely a feel good kind of song…not too good.. but considering it’s a Shaan number CERTIFIED LISTENABLE

Yaba Daba yahoo – kunal Ganjawala – this has a the Los Lobos song La Bamba feel to it… the acapella-ish feel to it.. is simply cute n yet stunning… Kunal’s voice modulation is definitely on par in certain places he reminded me of kishore kumar… sigh… I miss that man today.. wish he was there at this age and era.. how much I miss him… sigh.. back to the review… well.. I liked this song… pretty hummable,.. well it did remind of the kinds of songs.. TIMON AND PUMBA sing yep those kinda songs…  CERTIFIED Wacky

So that’s my verdict  of this album… your opinions are definitely welcome in the comments sections.. for the dance lovers this album has just a wee bit, countable on one hand number of  songs to offer which you can dance and choreograph on.. and for the others they can simply listen to the songs – PAL MEIN and JUST DO IT I’m sure these are 2 numbers you would like… for the not so musical mates.. you can give this album a complete miss  :)

The final call is yours

It’s that time of the year again to renew your registration. Here’s a softcopy of the BEM CPD Lampiran B that I created. If you like it, send some money my way.

All practitioners in each sector, in each department and in all settings have a responsibility to develop, reinforce and extend the skills which are set out in the literacy experiences and outcomes (Curriculum for Excellence).

Teaching:My remit covers all schools in the region. Therefore I do not – cannot – use my time to teach basic literacy skills, although of course I work with colleagues to support them in meeting the learning needs of individual learners with literacy difficulties. I try to help students learn how to learn better, with the intention that they gradually build up skills which leads to independence. Regular Staged Assessment and Intervention meetings ensure that all learning and teaching is balanced and coherent. At each meeting we assess the effectiveness of our work and build on our knowledge of the child’s needs to plan for the future.

 Many learners find identifying key concepts very taxing. This is especially difficult for some learners with dyslexia who tend to think in global terms – the big picture – rather than noticing the detail (the wood not the trees). This can cause problems when analysing text, whether spoken or read. Mind Mapping is a most effective tool for those learners with visual strengths to plan and organise their thoughts.

I find that teaching a whole class how to make Mind Maps is an effective use of my time. In one school we recognised that two learners with dyslexia in one P3/4 class learnt best through visualisation and the use of images rather than words. We felt that those whose natural style of learning was more verbal, linear and ordered would benefit from the challenge of approaching planning in a different format.

So the class used Kidspiration to prepare a talk to the P1s on Road Safety. After exploring the software they taught others in the class about the various tools (aren’t interactive whiteboards wonderful?). The final assessment was for them to create a Wanted poster of a master criminal outlining the essential things the public should look out for.

Identifying key words is crucial if learners are to progress. The children were repeatedly told that there was no need to write beautifully presented sentences while Mind Mapping. Whether they have taken this radical notion on board is yet to be seen. It always astonishes me that children are so wedded to perfect presentation even when their teachers are very clear that the expectation is of good content not error free writing.

 Three other teaching blocks have also centred on developing note making.

A group of P7s with literacy and organisational difficulties learned how to access text with WordTalk. They listened to texts they found impossible to read but which was at their cognitive level. Highlighting key words was a challenge but when done collaboratively enabled them to make Mind Maps with Kidspiration. These they took back to class as plans for pieces of writing. This work culminated in the creation of an animation about the Solar System – to be processed over the holidays.

I supported another group of p7s in preparing pieces of writing on the theme, Homes of the Future. We viewed a video and designed an estate agent’s schedule describing the technological and environmental aids to support future living. Plans in the form of Mind Maps were put into the class Glow Group and the group used these to write independently in class. I shall continue to work with this group in the new year, not least to consolidate my own understanding of using Glow in a real setting.

A similar group at another school was learning about World War 2. They prepared and delivered a session to the rest of their class demonstrating how to use WordTalk. They now mentor their peers – and their teacher.

A group of P3’s used Clicker 5 to create text from grids about the Ancient Egyptians. I found this a difficult enterprise for various reasons  although the children seemed to enjoy the attention even if they are not empowered to use Clicker independently yet. They were thrilled with the pencils and badges I got from the British Museum. I hope they remember more than these though! I shall return to the school to monitor their progress later in the session.

An individual P5 pupil with significant auditory memory difficulties needed help to focus and follow directions.  He practised listening mindfully, repeating instructions to himself and rehearsing these aloud. He then completed tasks to demonstrate his understanding.

We also worked on creating a safe place (a cave) in his mind to which to retreat when he became stressed. Naturally I spent time with his parents and teachers so that his learning is reinforced at home and in class.

I used a similar approach to work with another 2 pupils in P6 with auditory and visual memory difficulties which caused severe sequencing and organisation problems. This time we identified sources of stress in the morning routine that meant frequent late arrival at school. We made laminated cards and prioritised the morning activities. It took some time to convince the children that watching TV was less crucial than getting dressed! Again, this is a long-term outcome that can only be effective if the child, family and school work together.

The imminence of Standard Grade prelims exams saw me supporting 3 learners with dyslexia who find planning and organising revision a real challenge. A traffic light system helped them identify subjects and topics on which they needed to focus. They made timetables incorporating study as well as leisure time in the weeks prior to the exams. It will be interesting to see whether they achieve greater success as a result of this intervention.

Assessment and Consultation: I continue to use the computerised assessment along with formative assessment to identify needs and design interventions. I have formally assessed and consulted about 25 pupils this term. In addition, I attended Staged Assessment and Intervention meetings with parents and staff for 13 other children.

Policy:

• Literacy Strategy sub-group: I am working with 2 colleagues to improve the Dyslexia Friendly Schools Pledge that 5 schools piloted last session. We aim to clarify the language and process of the checklist, make specific links with Curriculum for Excellence, HMIE guidance and current legislation.
• I liaise with the other literacy strategy sub-groups to ensure ‘joined up thinking’.
• There is ongoing work with a small working group writing guidance on effective use of the Books for All project.

CPD:

• Dorothy Crystal, the optometrist, spoke about her work identifying visual stress.
• 6 of the 8 modules of the ‘Hidden Dyslexia’ online course completed.
• Child Protection course.
• Planning and organisation skills – Occupational Therapy.
• CfE in practice course.
• Cluster meetings.

 Once more this has been a busy but fulfilling term.

For thousands of years, women have been giving birth naturally but something has changed in the last 30 years.  Many women are no longer capable of delivering without medical interventions as a result of a small pelvis which simply can not fit their baby.

So this leads me to the question, “What has changed in the last 30 years”?  Is it due to our diet, calcium deficiencies, posture or stress levels?  When I began to search for answers into this 30 year old epidemic I was alarmed at what I found….turns out our bodies aren’t failing us after all.

The idea that a woman’s hip size has everything to do with her ease of birth is not a new idea. It’s been a way of thinking for centuries, and it’s hard to shake a long standing myth.

Women are told all the time that they have a pelvis that is too small. They end up with an automatic cesarean without a trial of labor, only to give birth to the next child – much bigger in size, vaginally. The diagnosis of CPD (cephalopelvic disproportion – meaning babies head is too big compared to the size of the pelvis) is given out way to often – sometimes before the birth, and sometimes after a long labour followed by a cesarean. A long labour, and even a long pushing stage is not an indicator of a small pelvis/big baby. Often these same mothers give birth to their subsequent children who are much bigger. Labours stall for other reasons. This diagnosis gives women doubts in their bodies and then through the sharing of birth stories they pass these doubts on to other women. A woman who is a size 20 and has a nice large hips is told she cannot give birth naturally to her 6 pound baby. She tells the woman who is a size 5, with ‘smaller hips’, and then this poor women doubts her ability to give birth. Next thing we know, we have women measuring their hips, and wondering if they will have a harder or longer labor – and they are scared of a baby bigger than X pounds.

What most people do not understand is that the pelvis is not an immovable structure. We tend to imagine the pelvis as something solid and some believe it is one giant bone. There are four joints that join different pelvic bones together. During pregnancy and labour the hormone relaxin softens and relaxes the ligaments that join the pelvic bones, allowing the pelvis to give and stretch. In between the two bones that meet there in the front lies a pad of cartilage. This is symphysis pubis. In some women there can become a decent size gap there.

There is one more element to be considered – the baby. A baby’s head is made up of several bones – and they are made to overlap during birth. This is what causes molding. No one, not even a doctor, can tell a women how much the babies head will mold – or how much a woman’s pelvis will relax to accommodate that baby. The only way to find out is to try it.

A woman’s pelvis can and will open naturally if given the chance, except in rare case of deformity or certain illnesses.  It’s important that we (doctors, midwives, moms, dads and doulas) trust in the birth process and wait patiently while the birthing body carries out what it inherently knows to do.

For more information and stories related to the “Pelvic Myth”, visit the links below.

Belly Belly

Midwifery Today

Mothering

Today I have been taking part in the Teaching in Higher Education short course at university. It’s been a really interesting day, sharing ideas with people who are teaching all over the university in a variety of departments.
Today we mainly focussed on planning and discussing ways of dealing with different situations.
I can’t wait to apply some of what I have learnt to inductions and training. It wouldn’t be a bad exercise to produce aims and learning outcomes for the various things we do. It would be a far better use of our time than faffing with screenshots!
I’m hoping this will all help to inform my National Teaching Fellowship.

I was supposed to be submitting my chartership, via the trial e-portfolio system, before 31/12/09. This is not going to happen.

I am meeting my mentor tomorrow, and I was supposed to have done a CV, an updated PPDP, and a draft evaluative statement. Most of this is not going to happen.

Why? I jokingly remarked that it was because I was too busy developing professionally to spend time on my portfolio. While this was a flippant remark, it does have a grain of truth. Since I agreed to submit by the end of December, I have become more involved with SLA E, and my work as co-chair of the Early Careers Committee has increased. We have also been very busy at Mimas, with all my projects taking off at once!

Another contributing factor has been my frustration with the e-portfolio system. I have found it very un-intuitive to use, and found the lack of documented help/instructions very frustrating. I’m normally quite keen to be an early adopter of these things, but just found that I couldn’t get to grips with this system.

After contacting some other people who were using the system, and finding that they wanted support too, I set up the ning, where we could share ideas and tips. This sense of having a peer group did help, and I started to feel better about the system.

Then I tried using it again. It might just be me, but I found that it was really detracting from my chartership experience. I had no feeling of something coming together, just of odd pieces of evidence stuck on at various times. I found that I was really dreading coming to look at it, and really wasn’t enjoying doing any chartership work. So I have decided that I probably won’t be submitting using that system.

I hadn’t realised quite how stressed I was, both by the e-portfolio system and the December deadline, until I decided that I wasn’t going to make it. I hate missing deadlines – it feels like such a failure! – but in this case it’s actually an enormous relief.

What this extra time (I’m hoping to submit around March/April) will give me is a chance to completely revisit how I am thinking about my chartership. I realised that while some of my disjointed feel was down to the e-portfolio system, much of it was due to the fact that I didn’t have a coherent plan for my portfolio. I knew in a vague way what should be in it, but I’d just been picking things out as I went along. I hadn’t been using my PPDP properly, as a basis for the structure. Frankly, I didn’t have a structure! I’d been assuming that as long as I was doing the development activities and the reflection, that the portfolio would pretty much organise itself. I was very, very wrong.

So, what I will have for my mentor tomorrow is this blog post, explaining why I don’t have any of the things I was supposed to prepare. But I do now have a better appreciation of what is involved in putting together a chartership portfolio, and am feeling geared-up to get going with it. And a little enthusiasm is worth a boat-load of paperwork, right?

LLUK’s annual conference was held at King’s Place, London, yesterday. The theme was “Innovation during a recession recovery?” I helped to arrange a workshop entitled ‘Embracing Change: 21^st Century Learning’ and attended the part of it run by Becta. We had a lively discussion about the support that institutions give to their staff for keeping up to date with using technology – both for their own day to day work and in learning delivery.

CPD – carrot or stick?

There was some debate about whether training in using technology should be mandatory or optional. Some suggested that the 30 hours of CPD required by the Institute for Learning (IfL) of its registered practitioners should be more prescriptive. Others felt that a ‘top down’ approach never works. One individual worked in a college that has had a major refurbishment. Training in the use of the state of the art technology came hand in hand with that and it had been well received by staff.

So, what should we do?

I am aware, through our (LLUK’s) partnership work with Becta, that a prospectus of CPD opportunities around technology for learning is about to be launched – I think this will go a long way to helping staff navigate the minefield of potential courses they could take.

With regard to IfL and their 30 hours of learning, I wondered aloud whether there should be a recommendation that a percentage of those hours should be focused on getting up to speed with using technology for learning. There seemed to be some support for this idea.

I would be really interested to hear what people think about this. Please use the comment feature below or visit the conference website to continue the debate: http://www.llukconference.co.uk

Learning and pedagogy

Another theme that came through was the need to refocus on the fundamentals of learning. How do people learn now, what methods do they use, and how do we learn to learn? All this talk of new technologies has drawn some of us away from what we are all about – learning!

What we need to enable learning practitioners across the lifelong learning sector to do is to select the appropriate tools to provide the most dynamic and good quality learning experience as possible. In the modern world, it is not possible to ignore the tool of technology, alongside more traditional tools.

What I’m intrigued to know is are there differences between using traditional methods (books, chalk and talk, group work etc) to teach and using technology? Or are the fundamentals of teaching the same as they’ve always been? Are new technologies changing pedagogy?

I would suggest that new technologies are challenging the institutional models we have for learning but perhaps not the nature of teaching and learning.

Do join the debate, I’d love to know your views!

In the meantime, you might find these food for thought. Two, somewhat cheesy, videos on how learning in a university could look in the future (bit of a big advert for iphones though!):

I’ve just completed the CILIP CPD survey:

www.cilip.org.uk/cpdsurvey
I’m so pleased that CILIP is really moving forward with CPD!

The blog’s been a bit quiet for the last few weeks, for various reasons – hurtling ever closer to my dissertation deadline, spending what free time I do have on christmas shopping and catching up with the friends I’ve been neglecting; plus the unwelcome return of my sleepwalking and occasional insomnia (last seen at about this point in my first degree…) meaning I’m pretty zombie-fied for most of my waking hours anyway!

I did manage to get a day out at Online last week, which was great fun. I went along to the SLA Europe breakfast in the morning, and got chatting to some fellow SLA members (including Gimena Campos Cervera, the 2009 SLA European Information Professional award winner – good to catch up with her; hadn’t seen her since the SLA summer soiree!), then spent some time on the SLA Europe stand and some wandering around the exhibition. I managed to make it Mary Ellen Bates’ seminar on using social media in the workplace: she’s a fascinating speaker, and always has some interesting insights.

The big news on the SLA stand was of course the launch of the 2010 Early Career Conference Awards. Having been a lucky recipient of one of the 2009 awards, I cannot emphasise enough how valuable the experience was. I would urge anyone who is eligible for the award (you just need to be within the first 5 years of your career as an information professional) to apply – details are on the SLA Europe site. Also, if you want to hear the perspectives of past winners of the award and get some advice on applying, check out the SLA ECCA Ning - we’re all happy to share our experiences and answer any questions.

It’s really encouraging to see the Society of Archivists’ Chair, Katy Goodrum, believes so strongly in using the common ground between the branches of the recordkeeping professions.  In last month’s ARC, Katy said

We do spend too much time citing differences and that gets in the way of the goal of any records manager, archivist or conservator which is the better management, preservation of and access to the records and information of our employing organisation.

Katy recognises the progress made in continuing professional development but is also keen to make more of the benefits of CPD.  She’s also keen to widen recruitment to the profession.  I’m looking forward to working with her on some of this and pleased that the SoA, National Council on Archives and Association of Chief Archivists in Local Government have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the creation of the new merged body for the sector.

It’s also really encouraging to see the chief executive of the Society of Archivists Records Managers & Conservators, John Chambers, making real connection with the Chair of the Records Management Society, Matt Stephenson.  And that the SoA, CILIP, RMS and British Computer Society are collaborating on training and skill gaps for UK government departments with a demand for “professional bodies to co-operate to ease movement across professional boundaries by recognising transferable skills and by offering joint accreditation” (source: John Chambers’ column in ARC December 2009).

These developments are supported by some robust comments from Sue Hill Recruitment in the latest RMS Bulletin.

As recuiters talking to employers across the private and public sectors, we see that they have little understanding of, or patience for, the distinctions those within the “management of information” profession make between various flavours of roles.  An organisation just wants its information managed, stored, organised and available for retrieval on request – whether that “information” is called a record, an archive, a journal article, a piece of know how, or whatever, is largely irrelevant to them.

Imagine if IT staff were divided into silos in the same way – “the Database Management Society” and the “Email System Group”, the “Wordprocessing Association” and the “Banking Front-Office Transaction System Institute”, the “Society of Programmers” and the “CRM Association”.  Would C[hief]I[nformation]O[fficer]s have the place they currently enjoy in the boardroom?

Perpetrating the division of the information sector into librarianship, information management, knowledge management, records management and archives management is likely to lead to continued misunderstanding, poor image, lack of a place at the “top table” of decision making, and low salaries for information workers.

Nicola Franklin at Sue Hill Recruitment goes on to comment on recruiting to records management vacancies

The stumbling block doesn’t seem to be whether organisations… need records management, but instead how to meet their “wish list” of demands in the person specification….

If recruiting organisations could take more account of both transferable technical skills (classification of information is classification of information, whether that is content on an intranet or records in an EDRMS), and the personal and “soft” skills which are also eminently transferable, then perhaps more RM roles could be filled, more quickly.

Substitute “individuals” for “recruiting organisations” and I think we also have a call to individuals not to box themselves into corners or hide behind special pleading and also to continue to develop professionally.

A couple of months ago I wasn’t optimistic about us as a profession of recordkeepers being able to change some of our entrenched/perceived differences for all our benefit.  I wasn’t optimistic about individual professionals recognising and more importantly, acting on the need for reflective CPD in the modern changing world.

I’m feeling a bit more optimistic now but it’s going to take a lot of us a lot of work and we’re going to have to focus on the common ground that Katy articulates to avoid some of the false starts and dead ends and (whisper it) irrelevancies that both Elizabeth Shepherd (link to my summary) and Steve Bailey (link to James Lappin’s summary) have identified from the past and from the present.

James has recently set out some practical recommendations for the membership societies with regard to social networking media which also exposes the challenges to the membership society model in the current climate.

Almost a decade into the 21st century, and in the likely dying days of the current government, the UK has a new policy on “archives” – defined in the document as the publicly-funded archive sector in England and Wales.  The policy is available via http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/policy/aft21c/

Given my current roles I wanted to see how well the policy recognises the need in the digital age to manage records throughout the continuum to ensure that some become records selected for permanent preservation ie archives.  I’m also particularly interested in aspects of workforce development, given how vital the effectiveness of the workforce is to the preservation of the record.  So this is a partial view of the policy.

The Foreword acknowledges in its second sentence “the importance of capturing digital material” and “the challenges of preserving digital information”.  It goes on to describe how

The information world has changed beyond all recognition since the last policy on archives was published ten years ago.  Both the creation and the use of information have been revolutionised, not least through our ability to go online without being tied to a computer at home or in the office, or to work while on the move with technology that has become smaller, faster and more sophisticated.

Section 1.2 recognises “a decline in the recognition of the need to link current record keeping in all formats with preserving archives”; Section 1.4 recognises the problems “for identifying and capturing the key records that must be kept, in addition to then preserving them for the future.  Managing electronic records presents a number of issues both in the scale of the challenge and the required technical skills set”.

The Vision in Section 2 is predicated on the continuing availability of records and on an implicit assumption of the role of records management – or involvement by recordkeeping professionals at the beginning of the continuum.

Among the (many) challenges listed in section 3, the policy includes the need to address

• archive collection development
• dynamic leadership
• the management of digital records – with an explicit statment that archive services’ “parent bodies often do not have active record management systems for identifying paper or digital records of long-term value and transferring them to the archives”.

The response section 4 outlines how the vision and the challenges can be reconciled, including via:

• closer cooperation at the culture & heritage side of the spectrum (but not with IT/technical, legal/compliance, performance management etc etc);
• strengthening leadership and raising the profile of the profession, including supporting the development of leadership and professional skills which “will be promoted to create a diverse, vibrant and skilled workforce”.
  Also included is an explicit mention of the need to retain traditional interpretative skills and conservation skills – but nothing about specific “modern” (for want of a better word) skills.
  Good to see the inclusion of qualifications based on National Occupational Standards, the need for continuing professional development, and for constant evaluation and revision of provision by training bodies.
• managing digital information.  Specifically that “It is important to establish clear connections between records management and archival functions within an organisation to make sure that key records are identified and transferred into the archive.”
• considering the positioning of archives within the parent organisation – “direct involvement in the decision-making process is key to ensuring the informational and cultural value of archives is realised to the full.”

I think, given the constraints on it, the policy does a good job in a limited view of “archives” – not least of which is viewing archival records at the heritage end of the continuum.  It does at least acknowledge some link between archival records and the creation/use of records before selection.  It doesn’t address appraisal and selection, and the impact of the range of issues from web 2.0/”digital native” user expectations/lower computing storage costs etc.

It will be extremely interesting over the coming months to see how the action plans for England and Wales from The National Archives/MLA/CyMAL address these recommendations, and also how the profession as a whole responds both to the policy and to the plans.  And what happens come the election, of course.

Hafele UK will be presenting our 4 seminars at different locations across the UK as part of the CPD roadshow organised by the RIBA.

The dates and seminars are shown below please contact us for locations and booking information, alternatively to book a seminar at your office please contact cpd@hafele.co.uk

There are 2 opportunities coming up for early years practitioners to explore learning opportunities for young children and families in museums and galleries and to share good practice. Please see details below. Please note that these events are funded by Renaissance NW and are free – so book your places early!

These half day  sharing events and designed to provide opportunities for:

• Networking with other EY  and FL practitioners and museum and gallery staff over lunch 12-12.50
• Sharing best practice – through case studies presented by  early years practitioners
• Exploring learning opportunities for young children on galleries in the museum or gallery where training event is held.
• Museums and galleries being seen to be excellent places to help practitioners meet the EYFS ‘targets’

 Who is it for?

Early years practitioners in all settings – schools, private day nurseries, children’s centres, family learning practitioners and Museum and gallery staff.

Dates and Venues (NB the same session is being run twice):
Wednesday 27 January 2010 at Bolton Museum and Art Gallery

http://www.boltonmuseums.org.uk/visiting/find_bolton_museum/

 And repeated on
Wednesday 10 March 2010     at Manchester Museum
http://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/yourvisit/travel/

 Please Email

Elaine.bates@manchester.ac.uk to reserve your place – bookings are on a first come basis

Source: British Dental Journal 2009, 207, 9 p413

Follow this link for fulltext

Date of publication: November, 2009

Publication type: News item

In a nutshell: A national e-learning intiative, e-Den, that will be used to support postgraduate training for dentistry as well as re-certification and continuing professional development (CPD) schemes for experience practioners has been launched.  The tool provides the underpinning knowledge to support the development of competencies for CPD for the whole dental team.

Length of publication: Web page

It can be difficult thinking about your continuing personal and professional development and setting clear achievable goals.  One of my mentees struggled a bit with this.

So, where to start – think about where you are at the moment, what you want to achieve, and how you are going to get there …

• Carry out a SWOT analysis to identify your Strengths – Weaknesses – Opportunities – Threats; this will help you to think about which skills you need to develop and how you can go about developing them
• Be proactive when thinking about your development and try to identify a range of activities that could help you progress
• When setting your goals try and make them SMART – Specific – Measurable – Achievable – Relevant – Timed; this will give you something to aim for and help to keep you focused
• Aim for 5 – 6 clearly defined goals which are achievable, usually within a year
• Remember to regularly review your personal and professional development – roles and circumstances can frequently change, so your CPD plans and goals need to change too, to accommodate new opportunities

Just done A CPD event on surfing the Twitter and Facebook wave for LC staff – went very well with demo of both Twitter and Facebook plus TweetDeck and Screenr.

Here’s the link to the article by Merlin on agent4change.net.

Thanks for all the comments so far on twitter

http://www.agent4change.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=462:the-innovators-5-jaye-richards&catid=90:the-innovators&Itemid=460

My nano presentation can be found here: http://prezi.com/a6d6g8li5aup/

TeachMeet Falkirk photos, courtesy of shrmps, can be found here.

Have at last had time to (begin to) reflect on Teachmeet Falkirk, as the following two evenings were taken up with Parents Nights… nice!

For an unconference, there is still a heck of a lot of behind the scenes work and preparation to do, with @mvass bearing the brunt of that (although she did have a team of able and willing supporters)!

I think (for any teachmeet) the venue is important. We wanted somewhere away from school, which we got, but maybe for some, it was to far away from anything else! The building offered great flexibility, with space for break out plus having dinner onsite just meant for easy transition. The venue was ideal for locals, as it is used for other CPD events by the council. Perhaps it wasn’t the best for those coming from outwith, but is that so important?

Timing is also important. Part of me felt the 5 for 6 was a bit too late, as it was Falkirk inservice, so some folk were hanging about from 3 or 4. For those outwith the region, the M80 etc at peak time is a nightmare, so maybe a later start would have been better, but then the later finish for TeachEat is not so attractive.

Many folk have been discussing the future or evolution of TeachMeet and it is very interesting to see many local spin offs being planned and organised, like those in East Lothian and Perth. This is a really positive happening if the net is to be cast wider. Otherwise you can imagine it will just be a core of people returning, again and again. Not that this is a negative thing, perhaps it is important for the key players (?) to meet and be refuelled, before departing again to their regions, so a bigger event at, say the SLF, could still be important in keeping the TeachMeet snowball rolling.

The amount of kit on show in Falkirk was quite frightening! Is this attractive to the newbie? Is it more of a turnoff? Many of the ideas were ICT based, most Web based. Perhaps the CfE based upcoming TeachMeets will present a broader range of ideas? For those not too technically skilled, it maybe a bit overdone, though through the wiki and twitter etc, the message is spread to those who have some strength in ict. Perhaps there is a place for a lowtech TeachMeet? (would you still use twitter and the wiki to spread the word?)!

Just like the Co-op, local could be the way forward for TeachMeet. Obviously, the bulk of the workload would fall on key players, but isn’t that always the way? With a strong local support, future events may become easier to organise, perhaps simpler also.

Some amount of rambling. Any amount of sense?