The United Kingdom Radiological Conference is the UK's flagship scientific conference that brings together 'clinicians, scientists, radiographers, technologists, managers and other professionals to present and discuss the latest developments and challenges in diagnostic imaging and allied radiological sciences.'
I had proposed to the conference organisers that we would deliver a joint session with the Society and College of Radiographers about how the CPD online system, we had developed with them, was being used by radiographers to enable them to apply for consultant and advanced practitioner status.
I was delighted when I received the programme for the event to see that there is now to be a full afternoon session to discuss the emerging models of consultant and advanced practice, with the final presentation by Michael Fell the first radiographer to have successfully applied for advanced practitioner stastus using CPDnow.
The facility to use our CPD online system to apply for different grades within the professional body is proving a great addition and was one of the features that has attracted the interest of the radiographers in Australia.
Monday, 31 January 2011
Hacking over the Careers Service
I recently spent a day with our company Chair Barrie Hopson and other leading experts in Information, Advice and Guidance learning about and experiencing the benefits of agile technology. The purpose was to see whether these group of experts could use this technology to come up with a new tool that would help deliver an effective IAG service.
Agile Technlogy is full of interestingly named techniques like 'scrums' and 'spiral waterfalls', which have ben developed apparently over many years, although I have not heard of the technique before. Except when they described this approach to building software it did seem very much like what we do. I cannot recall when we last produced a detailed specification for a project and my sense would be that all our customers would describe us as collaborative in our approach, open to change and constantly seeking continuous improvement.
It was therefore interesting to hear about the approach although frankly I am unsure that it will have helped UKCES to make the careers service more effective. This was because the organisers failed to practice what they preached. The developers worked separately rather than collaboratively and only engaged with the practitioners at the end of the day. As a result the whole day ended in disarray and whilst the developers were going on to produce somethg on their own I cannot believe that it will have any impact. An opportunity missed methinks.
Although not for us because we had some interesting discussions in relation to finding homes for our diagnotics that when on the direct.gov site were each accessed by 30,000 individuals every month.
Agile Technlogy is full of interestingly named techniques like 'scrums' and 'spiral waterfalls', which have ben developed apparently over many years, although I have not heard of the technique before. Except when they described this approach to building software it did seem very much like what we do. I cannot recall when we last produced a detailed specification for a project and my sense would be that all our customers would describe us as collaborative in our approach, open to change and constantly seeking continuous improvement.
It was therefore interesting to hear about the approach although frankly I am unsure that it will have helped UKCES to make the careers service more effective. This was because the organisers failed to practice what they preached. The developers worked separately rather than collaboratively and only engaged with the practitioners at the end of the day. As a result the whole day ended in disarray and whilst the developers were going on to produce somethg on their own I cannot believe that it will have any impact. An opportunity missed methinks.
Although not for us because we had some interesting discussions in relation to finding homes for our diagnotics that when on the direct.gov site were each accessed by 30,000 individuals every month.
Why JISC struggles to deliver Innovation
One of the other blogs I follow is Don Clark Plan B http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/ There are lots of stimulating entries because as Don says on his introductory page he now has 'enough time to attend, read, listen, watch and comment on anything I want to'. I particularly like the way he 'attacks' sacred cows e.g. the most recent one is the notion that universities justify their existence because they teach critical thinking. The evidence suggests that this is not the case. He also has no hestitation in attacking learning institutions/organisations. I made the following contribution to his blog on JISC an organisation which was set up to inspire 'UK colleges and universities in the innovative use of digital technologies, helping to maintain the UK’s position as a global leader in education.'
In my experience one of the major issues for JISC is the way they relate to private companies. They do have a relationship and we have been involved in events that they have organised, but they behave as if they would prefer all innovation to be solely generated from the FE/HE sectors and ignores the way that this sector can sometimes work effectively with and through the private sector.
We have been involved in some innovative work with Huddersfield Univeristy on exploring the use of e-portfolios to make it easier for work based assessors to comment on the work of learners registered on the nurse prescribing course. It is innovative in the sense that we are genuinely exploring whether such an approach makes it easier for nurses to capture evidence and have it assessed. At the moment the 'jury is still out'. We have had some technical challenges with NHS spam blockers but looks like we have now found a way round this.
We recently responded to a JISC request to present innovative projects to their local conference but were turned down on the basis that were 'giving priority to the colleges and universities rather than the private companies.'
This approach contrasts with the one taken by Learn Direct for example, who in my experience are very effective at harnassing the skills and knowledge of the companies they work with. Indeed we have been involved in a project where three companies have been involved with their own internal team and through collaborative work produced an interesting and highly innovative solution.
JISC has a key role in developing innovative practice but they will only partly deliver this if they fail to encourage engagement with a sector where innovative practice and ideas are being developed.
In my experience one of the major issues for JISC is the way they relate to private companies. They do have a relationship and we have been involved in events that they have organised, but they behave as if they would prefer all innovation to be solely generated from the FE/HE sectors and ignores the way that this sector can sometimes work effectively with and through the private sector.
We have been involved in some innovative work with Huddersfield Univeristy on exploring the use of e-portfolios to make it easier for work based assessors to comment on the work of learners registered on the nurse prescribing course. It is innovative in the sense that we are genuinely exploring whether such an approach makes it easier for nurses to capture evidence and have it assessed. At the moment the 'jury is still out'. We have had some technical challenges with NHS spam blockers but looks like we have now found a way round this.
We recently responded to a JISC request to present innovative projects to their local conference but were turned down on the basis that were 'giving priority to the colleges and universities rather than the private companies.'
This approach contrasts with the one taken by Learn Direct for example, who in my experience are very effective at harnassing the skills and knowledge of the companies they work with. Indeed we have been involved in a project where three companies have been involved with their own internal team and through collaborative work produced an interesting and highly innovative solution.
JISC has a key role in developing innovative practice but they will only partly deliver this if they fail to encourage engagement with a sector where innovative practice and ideas are being developed.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
