Andy's reluctant blog

Lets get this straight from the outset. I really dislike blogs! They fill the internet with unecessary garbage. When I'm searching for the answer to some knotty web dev or flash coding issue the last thing I want is 34 pages of google results from no-nothing spods all proudly boasting the wrong solution. Blogs have huge accessibility issues as they rarely conform to W3C standards, this one included. I've spent an hour hacking the default CSS and the page styling still looks amateur. Blogs are evil and need to be exterminated!
Hmm perhaps should have posted this one a while ago

11/12/09

PGCE IT skills workshop evaluation.

Lets break it down:

Big group!  Big room!  No dreamweaver on all the PCs

What went wrong or wasn't all that clever in one way or another

  1. The scope of the session was waaaay too big for a workshop - and I can now qualatively say that having run two other workshops over the last couple of week both of which went much better than this one.  So why was that?  Well I think to try and cover the creation of three resources in 2 hours wasn't all that realistic.  Had I just talked about the capabilities of each software application / protocol I don't think the session would have been particilarly interesting for anyone so presenting something that students could easily achieve as a specific example seemed more engaging.  What I didn't really realise at the time of planning was that there wasn't anything like enough time to do this well.
  2. A decent chunck of attendees didn't seem very interested in the session.  I don't spose I can blame any of em for that.  It was the last week of term and a good number probably haven't even begun to think about their learning resource yet as they were plugging away finishing the PAL assignment.  Listening to me bumping my gums with what could well seem to be an innapropriate level of technical detail could well have not been high on a number of individual agendas.  Having said that it wasn't a mandatory session!!  Maybe I should have laboured that point a little more clearly?
  3. Delivery!  As Richard kindly pointed out, in such a big room with me sat down it was really hard for a good number of students to hear what I was saying.  This may well have been a contributing factor to point 2 as well although I guess anyone wanting to hear and having trouble could have asked me to speak up or simply moved closer.  Still I should have checked I could be heard as I went along, apologies for that everyone.
  4. Dreamweaver once again completely thwarted me.  Next time I'll just raw code the HTML demo, it's easier!

What went okay or wasn't all that terrible

  1. I was pleased I spent as much time as I did planning out the Word and PPT demos.  I don't usually use these tools so I did need to give myself a crash course.  I'm pleased I did!
  2. A number of students were interested in what I was saying and I think I was able to help a few understand what they're getting themseleves into (please correct me if I'm wrong).
  3. No nerves this time.  I felt much more confident with this session and I hope that came accross.  Even though my presentation skills still need work, they're a LOT better than they were on the microteach, at least I think they are.

What will I do differently next time?

  1. Spend longer planning the HTML demo so I know where I want to start and finish
  2. Not take on so much in one session.
  3. Stand up to present in larger rooms (maybe have some kind of pedestal arrangement so I don't have to bend down to demonstrate).
  4. Explain the parameters of the session more clearly.

There we are then, plently for me to think about going forward.


Have a nice Xmas everyone.

 

 

Posted: 12-18-2009 11:20 AM by Andy Green