Wednesday 27 October 2010

I hope this makes sense

Having participated in, attended workshops and viewed other projects, I seemed to have had an epiphany. This epiphany was that ‘developing systems that empower groups’ was really what we were all about. All projects were seeking to identify more efficient and effective ways to benefit areas, groups with agreed organisations. They all identified their stakeholders and were clear the benefits to service delivery and educational development (not a surprise, what was a surprise was this was happening).

My question, my epiphany was ‘How does SMaRT’ fit into this process?’ we are trying to empower those outside of a system, to place the possibility for change within the hands of the workbased mentors. Through our project links to our internal systems are possible, however what benefits and what changes come from an organisation trying to control an element that is uncontrollable.

Workbased Learners have a “mess mash” of contributors (quote from workshop), all with different agendas, all with different needs. The commonality is that some of them want to mentor students and do this well. Equally research has shown that there are common areas that are shared by all mentors irrespective of workbased activity.

SMaRT’ really wants to empower this group, to give them the responsibility and although clearly any development or change must come with a structure, why because knowledge must be generalised, it must represent those it seeks to represent. Identifying that ‘Control’ and ‘Independence’ are two areas of education that must be addressed and we know that there is always a need for ‘scaffolding’. This has meant that the team has to educate and revisit our own understanding of our role on several occasions. We have ensured that those within our immediate community have been actively involved with the development of ‘SMaRT’

We continue to have new ideas, but there is one thing for sure from small acorns, big oak trees grow and this is the birth of something that could one day, be universal fitted to represent many unrepresented groups and professions.

Mr Jones

What a presentation!,
Maybe we can add the poster so our viewers get the total effect.
I was proud to be a part of SMaRT.

Researcher

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Roll out

The first roll out of the Mentor mansion took place this week (12.10.10). It went very very well with positive feedback and excellent mentor interaction. Demonstrating the system and then allowing the mentors to interact themselves was useful, because firstly I could see how interaction worked and secondly I could view the mentors interaction.

The pilot take up for involvement in the project is slow and for many it maybe because of the newness of semester. However, working with those who are mentoring students has always been a challenge, priorities differ considerably.

A review of the Mansion has been taking part by using contacts (with those who provided data for its construction; interviews; questionnaires). Soon the wide level unveiling of the first floor of the mansion will occur.

Evaluation/Review is of the upmost importance, in terms of our development of this system.

SMART needs confirmation that the end product is purposeful and useful.

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Project Launch

The project is moving at a rapid speed now and contact with potential mentors (system users) is being made. Many of the emerging themes that have influenced the development of the project, have also provided insight into how’ the workbased’ sections of education see their role. Literature provides a variety of insight, but the current social, economical and political context of our communities have seen a change in people personal generosity.

As the researcher and an educator who is actively involved with mentorship. I am aware of the change in climate and how established mentors see their roles within the context of personal development and job profile. This insight as well as ‘collected data’ has continued to inform the project and it movement. We are aware of the limitations of any programmes and the need to respond to actual change and differing needs of differing mentors.

Mentor Mansion has tried to encompass, the lively levels of activity within our ‘community’.

The mixed mediums within the SMART project, reflects the changing needs of those working within a workbased environment. In order for the project to demonstrate benefit realisations and transferability, the scaffolding used to create this learning environment has utilised technological knowledge created and tested in technological educational programmes.

The next stage of the role out will include evaluation of some of the mentors that contributed to the development of the Mansion. Those who agreed to be interviewed, they will review the resource, as a tool. Although the content of the mansion is piloted for a specific area, a lot of rich data would be lost, if mentors outside of pilot were not able to review the developed resource.

Whats going on SMART

During the summer a vast amount of work was carried out by the web designers, team members and the researcher. Regular meetings to ensure that the model being developed, reflected our understanding of the resource required and also incorporated the content of the mentors who helped the team focus. The use case models were adapted and debated, so that the structure of the system reflected our now greater understanding of the user’s needs.

Unfortunately many changes have occurred over the life span of the project. Both internally and externally, mentors have moved on and organisational changes have seen possible gaps in service. Organisations have changed their methods of educational delivery and some mentors have relinquished their mentor role within their organisations.

However there are some positives and they have been, the continued support of direct team members. The team is fully aware of the user’s needs and the direction of the resource and its place in knowledge transfer. We continue to exhaust our understanding and challenge the resource itself.

JISC provides a variety of tools to check resources, inclusive learning and their development. Items such as infrastructure; authentication, how do users access our resource and the links to other areas that maybe involved; communication, type of language and fonts; minimising risks; maximising opportunities. There are other review mechanisms both internal and external that we have considered and these are on going features in the development of the project.