Making do without Tofu

£24.84 is the precise amount of money we have calculated to spend on food for the next five days - 16p clear of the £25 limit set by livebelowtheline.com.

Live Below the Line is a campaign that's challenging us to live on the equivalent of the extreme poverty line for 5 days (£1 a day, 5 days, 5 people = £25).  That's not strictly true, as clearly we have a roof over our head, money in the bank and I suspect a rather more comfortable standard of living generally, but I was chuffed when we suggested to our three children to do this, they weren't exactly excited, but were at least prepared to give it a go.  1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty (equivolent to less than £1 a day) - that's one in five of the world population.

  

Since then both me and Nikki have spent a bit of time going through the figures.  There was a brief moment when we realised our budget would not be stretching to tofu, although noodles are cheap and we will be doing  a stir fry.  I was more disappointed with the complete lack of drinks - even teabags were looking like a luxury.I don't think the kids have quite realised how lacking the menu-for-the-week is looking in terms of food they like - I can see it'll be a real tester for all of us by day three.  Fruit are also looking rather costly - we'll have to limit apple juice, and considered if we should still buy fairtrade bananas (non-fairtrade bananas are by far the cheapest fruit our kids will eat and we could find).Please find out more by visiting the site.  It's not too late to join us, promote or sponsor:

https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/marcusbelben
https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/nikkithorpe
https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/arthurbelben
https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/jagobelben
https://www.livebelowtheline.com/me/freyabelben

Network, Kraftwerk and craftmanship

Today I went to The Quality Challenge: An Inconvenient Truth About e-Learning, a presentation at Aston University by visiting New Zealander Mark Brown from Massey University.  It was a great opportunity to explore the challenges of delivering 'quality' elearning.  It was also a stark reminder that we are delivering 'elearning' in institutions where 'quality assurance' does not necessarily lead to 'quality enhancement'.  

He outlined Massey University's successful approach which (my summary) is something like Massively Online Boutique Learning - with over 18,000 distance learners.  That is, keeping focus on 'quality culture' rather than assurance, where emphasis is placed on professional trust, making teachers more responsible for their own quality assessment, with effective peer reflection, leading to a supportive environment for critical and reflective analysis.


He made reference to cheese quite a bit, which always helps, but I couldn't get Kraftwerk out of my head.  Last night I deleted a few old emails I really should have acted on a while ago.  I found a starred reminder that Kraftwerk were playing live in London in February - a truly rare thing, and probably something that even if I had got my act together, probably wouldn't have been able to get a ticket for:



Kraftwerk are one of those bands everyone refers to be 'influenced by' - they are a band which most commentators agree, 'changed the landscape of music' (see Kraftwerk, the secret history)  The music press labelled them secretive because they shunned their approaches, spending much of their time in 'Kling Klang Studio', obsessively experimenting.  They are clearly great 'craftsmen', and their fascination with machines, in particular the ones they use to make music, dominates their music.  They take very much a 'boutique' approach to music, taking great time to deliver a product which may not be to everyone's taste, but inspires dedicated followers prepared to go literally around the world to see them.

What I think is striking in the approach of Kraftwerk, and Massey University to distance learning, is a strict adherence to a 'quality culture' which has little to do with 'quality assurance', but everything to do with experimentation and reflection in a trusting environment.

Mark Brown highlighted that 'elearning' can be used to entrench 1950s style teaching on 21^stnetworks, and that 'quality assurance' could be the means to control knowledge and academics, which is beginning to sound rather like Foucault's power and knowledge - see 2 min presentation I made Ed Tech Learning Forum at UoB).

Alan Moore in 'No Straight lines' talks about 'a new reality of living, working and organising' - the beginning of a new post-industrial dawn, placing emphasis on 'craftsmanship' - an informed approach able to respond flexibly and with greater market understanding through effective networks.  How different is this to the 'art and craft' movement of William Morris et al at the turn of the last century, where craftmanship was much valued?  Or how different is it to Birmingham's Lunar Society of the 18th Century, where a network of scientists conducted experiments and discussion together, or 'renaissance man', with wide ranging knowledge and a sophisticated network  of associates from centuries before?

I believe elearning can also be used to develop more effective learning and research, through the development of a 'quality culture' which supports effective use of peer networks and reflection.  Foucault examines the history of 'knowledge' and takes a cynical view that where power and knowledge exists, so does a desire to discipline and control it. I hope dlearning, elearning, and other uses of our new technologies, will help make a small step towards a more open and informed world.


For more info see:

http://clipp.blogs.aston.ac.uk/2013/03/the-quality-challenge-an-inconvenient-truth-about-e-learning/

https://globaldimensionsinhe.wordpress.com/

storify.com/uobett

Family visit to the bank

This was our first visit to the bank this year, or possibly for a lot longer than that.  It could partly explains demise of bank, but probably not.  Anyway, still lots of fun to be had as artists have taken over for Thrift Radiates Happiness , the first, I'm sure of many, exhibition to be held at the former 'Birmingham Municipal Bank'.  The incredible size, former opulence, and its history adds weight to the instalations, and then there's the whole current affairs crash thing going on too.

For one of the installations you have the opportunity to collect 'a deposit' from the vaults - also loved  Nicole Wilson's letters to Barrack Obama in her own personal mission to clear the US national debt.  here's some photos:

A day with Smaugs at Weoley Castle Library

As part of Arts March and Paganel Archives project, Paganel Primary Year 4 have been at Weoley Castle Library. For more info please see Laura's excellent Northfield Arts Forum blog entry, 2 min audio clip or photo gallery below.  Loads going on for Northfield Arts March and well worth taking some time to check it out.  Weoley Castle activities mainly taking place over this weekend (2nd 3rd March)

Image of Smaug is superfluous, but takes me back to the front cover of 'The Hobbit' I read as a child!

listen to ‘Smaug library visit’ on Audioboo

Useful links:

http://artsforumnorthfield.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/the-day-smaug-came-to-weoley-castle-library/

Sale, one listed walled garden

The Horticultural, conservation & Training unit at Leasowes Park has been closed since summer 2012, and not too surprised to see the 'For sale' sign going up.

If I had a spare few thousand, definitely something I'd be interested in - a maintained historic walled garden, in need of some renovation.

Plans to sell it faltered in 2007 when the college changed it's mind, and it's future has very much been under a cloud since.  It has been hoped the council might 'buy back' the garden from the college, but does the appearance of a 'for sale' sign signal the end of this possibility?

I'm particularly saddened given the historical significance of the park and the efforts of the active and able Friends of the Leasowes (contact @Leasowes_Park on Twitter)

The community around Leasowes and the suitability of the site itself is crying out for some kind of community venture.  Is there someone out there willing to take it on?

Below is video from a project I was involved in in 2009 with the Friends showing the garden, presented by a Stourbridge College group using the garden at the time:

Useful links:

http://www.halesowennews.co.uk/news/1436014.Two_buyers_after_listed_park_centre/

http://www.halesowennews.co.uk/news/blackcountry/2272778.Leasowes_saved_after_college_u_turn/

http://www.halesowennews.co.uk/news/blackcountry/9706088.College_to_hold_last_open_day_at_Leasowes_before_closure/

http://www.halesowennews.co.uk/news/9678956.Friends_group_asks_council_to_save_Halesowen_park_s_walled_garden/

http://www.halesowennews.co.uk/news/4395876.Friends_capture_park_memories/

Make do and Mend

Paganel Archives room, nearly ready!

Today we held a coffee morning for parents and contributors to 'Make do and mend' - the latest project  at Paganel Primary School - part of Paganel Archives (HLF funded). Since September the 'Paganel Archive Team' has grown to include an archives after-school club, their interviewing, cataloguing, and general archive skills getting more and more impressive as the year goes by.  Added to which we have developed both a fantastic archive room and the archives themselves being constantly added to, catalogued efficiently and, most importantly, used by the children to reflect and learn.

We started September with Birmingham Archives and Heritage training our team to keep archives and to interview in depth.  This was followed by a team from the Rep theatre workshop supporting designing the archive room - they are now putting finishing touches to our archive room.

A window into one of the archive room models made by yr5 

The after-school club followed from the Archive training and has led to a whole series of interviews and cataloguing beyond what we had hoped possible, including parents, teaching staff and other visitors and people connected to the school.  The after school club meets weekly to support the project with cataloguing, oral history recording and other activities.

'Make do and mend' has been a terrific example of how a school archive can be used to value the contribution of parents, the community and children, developing ownership of the school and more engaging relevant learning, encouraging reflection on previous work.

The first workshop we looked at archive material about 'Make do and mend' (a WW2 initiative to make the most of limited resources, involving Recycling, Reusing and Reducing and reviewed some of the 'making do and mending' residents of Sellywood House might be familiar with.  We then visited Sellywood House, a nursing and residential home for older people, where residents talked to children about their experiences of 'Making do and mending'

By the next workshop we had transcripts from interviews prepared and the children worked to relate comments by residents to issues relating to their topic - recycle, reuse, reduce.  The yr5 group categorised the quotes themselves, which led them to settle on a single topic within recycling to create their own collages in small groups (from recycled materials, of course).  They worked in small groups to develop both their ideas and artwork.  Today parents came in to see their presentations of their artwork, and of course, to be interviewed about their experiences of recycling.

The project uses archive material, and will add to the growing Paganel archive - a (now) substantial resource of material including some great (partially transcribed, fully catalogued) interviews of parents, children and local residents, relating to a range of topics within the curriculum, documenting and valuing the lives and stories of our school community.

Categorising comments

Exhibition space at Paganel

Interviewing Olive at Sellywood House

Reviewing recycled materials for artwork

Archive recipe for shampoo and cough medicine

Interviewing Beryl

Explaining rag rugs, hot rocks and corking to teachers

Interviewing parents about recycling today

Children, staff and parents commented:

'It's great to come in and see what the children are doing, and this work has been relevant and got them thinking...When I was growing up I used to make go-karts, like Mr Shufflebottom...now I'm a car mechanic!'

'I've really enjoyed seeing all the work they've done.  The after-school club has been so popular - It's the one thing she doesn't want to miss.'

'We really want to encourage parents to come into our school - this project and the Paganel Archives has been great at encouraging parents in to see what we do here.'

'It was scary doing the presenting [artwork], but I'm glad I did it.  I'm really proud of what I've done.'

Fondue fun and farting

Later, making snowmen in Highbury Fart

Only me and Nikki were sat at the dinner table.  Of our three children, one was on the toilet, one dancing, and the other, somewhere in between. We'd served up a delicious, healthy homemade leek and potato soup, a selection of  crudities, and none of our children wanted to sit and eat.  Mealtimes had been troublesome for while - We never sat down together, ate had a chat about things.  What was going on?

'It's just boring'

And it was true.  We didn't really try to make it fun.  Sitting down with our own little portions of the same thing which maybe only one of us really wanted doesn't really inspire eating or talking.

How can we make it better?  We got some good suggestions, and we tried out a few straight away.  First was swapping jokes (thanks Hacker and all from CBBC). Next, talking is just boring, even if it is planning fun things to do later like making snowmen, but not if you try and slip wee, fart or poo in.  Not one to try with the grandparents, but wee had good fun pooing it (ho, ho).

Games during mealtime?  If it helps eating at table and chat.  Draughts at breakfast was fun.  Playing with food?  Why not? We got the old fondue set out for the first time in about eight years, dusted it off and had delicious cheese and chocolate fondues.  Not one bum left it's seat for nearly half an hour.

Funny how easy it is to get too wrapped up in our own little world and forget to have fun.