Reports

During 2012-13 IRISS, in partnership with the SSSC ran a series of workshops for people involved in designing or delivering learning.

Why?

The Knowledge Management Strategy for the social services recognises that web-based tools — social bookmarking, Twitter, newsfeeds, Google search and Facebook — are now widely used for communication, collaboration and learning.

Building web-based tools and techniques into your daily routine requires little or no technical skill and most are suprisingly easy to master. Because these tools tend to be classed as 'social media', their use in the workplace is frequently restricted if not barred. But, as noted in a report commissioned by the Carnegie UK Trust (Charman-Anderson, S, 2010) social media is experiential:

it is difficult to fully understand social tools until one has participated and experienced them for oneself. Unlike basic computing skills, such as word processing or spreadsheet manipulation, the core understanding required to make good use of social technologies is cultural, not procedural.

These workshops offered the hands-on practical experience and encouragement that people need if they are to exploit the potential of social media.  In fact, in the context of learning and development, we prefer the term 'personal knowledge management' to social media:

People who can seek new information, make sense of it, and share it with their colleagues, will be an asset to any work team. However, they need access to their learning networks while at work, and this is often a challenge. Reduce these barriers, and support PKM [Personal Knowledge Management] practices, and the organization will benefit.

(Harold Jarche: Supporting workplace learning http://www.jarche.com/2012/08/supporting-workplace-learning/)

We introduced tools for finding, creating, organising and sharing web-based resources: RSS news feeds, social bookmarking and Twitter; Audioboo, Garageband and Soundcloud to create and share podcasts; and Youtube and Vimeo for video sharing.iTunes U offers interesting possibillities for creating and sharing courses via iPhones and iPads.

The intention, however, was not to provide detailed instruction in the use of these specific tools but rather to introduce new ways of doing the things we have always done (find,create, organise, list and share information), leaving participants stimulated and confident to try out new tools and use their own creativity.

If you have an iPhone or iPad you can find the course outline and links to further resources on Itunes U. The enrol code is EFB-PYK-WW2. Follow this link on your iPhone or iPad https://itunesu.itunes.apple.com/enroll/EFB-PYK-WW2

To create courses for iTunes U sign up to Course Manager https://itunesu.itunes.apple.com/coursemanager/

Help http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5113

Please contact us if you would like to find out more about building these tools into your daily work.

Report summary

This report is about a Public Social Partnership (PSP) pilot in Falkirk, which focused on foster care services. Public Social Partnerships (PSP) are an innovative model of public service delivery, which is based upon the public sector and third sector working together to design and deliver public services.

This overview report explores learning from seven case studies of work with children and parents in the early years (pre-birth to eight years old). The case studies are based on in-depth interviews with those working with children and parents in the early years to uncover what professionals perceive supports positive outcomes, early intervention and prevention.