Tag: Journal

A day in the life of a Director of IT

The below post was originally shared via the Association of Network Managers in Education (ANME) on 20th December 2021

Different schools use different job titles for the work that I do, and in addition, the specific tasks and requirements differ from school to school based on size, context, budgetary constraints and a variety of other factors. As such, I thought I would share a brief outline of a day in my life.

So, it’s Thursday, December 2nd and the day kicks off for me around 8:15 am when I arrive at the office and get set up for the day. My first port of call is to get email on screen plus my collection of daily web pages including my To-Do list, our help desk and other apps I need on a daily basis. One of the first things I look at is any alerts in relation to suspicious user account activity to see if there is anything that might merit my involvement plus also to make sure anything which requires logging is logged ready to be reported to SLT.

My next activity was a quick chat with our Network Manager in relation to some Wi-Fi usage data I had been looking at. We started gathering the data and analysing it in response to some general student complaints regarding Wi-Fi connectivity, however, the data doesn’t quite support the existence of a general issue, albeit individual students may have specific issues in relation to their devices, connectivity, or services which they are trying to access. Rather than requiring general action, these issues will require contact with the students to try and identify and resolve their specific, individual issues.

At 9:00 and my first meeting of the day, with our Director of Finance. There are a number of current projects which make up the agenda for our discussion plus a discussion of cyber security issues and some recent infrastructure challenges we had been facing.

As is generally the case, the meeting is a packed one and, in this case, even runs beyond the allocated one-hour slot. Immediately following the meeting, I spend a little bit of time digesting the discussion and noting down any actions, making sure these are added to my To-Do list as appropriate.

10:30 and I am working on our annual IT Services perception survey. This is basically 3 surveys that go out to staff, senior school students and prep school students to gauge their experience and perception of IT Services and of our devices, infrastructure, etc. We have been gathering this info now for around 5 years and it is the longitudinal nature of the data, rather than the in-year data which is most useful as it highlights trends over time. I spend a little time preparing the relevant surveys and the associated communications that go with them, plus make sure to keep a number of key staff aware of the planned release of the surveys.

Following this, my next task relates to phishing awareness. We recently ran several awareness tests on small groups of staff whereby we sent a fake phishing email to them to see if they identified the email as malicious or if they fell for the bait. I now need to write up a short report on the findings from the most recent test so this can be shared with SLT for their info. This process has been useful in identifying the type of phishing emails that staff tend to fall far, which then allows us to direct awareness training to this area.

My department weekly briefing is my final task before lunch. This is a weekly document rather than a face-to-face meeting and serves to share thoughts, notices, etc with the IT Services team hopefully also serving as a record of activities, etc and as a repository of useful info. It isn’t a long task to create these each week as I tend to follow a rough template. This week’s briefing turns out to be a slightly longer one, but this is mainly due to sharing some of the positive feedback I had received in relation to the team’s recent activities.

Following lunch, I have meetings with the Head of IT at our prep school and our Director of EdTech for our senior school. I work closely with both, where their focus is very much is on what happens in the classroom and the pedagogy, my focus is a little more on the technology, infrastructure, support services and cyber security. The key thing is together we are able to provide a guiding direction in terms of technology use within the school, each able to bring our different experiences and skillset to bear in discussions. Due to this, we make up a central part of the schools IT Management group which also includes SLT members and a number of teaching staff. This week’s discussions focus on the school’s technology strategy and expanding on it so staff have a clearer understanding of it, plus on the now-launched satisfaction surveys.

The end of the day (5pm) is now fast approaching so I spend a bit of time continuing to work on my end of term report. I try to provide a termly report which contains useful data in relation to our infrastructure, systems, user support, etc. The purpose of the data is very much about transparency and making sure that the SLT is always aware of all the work going on in IT Services even when everything is working fine. It also serves to identify trends, opportunities, and concerns. I find the report particularly useful in continuing to build awareness in relation to cyber security risks. As much as possible I try to use readily available data to avoid it taking too long to process however, the reports still do take a bit of time to produce. In my view, they are however well worth the effort in avoiding IT Services disappearing behind the curtain until the next issue arises.

Reflections

Looking back, it was a reasonably busy day with a number of reports being written. I suspect this was largely due to the fact we were fast approaching the end of term but also the end of the calendar year and therefore some of these reports needed to be in before everyone broke up for the winter break. Cyber security was certainly high on my order of thinking, however, this is increasingly the case. Our technology strategy, which we recently updated, was also high on the priority list.

I suspect, although Directors of IT, or those in similar roles at other schools, are all travelling in roughly similar directions in terms of technology use within their school or schools the route taken can differ significantly. As such my day may look totally different to your day, but that’s not a problem. The key is that we each know in which direction we wish to go, and are taking the necessary steps to get there.

Pledges 2022

Once again it is time to write my pledges for the year and I note this year a number of people online suggesting they won’t be sharing any pledges this year due to current pandemic situation being stressful enough, without adding the additional pressure of trying to meet some well meaning targets set at the beginning of the year.    I can totally get this thinking;   If you look at my review of 2021 you will get a sense of how I felt I “survived” the year rather than making progress, growing or flourishing as I would have liked to.    As such I considered not sharing any pledges this year however I have decided to stick with it and share.   I share my pledges, most likely for my future self rather than for anyone else, although I hope you find some use or insight in my thoughts too.   I share these targets with clear understanding of how the last two years have been challenging, unpredictable and [forgive me for saying it] unprecedented, and the year ahead already looks like it will be no different.   But I will share my pledges nonetheless, albeit I may adjust my expectations accordingly.

So let’s get started:

Exercise and Health:

I have done very well in the last year with my exercising and general fitness and in particular with running.   My plan for this year is to try to maintain this, and to again manage 750km worth of running during the course of 2022.   Now I acknowledge this will very much be dependent on my health as illness will impact on my ability to run however, I think it’s a fair target.   I also note the maximum distance I have run to date in a single session has been 8km.   By the end of 2022 I would like to be able to complete a full 10km running session, even if this involves some periods in the session where I may slow to a walking pace.  

Another area I would like to work on this year is reducing my alcohol intake so managing a month period (so 30 or 31 days) without a beer.   I suspect this will be a challenge as for me a beer has always been key to relaxing or to helping with stress, however I am concious that reliance can have a negative impact on health.   As such I want to try to adjust what for me is a habit.

Wellbeing / Happy memories:

A key aspect when I reflect on the year past is those memories of positive or enjoyable events.   This year I want to build in more of these, so more occasions where I do something outside my normal.  This might simply be getting away for a break, or doing a new activity, or buying something memorable but the key thing is to generate positive memories which will come to mind when I look back on the year in the December 2022.     I have already started considering possible ideas here with a planned holiday already on the cards, and a possible idea to do something a bit different in Dec 2022.    That gives me at least 2 items but ideally, I want to have 6, so something to remember in each of every 2 month period.

Reading:

My reading has become a bit of a habit with 12 books minimum read per year, however it has become a habit which has lost some of the enjoyment and some of the learning, replaced by simply process.   I would like to get back to enjoying more of my reading this year and to again learning more.    As such I am only looking at reading 6 books this year but including some non-fiction in there for enjoyment and being more selective of the books I read for learning purposes.   I also need to be better at simply putting a book down where it isnt working for me.    I hope to look back in Dec 2022 and to have renewed my enjoyment in the reading I have done.

Contributing:

This is something I want to focus on this year, continuing my current contributions to Technology in Education and Education more generally but also to the IT sector as well possibly.    This will include my tweets and social media contributions, my blogs and my podcasts plus my involvement in different groups including the Association of Network Managers in Education (ANME).    I also want to try to develop new opportunities and ways for me to contribute and share with others.

Work:

Lots gets done during year and I think that can be my problem in that I don’t, at the end of the year, quite appreciate all the work and effort that has gone into all that has been achieved.   As such this year I want to take regular breaks to stop and reflect on all that is achieved and on the work required to make these achievements actually happen.   Very seldom is any task in my role achieved simply, instead they involve meetings with stakeholders, planning time, implementation, faulting finding and problem solving, adjustment and evaluation.   I need to be more appreciative of this work, albeit it sits behind projects or tasks which appear simple when written down on a bulleted list of to-do items.

I think in my work life I am also seeking some new challenges.    For this I already have some thoughts and projects which will help here including a project in relation to contributing and sharing as mentioned earlier.   This very much comes down to me making things happen and is down to a bit of creativity and innovation on my part.

Conclusion

For the last couple of years three words have been in my thinking being prioritisation, entropy and reasonableness.   When I look back from Dec 2022 on these pledges, I aim to have these words in my mind to ensure that the pledges here do not unnecessarily add stress to the days, weeks and months ahead.   If I need to prioritise other things, over the above pledges, if the world, my role, etc changes unexpectedly or if the pledges become unreasonable in the context 2022, then not meeting them is fair and totally expected.   That said, for me anyway, having the pledges provides an insight on my thinking as it is today, for me to reflect on once I reach the end of the year.   It provides an outline for a planned direction, again for reflection, even if I end up not fulfilling some of the detailed actions.    For me anyway, I think there is more benefit in writing this than there is a risk of this causing unnecessary stress for myself.   But this is an individual decision we each need to reach.

2022 is another year.    2022 is another opportunity to feel positive about my efforts.   And so with this in mind, I need to make 2022 the year I want it to be; This makes me think of Covey’s circles;  I shouldn’t allow that which I cant control or change, my circle of concern, to impact on my happiness and sense of progress.   I should however focus on that which I can control or change, my circle of influence.    And with that in mind, its onwards and upwards!

A [honest] reflection on 2021

Firstly, let me say I am glad to see the back of 2021.   The end of the year has been very challenging, and not in a good way, including significant family health problems in December and a bout of Covid over Xmas.  Looking back at the year in general I find it difficult to actually find much positive to reflect on.   As such will just be glad to see 2021 draw to close and will have my fingers firmly crossed that 2022 will be a better year.

Beer anyone?

So, reflecting on my pledges seems like a good place to start in reviewing 2021.   Back in Jan 2021 I suggested having a dry January or at least 1 dry month, free of alcohol at some point during 2021.   I will admit I never got close to this and as the year draws to a close am drinking more.   I put some of this down to stress however also admit that a beer is one of the few vices I have so think it is fair to have at least some, hopefully balanced, drink based enjoyment and relaxation.   This, however, is something I want to address in 2022 although am not sure a dry January is possible.

Time for a book

My reading in 2021 continued with more than 12 books read across the year.   This has been a pattern now for a couple of years and I do wonder if now I am reading just to meet the target rather than for the enjoyment or to gain new insight or knowledge.   My reading has very much been non-fiction so this is something I need to consider.   I think maybe adding some fiction to my reading list, just to mix things up might be a good way forward.

Running man

If there was one area where I think I did reasonably well in 2021 it was in my running.   By the end of the year I had run over 750km during the year, way more than the 500km I predicted.   I think I am healthier for it.   I will admit my runs lacked much consistency although I did achieve consistency where it counted in simply getting out and running in the morning throughout most of 2021.   Going forward I may need to find some new running routes possibly or some other way to keep my running fresh and interesting rather than just a chore.

In need of a holiday

Again, the pandemic put paid to any breaks or holidays away so when I look back the year seems to have gone reasonably quickly.  I suspect this is largely due to everything becoming routine so lacking in any significant memorable moments in order to mark the passage of time throughout the year.   I suspect this further adds to my feeling of 2021 as a bad year for me as there is simply little to look back on where I am happy to have achieved something or have enjoyed a specific event, break or holiday.

Connecting and contributing

This year saw me start sharing some little 10min podcast episodes in addition to my usual blogging.   I had been considering doing this for some time but never got around to it until late on in 2021.  This is something I want to continue to produce and hopefully build on in future.     I also finally got back to a face to face conference, in the schools and academies show, where I presented an EdTech focussed session.   The other face to face conference I was due to be involved in, was sadly cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic.     

2021 also saw a lost family contact reach out to me.   I had held off reaching out myself for reasons which are my own, however for them to reach out allowed contact to be established and hopefully this is something which can be slowly developed and worked on in 20222.

Take notice

I kept a journal over the course of 2021 and this is something I may reflect on in more detail in future.   I think if there is anything consistent that can be taken from my notes it’s a sense of frustration and a lack of progress.   I note I even mentioned feeling depressed with things on a number of occasions.   I think this about typifies the year as I see it.

Mental Health

This links to the point above.   A lot of 2021 felt like simply going through the motions.   It was busy.  Things got done.  But did I draw much enjoyment from things?   I think generally I didn’t.   It was generally “run of the mill” processes.   I wonder though whether the ongoing news broadcasting regarding the pandemic and the restrictive measures being put in place, and generally depressing news played into this, making me feel more depressed than I maybe had done in previous, non-pandemic, years.    I also wonder whether a certain amount of isolation on my part, with a limited friends group unlike when I lived in the UAE and had a large friends group, also plays its part here, only added to by the isolating impact of the pandemic.    I will admit that I need to consider my own mental health;   My exercising is part of it, however generating positive memorable moments, having enjoyable activities planned, and much more also goes into establishing positive mental health.   It may just be that doing this, in the current context of the UK and the world may just be that little bit more difficult.

Overall

When I look back to January 2021 I mentioned that I suspected 2021 was “Likely to start of[sic] challenging”.   I think the reality is that it didn’t merely start off challenging but continued to be challenging throughout the year, ending on a month of very significant challenges.   Am I happy on reflection with 2021?   Sadly, I think the answer is no.   It seemed to pass quickly which I believe suggests it was devoid of many memorable, positive moments.   If I was trying to sum it up in a phrase it might be that 2021 “wasn’t anything to write home about”.   I also acknowledge I considered myself depressed at various points in the year and this might colour my reflection.   I will also admit there were some positives, its just that they were subsumed in the general negativity of the year in general.

2022 is a new year.   It’s an opportunity to start afresh.   So with that, I will shortly close the door on 2021 and hopefully move forward into 2022 with an aim to make the year a better one.

Happy new year to all when it arrives and may you all have a great year, stay safe and remain well.

EdTech Summit 2021

It was March 2020 and I was attending the JISC DigiFest conference in Birmingham.  Little did I know that this would be the last face to face conference I would attend for over 1 ½ years, and it would November 2021 before I would once again venture to Birmingham this time for the EdTech Summit and Schools and Academies Show.   Reflecting back, it was to a year and a half of significant challenges but also massive progress in how technology is used in schools.

My trip to Birmingham this time was to present a session on the role of IT leads and IT teams in schools in supporting the use of technology to enable, enhance and even transform teaching and learning.    It was also going to be a chance to catch up with staff from other schools face to face for the first time in quite some time.    Notable in the catch ups were a group of ANME members plus Dave Leonard, Abid Patel, Osi Ejiofor and Tony Sheppard among others.

As to the event itself, a couple of messages or themes came out for me in the various talks I attended:

Investment

This was mentioned in the ministerial opening speech at the start of the schools and academies show.    Additional funding for schools.    For me some of this clearly needs to go into investment in technology to ensure we are ready for a future event like the current pandemic, but also to equip our students for the future and to allow schools to make use of technology to enhance and even reimagine the learning experiences students receive.    And linked to this point is the need for sustainability such that any technology put into schools has the required investment in the longer term to ensure the training, support and eventual replacement of hardware/software is all planned.

Collaboration

The importance and power of collaboration within schools and also between schools and other educational establishments was mentioned by a number of individuals.    I suspect the pandemic has encouraged collaboration as people share their experiences, their successes and challenges, along with their resources online for others to benefit from.   This is something we need to actively encourage and support going forward.    The best training is just in time training, and the best just in time training results from 1000’s of educators and school staff sharing and collaborating through the medium of technology.

Agility

The pandemic proved that schools, which generally are slow to change, can be more agile and change quickly to adapted to changing situations.    The pandemic forced such change.   Going forward though we need to be better at change, we need to be better at accepting “good enough” and we need to be like industry and seek greater agility.

Conclusion

As always I suffered my usual travel mishap as is customary, this time being rushing between trains following a train delay, and then managing to get on the wrong train.   This is the usual pain but on reflection the pain was worth it.   I got the chance to catch up with other IT and EdTech professionals, discussing a variety of matters, I got the opportunity to share my thoughts with an audience and to discuss my thoughts with a number of individuals following the session and I got to have a look at a variety of product offerings from various IT vendors.    I also benefited from the act of presenting which forced me to carefully think through and structure my thoughts in relation to technology and teaching and learning.  

Roll on BETT 2022;   See you there!

IT Services: Week 1 of the new academic year

The first week of a new academic year is probably one of the busiest periods of the year for IT teams in schools and colleges across the UK and also the world.  Here we have seen a 10% increase in calls logged, when compared with last year and that excludes countless walk-ins and telephone calls where the resolution was quick and therefore never logged.   Comparing last week with the previous year average, last week is around twice the volume.    So why is it so busy?

Returning staff and students

The first week sees all your returning staff and students once again logging on and accessing school systems.   One of the challenges though is that it may have been 2 months ago or more that they last logged in.    This means there is always several forgotten passwords or queries about how to use a particular system or find a particular report.   For some reason printers and copiers in particular make frequent appearance on IT call logs at the start of term.

The need for Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) also throws some challenges in here, where staff have bought new phones, and where their old phone was setup for MFA.    This then requires support is provided to setup MFA on their new device.

System Changes

Although teaching staff may be on holiday over summer, a lot of the IT upgrade work occurs during this period.   This means that teaching staff may come back to slightly changes in the IT setup and processes.    You can never underestimate the impact even the slightest change will have on some users.    As such, the likely system changes conducted during summer contribute to a busy first week as staff need to adjust and build new habits.

And it isnt only schools which make changes; Some EdTech vendors will also take the opportunity to upgrade or update their platforms.  Again, this will cause some users difficulties leading to a “quick” call to IT.   Occasionally this can cause big issues where changes don’t go according to a vendors plan, resulting in service disruption.    Sadly, this is largely out of IT Services control however that won’t stop users directing their frustrations and annoyance towards the IT team.

New students and staff

I have already mentioned the challenge of returning users having forgotten how things work or how to do things, but then there are the new staff and students for whom the school’s setup, systems and processes are totally new.    Despite whatever training or support they have been provided, they are likely to need support; During their opening weeks they will likely need to learn so many new things, from school processes, staff names, their way around site, etc, and as such it won’t all stick, and where its an IT issue that doesn’t stick, it’s a likely call to the IT services or support team.

Last Minutes changes

We always hope things have been planned in advance, but each new academic year brings with it plans or ideas which were only agreed or decided upon recently just before the year begins, thereby requiring last minute actions.    This is often very frustrating, as despite some of these ideas and initiatives having value, the worst time from an IT point of view to make changes or try to implement new things in a hurry is the start of the new academic year when you are already under pressure. 

Conclusion

The start of the new academic year is always going to be busy.   I am not sure there is much we can do about this as most of the factors listed above are unavoidable.    I think the best we can do is to look to those areas which are avoidable and seek to do just that and avoid them.   We also need to carefully find ways to mitigate issues through providing JIT (Just-In-Time) training resources and directing users to these.   If you can empower users to solve their own issues as much as possible IT teams can then focus on the issues which need their support and where users cannot resolve themselves. Developing ways that teaching and support staff can share ideas, difficulties, etc, among themselves can be an important solution here.   We have an EdTech Mutual support team for example where staff can share questions or issues, with other staff then able to provide the solutions, workarounds, etc.   I will note this is also a good resource for IT teams as it gives insight into the issues and on occasions gives us solutions which we hadnt considered.    The need for prioritisation is also important, to focus on the jobs which have the biggest impact.  This requires users be understanding to the limited resources IT teams, no matter how big they are, will have.    

In conclusion, if I was to end with just one message it would be, be kind and considerate to your IT services and support teams at the start of the new academic year.    This is a very very busy time for them, much as it is for most school or college staff, however they may have also been busy throughout the summer.  

Well done to the IT people in schools and colleges around the world;  By the time you read this most of you will have survived the first week (and maybe the second) of yet another academic year!   Keep up the great work!

Technologies Past

Further to my last post I thought I would try and encapsulate the technologies which I have experienced, and which come to mind in relation to my time working in schools, in a graphic. The below is what I came up with:

Now I know I have missed some key technologies such as the BBC B however my experience of this was as a student rather than a teacher or someone working in schools, hence why I didnt include it. Given this I may expand this graphic in the future.

But for now, considering the late 1990s, the 2000s, 2010s and early 2020s, is there anything I have missed?

2020, the year with the pandemic

It’s been a year that I don’t think anyone will be forgetting in a hurry.   In my 26 years working in education, including my 4 years training, I have never experienced anything like it.  As such am hoping my review of 2020 might be something I find myself looking back on at some point in the future.   2020, the year with the pandemic.

The year started of normally with January including the usual BETT event that I briefly attended, plus an EdTech conversations event which I had the privilege to speak at.   I must admit I enjoyed the EdTech conversations event in particular, with my visit to BETT a little bit rushed plus, to be honest, I now find BETT to be similar year to year and lacking in any new ideas.   Obviously, my journey to London had its usual missteps and calamities as seem to regularly befall me when I travel by train.  This almost goes without saying.

In March I found myself in Birmingham speaking at the Digifest event.  This was an excellent event with the signs of the pandemic just starting to show in hand sanitising stations and the lack of the usual handshake welcomes at the conference.   Will admit my presentation was far from my best however overall, I found the event to be both useful and interesting.This is definitely an event I would like to revisit.

As we approached the half term, in school, we had to accelerate our training and support for staff in relation to using Microsoft Teams as it became likely that schools would be forced to close.   Teams had been identified as the key tool in continuing to support learning during lockdown, allowing resources to be shared but also supporting synchronous lessons.    Thankfully we had already started using Teams mainly in an administrative capacity for teaching and support departments, so we already had some training resources plus understanding as to how to use Teams.    For me personally, it made me glad that I had been pushing for moving to the cloud and to Office 365, as it put us in a position to quickly move to online teaching when the lockdown kicked in.   It does make me believe, in education, we need to be braver about our decision making and pursuing what we believe to be the right direction.   Too often decisions are overthought and overanalysed to the point that no action, and therefore no progress is made.   Yes, education is important, yes we want to avoid making the wrong decisions, but if 2020 has proven anything it has proven we cannot predict the future, so we therefore need to braver and avoid being paralysed or slow to progress, and focussing too much on predicting and planning in minute detail in an unpredictable world.   Only then can we provide students with the skills, the knowledge and the character traits needed for the future.

And in late March the lockdown did just that, kicking in, and forcing a move to online teaching and to remote working.   It was strange finding myself at home day in day out, working from my PC with the only social contact outside of the family being via Teams video calls.   This period highlighted that working from home was possible and even beneficial in some situations, however also highlighted that equally face to face interactions are beneficial and even required in other situations.   From a teaching point of view, I still believe face to face is the best way to deliver teaching and learning, however that this can be augmented and supported through the use of technology, online teaching and online learning.  Its about finding a balance.

The period from March to August was hard, as we ran with a reduced IT Services department, supporting teachers delivering online teaching largely from their own homes.    It was made harder by the lack of the social interaction which would normally occur in our office, where members of the team would support and encourage each other, and occasionally have a laugh.    Remote working didn’t quite provide for this and it made everything feel that much more difficult and draining.   Additionally, working at home without driving too and from work led to the distinction between being at home or at work, being eroded.   This led to work bleeding into home time, and also a difficulty for me in turning off in the evenings and on taking time for myself and for family. Will be honest and say I previously have always struggled with turning it off, however the pandemic and working from home only amplified this issue.

August was meant to see our long-awaited family trip to the US, something we had wanted to do for a large number of years and something we had finally booked to prevent us once again missing out.   Sadly, despite booking and making the plan concrete, Covid19 had other ideas and the trip never happened.   This was a big disappointment.

September saw the launch of the new academic year and getting students back on site but where there would be occasions where some students would be attending lessons online.   This was the birth of the “hybrid” lesson.     For me this was also a return to more regular teaching as I took on a couple of year 9 classes in addition to my lower 6 sessions.   September as the start of new academic year is often a very busy period but this year it was significantly busier and more challenging.  

During September I would receive an unexpected offer in relation to a new job role.   It would be weeks and weeks of exploring the options, of stress, of will we or wont we as the opportunity would have once again taken me and my family abroad.   The idea of a return to expat life was definitely appealing however the context of a global pandemic was far from ideal.   This was one of the most difficult decisions I feel I have had to make in recent years however having considered my family I eventually decided the option in hand was a great option however sadly presented itself at the wrong time.  It is interesting, when looking back to my pledges at the start of 2020, I mentioned seeking a new challenge and this would certainly have been it;  Sadly this therefore was the right opportunity but clearly at the wrong time.

September also saw me undertake a challenge to complete 100km of running within the month as part of an online group.   Must admit am really happy with myself for managing to complete this challenge as it meant running 5 or 6 days within each week.   This was way more in terms of health and fitness than I had achieved before so I am very proud to have been able to stick at and complete the target.  Sadly, I then let things slip in October and November however I again started to run in December and hope to build up once again into 2021. 

October saw me come down with a cough and temperature which instantly got me worried re: covid19.  Thankfully the NHS testing service was excellent and I quickly got a test and my results back, indicating a negative;   It was a common cold rather than the corona virus.   It still took it out of me and led to a couple of days off ill.   I suspect the stress of the job offer and the cold/wet mornings running throughout September all played their part in me coming down with a cold and my resultant lack of energy.

As we progressed into November and December I was involved in an esports project to try and launch an interschools competition among independent schools like ours.   Its all in its infancy at this point, with a small number of schools planning to partake in the initial pilot however am hoping that after a successful pilot in the spring term it may be possible to grow this project.   Esports is something I am passionate about as there are many opportunities out there for our students, plus this area is only going to grow in the coming years.

November also saw the introduction of a puppy to the family. This was another things which had been discussed for many years but for which I was reluctant. With everything that has happened I relented and Ziva joined the family initially a shy puppy before becoming the devil dog she now is.If it can be ripped to shreds, scratched, eaten, chewed, etc, then it has been, and all while maintain a cute, butter would melt in my mouth outward appearance. Am not sure if we are training the dog or she is training us.

Christmas has now came and went and as I am my son have often reflected, it didn’t feel very Christmasy this year.   I suspect this is due to the year as a whole lacking some of the normal markers of a year such as a holiday away or the clear distinction between working and being on holiday;   Its not very different when your working day involves being at home all day, in the same way as your holidays, with little options available for activities due to lockdown.

2020 for me was meant to be about balance or at least that what I decided when I wrote my pledges back in January.    Looking back 2020 has been anything but balanced.   Its been crazy, its been frantic and ever changing.  Its been some year, a year which looking back seems to have disappeared in a blur, its been the year with a pandemic in it.    I suspect things will be different as we move into 2021, with some changes for the better however others less so.    This is a year I don’t think I will be forgetting anytime soon.

2020, the one with the pandemic!

My 12 books for 2020, so far.

Its almost the end of July and I have already managed my annual target of reading 12 books, helped along by the lockdown and the resultant lack of other things to do, plus reduced need for travelling every day.

I thought I would share my list so far along with some comments on each book:

Compassionism by Kavitha Chahel

A book looking at “Helping Business Leaders Create engaged teams and happy people”.   An easy book to read but I will admit I don’t feel I took much from it.  It felt very superficial but this may just be me.   Not one I would recommend sadly.

 

The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle

“The secrets of highly successful groups”.   I took more from this book than from Compassionism plus found it mentioned concepts and theories I had an interest such as “Kaizen” which made it reasonably interesting to read.   I would however say there are better books available on organisational culture.

Start with why by Simon Sinek

“How great leaders inspire everyone to take action”.    There were lots of things to take away from this book including mention of Money vs. Value, the tendency to consider what is easily measurable as being important and also the need for trust as part of organisational culture.   It was very easy to draw parallels with schools and other educational organisations.   This is book I would definitely recommend.

Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

This one was a book I was re-reading after some time.    Quite a heavy book to read in places but overall an excellent book with some important concepts around the need for Emotional intelligence in the world we live in.    Given the pace of change, and pressures to meet targets and other performance measures, I think a focus on our emotional understanding is only becoming more important.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

I generally like Gladwells books so expected to like this.   I did.    A book looking at how our intuition and unconscious decision making can often steer us in the correct direction and how we can often confuse “information with understanding”.    I feel this book is a good balance alongside the likes of Factfulness which focus more on data and figures, on information, for decision making.   A strongly recommended read.

Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek

Another Sinek book for the year.   This book is similar to Start with Why however in my view focusses more on the individual whereas start with the why felt more from a team or organisational level.   I liked the concept of “Destructive Abundance” which appears to draw some parallels in Factfulness.   Could having more “stuff” lead to undervaluing what we have and/or seeking protect it in such as way that we isolate ourselves from others?    This is a book I would happily recommend.

The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt

This book also mentions abundance but as a “paradox of abundance” rather than the “destructive abundance” used by Sinek.   I found this book to be quite an interesting exploration of ancient wisdom and how it compares with modern science, including where they converge and diverge.   The main thing I took from the book was the importance of balance and how things are seldom A or B, but in fact are about a balance of A and B.

Reaching down the rabbit hole by Allan Ropper & B.D Burrell

A series of stories about people who have suffered serious brain injuries or illness impacting on the human brain, all written from the point of view of the doctor seeking to solve the puzzle of their illness and to cure them where possible.    This book wasn’t really what I expected in its content so although I read it fully I don’t feel I enjoyed it or took anything from it.    It may be a good book but didn’t really align with my reading interests so is not one I would recommend unless the subject content is something which interests you.

I’m worth more by Rob Moore

An easy to read book, but superficial as a result, a bit like Compasionism.    When I read books like this I feel they are a little like “self help” guides in that they put everything in very simple terms where things in this world are seldom simple.    I really like books that make me stop and challenge my views and assumptions which this book never did.   I would steer away from this one.

 

Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark

I really enjoyed the subject matter of this book, looking at Artificial Intelligence and how things might evolve beyond the human race, but with only the occasional nod to the Terminator films and the human race being exterminated by vicious automated systems.   This book opened my eyes to looking at the potential for AI and for the evolution of life, beyond the horror stories.   Now I have used the phrase “healthy paranoia” on a number of occasions in relation to my views on cyber security however this book introduced me to a new phrase in “mindful optimism” which I believe is the ideal phrase when looking a the potentially positive implications of technology and also of educational technology.

Factfulness by Hans Rosling

What is a lot of your thinking, which is largely intuitive, about the world we live in is wrong?   This book was very interesting in using data to prove that a lot of our thinking regarding the world isn’t supported by hard data and that if we look at the hard data we might be more inclined to be more positive, albeit there is still lots of room for improvement.   I very much enjoyed this book as it did challenge my thinking.  It was also a good book to pair with Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink which at the issue the other way, suggesting instinct is more useful than we give it credit.    This is a book I would strongly recommend.

Enlightenment No by Steven Pinker

This book is similar in topic and coverage to Factfulness, so it was good reading Factfulness and then progressing on this.   I found lots to take away from the book, although found it a little heavier reading, especially in some of the later chapters, when compared with Factfulness.   I liked the opening discussion of entropy in relation to the world, and how energy has to be expended to create order out of natural chaos.   I also liked the discussion of bias.   “When one’s nose is inches away from the news optimism can seen naïve”, hinted to the availability heuristic and how reporting of disasters, terrorism, etc via the news can colour our view as to the world we live in.    This is definitely a worthwhile book to read, however if I was to choose I would pick Factfulness rather than this, just for being marginally more accessible and easy to read.

 

Recommendations

So, if I had to recommend three books from the above, they would be:

  • Blink
  • Life 3.0
  • Factfulness

This provides some discussion of the distant future and AI, via Life 3.0, plus two differing views on the current world and whether to take a numbers based, or intuition based approach.

 

 

 

Two weeks of remote working

Its now been 2 weeks of working from home so I thought I would share how I am getting on.

For some time I have discussed with my IT team about making us of opportunity to work from home more often however few have taken me up on this, and personally I haven’t taken up my own offer very often either.    I found myself wondering why would team members come in to work, travel to and from work, when they could actually sit in the comfort of their own homes and work from there?

The last two weeks have given me some answers to the above question with two factors in particularly sticking out.

  1. Work has an ebb and flow about it, be that the specific meetings, the movement of students between lessons or the school bells. There are also the longer term ebbs and flows and sports events on Wednesdays, weekly assembly and head of department meetings on Mondays.   There is an inherent structure in these ebbs and flows.   Now I am working at home I am finding it difficult to keep track of where I am within each day and also to keep track of where I am in the week.   The last two weeks have disappeared plus I have often found myself wondering, “what day is it?”.    I suppose the answer to this challenge is to build a new structure at home, however I don’t think this is as easy as it sounds given the previous structure for me personally was built up over 20 years working in schools and colleges.
  2. Humans are social animals. We want to be around other people and to interact whether this is formally in meetings or informally discussing the football results in the morning or as you pass someone’s desk.   Now video conferencing helps in allowing us to communicate but it simply isn’t the same as real life face to face contact.  It also needs to be scheduled whereas our normal day to day interactions include many incidental conversations as you walk to the staff room or to a meeting.    These meetings and discussions were never planned but their existence added to the rich colour and uniqueness of each working day.   Working from home doesn’t quite have this same social dynamism.   I am not sure how we might address this issue, and I think randomly video calling staff across school might be a little strange or even creepy.

Now it may be that as more time passes and I become more used to working from home that I miss the issues above less and less.   Or maybe I will find solutions to allow me to address these challenges while still working remotely.

Would be interested in how everyone else is finding this work from home experience?

 

Human behaviour: some thoughts

I haven’t shared a journal style blog in a while and what with the way things are I thought now might be a good time to get some thoughts down on paper (or screen!).   Its day two for me of working from home [or at least it was when I wrote this], having been in work all last week but then developing a cough and temperature over the weekend leading to me taking the decision to stay at home.    This decision was far from simple, or at least felt much less simple than it should have been.    My thinking was that I had a little bit of a cough but it most likely was from my run in the cold earlier in the week.    I was looking to justify to myself how it would still be acceptable for me to go into work.   I didn’t like the thought of leaving my team to it, to them working in the office at my request on Monday but without me being there.   This felt like a betrayal of my team and therefore I needed to find a reason or justification which would make attending work acceptable.  My initial thinking paid little consideration to the potential impact I might have had going into work or to the signal I would be providing the team, showing them that it was ok to behave heroically and attend work in spite of illness, personal wellbeing and the potential risk to others.

The issue of risk to others is one that particularly interests me and possible the issue which helped me eventually make the correct decision to remain at home.    In thinking about this risk, the concept of near-misses and remote-misses in relation to the World War II bombing came to mind.    Heading into World War II psychologists were worried about the significant impact on mental health which widespread bombing of London would have.   There were fears that society would collapse.   The reality was far from this, as people came together and developed a community spirit and resilience, almost the opposite behaviour as to what was expected.   As psychologists sought to understand what happened they came upon the concept of near and remote misses.    A near miss meant a person physically felt a bomb go off and saw the aftermath in the dead, including friends and relatives.   These people suffered psychologically and often physically from bombings.   Remote misses referred to those people who heard the bombs fall and saw the damage to building but who did not experience any direct loss or see injuries and deaths first-hand.   The vast majority of Londoners fell into the Remote Miss category.   For these people, they were spared and may have seen themselves as lucky, and with each subsequent bombing they survived they felt more and more lucky, and even invincible, each subsequent bombing reinforced their belief that bombs didn’t impact on them.   It is through these people that the community spirit and resilience built despite all the death and destruction across London during the bombing.   Taking this idea and applying it to the Corona virus we have near misses in those who either contracted the virus or have loved ones who have contracted it, and even died from it, but we also have the remote misses in those who haven’t contracted the virus, or had mild symptoms or even who are infected but asymptomatic but who were aware through the news, social media, etc.   The remote misses, like in London, significantly outnumber the near misses and through this and the sense of invulnerability or “it won’t happen to me” which may have developed, may have been behaving counter to the guidance being offered by the government.   As such “social distancing” wasn’t being adhered to as it wasn’t important, or at least wasn’t perceived to be important.   To be clear, the concept of remote misses helps to explain behaviour but it doesn’t excuse it.  For me, in understanding behaviour and my own thinking, I was better able to question it and arrive at what I consider the “right” decision.

The other factor which eventually led me to the decision to stay away from school was the potential that my own behaviour might model for others my expectations.    If I would consider going into work more important than my own health and the potential risk to colleagues, then this communicates to others what I consider important and therefore what I expect of them.   Even if I verbalise the importance of everyone looking after their own health first, if I had gone to work this would have provided an indicator counter to what I had spoken.    I realised I needed to be conscious of the non-verbal cue my attendance, complete with a cough, would send.

Social media posts have been quick to condemn those who didn’t adhere to social distancing guidance however I am not sure such condemnation serves much purpose.   Now to be clear I am not condoning those flaunting government advice however I do think it is important to at least to try to gain some understanding as to how certain behaviours occurred.    Online for those occupying the moral high ground, their decision-making processes look simple and flawless.   These people knew what was right and acted accordingly.   Or at least that’s what social media would have us believe.    The reality I suspect is not so simple or at least for me it isn’t, as the decision to not go into work with what I considered a minor cough, a decision with a hopefully obvious “right” behaviour, caused me to stop and think and to wrestle with my own thoughts.

As it was, I stayed home, doing what was the right thing.   Hopefully the next time a similar dilemma arises I will also do the right thing, however for now I am more conscious of how easy it is for us as human beings to consider, to rationalise and justify, but despite this still manage to arrive at the wrong answer.

 

You can read a little about direct hits, near misses and remote misses here.