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NeverSeconds, School Dinners, Social Media and some learning for Public Service

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 Single tweet, massive impact.

Situation.

  • 30th April 2012 a 9 year old school pupil starts the NeverSeconds blog as a writing project with her dad.
  • Martha writes about what she gets for school lunch and takes photographs.
  • This is done with the approval of the school.
  • The blog also acts as a link to raising money for a school meals charity.
  • Blog gets some good attention, kids from other places send pictures of their own school meals and they are posted.
  • June 2012, negative press articles attract the attention of those responsible for providing the meals, the Local Council.
  • Thursday 14th June Martha is told to stop taking photographs of school dinners by the Council.
  • Martha publishes this on the blog in a ‘Goodbye’ message.
  • The world of social media, twitter in particular, erupts.

Social Media Impact

  • A very prominent school meals campaigner (Jamie Oliver) sends a message of support and encourages his 2.3 million followers to retweet it.
  • Twitter gets very busy with people talking about ‘#neverseconds’.
  • The story is picked up by television, radio and newspapers.
  • Politicians become involved, some via twitter.
  • Considerable pressure is put on the Local Council.
  • Friday 15th June the Council reverses the ban and Martha is allowed to use photographs of the school meals in NeverSeconds.
  • This all happens within a 24 hour timeframe.
  • ……and the world of social media erupts even further.

A few numbers

  • Never Seconds blog had received in excess of 4,500,000 page view by 11am on Saturday 16th June (still climbing).
  • The page view counter on Saturday morning was flicking over at rate too fast to count. It was about 200 views per minute (12,000 / hour) when it had slowed down a bit.
  • The ‘#neverseconds’ hash tag attracted thousands of tweets.
  • The donations to the school meals charity have reached over £45,000, the fastest rate of donations they have experienced; and it’s still going on.
  • There are 2 more weeks until the end of term, plenty of time for more school dinner blog posts.

Some thoughts

  • The council has received a massive amount of publicity in a very short space of time. Most of it negative, using phrases like ‘bully’. It’s going to be an interesting day back at work on Monday.
  • Will this improve the quality of school meals? Particularly once social media has gone away? Who knows, but the fear of a return to this level of exposure might be a big motivation.
  • What happens next for Never Seconds and Martha?

So what’s the PONT?

  1. Censorship is a risky activity in the world of social media. It backfired hugely for this council (even if they do claim good reasons).
  2. The speed and scale of social media will cause problems for most organisations. Most public services aren’t equipped for this sort of 24/7 media pressure.
  3. As an example of ‘citizen voice’ from within a group of generally ‘quiet’ people (primary school kids), this is a pretty loud and high impact. As part the ‘digital natives’ entering wider society and the world of work, there is an interesting future ahead for public services.

Interesting Links: Council Statement. http://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/node/38630

Infographic:  http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1105/lunch/flat.html Do students eat like prisoners? Well worth looking at.

 

 

 

 

Also have a look at the Streisand effect. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect.  An attempt to hide or remove a piece of information online has the unintended consequence of publicising the information more widely.

If Carlsberg did Physics Teachers…. they would make Alessio Bernardelli.

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I am totally inspired at the moment. Of all things it’s about physics, education and blogging, all thanks to Alessio Bernardelli.

Last night Alessio spoke at a WordPress Users Wales meeting about his blog and how he’s been using blogging in education. Here is his blog, please go and visit you won’t be disappointed (check out The Hidden Particles of Fishy Tank, brilliant).

Just to give you a taste of why I found it so inspirational, here’s an example of the sort of thing he does.

Last year he was teaching physics to Year 12 students (16/17 year olds). The subject area was photoelectricity and energy levels. As a past A Level physics student it rings distant bells but I don’t recall it being particularly exciting….. How wrong could I be?

What Alessio got the pupils to do, was write an ‘Ode to Photoelectricity’, a poem. Not what we did back in the day, but something that certainly gets you thinking, and requires considerably more effort than a ‘cut and paste’ from Wikipedia. So far so good. Next, the poems are posted as blogs, and the homework ‘marked’ (opened up for comments). This is great, everyone gets to see what everyone else is doing, and you get some helpful feedback. This is more than just learning physics; it’s acquiring the ‘giving and receiving feedback’ skill that just about every workplace I’ve experienced  values greatly.

What happens next is even better. The assignment was about energy levels and photon emissions. This would also be blogged and then reviewed by the Year 6 (10/11 year old) kids in the local primary school. This is a real challenge in terms of understanding the science, and also the ability to communicate what you understand (great life skills again).

The best way to see the impact of this is to view the outputs via Alessio’s post on collaboration cross phase through blogging. Have a look at this very scientific presentation from some of the pupils. Standard power point stuff; similar to what many of us get served daily at work.

The solitary response from Year 6 pupils says it all.

As a contrast here is a link to another piece of homework, which makes full use of colour and animation to communicate the message. The comments speak for themselves, here’s a selection.

Interestingly, today I was at a conference where the message was being given that public service organisations in Wales need to develop a culture of accepting challenge and feedback. Perhaps Alessio is already developing these people for the future by teaching them physics in a fun and inspiring was. He certainly inspired me, thanks Alessio.

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. Inspiring teachers really do make a difference.
  2. Having fun at what you do is a key component to learning and engagement.
  3. Blogging is much more than just broadcasting your views.  Looking for, accepting and giving feedback is a skill lots of people (I know) could usefully develop.

Bag Packing, Social Skills and Youth Rugby

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Youth rugby isn’t what it used to be in my day. We lived up to stereotypes. Not so nowadays, must be the Sam Warburton influence. Saturday was all about learning………… social skills for under 16’s rugby players…..unlikely I know.

My sons under 16’s team are going on tour and the fund-raising is as much a part of the ritual as the ‘shaving off the left eyebrow’ antics on the tour itself. Now there are a couple of options available for the fund-raising:

  • Easy. I cough up our share of the cash quietly and we go away on tour no stress, no trouble.
  • Moderate.  Wife and I attend a few fund-raising events at the rugby club (quiz nite, band nite, casino nite, horse racing nite, bingo nite etc etc). Have a few drinks and hand over the cash via a less direct route. It works and we have a bit of fun. Oh, and don’t forget the raffle tickets, of which I usually buy 95% of our allocation.
  • Hard. Involve teenage son in the fund-raising. A massive challenge to amuse them usually involving some sort of physical activity.  Once again I hand over the cash, usually through ‘sponsorship’ this time.
  • Very Hard. Get the boys to actually do something that involves contact with civilians. Something where they deliver a service for which real people will actually hand over cash. Nightmare. Over the years I’ve experienced the difficulties of charity car washes, and the insurance claims for damage to the vehicles.
    Thankfully now banned. Unfortunately it has been replaced by something even worse, SUPERMARKET BAG PACKING.

This was the scenario on Saturday. Me, rushing up and down the checkouts of the local supermarket like some deranged motivational coach crossed with a cheer leader.
A bunch of 15-16 year old rugby players struggling with the emotional torture of engaging with complete strangers, and sometimes actually talking to them. By the end of it I was drained by constantly repeating; “maintain eye contact, smile, be polite and don’t put the tins on top of the cream cakes” (yes it does happen).

In the end it was a massive success. A few quid raised for the tour kit fund, happy shoppers and the boys pleased they had got through it.

One thing will stick in my mind though. Lots of people were great, talking to the boys, asking about the tour and wishing them well.  A few were really horrible though, quite aggressive in their refusal of the offer to pack their bags. Worse still were those who completely ignored the boys. This wasn’t without its benefits thought.

On the journey home it prompted some reflections from teenage son about why people behave the way they do, and that being polite and friendly doesn’t cost you anything.   A lesson in social skills indeed.  I did suggest that I should speak to the school and get them to put bag packing on the syllabus for Personal & Social Education (PSE) lessons.  Unfortunately that’s step too far and apparently a very stupid idea. Well I tried.

So what’s the PONT?

  • Getting face to face with customers and trying to provide a service is really hard
    emotional work.
  • Good eye contact, smiling and being polite gets you a long way in bag packing, and probably many other activities.
  • Getting out of your comfort zone can be beneficial, if under 16’s rugby players can deal with it, anyone can.

Just for my wife here’s the link to her favourite supermarket bag packing related You Tube video, Johnny the Bagger.  Watch if you fancy a cry.

Photo source: http://mostlyrandomphotoseh.blogspot.com/2010/07/vintage-rugby-detail.html

Stop the Social Media Arms Race in School

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Julian Assange - former pupil of.....?

Julian Assange - former pupil of.....?

This week I have mostly been a field ethnographer.  Basically I have been talking to my kids and finding out what they do with social media in school.

This came about from Mondays post about the use of mobile phones in schools. I also read a post by William Stites about why we need social media in schools on edSocialMedia .  What prompted my field ethnography was the phrase,‘arms race’  …….”by blocking these sites and not embracing what they have to offer we are only creating an arms race with our students and missing out on using these tools to connect with and provide new learning opportunities for our students.” 

Preliminary report on my field ethnography week as follows:

Observation 1: Banning mobile devices is unenforceable.
This was a simple test.  I sent a few texts to one of my kids. I got responses very rapidly. I’m not sure if these coincided with break times, but it was a quicker way to get hold of him than via school reception. This isn’t the first time I’ve done this. In urgent
situations I always use this channel first.

I did ask a few questions on the mobile phone ban.  It seems that the approach to enforcement is extremely variable, to quote…..”some of the old fossils go mad about phones, but most teachers are  OK”

Observation 2: The kids will win the social media arms race.
My questioning was directed at Minecraft Boy. He knows a bit about the internet, and how to reskin minecraft , whatever that involves. Key findings:

  • Computers are very common in school (thank you Tesco School Computer vouchers).
  • Pupils  pretty much have free access for ‘school related’ things they need to do.
  • Any social media platform you can think about is blocked. Not just Facebook, Bebo, MySpace etc, this also includes anything that looks remotely like a blog or a forum.
  • BBC  i Player and all of YouTube are blocked yet they watch videos in class……….?
  • Twitter is also blocked, yet the school and individual departments tweet.  Errr……. who are they tweeting to?
  • Internet searches are banned for unknown reasons, including random pages on Wikipedia.
  • The kids have found multiple ways around the system. At a basic level this involves ‘tricking’ the filters to continue your search. For a history project on the Titanic all searches were being blocked (first three letters of the name apparently), so they used RMS Titanic. I have heard of other schools where kids routinely hack around the firewalls.
  • Despite the blocks, everyone participates in some sort of discussion forum or plays games on-line. Once the authorities have found the latest area of activity and blocked it, the crowd just moves on to a new one. The whole cycle just moves on, an ‘arms race’ or what!?
     

William Stites makes the point in this post that “technology is ahead of the laws and ethics… the world of technology is changing quicker than we can keep up…… Content filters, policies and guideline aren’t the final answer. If we are to have our students become true citizens we need to it though teaching.”

One final comment from Minecraft Boy. “They would be better off allowing us to
use this stuff and learning about it. There are 100’s of us working on this stuff every day. A few geeks in the Council IT department will never stop it. One of us might be the next Julian Assange or some mega hacker……..”

So, what’s the PONT.

  1. Mobile phone bans in schools are unenforceable.
  2. Banning access to social media is an arms race that is unwinnable.
  3. We would be better off engaging pupils with social media and mobile technology, exploiting the learning opportunities and teaching Digital Citizenship .

Image source:

http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/jan2011/6/3/julian-assange-pic-pa-96346945.jpg

Can mobile phones help learning in schools?

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Pretty clear - but helpful?

Pretty clear - but helpful?

At the beginning of the academic year I had to sign up to my kid’s school (anti) mobile phone policy. Effectively it banned the use of mobile devices during school hours. The reason was to combat things like cyber bullying and other types of misuse. Worthwhile objectives, but I’m not sure how enforceable it is. I remember the failure of the smoking and gambling bans imposed at my schools years ago. Also, there’s plenty of time and opportunity to misuse mobile phones outside of school hours.

This got me thinking about, is this a lost learning opportunity? The kids are sitting in the classroom with a high-tech communications device sat in their pockets – but I’ve signed a piece of paper that makes sure it’s switched off or not available. Doh!

Searching around on the topic I came across this  video by Zenna Atkins former Chair of Ofsted and an advisor with learningwithoutfrontiers.com. Amongst some really good things she spoke about was the use of mobile phones in schools. Yes, most schools banned them for logical and noble objectives, however one school in England insisted that the kids brought them to school, and used them.

Although this was a relatively deprived area, 99% of kids had a phone. The the school and kids used them in a number of ways; for example to alert the kids to changes in the school timetable, ”science yr 2a moved from B12 to gym “.  A handy method for sending out homework reminders (boo!), or a global notice that the school is closed because of the snow (hurrah!). In addition the school apparently could ‘see’ who was on the premises, or bunking off from the Bluetooth signature…… interesting?

This got me looking at the wider learning opportunities and there are a few interesting examples out there (unfortunately none I could find from Wales, open to offers though)

There are a few more examples out there, see this blog by George Engel on Learning with Mobile Technology. Unfortunately though it doesn’t seem to be common practice. Strange really. In other aspect of their life my kids are totally dependent on their mobile phones and DLC (downloadable content), learning all sorts of useful things (apparently).  Yet, they are sitting in school with a sophisticated communications device in their pockets (which I pay for), and I’ve signed a piece of paper insisting they switch off. Doh!, again.  A lost opportunity for engaging them in more targeted and effective learning?

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. There are huge learning opportunities that could be opened up using the mobile devices that 99% of kids seem to carry.
  2. Completely banning mobile devices in school isn’t the answer and it’s probably unenforceable anyway.
  3. Mobile devices are an under used direct route to the target audience for learning (pupils). Why not use it, and not just during school hours?

Picture Source: http://blogs.cellularlearning.org/?p=186. This is from the informative blog by George Engel on Learning with Mobile Technology. Lots of useful links.

Also check out http://www.learningwithoutfrontiers.com/

“go to where the people are”

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38 degrees - the angle beyond which an avalanche can happen. Clever!
38 degrees – the angle beyond which an avalanche can happen. Clever!

 

 

 

 

 

This follows the last post about why lots of public sector people don’t use social media for work. From the comments you’ll see there are exceptions, with people like Helen Reynolds and her Yammer group moving things forward. Keep up the good work!

The phrase ”go to where the people are…” is something I picked up at an event where I heard 38degrees speak. This is an organisation that uses the Internet and various social media platforms to help organise people and campaigns. They have claimed some significant scalps like the UK Government change of plans to sell off the forests.

About 750,000 people have been involved with 38 Degrees campaigns so far, approximately 30,000 them from Wales. One thing they mentioned that Facebook is the most popular platform for organising a campaign, used by about 60% of their groups. Some of the reasons why people use it seem to include; familiarity, easy to use, accessibility (its available to everyone) and it’s free!  My heart sank at this point, …………..and also blocked by many public sector organisations.

Then some hope. Apparently the second most popular method used by people to organise themselves was the good old email distribution list (about 30% of what 38
Degrees had seen). The remaining activity (about 10%) is taken up with the likes of Twitter, Yammer, and bespoke websites like this one sosypant.com, a school campaign against the proposed closure of the sixth form.

This got me thinking about the struggle to engage with public servants in social
media and the current (over?) enthusiasm for developing bespoke websites and online communities of practice (OCoPs).  I’m not convinced that as rush towards the ‘high end’ technology such as bespoke websites is the answer. Lots of reasons for my reluctance, like the getting people to engage with the new, but my biggest concern is around cost. So much of this can be done using free / low-cost options (think Facebook groups), or by making much better use of existing arrangements.

What we should do (like 38 Degrees say) is “go to where the people are”.  The place where lots of people “are” at the moment is the good old email distribution lists. They exist, are accessible and people are comfortable with them. In particularly it seems those lists where everyone is visible, you can see who’s involved, and you know who you can trust are popular. Email distribution lists are already embedded in the day-to-day activities of most organisations. Lets use them with far more of a focus on learning and knowledge transfer, and not just for push communications. One final advantage is that they are not recognised as ‘social media’ and are below the radar of IT Departments and organisation security policies.

This has led me to shift my thinking, back to using a more stripped down approach to
promoting knowledge transfer with some of the groups I’m involved with. I’m
encouraging the resurrection of the email distribution list, and a ‘copy everyone in’ to your responses approach.  Once people really scream about the inadequacies of this method, then think about introducing them to the likes of Yammer,  LinkedIn Groups (for free!) or even a bespoke community of practice website.  It’s an anti “build it and they will come” approach and totally in the spirit of “go to where the people are”.

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. Social media platforms are extremely effective methods for people to
    organise themselves and share information. They could be much more widely used in public service.
  2. Using the good old email distribution list (with a focus on learning and sharing) is a means of building up some confidence and momentum before the leap into social media.
  3. Don’t try and build it and hope they will come (because they probably wont) ………..go to where the people are!