Teraknor

Yesterday, I explored how disruption is my thing - when something isn't right or needs fixing I am not a go get permission kinda person. More a go fix or tell it to 'eff off' kinda guy. I appreciate that it does not always go down well - however, my motivations are (I like to believe) based on reasoned intentions. So ... I have disrupted myself. Having set in motion a mass  free CCNA1 instructor training  programme based on a modest funding resource. I predicted 100 sign-ons, knew I would get around 200 and today I have over 700!!! While the Open University is used to scalable delivery - this is by far the largest accomplishment in this domain to date. Most instructor training academies will reach around 20 in one go - this is also good, however, maybe we have underestimated the opportunity. There are naysayers concerned that we are stealing business - while on paper, this is true. They would have never seen sight nor sound of any of these participants as many cost m...

Disruption is my thing - when something isn't right or needs fixing I am not a go get permission kinda person. More a go fix or tell it to 'eff off' kinda guy. I appreciate that it does not always go down well - however, my motivations are (I like to believe) based on reasoned intentions. So ... I have disrupted myself. I set in motion an mass free CCNA1 instructor training programme based on a modest funding resource. I predicted 100 sign-ons, knew I would get around 200 and today I have 500. Yes, 500!!! - the three exclamations are required. Now off to rethink our delivery model, drink some coffee and mutter away.

Occasionally I pause to ponder, stop, think and consider what we are doing and the impact it has. Taking the time to consider the extent of the Open University Cisco academy support community we have created - it struck me that: We have only been operational for less than three years. At which time we had zero academies. The original plan was to offer a space for a couple of broken ASC's. Me thinks that this has quickly been overtaken by opportunity and ideas. Around 12 were acquired during the assimilation. We cut the price and ensured that it was at the lowest, by moving the overheads to the community. Of our 46 academies, 24 are entirely new creations since we became an ASC. We have an additional three academies that were 'broken' and we are allowing to heal and redevelop with the support of our community. A small handful may not survive - however, that is what we are here for - to enable attempted development even if it is unsuccessful. There are a couple who ha...

When you are trying to reach a large number of teachers, in a vast number of locations. Everyone using different technologies and you want to spend £00.00 then what do you do? Solution - create a learning experience that is based around Facebook Live . Winding the story back a couple of notches - at the Open University we decided to use a modest award to reach out to the Cisco Networking community and offer CCNA1 Instructor training for teachers. Once we covered the staff time for the teacher trainers - we were pretty much out of cash. Facebook (as well as Twitter) have redefined the notion of broadcast communications - both launching their own respective live streaming services. Having already explored both within the domain of micro-teaching. Facebook offers some interesting benefits: Nearly everyone has a Facebook account (and if you do not, you can create one, for free) Facebook live goes to all platforms, why would we worry if you have a iPhone or a Firefox browser on Linux Min...

Keen to explore new platforms and ways of reaching those we are educating - I needed an 'available' platform. Suited to broadcast based mass teaching, which could be used by the most participants at the same time; without too many technical affordances, licensing or installation woes. Enter Facebook Live - and it worked very well. Having discovered (with the the help of colleagues) how to integrate this technology with my desktop via Open Broadcast Studio .  We were ready to rock and roll - and that is what we did. Below is the first session - colleagues at our Cisco ASC will be hosting more every Monday evening from mid-Feb onwards. The plan is to use this tool to reach as many possible with minimal effort. It seems that it may work - with 250 signed up, we had 191 views and a reach of 350 in the ninety minutes. This 25 minute session was watched live as well as asynchronously - something that makes this worth the effort.

I have to keep this short post obscure - I have just been engaged in a set of emails/forum posts. Where one particular very small group of souls, seem to be looking at a free opportunity with the lens of some form of purchasing arrangement. They do not like Facebook. Fair enough - however, I am not offering anything additional. There is also nothing stopping you from creating an anonymous account? Yet, I get the immediate impression that they are attempting to look a gift horse in the mouth.