So how many festivals can you visit in the summer months without the experience or the music becoming too repetitive?  I got to two in two weekends, one of the oldest and then one of the newest and whilst it is virtually impossible to compare them, one thing that remains consistent is the live music we all flock to see. The gems that a festival uncovers ensures the appetite for new bands and more and more live music is an insatiable quest.  If you've ever visited a festival you will know what I mean by leaving and thinking what did I miss, what you could have seen in addition to all those you wanted to see, got to see and were amazed by.

The festival experience in the UK seems to be ever expanding, which gives greater opportunity for new bands.  Over the past few years with the deluge of social networking sites, bands and musicians you may never have heard of now have the opportunity to present their wares.  The way in which we think about music has changed, away from the conventional mediums of radio, music television and magazines to internet driven, instantly available previews of a bands material to the electronic download of music directly to our phones, mp3 players and access to web sites created by or for the bands.

It's an exciting time for live music and festivals highlight how much unity is created through music and how much choice for the music listener exists.  From the 180,000 who attend Glastonbury to the smaller 20,000 or so of the Hop Farm festival it's about enjoying the experience, getting to listen to music as it should be and simply having as much fun as you can however you get your kicks! 

In a rather disconcerting way learning styles engulfed part of a recent effective manager training session.  It was intriguing to look back at how my style is now reflected having not approached learning styles since almost the very first module in year one.  To look at them here in the last is just as coincidental but not ever as relevant.

In Honey and Mumfords or Kolbs learning inventory I am now more a theorist although I have a reasonable balance with all four styles of learning.  My deep / surface approach has varied throughout the degree.  Many assignments were embraced because of an increased  or new understanding was inevitable.  Others I have just had to concern myself with getting through because of deadlines, work commitments or involved activities.  The degree is without doubt a learning journey and is within it's core migrating to experiential learning if I am to be theorist about it.

Kolb is a forerunner in experiential learning and has support throughout the academic community, the fun in this final module will be relating the literature to my work context whilst keeping the action research method centrally situated as we close the final chapter in our current learning journey.

I've just completed the learning skills audit workshop and although there isn't too much I need to work on there is much I can improve.  In the main I am strong with most skills but are we over-hyping ourselves here.  Each bullet point represents the skills category followed by a brief summary of the findings.

• My Study skills are predominantly strong but I need to work on setting clear learning goals and sticking to them 
• My self organisation skills I marked as average across the board mostly this is an underestimate as I believe we all want to improve our own organisation.  I've come a long way but wanting to improve myself further is in a way positive and shows that I am intent on self progression and not stagnation.
• My ability to work with others is strong, I enjoy collaborative working and I am generally supportive of others.  Teamwork is often rewarding because sharing goals and acheiving them means you get to share the joy with someone.  Rather than the pats on the back we often have to give ourselves. 
• Personal and interpersonal skills are strong but i need to improve handling conflict and be a better listener, also to improve communicating my own needs better.
• My Communication skills are strong, I've developed and improved these skills continually both as a learner and a practitioner and will continue to do so.
• Information management skills are strong, if they weren't I'd be concerned about my role in the workplace, my role revolves around managing information and I am confident I do this well
• Personal development and career goals defnitely need more focus.  Whilst studying it is important we keep one eye on this.  I attended an interview back in the summer and was a very strong candidate, the feedback I received was excellent and increased my confidence exponentially.  I had not faced an interview in five years prior.
• My reflection and evaluation skills, this is a fascinating one because if related to my work I would say strong but in research I would perhaps have question marks so again this is an improvement area.

Most people will admit they are not perfect, though not everyone will admit they need to improve.  I am quite happy to admit this and did so recently during a training session at work.  The traning was centred around how to be a more effective line manager, for some reason the trainer picked on me to identify strengths and weaknesses, I was quite open and although I didn't have to answer I chose to, that for me is a good assessment of my ability to recognise my weaknesses and shows a confidence being able to share that with such a large group.  A colleague complained to the trainer in my defence.  I found that interesting, in a way protective, I was surprised that I brought that out in other people.

I have the database upgraded to the latest version and have had a few problems getting it registered for the required amount of time.  The difficulties encountered were of course the huge task list we have had on as a department, going live with Lesson Monitor (a SIMS.Net module), assertive mentoring which has meant a complete redesign of our assessment module, ensuring the network was ready to allow lessons in all classes to be marked electronically with laptops and making sure the distribution of working laptops for every teacher, cover supervisor and ensuring the sims.net system was completely up to date.

A long haul but within the chaos I was able to distribute my questionnaire and from the returns received already have had a positive response on introducing a helpdesk to manage support incidents.  I have had to learn the ITIL system as well as the FITS system and the subsequent change to processes and terminology but so far so good.  Still much to do though.

I'm dismissing much of the time I've had before me as learning time towards my degree, though life in the coal face can only really describe the learning, a busy time has undoubtedly had impacts.  In essence I've researched my topic as my learning log evidences but not enough evidence thus far to pass this final year. 

So where am I now?  The questionnaire was a success and with all entries in I now have the case strengthened for introducing the helpdesk system as my action enquiry though for many reasons including, a family bereavement, a new apprentice starting at the school and a shift in my workload has meant much work is still to be done.  The action part is critical and as such I am in the process of completing a 33 step setup routine for the support helpdesk.  ICT support within Edmonton County will be a well designed system that reflects exactly what happens at the school and reflect the changes that are being introduced as part of the action enquiry.  This includes new avenues for providing support in classrooms, the new apprentice feeling he his taking his apprenticeship within a well structured framework that will aid his development and I am with the belief that the improvement levels seen will continue in the ascendancy as is already the case with much of our work in the school this academic year.

We are learning to be much more open and approachable, organised and eliminating error from our work.  Though to say we are there and have arrived at this utopian view is unfounded, my aim now is to translate this into real meaningful study that leaves no stone unturned whether that is through a challenge response scenario, a view that does not necessarily rely on crunching numbers yet can aid and cement the naturalistic view.  I still hold firm that statistics support the implementation of systems because so much can be gleened from having a system that is also a powerful reporting tool but the argument here is to show that the statistical view is a direct result of the action, not necessarily the reason for the action. 

Since the start of term and well jut before I have continued to talk up my action inquiry in an informal way with staff to get their reaction.

I've had a lie manager change and so this was an opportunity to discuss the implementation of a helpdesk.    This was considered a good idea and my line manager suggested that if successful could also be used to manage facilities requests.  I stated the system was not specifically designed for this as it did not offer the opportuity to list facilities management however on closer inspection of the system I learnt this was likely possible.  The opportunity to create new SQL structures, or database tables meant the flexibility of the software would allow manipulation.

I spoke to a couple of members of the senior leadership team who also felt the implementation of the support helpdesk would be a good thing.  They saw benefits such as:

Managing what we often call moves and changes.  This is where staff relocate to other offices/sites and managing this effectively would likely speed up the process.

I commented it would alo give us a much more reliable audit of equipment if it was formalised. 

Allocating technicians workloads was also seen by one of our deputy heads as a benefit of the helpdesk environment.

I had to give a training session today termed an ICT induction, where I assist with new teaching staff getting their access rights, providing information about the ICT infrastructure was also discussed.  I gave all teachers present the opportunity to ask questions and mentioned that I would be implementing a helpdesk, explaining that it was an opportunity to improve the level of service we offer. 

I had no evidence to demonstrate but the questions I got asked were encouraging. 

Q1) Will staff be able to log their own calls?

I answered this by stating initially it would not but as the system develops the facility is there to do so and I will give instructions as soon as it goes live. 

Q2)  Will calls be logged by department or by individual?

I hadn't really considered this a design factor but answered by saying most likely it would be both depending on the nature of the incident.  I explained that every call logged would be following the ITIL framework and so every call logged with the helpdesk is an incident and gets treated accordingly

The answers were I observed received by the audience in a positive way, this is further evidence the data collecting would not be strictly the questionnaire. 

After a rant in my learning set community I managed to briefly speak with my workplace advocate about access and permissions whilst walking from our line management meeting to the school canteen. 

Anyway I felt supported and trusted to continue and I now feel that the head has faith in what I intend to do and I am starting to feel much more positive about my action enquiry.  The head also made a suggestion that addresses an ethical issue surrounding the research fodder fear when using colleagues as participants in your research.  My sample group for the pilot is now sorted thanks to the head.  I believe using the technology department will produce some interesting data for analysis.

I am much more confident entering into the second module!

Support at work is lacking, I might as well be out on my own, I really think the lack of vision among people is devastating relationships and stifling good progress.  Schools sooner or later will have to put some trust in people that are experts in their field if they ever want to deliver what is expected.

I visited the helpdesk show and found it a learning experience but it just met with negativity back at school.  Issues of funding, issues of over complicating and total ignorance regarding the size of our network and improvements to the management of it (my remit) are all barriers I am encountering from the Head of the school.  Not a great start for something I had hoped would be well received as an important change to my practice that I am confident would have the right impact within the organisation.

All good to write up I suppose but not the attitude I was looking for, it is clear my passion is not shared, my reason for feeling pretty alone with this enquiry.

What a coincidence, I decide to make my research proposal an action enquiry into improving the ICT helpdesk and what lands on my desk in perfect time?  Yep you guessed it, an invite for The Service Desk and IT Support Show so I'm going wearing my begging cap. 

I've hatched a cunning plan to convince one maybe even two companies to part with their product for free for the purpose of having it researched in an educational environment!!!  Genius or what?  I'm starting my negotiations at Zip and moving upwards in increments of zero :-D  My leverage, the educational equivalent of ITIL that I won't say much about here but my research I hope will include it, though not rely upon it, that is an important factor!   I am sure I can lure a salesperson into my way of thinking especially if they see an order at the end of the research. 

Watch this space ladies and gentlemen as I am back, full of improved ideas, theories and enthusiasm after some torrid time of late - Staff shortages in my team for two months.  My Toshiba laptop deciding to give up copying and pasting without an application crash, of course absolutely essential when researching, oh and other issues all having an unwelcome knock-on effect that frankly one could do without. 

Anyway, I do hope this post has not sounded to cryptic, let me know, I would be glad to hear.