Snow in Northern Ireland

Thursday 2 March 2006. I've been in Newcastle and Jacquie and I fly to Belfast, then get a taxi to Templepatrick for a workshop at the Golf and Country Club and Hotel tomorrow.

My room overlooks the grounds and what looks like a compact putting green. There has been a touch of snow.

Friday 3 March 2006. When I look out of my window the following morning, there has been a touch more. Nothing much to worry about though!

We are a few people short on the course and it appears it may have snowed a bit more elsewhere. Then mid morning and into the workshop we are running, I look up and there's a blizzard raging outside. So much so that we wonder if we will be able to get out that night. We are both reliant on taxis back to Belfast and flights home.

In the event, we both get home. My flight is to Blackpool Airport and the plane is only an eight-seater. I'm on the back row here! "It could be a little bumpy on the way home, so keep your seatbelts fastened," comes a cheery call from the pilot.

The wing and engine nacelle shortly after taking off. The weather isn't too bad until we get just off the coast of Blackpool then when we can see lights on the ground I realise we are not just bumping a bit but more like being thrown in zig-zags across the sky. "I'm game if you are!" comes that cheery voice from the cockpit and we touch down to sashay merrily down the runway. Ahhh... home...

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VLEs in Aberdeen

Monday 5 June 2006. I drive over to Newcastle for the usual Monday morning team meeting and then fly up to Aberdeen with Jac to run a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) workshop tomorrow at Aberdeen University.

It's a place that I've never been to before. Aberdeen is overcast and dark, but with some quite spectacular architecture.

If there's one architectural feature that Scotland does well and is proud of - it's turrets.

There's not a lot of time for exploring but we do need to find somewhere for a meal.

Tuesday 6 June 2006. The following morning shows us a much brighter, warmer and more cheerful Aberdeen. The statue is of William Wallace. Not that he had a great deal to be cheerful about by all accounts and I'm still trying to work out if he's just poked a hole through his tunic with that great long pointy sword...

A view of Aberdeen University. Time to go to work...

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Queens' College, Cambridge

On Wednesday Clive and I gave a workshop on Project Management to an audience of learning providers - colleges, universities, local authorities and one private provider - in the wonderful setting of the Old Kitchens of Queens' College, one of the colleges of Cambridge University.

Queens' rather than Queen's because it was founded originally by the Queen of Henry VI, Margaret d'Anjou in 1448. For some reason it was refounded in 1465 by Elizabeth Woodville, the Queen of Edward IV and therefore the placing of the apostrophe in Queens' College is correct.

Above is seen the Cloister Court. There is a modern and a medieval "side" to the college, with each being separated by the River Cam. We were in the medieval side, or the Dark Side as it is known affectionately. The Cloister Court was built in the 1490s, though the President's Lodgings, facing onto the river, is 30 years earlier.

It was raining quite heavily that day but I couldn't let that put me off whizzing round with the camera for a couple of minutes at lunchtime.

Leading from the Cloisters up through a corridor with the Old Kitchens on the right and a sumptuous Banqueting Hall on the left are these well-worn stone steps. Walking straight through brings you to a second, earlier courtyard, the Old Court. First however we'll have a peek through that door on the left into the Banqueting Hall.

I've seldom been in a more impressive room, even walking through the likes of Windsor Castle. This room is awe inspiring with its ceiling guarded by gilded angels projecting from beams, the gold leaf decorations and the age-blackened panelling. And this in an education establishment! How different from the canteen to where I was marched in a long crocodile in Form 2 at Heywood Grammar... Do the diners here have to put up with lumpy tapioca and semolina, haricot baked beans served without the saving grace of a tomato flavoured sauce...

I left the room only with reluctance and turned left to the Old Court with this magnificent Gatehouse at the opposite side. It was a brilliant venue to give one of our workshops and I'd like to thank both the Queens' College and the JISC Regional Support Centre, Eastern for making such a splendid venue available to us.

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Busy Week

After the flu it's back to work with a vengeance as I left the house on Monday and am not due back until Friday night.

I met up with Clive in Birmingham on Monday night to talk over our input to a project meeting on the following day. This seemed to go down well, the project was a JISC 4-year project looking at the process of designing the curriculum. One of the problems with such a project is in controlling the scope as just about every other process in an university either impacts on it or is impacted by it.

We introduced some Process Review techniques and some issues for Change Management and communications, given that for many stakeholders the implication that there could be changes to such a core process could be quite challenging.

Then it was off to Shrewsbury last night where we sat in front of a log fire that we tried hard to make roar... but we did get a whimper or two and briefly let out a cheer as a flame appeared for an instant!

We've spent today working on our own Business and Community Engagement related project and then headed north and we are currently in Ormskirk, prepared to deliver a Project Management workshop tomorrow. Then it's back down to Shrewsbury to end the week.

The voice is a little croaky after so much talking straight after the flu and a bottle of Buttercup Syrup has made the journey with me and been an essential if somewhat face pulling piece of equipment!

Glad we don't have a gig with the band this weekend...

Not sure the photo would stand enlarging - it was taken on my phone from the hotel window in Birmingham.

Workshop Design

Yesterday saw me up in Penrith, meeting up with Clive whilst we discussed our latest workshop for JISC infoNet.

The Project Management Masterclass covers Portfolio and Programme Management, looking at where projects come from and how and why they are authorised. It concentrates on the senior management roles in directing projects and programmes and how they can empower project managers to act under their own initiatives whilst suggesting mechanisms for keeping information flowing and for involving senior decision makers where necessary.

The workshop is a one-day workshop and will be available to colleges and universities from January 2008.

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Glasgow City

As the new academic year starts, I'm back travelling the roads and rail networks of Britain again.

Tonight I'm in Glasgow, overlooking Glasgow Central Station - not an imposing view as these things go, but the double glazing is doing a good job of keeping the noise out!

Tomorrow Clive and I are delivering one of JISC infoNet's Project Management workshops to an audience of librarians. It's a while since we saw each other actually and at the moment he's still negotiating the M8 so who knows where he might end up.

My satellite navigation system needs a serious talking to, as it has a totally different idea than do Glasgow's city planners as to where the one-way streets are or which way you drive down them. It would have had me down three bus-and-taxi-only streets had I stuck to it rigidly...

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Tuesday in Hatfield

I've been at the University of Hertfordshire today, delivering a Project Management workshop for some of the university's administrative staff. A familiar face walked in the room and was a touch surprised to hear me recount meeting him 20 years ago on a BTEC Higher in Public Administration at what was then Preston Polytechnic! Obviously he must have made a bigger impression on me than I did on him! :-)

Feedback was good - we have a 3-point scoring system so it's either "poor", "satisfactory", or "excellent" and of 90 possible marks I got 74 "excellent" plus 16 "satisfactory".

Some individual comments under the headings on our feedback form:

Organisation of workshop - order, pace, time spent on each topic
"Felt a bit rushed - a lot to take in"

Appropriateness of content - tailoring of session to audience
"Very good fit to our requirements"

Presentation - style, use of visual aids
"Excellent presentation, made the subject very interesting"
"Lively, funny, and very useful"
"Excellent presentation"
"Very good"

Activities - interactive elements of the workshop
"Liked the small group work"

Additional comments
"Lively, great examples and illustrations. Many thanks"
"Very useful as had an HE (Higher Education) flavour"
"At times felt like a hard sell of infoKits" (our free online resources)
"Good overview of Project Management, good to point to the website for more in-depth stuff"
"John's style, subject knowledge and delivery was excellent"

Many thanks to the delegates for so many comments - one of my colleagues from another organisation was talking to me about feedback sheets the other day and said "Isn't it strange how you can knock yourself out putting on a good workshop and all the comments are about the food or how hot or cold it was...!" I think the University of Hertfordshire staff gave the lie to that one then!

Am staying in Hatfield overnight and then in and out of London for a meeting tomorrow, before driving down to Winchester to deliver a Change Management workshop on Thursday.

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Welsh Sojourn

I'm just back from a two-day trip to Wales, land of unpronounceable place names and bestest hospitality!

Clive and I were joined by Marianne from JISC infoNet at Gregynog, a hall owned by the University of Wales and used as a base for the JISC Regional Support Centre for Wales's annual conference. JISC RSCs have a new remit which has more of a strategic content and manager, Peter Scott, had invited us to deliver the Change Management workshop and EduChallenge simulation over the entire second day, with an initial input at the end of the first day.

Apart from one instance of misunderstanding the language - I said "Who has a lawn?" and my Lancashire accent caused them to think I'd asked "Who has a loan?"... Probably not the most politically correct question to have asked and of course it was a while before I understood what they hadn't - if you see what I mean...

Anyway, this was the largest group we had ever run the simulation with and it went down well, once delegates got over the usual first hour frustrations and started to make some headway. Feedback was excellent anyway and lots of folk told us how much they had got out of it.

I was glad of the SatNav getting there and the mobile phone refused to work at all, although it was rumoured there was a "hotspot" if you stood next to the third rhododendron from the left whilst holding your right leg aloft!

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Risk Management Workshop

Clive and I have been in Nottingham again today, delivering a Risk Management Workshop for JISC infoNet.

Based on the Risk Management infoKit, the day introduces delegates to a methodology for identifying and assessing risks in order to make better-informed decisions.

Feedback gave us 37 out of a possible 40 "Excellent" ratings with a few ad hoc comments:

"Both presenters friendly and knowledgeable"
"Broadened my perception of what is involved"
"Engaging and very informative"

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London Workshop

Yesterday Clive and I were in London to deliver the third of JISC infoNet's Project Management Workshops for JISC Development Projects.

We were at Brettenham House on Lancaster Place - a short skip to Waterloo Bridge from which I took this photo during a lunchtime sniff of fresh air.

Brettenham House houses some office space for the JISC Executive and also the JISC Meeting Rooms in which we held the workshop.

The workshop seemed to go down well, the comments on feedback forms included:

Organisation of Workshop Content
"Good Use of the day to take this overview"

Tailoring of Session to Audience
"Both facilitators excelled at this"

Presentation Style
"Style was excellent - informal and interactive but also very informative"
"Great!"
"An authorative yet entertaining double act!"

Activities
"Very lively and a good opportunity for peer sharing of knowledge or expertise"
"Fun and engaging"
"Well-timed and very valuable"

If you work in Higher or Further Education in the UK and would like more details of this or other workshops by JISC infoNet then contact us directly, or contact your local JISC Regional Support Centre (RSC). [Edit: The Jisc RSCs are no longer active]

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Wear is This?

No, my speling hasnn't gon on the blinck - this is the River Wear at Sunderland. Or just outside Sunderland anyway. This was taken last night just after I arrived in Sunderland ready for running a Change Management workshop with Clive today for JISC's RSC Northern.

I normally have a look to make sure I know where the venue is if it's somewhere I haven't been before and this was the view from over the road, so it was worth rummaging in the boot and taking the camera out. Makes walking very uncomfortable anyway...

The photograph shows the cliffs alongside the Wear at Wessington, just outside Sunderland. Clive lives in Sunderland anyway and said he used to climb them as a lad - must have been mad! He did tell me the name of them but it's gone!

The workshop went well, in fact we got almost a perfect score from the feedback forms. Thanks to the delegates - we thought you were pretty good too!

AoC NILTA Conference 2007

I'm currently at the AoC NILTA Conference in Leeds and it has been an excellent conference this year. This has been the 19th NILTA Conference if you count the "parent" organisations of NILTA, namely NAITFE, the National CMIS Board and SCITFE the first incarnation of all.

One or two people present have been at all 19 of them. I can't quite claim that, I started out in 1993 as Associate Chair of the National CMIS Board so have been to enough for people to look at me with concern, wondering whether I'll collapse with age... or perhaps waiting for me to grow up - no chance of that I'm afraid! Lots of people yesterday were saying nice things about me to my boss, some without realising who she was, so my thanks to them!

Some good and pertinent sessions and keynote speakers. I especially liked a couple of phrases by Barbara Ganley from Middlebury College in America who was speaking about the use of blogs by her creative writing students. She spoke about "learning in cycles of disruption and repair" and the need for building into your courses some opportunities to fail, so that learning can come from it. Initially this might sound strange - we want students to fail? Well not in the long run of course, we want them to achieve their qualification, but walking away with a certificate is not the only goal I hope. It's when we fail in something that we take a step backwards, assess things like what went wrong and why, learn to identify and solve problems and learn what is repeatable and what should not be repeated.

The second keynote was from Nigel Paine who gave a very enjoyable and thought provoking session. He focussed on Change and the rate of change and the slowness of many educational cultures in dealing and accepting change and embedding new ways of learning. "We have got to let things from the past go," he said - a phrase that might challenge a few cultures perhaps. The tendency can be to evolve slowly, adding and supplementing but without always reviewing, releasing and discarding those things which have become tired, outdated or no longer relevant to today's young people in Further Education.

JISC infoNet, my own organisation, is currently involved with a series of one-day workshops on Change Management, delivered by myself with Clive Alderson, which introduce strategy and techniques for supporting Change in organisations. Another of our resources which has been generating lots of interest is the Planning & Designing Technology-Rich Learning Spaces infoKit. With many colleges currently involved in new building projects or refurbishment, the kit, released last week is timely and contains many resources, including a database of images of college and university innovative building projects, hosted at Flickr.

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It's Wednesday, It Must Be Nottingham...

So if I got lost in Leeds then how did I find Nottingham? Easy - it's the home of Robin Hood so just follow the arrows...!

Truth to tell there are two Premier Travel Inns labelled "City Centre" here but I did manage to find it fairly easy (only one U-turn). Apparently the X-Factor tour is here tonight so the waiter told me as I finished my meal so there's a fair number of visitors in Nottingham.

I thought Leona Lewis really deserved to win this year, she has a superb voice and a copy of her single was on my Christmas wish list last December! It will be interesting to see if Simon Cowell gives her a decent bit of publicity - he's not exactly done the last two winners proud... I've heard Shane Ward mentioned only a couple of times since his first single.

So tomorrow is another Change Management Workshop. The Leeds one was a success, though the delegates were unusually quiet - not necessarily a bad thing and perhaps caused by a fair number being from the same institution. I seemed to race through the morning's material but that gave more time to sort them into groups to prepare for the afternoon practical session. The feedback was excellent (thank you!) so as I said - not necessarily a bad thing! Thanks also to Marianne who managed all the installation of the simulation software whilst I delivered the presentation in the morning session. Tomorrow I'm back with Clive, who even now is driving up from Great Yarmouth where he's been breakdancing on the end of the pier in the light of the local lighthouse... dance a bit, the light moves on, take a break, the light comes back, dance a bit, the light moves on...

Lost in Leeds...

Well it wasn't entirely my fault... Searching for a Premier Travel Inn when they have three along the same road (A58) is a bit confusing! Still, third time lucky!

The second one was murder to get to as well. The chap at the first said "Get back on the M621, you'll see it from the Motorway. Yes indeed you do... but try getting to it! Anyway, that was the wrong one too! I'm here now in my standard room which could be Leeds or London or Edinburgh or... But I don't mind that they all look the same. It means I know what to expect and I can work the heating!

There's a little smiley face on the side of the TV and a label that says "I've passed". Good for you - I think I will too... TVs in hotels always annoy the person in the next room and anyway I am ready to start the tenth volume of Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series. Excellent stuff, though they get harder to follow all the multiple threads after a while and remembering who everyone is can be a bit of a bugger...

I'm running a Change Management workshop at the university tomorrow for people from the Yorks/Humber region's colleges and universities. Then it's home for a night and then do the same in Nottingham on Thursday. This series of workshops has been very well received so far and they have all been full with repeat bookings in a few regions.

I try to upload a new photo to my Flickr page every day. (This doesn't exist any more) Today's is a rooftop shot of Brighton's Royal Pavilion. It's from last year or the year before - I wasn't that lost...