Twitter Revision Experiment

What we did

We created a revision area with the aim of making the library a quieter place during exam time. We increased patrols, asked those who weren’t working to leave and asked large groups to work in our group study room.

Why?

In our end of year feedback, Upper 6^th students had marked down that the library was too noisy and that noise during exam time was a problem.  L6 students did not report this as an issue (we think this is because their priorities are very different to their U6 peers – final exams for them are a long way off.)

How?

We promoted the new revision area heavily before we implemented it. Notices went in the bulletin, on TV screens, we had posters everywhere and handouts and utilised social media. We put posters on the door of the library as well to remind students that they were entering a revision area.

Why is this different?!

We gave the revision area its own hashtag. We made it applicable to the college and revision – and we made sure it was everywhere! We printed off different coloured versions and stuck them on each study desk, computers, tables, on walls, doors etc. We used it in the student bulletin which gets shown in each tutor group on a daily basis. We then started tweeting exam revision tips using it to get it started.

What happened?

3 weeks have gone by and we have had a very interesting response.  Here are some of the best responses – uncensored!

Student responses

• Hashtag used by itself
• Student names used with the hashtag
• ‘Revising for sociology’
• ‘yehh man, library keeping up with the youth of today’
• ‘Working hard for our revision’
• ‘So much work to do, so little time’
• We are loving your new revision area!’
• ‘To kl for lyf in the library’
• ‘Not enjoying the new library fascism.’
• ‘Jc’in wit ma homies’
• ‘is this revision area to kick bellends out of the library?!’
• ‘The library people have become like the Gestapo’
• ‘Don’t come into the library unless you’re in the revision zone!’
• ‘Atmosphere in the silent study room is intense, you can almost smell the revision in the air!”
• ‘Enjoying my spinny chair in the Library’
• ‘Please keep your voice down’

We had several photos tweeted in – pictures of students revising, groups of students with books out, pictures of the hashtag where students had spotted it on tables and even a student with the hashtag stuck to his forehead.

We also had some responses from subject departments who tweeted about what their students were doing in terms of revision and general study tips. The main college account was also using it to retweet the best ones and again promote revision tips.

How did we respond?

All tweets were gratefully receieved, whether they were positive, negative, sensible or just silly. We responded to all of the tweets we received that used the hashtag. Responses tended to go along the lines of thanking them for getting involved, and wishing them luck with their revision.

What have we learnt?

• It was a great way of getting instant feedback  and interacting with students on their level.
• Students liked to get a response from their tweets. Even if they had tweeted something silly – most students retweeted our replies. This was great for us as it increased the the number of people we were reaching dramatically. (Some students had 600+ followers and some tweets recieved numerous retweets.)
• A sense of humour is needed! When some of the tweets came in – I remember thinking ‘what on earth do I reply to that?!’ – coming up with replies is sometimes difficult.
• Be prepared for negative comments - within minutes of starting the increased patrols we had received a couple of comments about being too harsh or ‘fascist’. By instantly replying to these on Twitter – something along the lines of thanks for your feedback – and explaining why we were doing it, we aimed to respond in a positive way. One boy who had tweeted his comment, actually retweeted our response – which again was great for us! Don’t forget that students will be saying these things anyway, elsewhere or to their friends – so knowing about it, is a good thing.
• Have a strategy in place – the fact that students can put anything they like on Twitter means that they have free rein on your hashtag. Be prepared for absolutely anything being said and make sure you know how to respond. If something is said about a member of staff, think about how you will respond and who is the best person to liaise with in case of trouble.
• Some students do not seem to realise that their tweets can be seen by the public. In one breath they were slagging off their friends, swearing etc and in another, they’d be tweeting a company for work experience. I think increased education on this would help and for them to be reminded that employers and universities use this to seek out candidates.

Overall

Overall, it was a very positive experience and enabled us to gain a vast amount of feedback, engagement and interaction with students that we just would not have been able to get in such a condensed and quick way.

Image – by Jim Crossley Flickr creative Commons

Teaching E-Safety

I am currently part of an E-Learning team at work where we look at new technologies and how we can promote all types of E-learning to the wider college population. Over the past 6 weeks we have been planning an E-Safety INSET Day to deliver to the teaching staff over a morning session. Our Library Manager had attended a CEOP Ambassador training day which enabled him to be able to deliver the session again to other people and he delivered the full presentation on the INSET day.

What were we teaching?

• Key terms and definitions – such as grooming, sexting, cyber bullying etc
• How young people use online technology particularly social media
• How offenders use the online environment
• What our own students were using online and their opinions
• Guidance of what to do and how to approach situations
• What responsibilities the college has and what role staff play in this
• College policies and procedures

How did we do it? 

• We had about 120 participants.
• We used a large room with round conference style tables which seated 10 people to a table. Teachers were encouraged to sit out of their comfort zones and not just with their own departments. We included pads of paper, pens, water, fruit and hot croissants on the tables!!
• After a brief introduction, we introduced a gaming element to the session. Each table had to come up with a team name and were told that they would be competing for points. On each table was a ‘picture round’ quiz with photos of celebrities that they had to name.

Gaming elements?

• The first game we played was called ’Pointless’ – we had previously asked 100 students to name as many social networks as they could. Then akin to the BBC One show Pointless, contestants had to get the least amount of points as possible by selecting the answer that no-one else had thought of. We had a list of social networks up on the board and each table took it in turns to guess which was and wasn’t a social network – for example  guesses such as ‘Kiwibox’ and ‘Diaspora’ would have been likely Pointless answers whereas ‘Facebook’ wouldn’t have been a good choice. This went down really well and got the teachers engaged instantly with the session. Three tables scored Pointless answers and were rewarded with a box of chocolates to share. (We had flashing lights and gameshow music as well to really set the scene.)
• Other interactive activities included : Fakebook – we created a representation of a fake Facebook profile and asked the teams to circle which information the student shouldn’t have openly available. (School badge, location, date of birth etc.)
• We had a ‘What is Legal?’ round where teams had to say which of the situations were legal/illegal. For example ‘is texting a naked picture of yourself legal’ / ‘is tweeting a racist comment to someone legal?’ etc. (As I was marking the sheets it was very interesting to see how many of these the teams got wrong!)

The serious part

• The aim of the day was to make staff more aware of the dangers online and what responsibilities they have to their students. It was about educating the participants so that they could go on and deliver the session again to their own tutor groups.
• We showed the CEOP videos ‘Consequences’ and ‘Exposed’ – topical films created by students which highlight the dangers online. Including giving out too much information and sexting pictures of yourself to partners.
• We also showed video clips of our own students reacting to these videos and giving their opinions on what they’d seen. (We’d filmed a number of students before the day, asking their opinions on what we were going to be showing on the INSET.) This was a really good idea as it connected all the ideas together and showed the staff that the content was relevant to our own college students and that things like this happened in our own environment.

Finally

• The session was rounded off with a discussion of college policies and how what we had shown fitted in.
• It was then time for the prizes and after counting up all the points for all the quizzes and gameshows, there were three winners – first, second and third who all collected prizes!
• Everyone who took part will also receive a certificate from CEOP for taking part and to show that they have undertaken the training.

More information

For more information look at the CEOP website  Think you know

The Bett Show 2013

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend the Bett Show, the national event held at London’s Excel, which showcases new learning technologies.

The place was absolutely huge and it was easy to get lost in the rows and rows of suppliers, exhibitors, products and demonstrations taking place. It was so interesting to see what new technologies were being advertised and how advanced products are now for the learning environment.

A lot of products were based at the primary and secondary age group – there seemed to be a huge market for fully created, accessible virtual learning environments for secondary schools. The most prominent of these seemed to be Frog – where emphasis is placed on not having to have anyone technical to set it up yet offers everything your school could possibly need. It was interesting to see what sort of things school students are using these days and how advanced technologies are becoming for the school sector.

There were Lego robots (Lego Education) which were being used in the classroom to help with learning science, maths, engineering etc – there was even a robot which you could play Connect Four with!

Some of the most interesting exhibitors were the start-ups who had clubbed together to share stalls so that they could afford to have a space in the show. Many of these were free to access and offered really good ways of teachers using interactive technology in the classroom. The best example of this is Zondle which offers interactive gaming for the classroom – I’ve seen this in practice in a classroom where I work and the effect on the lesson is impressive.

The technologies specifically for the SEN sector were also very advanced. We stumbled across a ‘Sensory Pod’ where we were shown how students with learning difficulties could be helped with learning. With an Ipad control on the wall, the teacher could change the displays on the wall, the sounds, smells and how the students could interact within the specially created pod. This was a fully stand-alone structure that you could even have outside and was fully weather proof.

Google’s exhibit area included talks from ‘Google Certified Teachers’ who shared their best practices from the classroom.

There were of stalls showcasing the new Microsoft Windows 8 shown in this picture. Interestingly there were also interactive tables that you could use which interacted with the larger screens.

There was a demonstration of teaching with ipads which was very impressive. Each student had an ipad in front of them, the example was an antomical picture of a heart – the teacher had the work on the board and an ipad in her hand. She could sync the ipads so that they were all using the work shown on the board and whatever was drawn on the board by the teacher would also appear on the student’s own ipads. This was a great example of collaborative learning; the student could write on their version of the drawing and the teacher could choose which student’s work to showcase on the board. There were some great examples of learning with ipads which you could see working across all age ranges and subjects.

The Bett Show was a great opportunity to pick up ideas and see new technologies being showcased. It was very interesting to see what technologies are being aimed at schools now and how students are interacting with technology in the classroom from a young age and what the implications of this are for sixth form/university and life long learning.

Aims for 2013

Last year was such a big year for me personally: I got engaged, moved house several times, bought my own flat, went on an amazing holiday to Italy and was made a Godmother to my friend’s baby. So much so that I feel that my professional life needs to do some catching up. So I’ve decided to put some targets down for myself so that I can work towards some new achievements in 2013.

What I want to achieve in 2013

• Chartership: I have been meaning to sign up for chartership for a while but have been putting this off. So I’ve decided that this year is the one to get it started. I’m hoping this this will start re-motivating me to sign up for some new things and progress professionally. Here’s a great post from @rachelsBickley who has written up her chartership journey.
• Start on a teaching qualification (of some sort.) In my last review meeting with my line manager I asked if I could look at doing a teaching qualification. So far I’ve been looking at doing the initial PTTLS (Preparing to teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector) qualification to get me started. Teaching is such a big part of my job role that I feel that having that extra experience would really help.
• To get involved more with professional networks. Recently I feel that I haven’t been as motivated to get involved as I have done previously, so this year my aim is to really push myself to move forwards in my career.

So here’s to a new year and lots of new opportunities!

*Picture of the Colosseum in Rome – where I was proposed to!

E-Resource Promotion

After the success of our curriculum liaison ‘wishlist’ process last year – we decided that we needed to build upon this with focus on our E-resources.

At a recent E-Learning meeting, it was decided that the college’s Learning Technologist would arrange departmental meetings with all subject areas to see where they were up to in terms of using online resources for teaching. The idea of the meetings would be to catch up informally with departments to see how they were utilising their presence on the VLE, Moodle.

We thought that it would be a good idea for the library to be included in these meetings and would be a great chance for us to promote particular E-resources to departments, find out what teaching needs were and just generally find whether our E-resources were being used in the classroom.

What we wanted to achieve

• We wanted to promote the idea of independent learning and how online resources could aid students in gaining these skills.
• The subject department would have to show how they were providing their students with an ‘online presence’. At least 5 key things such as the specification, past papers etc would have to be shown online or that they were working towards this goal.
• If a department is not using Moodle as their online presence,(for example using blogs instead) they would have to show why and how they were providing their students with an alternative. And also show why they are using this instead of Moodle. (Great chance for us to share best practice.)

How was it arranged? These meetings were arranged as ‘staff training’ and sent out to all departments from the college’s head of staff development.  This was great for us as it made the meetings more official. This calendar of meetings has been spread over the full year up until July next year.

The first meeting: The first meeting happened last week for our Art and Design department.

• The session started with an ice-breaker : everyone was given a laminated card with a different resource type on. ‘Book’ /’E-Book’ / ‘Powerpoint’ / ‘Video on Tripleplay’ / Podcast / E-Journal etc. Statements were then read out and you had to sit down if your resource couldn’t do the statement. For example : ‘Students can easily access this from home’ / ‘You can leave this resource on the bus’ / ‘You can Tweet this resource’.

- This worked really well and was a good way for everyone to get into the session. The aim of it was to get participants to see the range of things that online resources could do and the limitations of other resources.

• The library then gave a presentation on the E-Resources we provide and why students should be using these. We included the limitations of students using Google for research and what we could provide to help them in the classroom. We tailored the presentation at the end to the subject area and showed which resources would specifically be useful for Art and Design. We also included the local public library resources (which in some cases are a lot better than our own!)

The Learning Technologist then got the department’s Moodle page up on the white board and asked them how they felt it was being used and what they would like to achieve with it. This was a good time for staff to ask any questions or just generally say what they thought about using Moodle.

The session was finished off with some target setting by the staff – what could they achieve with their online presence.

Outcomes – We had a very good reception from the first meeting with Art and Design who were really up-to-speed with their online presence. Their Moodle page is up-to-date and they frequently use it in the classroom, as well as hosting their specification and past papers on. They had several Twitter accounts which they make use of and were interested to see that they could link all of these presences together. They also agreed to host more library resources/links to relevant library pages on their own site. Finally, they also booked in for a session next week for information skills training on the library resources for their classes. So a very good result!
As the process is spread out over the full year, it will be interesting to see how the departments differ in their use of online resources. So watch this space.

Oh and again tea and biscuits were used as an extra incentive!

Image used from Flickr CC - Sharon Pruitt

The Wishlist Process – Curriculum Liaison

Recently I attended a JISC event which was aimed at getting your learners to think more independently. The day included some great talks on different ways of engaging students and getting them to be more focused on their own learning.

However, one of the things that really stood out for me about this day was when I got talking to other people in attendance. There were quite a lot of other college librarians at the event and nearly everyone I spoke to said that although the ideas talked about were really good – the problem was that they found it difficult to get involved with the teaching staff, particularly to get them signed up for info skills lessons or to just get them more involved with the library. People were saying ‘we’d love to get more involved but we just don’t seem to be able to’.  We threw some ideas around the table yet the feeling was a general one of despondency – everyone felt that teaching staff wouldn’t be interested or didn’t have enough time etc.

What we’ve done over the last few weeks

We decided to have a look here at this and see if there was anything that would work to get staff more involved. As it is coming to the end of the academic year, we take a look at our budget, decide what’s left and how we should spend it. For years now (before my time) the library has run a ‘wishlist’ process which has entailed sending out a memo to staff to get them to request resources that they would like for the coming year. This has been a popular process and the idea of a ‘wishlist’ is one that all staff are aware of.

However, this year we felt that we would try and make it much more interactive and see if we could use it as a cornerstone to get staff much more involved with what we do. We did think quite hard about this one and several ideas were passed around for consideration. How could we get the staff into the Library? Would they be interested? What would make best use of our time?

Finally we decided on:

• We compiled an invitation which asked the subject department to come along to the Learning Centre as “we wanted to spend lots of money on them”.
• We promised that there would be tea/coffee and posh biscuits
• We also said that we would be reviewing the resources currently available, looking at what the exam board suggests and having a guided online search on one of our supplier’s websites.

We sent these out as an email and a paper memo in their staff pigeon hole – we addressed them firstly to the head of department but also included all other teaching staff members of the department. (We’ve found that sometimes the head of the department may not be as receptive and can be a block to being involved with the subject. So, to increase the chance of response, we sent it to all members of the team so that everyone would know about it.)

The results

Last week was a huge success – we’ve never seen so many teachers in the Learning Centre. By sheer luck, we sent out the invitations in the week that both Lower and Upper Sixth were on exam leave and the week before half term. All teaching staff had to be in college but none of them were teaching any lessons. This contributed significantly to our success and was a great bit of luck on our side!

• We soon got replies to our invitations from a wide range of teaching departments who booked in appointments for the next few weeks.
• Some departments brought along up to 4 other members of their team.
• The tea and biscuits was a great hook but some didn’t actually want them so we felt they would have come anyway – but it was a nice touch!
• There were 3  librarians inviting departments in and we each had about 4 department meetings each just in that one week, with others promised for after the half term.
• In the first two days we had booked in 10 information skills sessions to be delivered before the students depart for Summer. These would be based on research projects the students would have to complete over the break.
• We also 1 teacher asking to book an info skills session in for September.
• We were able to broach the subject of reading lists and get the staff to sign up to promoting them to their classes.
• Subject areas were weeded and checked over – one department removed a full trolleys worth of old stock that wasn’t relevant.

In the meeting itself

Preparation was key to the success of our meetings. We put together a quick pack before hand which included:

• a checklist of examboard and which modules they would be teaching. This was really useful as quite a few modules had changed and even some exam boards. We would then have this ready for the coming year and know exactly when things were being taught.
• Exam board specification
• New resource suggestions – we’d printed off a list of brand new resources available in their subject area. We felt this would be more useful than simply handing them a catalogue as it was much more tailored to their subject.

Overall I feel that last week was a success – we’ve been able to really get involved with our subject departments and plan for the coming year. By having a structured approach we were able to set out exactly why we wanted them to come along and what benefit it would have. It was a great opportunity to show off what we could offer them. They seemed impressed that we were so interested and that we knew what they were studying. The key factor comes down to time and it seems that people will come along if they do have the time. For now , it’s a great start and something to hopefully build upon.

Marketing

We are always looking at new ways of marketing our services here in the library. I thought I would share some of the latest ideas we’ve used and how useful/or not they’ve been.

TV Screens – We have several large, wall-mounted TV’s throughout the Learning Centre with at least two on each floor.

By creating slideshows we can upload these to the TV screens and feature anything that we are trying to promote at any given time. It has been a really useful way of quickly and effectively showcasing new books, online resources, initiatives, events and anything else we are trying to promote. The TVs are positioned in prominent places throughout the Learning Centre and provide good coverage to all students. We do have to change the slides very regularly so that what’s being shown doesn’t lose impact but it’s proved to be a very effective marketing tool so far.

Toblerone stands - These are toblerone shaped advertisers that allow different things to be displayed on each side. So far we’ve used these to promote things like using the catalogue, how to access online resources, new books and behaviours in the library such as ‘no eating’ etc.

Placed on tables around the library, they’ve been a good way of advertising services – for example advertising the ‘Quick Reads’ in the science section so that students can see things which they may not otherwise think of looking at. Although useful, they do get moved around a lot and pushed aside when the students spread their work out on the tables. They also need to be changed on a regular basis which can be time consuming!

‘Caught Reading’ - Recently we did a promotional campaign called ‘Caught Reading’ which consisted of taking pictures of staff around the college reading books. We used a wide range of staff members including teachers, the Principal of the college, to facilities staff and the canteen team. We then did a display of all the photos to promote World Book Day. It was a great way of getting staff involved and the students have enjoyed looking at the display boards to see who they can spot reading.