Author: Gary Henderson

Gary Henderson is currently the Director of IT in an Independent school in the UK.Prior to this he worked as the Head of Learning Technologies working with public and private schools across the Middle East.This includes leading the planning and development of IT within a number of new schools opening in the UAE.As a trained teacher with over 15 years working in education his experience includes UK state secondary schools, further education and higher education, as well as experience of various international schools teaching various curricula. This has led him to present at a number of educational conferences in the UK and Middle East.

A smashing exit: Things not to do in the Middle East.

Myself, my wife and our two sons spent the first two months calling the Hilton home.   It was also the companies head office for when staff weren’t working in schools, for meetings and for all administration activities.

From what I can remember it must have been a weekend when the phone rang and we were informed that we were finally relocating to our company accommodation, accommodation that was to turn out to be our home for the next three years.    The problem with the phone call however was the notice being provided.    We were aware that the accommodation was becoming available soon however we had no details as to when “soon” actually was and therefore everything continued had normal.  The Hilton had continued to be home.

The phone call changed all that as we were pleasantly informed that our apartment was ready and that we should check out of the hotel.    We were to check out by noon.    The issue being that the phone call came at around 10am giving only two hours to get ready to relocate.

Now you wouldn’t think you would have much to relocate from a hotel room however it is amazing what you pick up after two months living in a hotel especially where two children are involved.    And so that morning we set about the manic task of gathering all our belongings from the two hotel rooms we inhabited ready to move.

It was slightly before noon when the knock at the door came as the concierge made himself available to assist in the relocation, at least to the foyer of the hotel if not beyond.    It was like a reverse game of Jenga loading up his trolley when the various bags and items we had, carefully balancing each new item in the hope it wouldn’t fall off the trolley and break.    Upon getting almost everything on the trolley, we picked up the remaining items and made our way to the elevator, where we then travelled down to the foyer.   It was as we crossed the middle of the hotel foyer that the Jenga tower failed.   The one bag we didn’t want to fall to the floor, did just that and fell to the floor with a smash.

And there we were stood in the middle of the Hilton as a smashed bottle of vodka spread its contents across the floor.   Panic does not do justice for the way I felt.    I suspect the concierge may also have felt panic, albeit paired with a quicker reaction time.   Before I knew anything about it he has started to mop up the liquid and glass with the first thing that came to hand, my wife’s Chinese dragon embroidered bath robe.

Thankfully no one made comment as to what had happened.   I am not sure if that was due to the concierges quick actions or due to the busy or quiet foyer;  I can’t remember which it was.   The moral of the story is make sure you decide to carry the alcohol personally as opposed to relying on someone else when moving through the foyer in a middle eastern country.

Books, books and more books

All the way back in December 2015, and at this point it seems both a long time ago and only yesterday, I set myself a target of reading a book per month.     The reason for the target was the feeling that I just wasn’t reading enough.   Prior to this the most reading I had done had been during the period studying for my Masters degree, subsequent to which my reading all but stopped.   Generally I think I have progressed quite well in working towards this target, and I have certainly made progress on my reading habits prior to 2016.

So far this year my reading has included:

  • Black Box Thinking, Matthew Syed, 2015
  • The Dark Net, Jamie Bartlett, 2014
  • The Glass Cage, Nichola Carr, 2015
  • Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, 2011
  • The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb, 2007
  • Drive, Daniel Pink, 2009
  • The Invisible Gorilla, 2010
  • Multipliers, Liz Wiseman, 2010
  • How We Learn, Benedict Carey, 2014
  • Resilience, Andrew Zolli & Ann Marie Healy, 2012
  • The Element, Ken Robinson, 2009
  • Adapt, Tim Harford, 2011

And my current book Incognito by David Eagleman (2011)

At this point, in the middle of November I have achieved the target I set myself however the crucial factor is not in meeting the target but in improving from where I was just over a year ago and also in learning from the books I have read.

I found the majority of the books read to be interesting to various degrees and have often started a new book based on its mention within a book I have read.     I feel I have a broader set of ideas and understanding than I may have prior to setting and embarking on this particular new years resolution.

At this point it may seem that this piece is very much about me congratulating myself for the progress made and the books read however this is far from the case.   In reading I have realised how much more there is to know, how many more perspectives there are to every situation, event or concept, how much more I have to read.    Reading has been enjoyable and but also enriching.

Using the idea of Umberto Eco’s Anti-library as mentioned by Nassim Taleb in the Black Swan, I have realised that my bookshelf with its books complete with post-it note annotations is not important.   What matters is the understanding that there is so much more to read; the list of the books I am yet to read.    With every new book I read the list of books yet to read does not decrease, but increases as I add new books to it based on my current reading.  I open up new avenues to explore with each book read.

And with that I will go back to reading Incognito.   I have already added Herd by Mark Earls, Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely and Nudge by Cass Sunstein to the not yet book list.   Feel free to  share your recommendations.

 

First days, and broken toes

The following a second posting resulting from some of the events of my time working out in the UAE.   It is not the normal fare for this blog however I thought I would share:

 

Having arrived as a family in Abu Dhabi in the early hours of the morning, the first thing which we had to deal with was the two hour bus ride to our eventual home in Al Ain.     The four of us, being myself, my wife and our two children, were joined by a number of other families all coming to work with the same company as we boarded a bus, and I hasten to point out that it was a bus, and not a coach.

The conclusion to this journey was our arrival at what was to be our home for almost the next two months.    The Hilton hotel in Al Ain.    Checking in we met with our first significant problem of the trip being that only a double room had been booked for us however as I mentioned a moment ago we were four individuals.    This meant that a single hotel bedroom was a little on the small side.   Sadly given we had arrived on the weekend meant that there was no-one available from the company I had came to work with, who could resolve this issue with the hotel.

This eventually meant that we, and all of our luggage, were helped up to a single bedroom which if memory serves me correctly was on the fourth floor of the hotel.    The bell boy helped us get the luggage into the room as we supervised the children.   Limited in space he made the inappropriate decision to place one of the suitcases on a table.

It wasn’t long before, given the limited space, the table was bumped and the suitcase came crashing down, landing on my wife’s foot.    I can remember thinking to myself, “what a great start this is, only been in the country for less than 24hours and we already have an injury!”

Now at first we didn’t take the injury to be that serious, or at least I didn’t take it to be that serious.     As a result I thought walking it off would be the best course of action, thereby setting us all off in a mission to walk to the local mall.   Now sadly I had misjudged this as the local mall was not as local as I had thought, plus there was the added issue of the change in temperature as only hours earlier we had been in the winter of the UK whereas now we were in the winter of the Middle East, some 15 to 20 degrees warmer.   All of this did nothing to help the now throbbing foot injury which was visibly causing my wife to limp and grimace in pain.

Upon finally getting back to the hotel it was clear that medical attention was required however we knew little of our options in this regards.    As such we spoke to the Hiltons manager who was all to obliging although thinking back this may have been the result of concerns he held with regards potential liability or injury claims.    He pointed us in the direction of a local hospital which we duly got a taxi to transport us to.

Arriving at the hospital our next hurdle was the fact that hospitals here in the UAE expected you to have medical insurance from local companies.    The travel insurance we had did not appear to be something they had to deal with very often and as such the easiest option was to pay “privately” meaning that each doctor we say and each X-Ray, etc had to be independently paid for.   Thankfully at this point I had a reasonable level of cash with me given we had no long arrived in the UAE so this did not pose much of a problem.    Some hours later the diagnosis was provided, that my wife had a broken small toe.

Now the key messages from this are to make sure you know about accessing medical services, etc when going abroad; something I didn’t do.  The second message is to take injuries which occur to your wife seriously no matter how minor you think they are, or otherwise you might still be living to regret it as I do, some seven years later!      And thirdly, “walking it off” is never a good idea either!!

Photo: “Film X-ray Both Foot ( Front View )” by stockdevil from freedigitalphotos.net

Social Media, parents and our kids

In the last week I have read two separate articles with regards the use of Facebook by parents and the impact on their children.   The first of the two posts was posted on BBC News entitled “Should children ban their children from Social Media?” while the second was in The Guardian entitled “I was so embarrassed I cried: do parents share too much online?”.   I found the discussion an interesting one and hence this post.

My use of social media for sharing personal info is very limited.  I post very occasionally on Facebook, generally using it to send birthday wishes, etc. as opposed to posting my own content.    I use twitter heavily however for professional as opposed to personal purposes although I will admit that the line between these blurs; Posting about my morning walk to work I was considering the teacher wellbeing side of professional life however these posts could easily by categorised as providing some insight into my personal life.    I have almost never posted pictures of my two children as they have grown up so hopefully they will never have cause to be embarrassed by something that I have posted in relation to them.    That said they may still be embarrassed by something I have posted at some point in time, albeit not directly related to them but embarrassing in that it was posted by their dad.

So how can we mitigate against this potential embarrassment.   The easy however impractical solution is to stop posting.   If I don’t post anything then there isn’t anything to be embarrassed about.   Following this thought process, I can think of a few occasions when I have made a comment or said something embarrassing; does that mean I should stop talking?   I am sure there have been a few occasions where my kids wish I would.   The other problem with this approach to reducing embarrassment is simply that Facebook and social media are now a part of our lives.    Updating friends and relatives as to events and milestones is now more common than the old approach of taking a photo, having it developed and then putting it in a photo album or in a shoebox in the cupboard.   Social media makes the sharing easy and convenient to do and in doing so it adds to the richness of life.   Having moved back to the UK after a number of years in the UAE I am still able to keep up with the events and friends despite them being an eight hour flight away.   They still form a part of my life.

This is where things start to become a little more complex as the postings are about my life and therefore in the case of most parents include milestones and events with our children.    Milestones such as starting secondary school, walking for the first time, holidays with family and many other memories are eternalised through Facebook for others to see both when they happen but also many years into the unpredictable future.    It is in this future space that our children will start to develop their own online identify and social media profile.    This profile, through our posting as parents, will however have already started being created long before our children are able to make informed decisions with regards who they are within the digital space we now live in.    We as parents will have started to shape our children’s digital identify.    I acknowledge as parents we shape our children and therefore shaping their digital identify may seem nothing more than an extension of the parental role however I would suggest digital identify is a little different.   We shape our children’s attitude, outlook, beliefs, etc. however these can change over time.    In our digital footprint there is an element of permanence as once something is posted to the internet it may be impossible to remove.   Also there is the possibility for outsiders such as potential employers to view postings without access to the context within which the posting was made.

I would suggest one of the issues here is that when Facebook first became a hit there was little long term consideration for the implications of posting our lives online.    Young adults flocked to use Facebook without any guidance as to the later implications.   Consider the advice with regards not posting about your home address and holiday plans as a burglar could use this in targeting your empty home; this guidance didn’t make an appearance until after Facebook postings had been allegedly associated with a few robberies and the implications had been identified.    Fast forward a few years and those young users now have families with children complete with a digital record of their children’s early years thanks to Facebook.   Today I would say the implications of posting online are a little bit better known due to very public hacking incidents, cyber crime and celebrity scandals relating to social media use or the use of email in the case of certain presidential candidate.    We are a little more aware than we were.    We still have a long way to go in my opinion plus this is little use to the children of parents who posted every detail of their growing up, warts and all.

So what can we do?   Privacy settings are one part of the action we can take in making sure that only those people we really want to have access to our personal postings, and the postings relating to our children, have access.    Restraint is another action.   Rather than posting we need to consider how the posting might impact our children in future and if in doubt avoid posting.    We also need to open up communication with our children so they know what has and is being shared about them.    If you shared a potentially embarrassing photo of your child when they were younger do they know the photo exists and also which social media sites it has been shared on?    For truly embarrassing photos we can delete them although as with everything on the internet we must do so with the knowledge that everything posted cannot being removed as easily.    Any user could have copied a posting or taken a screenshot ready to repost so once it is out there it may not be possible to undo.    Another thing we need to do, which is something already well underway, is making sure our children are fully aware of the implications of social media.    When they go on to have their own children it would be reassuring to know that we have learned for any mistaken we may have made, and that they will not readily repeat them.

Social media is here to stay, a part of modern life, so the key is ensuring all using it understand the implications both on ourselves but also on the others who might be the subject of our posts including our children, or even just innocent bystanders to a poorly framed photo.    And on that note I will stick to limited personal use of social media, for now at least.

Reflections: doing what matters?

Have finally got around to sitting down to do a short review the past month, or in fact the past two months given I never actually managed to get around to reviewing September.

Firstly I would say that it is amazing how quickly the last two months have flown by.   Now I suspect this is very much due to the busy nature of the start of the new academic year.   This has clearly played a part in the fact I never got around to posting a reflection on September.

On a personal level October has been very important to me as it includes my eldest sons 21st birthday party.   I had missed his 18th as he had been in the UK while I was still living and working in the middle east and unable to get back for it.   As such it was important for me to take time out over the half term to be with him for his 21st and also to take in some football matches in the couple of days which followed the party.   I very much enjoyed actually sitting with him and watching a couple of games over a pint down the local pub, albeit the score of one particular game was not exactly in my favour.

The flip side to the above is that I never contributed to the half term #teacher5aday sketch as I had planned to.    I also contributed little in the way towards twitter over the period and my blog entries were a struggle.

I feel a tinge of regret in how I have let my contributions slide over the last month however it also worries me that I feel this way.   Surely something as important as a milestone in my sons life should take precedence over twitter and blog contributions?     This all makes me consider the issue of the limited amount of time we have available to us on a day, week, month or year and how I manage this finite resource.    Am I focusing on getting as many things done as possible or I am focussing on what is important?    The fact I feel that time has flown over the last two months suggests I have been busy however in being busy have I truly allowed my time to stop and think, to review and ensure that I am doing the right things, the important thing.  Come to that, for me, what actually is important?   Also if I stop doing some things due to them being of lesser importance, is it possible that by my narrowing of focus I may miss out on opportunities which only arise as a result of a broader focus?

I think this is something I need to reflect on in much more detail possibly including reviewing Coveys Seven Habits and First Things First books.     I may share some of my thoughts over the coming weeks but for now I am going to consider the X-Factor and a game of Warhammer with my youngest son to be what matters.

Smartphones in the class

There have been lots of discussions about the pros and cons of using technology in lessons each looking at the issue for a different perspective.   Some people are positive about how technology can benefit students and their learning while others cite detrimental impact to student writing ability or concentration.

A recent post in the TES presented the issue of how smart phones in particular were contributing to sexual harassment incidents in schools.   You can read the full post here.   Within the post the general secretary of the ATL explains that she feels that in too many places, sexual harassment has become acceptable.   The author of the post goes on to raise how sexual harassment has always existed however it is the impact of technology and social media which has greatly increased the scale of the problem.

I fully agree with the authors comments with regards the importance of staffs well being and dignity however I disagree with the suggestion that the solution is for schools to “insist that pupils’ phones be left at the door”.      This would remove many learning opportunities which arise where students have access to a mobile device in lessons.   In addition by removing the phone it removes the opportunity for students to learn about what is right and appropriate when it comes to using mobile devices including the cameras which they come with.    Where students previously might have drawn inappropriate sketches of their teacher, did we ban the pencil?

I also disagree with the authors comment regarding how “schools cannot cure the ills of society”.    Schools are part of society and cannot operate independently of it.     Therefore I feel we as educators have a responsibility to make sure students learn about the appropriate use of technology, the risks and challenges so that they are equipped to be better members of society.    Stopping student smart phones at the school doors either prevents or at least limits the potential for this learning.   Students will still have smart phones so if they are inclined to take inappropriate photos they are still likely to do it, albeit being more creative about how they sneak their smart phone into class.     As such we have gained little but lost the opportunity to have a discussion with pupils about how they should use their smart phones in class, in school and in society as a whole.

We need to take care in where we arrive at decisions to try and block or ban certain technologies.    Technology is now pervasive throughout society.    The issue is whether technology is put to good or ill, and working with students so that they learn to be respectful and responsible users of the power put in their hands through technology.

 

 

 

 

Would we ban the pencil had it been a sketch.

Was going to tweet this however decided not as 140char not enough to fully elaborate on my thoughts on this.

Airports and runaway children

I thought I would post something a little different today.   Around 2 years ago I started documenting some of my experiences from my UAE adventure as I like to refer to it, working as an educator in the UAE and other middle east countries for around 7 years.   This post is one of those experiences:

It was the winter of 2009 or in actually fact January the first when I made my way back from visiting my parents in Glasgow, back to my home in Preston, before boarding a plane at Manchester airport bound for the UAE.    My wife, myself and our two sons had packed up some of our house and sent it via sea to the UAE some weeks earlier, other belonging were sold, while the final pieces of furniture were transported by myself in a transit van for storage at my parents house for the eighteen months we would be away.    Speaking to my father just recently, my belongings still occupy the garage and at least one bedroom at my parents home some seven years after we left.   So much for eighteen months!

Having traveled back from Scotland early on the first of January, as a family we stopped off and had something to eat before taking the rented car, ourselves and our luggage to Manchester airport.   We arrived at the airport in the early afternoon well ahead of our flight, wanting to make sure that everything went as planned.    It was a good thing we had done so.

Generally the process of checking in went without incident and we quickly found ourselves going through airport security on the way to the departure lounge.   We had Andrew, who was two year old, out of his push chair standing beside us in order to allow the push chair to be collapsed ready to be fed through the metal detector.   The queue at the time was quite long as everyone looked to board the Abu Dhabi borne flight which clearly was full, including significant numbers of people going to work for the same company I was destined to work for although at the time I was unaware of this.   Guiding the queue was the usual snaking tape barrier which crisscrossed the room with the patient passengers slowly meandering towards the security stations.   We slowly made our way forward, every step bringing us closer to our UAE adventure.   Reflecting I am not sure whether I was nervous or excited, or maybe even a little scared.

As we reached the front of the queue the security officer on duty asked us to take off belts and other metal items, place them in a container and then feed this through the metal detector.    The now folded push chair also had to be fed through the metal detector.   As the push chair was placed on the conveyor belt leading to the metal detector the problems began.   Andrew became a little upset as his push chair disappeared into the scanning device.

“Mine!…Mine!…..” he shouted.

“Its ok….You’ll get it back in a minute” I soothed in the hope that he would calm down before everyone in the queue had our undivided attention.      It was at this point the security officer motioned towards Andrew who stood clinging on to me.    The officer instructed me that Andrews big warm coat would need to go through the metal detector.    I dutifully complied and unzipped Andrews coat and again he became upset.

“Mine!…Mine!…..” he shouted.

I helped his left arm out of his coat and went to repeat the task with his other arm at which point Andrew saw his chance and with one swift movement he spun around, spinning out of his open coat and breaking into a sprint, or maybe a fast toddle may be more accurate given he was only two at the time.

I at this point found myself standing in front of a security station and associated security officer holding a now empty child’s winter coat while its previous occupant made for the entrance and the check in area which we had passed through some time earlier.    After overcoming the initial shock of things I made off in hot pursuit although the escaping child standing at just over 1 foot in height, at best had a distinct advantage……A snaking tape barrier set at around two foot.   As such I set off in pursuit forced to take the long way around while my son took the much more direct route.    Onlookers were powerless, either due to shock, disbelief or more commonly due to uncontrollable laughter, as my son made his way to the exit.

Thankfully I was able to catch up with him and convince him to return to the security station, and eventually through the security station where he was happily met once more by his winter jacket and push chair.    Overall the plane journey which followed went off with minimal drama or fuss possibly due to Andrews few moments of exertion having made a break for it.    Some eight hours later we arrived in Abu Dhabi in the UAE and our planned eighteen month adventure began and some almost seven years later it still hadn’t ended!

Thoughts on social media

I have seen lots of excellent infographics with regards why teachers should make use of social media such as twitter.   This has got me thinking about the question of what we use social media for.

We use it to get access to new ideas, resources and perspectives.   This is the very much about access to and consumption of content.    Social media provides access to a wealth of individuals and the content which they are sharing via social media sites such as twitter, pinterest, personal blogs, etc.

We use social media to curate content of linked topic areas or subjects.   Using sites such as Storify and Paper.Li we can gather content together and re-share with others.    This is particularly useful where a twitter chat or other event has occurred and we want to create a record of the various comments which were made via social media as part of the chat or event.   This is the start of producing our own content, albeit this new content being nothing more than a collection of content produced by others.

We use social media to share our ideas.   This is very much about producing our own original content and sharing with others.

The above three activities were those that came first to my mind however I have recently been also considering a fourth area, being how we engage with others content, the content which we have read.   Through social media we can comment in shortened form via twitter, however we can also comment in a longer more detailed format via blogs, linking back to the blogs of others to which we are referring.

For me social media now occupies a key place in my work and in my ongoing professional learning.    The challenges in hand are very much about getting more of the teachers who currently consume content, to begin contributing content so that the content available becomes more representative of the teachers working in schools all over the world.    The other main challenge is encouraging those teachers who haven’t engaged with social media at all, who therefore are missing out on a wealth of ideas and resources.

I look forward sharing with you!

Sat Nav: Simply a tool or an extension of our being?

I should know better after reading The Glass Cage (N.Carr, 2014) however it would appear that I have learnt little. The other morning took me to Bristol for a seminar. I had been to Bristol before so roughly knew the way there although did not know the area around where I was going plus didn’t know where I was going to park. That said I still managed to get to my destination albeit a little late due to traffic. The outward journey was not the one which caused me issue, this was the inward journey.
Having returned to my car after the seminar I dutifully turned on my Sat Nav and set the destination as the school following the turn by turn directions of the soothing voice emanating from the little black device sat on the passenger seat (note to self: I really should get a proper mounting bracket for the Sat Nav).   After a good 20 minutes I came notice that the return route was steeply uphill and that the road was not generally wide enough for two vehicles to pass. This was certainly not the same route I had gone to Bristol on. I became a little worried at this point yet as I crossed more major roads I still ceded to the Sat Nav voice and continued following its direction as opposed to following sign posts that pointed in other directions.
I realized I had become a passenger in own car even although I was the one doing the steering. The outcome was the same, in that I reached my destination, however the tool, my Sat Nav, had changed both the process and the experience. I did not experience the drive home as the driver of my car, in the same way as I did the outward journey, taking in my surroundings, the road layouts, the signs and the millstones or other location markers. I experienced it as a passenger. I followed instructions from the little voice from the seat beside me. I relinquished responsibility and control to the technology.
The question is, was the purpose of my journey just to get to a given location or was the journey itself important?
This is a question we need to constantly ask in relation to technology use. How does the technology change the process, the experience and even us as users? As Nicholas Carr puts it in The Glass Cage, we suffer from a substitution bias in that we just belief Sat Nav for example is just a substitution for a paper map however this is not the case. If I had have been navigating via a map I would have never have relinquished responsibility to a piece of paper not matter how nice it looked. I wouldn’t have anyone to blame but myself so I would be motivated to avoid a recurrence through greater preparation or a test run to my destination, as opposed to being able to distance myself from fault by locating blame within a small black box. I would also have learned from the experience in terms of my ability to navigate the route in future, something that has certainly not happened during my return leg from Bristol.
As I reflect I realize that maybe my description of technology as a “tool” for teachers to use may under present the impact of technology or even of tools. Again, as Mr Carr describes, a tool is an extension of ourselves as human beings and in being an extension it changes us as individuals, the processes and tasks we undertake and our experience of these activities. Maybe this is a subject which all educators should consider and maybe even something we should discuss with our students.

eMail, not another email!!

We all love to use email as it allows for such easy communication.   I can communicate information to everyone in the school, or to a specific department or to an individual staff member at the touch of the Send button.   I can have a discussion with another member of staff without having to seek them out across campus and allowing for their timetable.   I can get a thought or question which arises in my mind down and fire it off for comment and the thoughts of others independent of time and the availability of the people I invite to comment.

Isnt email wonderful?

Email is convenient but with convenience comes a problem.   It is easy to send an email and consider the information communicated however it would be fairer to consider the information as just “sent”.    I tracked a recent global i sent including a newsletter to see how many people clicked the link within the email.   It turned out that only around 10% of people to which the email was sent actually went on to follow the link.    On a similar but more important email this number increased to around 20% however that still represents a minority response.

It is also convenient to send emails at all times including weekends and evenings however does this come with the expectation that the person will read and action at midnight on a Friday?    Would we pick up the phone in the absence of email at midnight on a Friday to convey the same information?

Convenience also steps in with regards who we send our emails to.   We wouldn’t stand up and announce some information at school briefing or via the PA system however due to the convenience of distribution groups we feel it is acceptable to send via email to everyone.   We also adopt a just in case mentality so rather than sending to the department and a couple of other users we might send to the whole school as it may be useful to everyone.

Email is also a one way communication system however it is often treated as two way in the same way as a phone call.   The difference is that in a phone call you can stop someone mid way and ask for clarification.   You can question what a person means.   In an email the person reading the email has to interpret the content with no additional guidance from the sender.  Even if they send an email back to ask for clarification the originator of the message has to interpret the clarification request.   As such email chains are so very open to misunderstanding and in some occasions to fiery exchanges.   I have noted a number of instances in email table tennis during my career and am ashamed to admit that I have on a small number of occasions been party to the exchanges.

Email like most technologies has its advantages however we live in a world of balance and therefore there are also some drawbacks.  Users need to be aware of these drawbacks and conscious of their use of the technology and its implications.

My main tips for email would be:

  • Consider is email correct:  Consider what you want to communicate and if there will be any need for discussion.  If discussion is needed then maybe its time to pick up the phone or arrange a meeting.
  • Consider email info as sent but not communicated:   Realize that not every email is actually read and therefore if the info is critical some sort of checking or follow up will be required.
  • Use delayed send:   In outlook you can set when you want an email to be sent at some point in the future so you can write your email now or at midnight however schedule it to send on Monday morning at a more reasonable hour.
  • Consider who you need to send to:  Avoid using the whole school global distribution group unless it is an emergency.   Try to send to the smallest group possible rather than using the scatter gun approach, and create your own groups in Outlook in order to help you manage this.

I don’t see email going anywhere however we need to manage its use better.   To do this it is about every individual thinking more about the cost of their convenience.