'How Far Now!' October is Black History Month.

Yes in the United Kingdom it is Black History Month so jerk chicken and rice with plaintain or jollof rice is being served in schools all over the country or they're experiencing the joy of African dance and drumming. Now I don't have documentary evidence of this, but if you do a search for 'black history month uk' you could easily get the impression that these are two of the favourite ways to celebrate the month.

When I was a young student we often bemoaned the fact that the only education we ever got that had any relevance to our personal and cultural identity focused on the fact that we were descended from people who were bought and sold like farm animals. Multiculturalism was something that came into schools by the time I was a mother. It meant that my children could now learn of people like Mary Seacole as well as Florence Nightingale or learn more about Diwali and Chinese New Year at school. The introduction of October as Black History Month at the time was like a natural progression and doesn't seem so unusual now. At first though I thought it wasn't for me as I'd taught myself Black History by reading autobiographies and biographies from Billie Holliday to Malcom X. I watched programmes like 'Eyes on the Prize' and anything related to African or Caribbean history and I repeated the phrase 'Black History is not just for one month'. Black History Month was for youngsters and people who didn't know any black history, in my opinion. Now I recognise that the month is for celebration and I think in celebrating we are also learning. In that sentiment I would like to think that educational institutions are doing more than serving Caribbean school lunches or enjoying a visit from a group of lively drummers and dancers from Nigeria. In my own place of work they are running a writing competition which is helping some teachers introduce the art of expression around a relevant topic such as the poems of Maya Angelou.

This year I found myself making a contribution to Black History Month quite by accident really as I never planned to do anything more than say 'Hello' to my Facebook family and friends in an African language. So my first status of October simply said, 'Jambo!' I didn't even check that it meant what I planned to say, taking it from memory of the few words of any African language I'd gathered in my youth studying people of African origin.

A few days later I said 'How now' which apparently means 'Hello' in Nigeria. This status sparked some good comments and even a correction as I was told by an African student it should read, 'How far now'. This activity was now quite enlightening  so I continued with 'Etisen' Twi (Ghana), 'Bonjour tout le monde' French (spoken in some form in some African and Caribbean countries) and 'Tena-istellen' Amharic (Ethiopia). By Friday of that first week I'd decided to keep using my status for Black History Month for the whole month but only on weekdays. I was not explicit about what I was doing until directly asked and the positive response encouraged me to continue. I decided to choose a different theme for each week.

After greetings in other languages here some links and videos I shared under their themes:

Men of Note

Nat King Cole
One of my favourite songs for the season sung by one of the first voices I ever loved. Nat King Cole was one of the first biographies I chose to read simply because I'd always loved to hear his voice when I was growing up listening to my parents records. People of my generation will also tell you how our parents loved to play Jim Reeves music and country and western singers like Frankie Laine which mystified us as children. My favourite singer of all those is still Nat King Cole.
 

Elijah J McCoy

I simply asked the question, 'What well known phrase is said to originate from this man?'
The answer: The Real McCoy'.This sparked a lot of comments and most of them with the right answer. I guess it was an easy one.


Ernie Barnes

Another question: Can anyone tell me whose album cover (name of singer and name of album) did this artist create?

This was a bit hard as no-one got it so I posted the answer a few hours later: Ernie Barnes' painting 'Sugar Shack' was featured on Marvin Gaye's album 'I Want You'. 

I was too young to be buying albums when this came out but I had a poster of the cover on my wall as a teenager and a few other pictures cut out of a magazine from this artist. In fact I have a couple of prints of Ernie Barnes to this day. Just love the movement in his work.


CLR James Library

Great news! During the second week in October news came out that made many local people happy. Since August we have been petitioning against a proposed name for a library which for more than 25 years is known as the CLR James Library. The council wanted to call it the Dalston Library. This news announced that the council has listened to the concerns of locals put forward by community group Black & Ethnic Minority Arts  (BEMA) and agreed to keep the name of a man regarded highly across all nationalities and of particular pride to African Caribbean peoples included in the new name of the library. Click on the links to read more about CLR James, an influential writer, activist and raconteur.

The Honourable Derek Walcott
A son of St Lucia and a Nobel Prize winner. Just because I admire him. Here is one of his poems:

A Far Cry From Africa by Derek Walcott

A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt
Of Africa, Kikuyu, quick as flies,
Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt.
Corpses are scattered through a paradise.
Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries:
"Waste no compassion on these separate dead!"
Statistics justify and scholars seize
The salients of colonial policy.
What is that to the white child hacked in bed?
To savages, expendable as Jews?
Threshed out by beaters, the long rushes break
In a white dust of ibises whose cries
Have wheeled since civilizations dawn
From the parched river or beast-teeming plain.
The violence of beast on beast is read
As natural law, but upright man
Seeks his divinity by inflicting pain.
Delirious as these worried beasts, his wars
Dance to the tightened carcass of a drum,
While he calls courage still that native dread
Of the white peace contracted by the dead.

Again brutish necessity wipes its hands
Upon the napkin of a dirty cause, again
A waste of our compassion, as with Spain,
The gorilla wrestles with the superman.
I who am poisoned with the blood of both,
Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?
I who have cursed
The drunken officer of British rule, how choose
Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?
Betray them both, or give back what they give?
How can I face such slaughter and be cool?
How can I turn from Africa and live?

Women of Note

Jean Binta Breeze
I met this woman briefly many years ago as she headlined a poetry evening I took part in. I watched her performance from backstage and realised that I had a long way to go before I could be as good as she. I remain in awe.
Here she is in performance a few years ago:


Mahalia Jackson

The video I used to feature this gospel great is from a movie which for me was all about the black woman and her daughter. The girl rejected her mother as she strove to pass herself off as white. Watching this movie as a young child made quite an impression on me. The funeral and the scene of the daughter's remorse always gets me. I've just recently started reading about the life of Mahalia and watching videos on YouTube of her performances.


Yaa Asantewaa
The first time I ever heard the name of Yaa Asantewaa, I was being taught by a Ghanaian friend about one of his nation's heroes. The fascinating thing for me was that it was a woman who fought for her people, a warrior queen was how I understood it then. I found some very good materials including a documentary and posted them to my page.


Sonia Lanaman

Don't ever hear her name mentioned anymore but Sonia Lanaman was one of my favourite athletes as a child. I cheered when she won and felt sad when she lost. I thought it time she got a mention.


Toni Morrison

Another Nobel Prize winner and one of my favourite authors. The first book I read by Toni Morrison was called 'The Bluest Eye'. Many others have been read since. I wish I could've had one of her books for study when I was a youngster instead of Chaucer or King Lear.

Here is a link to the Official Guide to Black History Month in the UK including an online magazine and teachers packs.

Got one more theme to choose for my Facebook statuses for the last week. Got any suggestions?

Thank you for reading.

A Learning Centre - A Facebook Page Proposal

After my last post there have been some developments which led in turn to a re-think. I said before that I was not sure how a learning resource centre could use Facebook for social learning. Most of my elearning work recently was focused on creating resources for workshops that are being made available on our intranet and the VLE. Promoting the use of the learning centre is generally focused on these internal pathways.

Now our college has joined social media with an account on Twitter and a page on Facebook, a new pathway is open and I can consider social learning for a learning resource centre. I am using this post to outline a general proposal that could bring a social media aspect to providing learning resources for students and staff in any education establishment.


Why use Facebook? Pros and Cons

• No need to ask people to join - aimed at those already using Facebook regularly. This means they are already familiar with how the site works. I would guess using my own observations, that many students (and maybe some staff) log in to Facebook more often than they log in to the VLE.
• Many people are using mobile gadgets to access Facebook on a daily basis therefore it would be easy for them to receive updates
• It is easy to set up and maintain a profile and page (or group) for social learning - there are lots of online resources to demonstrate how if you need instructions.
• Set up with clear goals and strategies to minimise privacy issues. Use of Facebook by educational establishments can include teaching strategies to encourage making good choices on what we share and what is private and what is public, how Facebook changes may affect your privacy and strategies that safeguard internet use on all social sites.
• Privacy - yes it is the hot issue! Don't underestimate it's importance! In our roles of safeguarding it is very important for colleges, schools etc use of social media to be wary of possible problems and deal with them. I hope that the strategy chosen will protect the privacy of all individuals. If you can see a hole in it please comment and point it out.
• Risk of upsetting some who use Facebook for fun and don't wish to mix their education or work with pleasure. You may not get the activity you expect - so don't assume participation, just work towards it.

Research

Whether you are a Facebook user or not, it is very useful to do some research and find out others views on how to use the site for the purpose of social learning. It can help to define your institutions aims and objectives. For this post I used resources posted previously in Facebook - A Tool for Social Learning. For your convenience here is a list some of the resources used:

Facebook for Learning? Boleh! by Zaid Alsagoff

How to Use Facebook for Social Learning by the Centre for Learning & Performance Technolgies, Jane Hart

100 Ways You Should Be Using Facebook in Your Classroom by Online College

I found a good example of how one university Learning Resource Centre uses Facebook Page:
Queen Margaret University Learning Resource Centre
 

The aims and objectives define the purpose and proposed use of a Facebook page for a learning resource centre. These are my suggestions:




Aims

• to promote use of LRC for research, study, books etc.
• to promote resources available including online resources
• to direct staff and students to internal resources
• provide updates on special displays and books available to loan
• to easily share reviews, experiences via comments etc.
• to notify about surveys, book sales, opening hours being changed

Objectives

• provide an alternative method of communicating with staff and students
• engage and interact with users of the Learning Centre
• reach more of the community who are already using Facebook

Page not Group - why?
I am focusing on creating a page because I believe it would serve the aims and objectives for the following reasons:

• you have to join a group to become a member and if it is a closed group you must meet certain criteria to join
• a page is easy to join as you simply have to like the page (click on the Like button)
• page updates appear more readily in your news feed
• pages allow you to add applications which would enhance the services and information offered
• pages are the best option for a learning centre which supports staff and students

The presentation by Zaid gives all the details in the options available for groups and pages on Facebook. A closed group would not be necessary and I don't think there will be any need to message all members. Both of these are features of Facebook groups. Pages allow you to use apps such as Notes which can be used as a blog or you can import your blog from another site. If you wish page status updates can be linked to Twitter using a suitable application.

Privacy
For this project I would recommend that a profile is created specifically to maintain the LRC page. This would help to maintain a professional profile reflecting the team behind the page rather than one individual. Profile image and name should be determined by discussion and agreement of staff involved in the service.

When you like a page and comment on it you do not share any personal information other than your name and profile pic. As long as your profile is private the only thing you risk is inviting friend requests. I do not recommend staff accept friend requests from current students. This would be in line with safeguarding recommendations.

No doubt you are aware of the latest disquiet around Facebook and privacy. Check your privacy settings especially after any changes. I would recommend doing this regularly regardless. Best practice would be to posting only links and items you don't mind anyone seeing.

It is not the goal of this proposal to invite people to use Facebook but to reach those who are already using it.

Facebook and Students

Here is a link to a news item regarding the use of Facebook and how it helped to reduce 'students drop-outs' from the BBC News. Very useful to see positive practical experience of social media.

I thank you for reading my proposal and hope you have some comments and thoughts to share especially if you have any concerns on how taking this path would affect support for learning and student progression. I look forward to hearing from you.

Watch out for future developments.

Learning to Use Office 2007

In my experience as a Learning Resource Assistant (IT) the autumn term is traditionally a time for initial assessments. People wishing to embark on a new course, develop skills and hopefully change their lives in some way have to sit an online assessment program for English and Mathematics. For many this is quite daunting especially if they are not very familiar with using computers or have learning support needs. It is our role to support all levels of ability and we take our role very seriously. However we have our own learning issues to face.
We returned to work after our summer break to discover that Office 2003 is now upgraded to Office 2007. There is no time to wait for professional development so we are busy trying to find time to train ourselves in between assessment duty.

Students are starting classes soon and will require support in using the intranet and VLE with technical support and how to questions for applications. We are faced with the task of learning to use Office 2007 to a good level of proficiency.
There are other issues which I will not go into here but just say that it presents us with a number of challenges that will affect the quality of our support. For this article I want to look at the methods we are using in our attempt to become proficient in Word 2007.

Microsoft Word is the obvious starting point for upgrading our knowledge of the Office suite. Once we can use Word we expect to be able to transfer that knowledge and apply it to the other applications used by students to carry out research and produce coursework. There are a number of methods we are using to achieve this.

We work in a learning resource centre so we are surrounded by tools for learning. But the first thing I did was just open the application and jumped in. Then one of us found a book called ‘Teach Yourself Word 2007’ on the shelves. It’s written by Moira Stephen and although designed for beginners it is very useful for users experienced in Word generally with clear progression from the basics to IT proficiency. You can find out more about the series from their website.

Books are good because you can carry them around and dip into the section you want. You can have the book to refer to as you work through and this book has some useful images but this is an elearning blog so let’s look at a few elearning options for Word 2007.

1. Online videos are great tools for learning and I found some on this website There are just a few videos of a few minutes duration and the site does have a comprehensive list of features in Word 2007 to explore and discover. It explains something that for me was initially the most confusing feature of Office 2007 – the ribbon. After years of menu bars and drop-down menus it is quite a change but with a few video demos and some demos from colleagues I recognised that in reality those dialogue boxes were still there.
Here is the video that introduced the Office 2007 Ribbon...



We also have some learning resources available on the VLE but I found these difficult to use as I have to switch from window to window to carry out tasks and exercises. I did not get any positive reactions to these resources from my colleagues.

2. The Microsoft Office site also offers some learning tools but I am unable to use them at work as the video player uses Silverlight. Installing anything is prohibited on the college network so I am not able to tell you about that.

3. The application itself offers help as we would expect. One colleague pointed out a really useful item called Reference: Locations of Word 2003 commands in Word 2007. This is neither training nor learning tool but it is a good reference tool which shows the equivalent of Word 2003 tools in Word 2007. It's just what we need.

This upgrade experience illustrates how we take different paths to learning. One of us uses video and practices the application by creating documents and exploring tools by doing. Another of us uses the Teach Yourself book and learns by reading and doing the bits that are relevant or interesting to them. We are all sharing what we’ve learned so far with each other, demonstrating and therefore reinforcing our own learning by sharing. It turns out that we have all learned different things so while I have focused on inserting tables, clipart and objects like text boxes, my colleagues have focused on formatting tabs, using the quick toolbar and headers and footers for example. This is a good thing as we will be able to complement each other as we provide support for learners. How long before we feel as confident with Office 2007 as we do with 2003 is another matter.

101 Free Learning Tools

101 Free Learning Tools

View more presentations from zaid.

This is a great presentation from Zaidlearn. A great list of learning tools.

Twitter in Education

Twitter in Education

View more presentations from hopkinsdavid.

Twitter is everywhere. Who can say they have not heard of Twitter as the profile of this social media micro-blogging site grows as more and more individuals including some celebrities, organisations and more seek to join in the 'Twitterverse'. But as David Hopkins says in the presentation, it is not about celebrities, it is about you. He offers good advice to educators who may be considering how they can harness the site for teaching and learning.

The best piece of advice is aimed at people who are new or are still thinking about joining; know your purpose for joining Twitter! It could also be applied to those of us who are accomplished Tweeters.

Included is a video from Comon Craft which I myself watched when I asked the question, 'What is Twitter?' 'Twitter in Plain English' was recently in the news as it formed part of a feature on CNN!