OK… there must be something in the air, but I read an article this morning, and have been inspired to get busy with a completely ridiculous idea. An idea so daft that I’m going ahead with some serious planning to see if it is at all feasible… so, without further ado, how would you like to write the first pedagoo.book?

I came across a link to this blog post about a group of Finnish teachers, academics and pupils who have gathered this weekend to write a Maths coursebook in a weekend. The idea is based on the hackathon model and involves a group of people gathering for anything from a day to a week with a specific focus and working like hell to complete a specific project (I think it’s called end-of-term revision by some!). See that glow in Perthshire? That’s a massive light bulb going on above my head!

Just over a week ago, I heard Nick Hood talking about how Scottish Physics teachers work together to create communal resources, and then a week ago I was speaking at the TMSLFringe we organised… and it came to me… we should organise a hackathon to create a book/resource pack for Literacy & English/Literacy Across Learning. Something aimed at supporting Level/Nats 3/4/5. Something that combines some of the awesome ideas I’ve heard of people using with a practical set of lessons and resources that any one teaching Literacy to a pupil in S1-3 can pick up and use with minimal preparation. Something that is made available to all under a CC2.5:Scotland licence.

So… here it is: pedagoo.book. At the moment, it is no more than an idea and a wiki, but I’m intending seeing if I can find a venue, some funding/sponsorship, and then invite anyone who wants to become involved in working his or her socks off on a pure, mad, mental weekend blitz to try and create a book or series of resources that anyone in Scotland can use to deliver Literacy for 3/4/5. Oh, and also to deliver Literacy Across Learning — which is why I’ll be looking for teachers from other disciplines than just English.

I know that this is a ridiculously ambitious idea… but it should also be great fun (probably in retrospect), and something concrete and useful. If you think you’d like to contribute in some small or big way, jump over to the wiki and sign up. What have we got to lose? Nothing compared to what we could gain. Let’s do it!