Our Learning is a dedicated training centre in the grounds of Our Lady’s Catholic High School Preston. As such, we have contact not only with teachers who attend courses in the centre but also those in the main school buildings. Whenever staff return from a course, a conference, networking meeting or other CPD related session, it’s expected they feed back to the appropriate colleagues. Previously this would have been in the form of a quick verbal update during a departmental meeting; currently there is a paper-based form to complete outlining what the CPD covered and how it might move the school forward. The former method could be quickly forgotten; the latter, lost in the bottom of the school bag. Why not use Mahara views for recording and sharing CPD? As an example, Assistant Head Mark Greenwood attended the Education Show last Friday and created a view showcasing his interesting finds:
Using a view in this way has several advantages over verbal or paper feedback:
- you can embed a company’s youtube presentation
- you can add links to relevant websites taking colleagues directly to the products mentioned
- you can upload (maybe from your smartphone!) images and sound recordings made during the day to give a feel of the event
- you can add RSS /twitter feeds from the event itself
- you can include your own personal impressions via a blog or simple text box
And of course Mahara allows you to target this feedback just to your own team, to specified individuals you think might benefit -to the whole staff -or even, by making the view public, the non-logged in World At Large.
Taking this one step further, Mahara views also lend themselves to the sharing of ideas in a quick, visual way: want to introduce colleagues to useful Web 2.0 sites? Add the information with examples to a view and share it!
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