An East Lothian teacher I met tonight mentioned how odd it seemed that, in her few years teaching here, she felt that she knew so many staff in the other authority schools, and so much of what was going on.
She’d been in a city school in a previous life, and had felt much less in touch with what was going on despite the relatively short distances between them.
She didn’t put forward any reason for this, but went on to mention how her class had been:
- using blog stats from other school’s blogs for data handling exercises
- stealing ideas from other class and school blogs to use in class
- enjoying publishing their own blog and getting comments back
She had been actively involved, too, in publishing the work of a project for others to share, and enjoyed browsing staff blogs.
Of course, this doesn’t in any way prove cause and effect, but more and more of this kind of anecdotal evidence is emerging to suggest that this spider’s web of connections between schools, classes, students and staff is gradually creating a strong sense of a single learning community.
Hi David,
I suspect there are a few of us outside EL who feel that they know about EL than any other LA. Sometimes I feel I know more about EL than Glasgow!
Hi John, I’ve heard that from Argyll & Bute too. I’m sure it will change everywhere very soon, as pressure for transparency mounts. As voters realise even young children can publish on the web in seconds, their expectations are changing. They’ll soon begin to wonder why they can’t get to see what goes on in their local authorities.
I’d go along with this. As E. F. Schumacher says, “small is beautiful” and, unless I’m imagining it, our team of instructors in East Lothian feels far more tightly knit than its more sprawling Lothian Region predecessor. Since eduBuzz, I feel that “small and connected” is even better. I feel that the pupils would agree. An example: when pupils are approaching a new solo piece I often say, you can hear this “on the website” if you go to the * * School page look for * *. Often they’ll ask, “didn’t he/she sit at the front our section in the East Lothian group?”
Hi David,
I’ve been following the class blogs of Campie P7’s NeverWinter Nights2 project and have been in contact with the teacher and class involved. Absolutely fantastic! For an educator in the southern hemisphere to be able to connect with extraordinary teaching ideas and people on the other side of the world is very impressive. “Small and connected” is developing into “small and globally connected”.
Thanks for sharing this story. I love them , to share with my colleagues.
@Judy: Sorry I missed your comment. I’m glad you’ve been in touch with Campie. The teacher was at Campie for her post-qualification year, and I was delighted to hear recently that she’s now there permanently!