GEM Conference 2019: Top Ten Takeaways

For the past three days I've been in attendance at #GEM2019, this year's conference for people working (and generally interested) in learning through museums and heritage. You can see my tweets during the conference in the embedded collection below the main post, but inspired by Sarah Cowie's Top Ten Quickfire Takeaways, I thought coming up with a list of my own might be a good way to reflect on what was an intensive, tiring and thoroughly enjoyable three days! The theme was Connection, Action, Innovation: Forging dynamic and lasting partnerships with communities.

The conference took place in Torquay this year. A long way away, but lovely!

Photograph © T. Briggs

Digital Maths Resources: Invitation to Take Part in a Trial

A little while ago a few maths teachers* were kind enough to submit responses to a survey designed to discover what mathematics teachers in the UK want from digital resources offered by museums. This survey was used to influence part of the work towards my PostGraduate Certificate in Digital Leadership, and I went on to provide a brief analysis of the results in my Reflective ePortfolio, which also included discussion around some academic reading I've done on the subject.

The next step is to use the results of that survey to inform the creation of a digital resource and then test it with some students. As a full-time museum educator I don't have any captive students of my own so I would very much like to enlist the help of some of the many innovative and excitable maths teachers that abound in my Twitter network and beyond.

All I'm looking for is a few maths teachers who would like to try out a brand new digital resource with some of their students. Full details and terms are in the embedded registration form below, but some key information in short:

• The resource isn't quite ready yet, but when it is I'll email a link out to any teachers who have registered below, in time for testing to take place during the fortnight between 7th and 25th October 2019.
• It will require around 20 minutes or so for students to complete, followed by a quick survey, so they'll need about half an hour in total. This can take place whenever is convenient for you (and them) during that two-week period, but all trials must be complete before the end of the school day on 25th October.
• Students will need access to an internet-connected computer, tablet or mobile phone to use the resource and respond to the survey.

Interested? Fill in the survey below, and I'll be in touch in the next few weeks. Please do pass this post along to anybody in your personal and professional networks who may also be interested in taking part.

*113 of them!