A touchconsulting ltd project, sponsored by the Education and Training Foundation

This decision needs no introduction, except our intention. What we are wanting to do is capture the feel of one of our joyous #APConnect days in a virtual experience. Thanks to all of you who have already signed up to come along.

The purpose of the day is to connect, listen and find spaces to think and communicate.

The vehicle for the day is rhizomatic learning. If you’ve not encountered this before, imagine buttercups spreading across a field (or your garden). They can’t be trained up a pole or kept out of the lawn. They are persistent, independent, unpredictable. Particularly at this time,when organisations focused on survival via compliance are struggling with controlling what happens online, we can learn from the experience of friends in other parts of the world, where it’s becoming immediately obvious that education can offer social spaces to support health and wellbeing, as well as getting on with ‘the work’. You’re probably all finding that out for yourselves right now.

Rhizomatic learning is taken out from a central point by participants themselves – the community, in effect, becomes the curriculum. Some threads will flourish, others will die off. What happens centrally is not about control, it’s about providing stimuli + space in which to process.

We have taken our inspiration from this Snow Day experience and we are guided by the #FABDigital principles, which make sure people come first:

First Principles you can rely on each ‘room’ clearly explaining what’s happening and how.

Purpose people come first. Our question to ourselves is always: how will this tech enable people to be present together in a meaningful way?

Support we have two Digital Nurses on hand all day: Lou Mycroft (@loumycroft) and Lynne Taylerson (@realtimeedu).

Fluency After a week’s teaching online you’ll be surprised how ‘can do’ you are about using new (or newish) tech.

So how does it work?

This is our central landing space. From here, as they go live, we’ll post links to social media spaces where stuff is happening. Think of each social media space as having its own room in the conference suite.

The Welcome (from 9.30am)

Here is Lou’s welcome video:

Welcome to #APConnect Live

That takes place here. You can comment on this page and it would be lovely to hear who is here. Think of it as the registration desk. Sign in, then go get a cuppa.

Important Note: the event is taking place on publicly available social media, which means your presence is visible, unless you use some form of hidden identity. 

The Thunderclap (from 10am)

On all our channels, let’s continue last night’s #ClapForOurCarers thunderclap and give a proper FE round of applause for all our NHS, emergency and critical workers. We see you. We honour you. We thank you.

 

The Zoom Room (from 10am)

Here in the main room we’ll be hosting speakers, just as we would IRL (in real life, we’re all having to learn these terms now!) You’ll hop onto Zoom (links published below) and see a presentation, followed by chance to chat with the presenter(s). We’ll record these sessions to make them available to people who can’t be there. If you’ve never used Zoom before, here’s a helpful tutorial.

Each discussion is framed by a critical question. After the session you might bob into one of the breakout rooms to discuss it further.

We’re asking people to work in a different way, so there’s some behind the scenes support this week from Digital Nurses Lou Mycroft, Lynne Taylerson and Punam Khosla. Simon Horner is here to listen to anyone feeling fragile or overwhelmed.

Live Schedule

10am Professor Rachel Lofthouse – Leeds Beckett University

Critical Question: How and why should we coach?

Please join us in the Zoom Room just after 10am.

 

11am Hayley Seward and Matt Pearson – Chesterfield College

Critical Question: How can we shift thinking and change cultures?

Please join us in the Zoom Room just before 11am.

 

12noon Sue Keenan and Susanna Brandon – Myerscough College

Critical Question: How can we make real and lasting change in organisations?

Please join us in the Zoom Room just before 12noon.

 

1pm Alison Loughnane and Angela Murray – Hopwood Hall and Bolton College

Critical Question: How can we work together meaningfully?

Please join us in the Zoom Room just before 1pm.

 

The Breakout Rooms (from 9.30am)

The Twitter Room

If you’ve ever participated in a Twitter chat like #UKFEChat you’ll know the drill (if you haven’t, here’s a little video that might help). After the discussion, you can drift onto Twitter and keep chatting with others, using the #APConnect hashtag. We’ll schedule each of the critical questions on the hour. If you’re tweeting please remember to tag our sponsors @E_T_Foundation thanks and why not share your twitter name on this Jamboard?

The Facebook Room

You might also prefer to see who you’re chatting with. We are setting up a Facebook Group for the event, which anyone can join…think of it as sitting together in a café, like we did in the old days. The critical questions will be scheduled to appear in here on the hour.

The LinkedIn Room

Some educators favour LinkedIn over Twitter, so we’ll also be posting the critical questions here, using the hashtag #APConnect.

The Instagram Room

FE is growing on Insta. We’ll be taking some screenshots and posting them with the #APConnect so please add yours! If you are great with images and filters please give Lou a quick tutorial!

We are also launching #NotesOfJoy today on Insta. Inspired by the worldwide sensation #FridayNotes, Stef Wilkinson and Lou Mycroft will be reflecting each Friday to try and capture the velocity of our times. Every day’s a schoolday.

The Wellbeing Room (all day)

The Wellbeing Room is Simon Horner’s Health and Wellbeing Vlog. Simon is doing incredible work at Bishop Burton College. Check in with him here or on Instagram. We’re also hoping he’ll spend a bit of time in the Virtual Café.

The Bookstore (all day)

Check out the AP Connect guides and tookit. We have it on good authority that these are more popular on download than many of the ‘popular’ books on education. Find them here.

 

The Marketplace – Padlet (from 9.30am)

Many conferences have ‘marketplaces‘, where people display posters of their projects/research, or set up stalls. Ours is a virtual stall. Follow this Padlet link to see some of what’s been happening over the rest of #APConnect

We’ve got the #APConnect Live Film Festival over on YouTube, which will be populated throughout the day with recordings of the Zoom Room broadcasts. Settle in with some popcorn.

We are also amplifying this fabulous funding opportunity: UFI have acted quickly to make a fund available for developing online teaching strategies.

The Virtual Café (all day)

Zoom bandwith permitting, we are planning to leave this Zoom room open all day, for people to just hang out. Bring your own brew!

The Travelling Show – Twitter (all week)

Events have overtaken us, but we’ve also been collecting impact stories from APs this month. We are going to let those stories tell themselves via Twitter throughout the day. Follow the hashtag #APConnect to see words and images from this culture changing project.

The ‘Evaluation Form’ (available all day, go in as many times as you like)

Yeah, there’s always one of these. We’ll use a Mentimeter so if you could complete that while you’re rushing for your train, that’s lovely 😉 Just go to www.mentimeter.com on your phone and enter code 441089

 

The Engine Room

Why that’s you, our lovely #APConnect friends.