In a previous post I suggested that it might be a good time for us to reflect on what’s working with Pedagoo and what could be improved. David suggested IdeaScale as one way in which we could begin the discussion process…so I’ve gone ahead and set one up: http://pedagoo.ideascale.com/

I’ve transferred the suggested questions across to IdeaScale. You can now login and share your thoughts, or start a new question. You don’t even need to create an IdeaScale account, you can just login using your twitter account.

Pedagoo began life as a community, but as it’s grown I feel we’re in danger of losing this. That’s why I think it’s really important to open out this discussion as widely as possible. Please please feel free to share your thoughts…even if you don’t have time to answer them all, answer one or two.

If you don’t feel that Pedagoo partly belongs to you then we’re not a community…

com·mu·ni·ty
Noun
A group of people living together in one place, esp. one practicing common ownership

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Join in now: http://pedagoo.ideascale.com/

Lots of Scottish schools have started back today, and I’m back next week. It’s that time of year when we start to think about how we’re going to do things differently, and better, in our classrooms this year. It’s a time for optimism and forward thinking. For me, this applies to Pedagoo also. Pedagoo is over two years old now and has grown substantially in that time. I still can’t quite believe that it’s proved to be so popular (and hopefully useful) in such a short space of time. Inevitably though with growth comes change. Some of this change is for the good, but I suspect not all.

When Pedagoo first started it arose from the community and was planned in the open. Since then, we’ve not really had time to stop and think in the same way again…we’ve all been just getting on with it. After all, we have very demanding jobs to do! But I’ve been thinking for some time now that it’s about time that we took a moment to openly discuss what we’ve achieved and where we’re going. I’ve been loathed to do this up to now as I felt as though any effort that went into facilitating discussions or organising events should be focused on improving learning and teaching, and not navel-gazing about Pedagoo itself. But with the unavoidable cancelation of this term’s Scottish Learning Fringe TeachMeet, perhaps it creates the space needed to reflect and at just the right time? I ran this idea past Kenny in the pub the other day and he’s up for it too…

So. What should we do? Well, I have an idea…but it’s up for debate. I suggest we start by listing the big questions which need discussed about Pedagoo. From there, we arrange for online contributions (probably through a wiki) and then follow that up with a physical get together where we bring together everyone’s ideas and try to put together some next steps which can then go back up onto the wiki for feedback. Then we get on and make any changes we’ve agreed upon as a community. Pedagoo is an open community of educators and so I think this process should be open to any one who feels they have something useful to contribute.

So what do you think? If you’re up for it I’ve already started a document where you can begin to contribute big questions and suggestions for organising the debate. Please feel free to join in there or as a comment below…