Time For A TeachMeet Alternative?

Posted on | August 23, 2009 | 28 Comments

The TeachMeet concept is a wonderful thing. To quote my own words (in the interests of minimizing wheel re-invention):

That small group of far-thinking Scottish educationists who came up with the idea of TeachMeet knew what they were doing when they established the basic form and function of the concept: an informal gathering of equals designed to give a platform to everyone who wanted to be heard, a firm foundation in the practices of teaching and learning, an opportunity to teach others and to learn from others in a mutually supportive, non-prescriptive atmosphere. It promoted a recognition that we are all learners all of the time and, critically, a further recognition that no one has any more right to be heard and to be listened to than anyone else.

So, TeachMeet has been, and is, a roaring success – the list of TM’s that have taken place, or are still to take place, in 2009 alone demonstrates this clearly: ASN/SEN, Havering LA, BETT, Borders, Islay’s Edu2020, LeadMeet, Student Edition, Midlands, LearnTech Wales, Scottish Learning Festival (and this is not an exhaustive list). The small group of friends and colleagues who created TeachMeet should be proud of what they started.

I believe that the time has come, however, to think of an alternative to TeachMeet – not, I hasten to add, as a replacement, but to stand alongside TM as another way of getting people thinking, learning, playing and working together to change education, in circumstances where the particular strengths of TeachMeet are not so appropriate.

Let’s look at the organizing guidelines for running a TeachMeet event:

It’s an unconference, meaning that control is distributed amongst those taking part – no central direction of speakers or of specific topics, participant-driven
Talks last, at most, 7 minutes each
It is – foremost – about classroom practice – is it happening now in a classroom somewhere?
Speakers volunteer, usually via a wiki, and are selected to speak as the event happens, in random order (and if there are too many, some may end up not speaking at all)
No use of Powerpoint / Keynote and the like, except in Pecha Kucha style
No product-selling, even by sponsors (of whom there should, ideally, be more than one)
Participants, whether speakers or lurkers, should be able to get online, ideally by wifi
Extend the scope of the unconference through a backchannel, or a number of backchannels, including video-conferencing, SMS, Twitter, whatever
Tag everything so that coverage does not disappear into the ether

The simplicity of this set of dos and donts has been the bedrock of TeachMeet’s success. Certain aspects of the simple principles, however, do place certain restrictions on what TeachMeet is able to achieve in the round, and the key restriction, I believe, is the insistence that all presentations should be based firmly in classroom practice.

It is a restriction that, by its very nature, will diminish the prospect of topics and themes that question the broader aspects of how our societies establish and maintain the arrangements by which formal education is delivered to their populations. If we restrict ourselves to discussion of what is happening in the classroom, we immediately limit the possibility of questioning whether the classroom itself should even exist in its current form or at all, and whether the school that surrounds that classroom is the best, most humane and most effective way to ‘do’ education in the changing context of the 21st Century. In other words, by accepting the core guidelines of TeachMeet as the starting point, we hinder our own scope for seeking societal or global alternatives to the status quo in formal educational organization and curricular structures. Piecemeal change becomes the order of the day rather than wholesale transformation.

It is also an inescapable fact that not everyone who attends a TeachMeet is a classroom teacher in any case – many have been, like me, teachers in the past, but it would be absurd in the extreme for someone in my situation, for example (almost 15 years since I last took a class in any formal sense), to offer hard-working, dedicated classroom teachers any kind of teaching advice that would be at all relevant or appropriate to them.

Now, the simple fact is that this particular guideline has been breached in practice during some TeachMeets – I certainly heard some great discussion at the Edu2020 meeting on Islay that went way beyond classroom practice, and the imaginative LeadMeet in July, organized by Con Morris, by definition, took discussion beyond the classroom (although, of course, I know that many critical aspects of leadership in the classroom were discussed too).

A lesser problem with the TeachMeet concept, although one that matters a lot, is that they do tend to attract people of like mind. Most presentations given at Teachmeets are offered as sermons to the converted – differences aired tend to be in the detail rather than in the core ethic or philosophy being espoused. I agree with the short tenet I once heard from Sir Robert Swan, the polar explorer and yachtsman, when he said that: ‘any team that is thinking the same, ain’t thinking’. It may be comforting and pleasant to find oneself amongst friends – and given the attitudes, ranging from indifference to hostility, offered by so many teaching colleagues to those who are trying to change practice in the classroom – this is an understandable thing to want to do. For this reason alone, TeachMeet will continue to thrive in its current form – and rightly so. If it helps colleagues to charge batteries, to learn innovative classroom practice from others of like mind, and to let them know they are not alone in their classroom endeavours, then that has to be a good thing.

But it is a simple fact that real change – genuine systemic transformation – will only happen in education when a majority of those involved in the whole enterprise of formal education begin to recognize the deep-seated issues and problems with our increasingly desperate attempts to make an 18th / 19th century model work in the 21st century.

For that reason, I believe we need to come up with a form of event that takes some of the core democratic and participant-driven principles of TeachMeet, but which permits discussion to range far beyond the bounds of classroom practice and, crucially, which also attracts people of strongly divergent opinions to take part and to engage. I offer no particular framework for doing this, since it would be helpful to hear some debate around the idea first.

So:

Do we need an occasional alternative to TeachMeet?
Does such an alternative already exist, one that is genuinely participant-driven?
What might such an alternative look like?

Technorati Tags: teachmeet, unconference, transformation, education

Category: change, education, freedom, innovation, leadership, learning, society, teaching, technology

Comments

28 Responses to “Time For A TeachMeet Alternative?”

Ian Stuart
August 23rd, 2009 @ 1:42 pm

Excellent points.
When we were developing the idea of the education 2020 variation of teachmeet its what we wanted to do.
Getting different voices is always a challange and is also challenging. Both need to be done.
Con Morris
August 23rd, 2009 @ 1:45 pm

John

Thanks for the post. I like the ‘flattened’ nature of Teachmeets, no keynote speakers or favoured commenters. Looking back at LeadMeet, I would do more to promote off-Twitter to get a wider mix. Probably the person who got most out of was me, the organiser!

2 other things come to mind to introduce a wee bit of perturbation. Firstly, a good old-fashioned debating format might work TeachMeet style. Secondly, I have no experience of OpenSpace format (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Space_Technology) but would be interested in hearing from others who have given it a go.

Con
Stephen Lockyer
August 23rd, 2009 @ 2:03 pm

A thoughtful response to a key challenge that TeachMeet faces, that of preaching to the converted. Perhaps a published response to the benefits of attending/participating a TeachMeet would help entice those who are more cautious?
@mrlockyer
Nick Hood
August 23rd, 2009 @ 2:55 pm

Excellent post, John. Is Stephen right when he says that teachmeets are preaching to the converted? Sure, there are the regulars but at each teachmeet I have been to, many attendees have not been before: the format remains an envigorating experience. Was it HMIE that said the greatest improvement to teaching occurs when teachers talk to each other? Here is a clue, and Con’s brilliant team tasks were grease to the wheels of discussion at #leadmeet. More dialogue: whether current classroom practice or something outside of that constraint, this is what is needed.
Ewan McIntosh
August 23rd, 2009 @ 3:21 pm

TeachMeet is certainly designed to do one thing well, which is to take teachers who, by their nature, are doing things in classrooms which are NOT happening everywhere, with a sympathetic audience who will, maybe, go away and help spread their ideas.

It’s also true that while every TeachMeet has some degree of friends-of-a-friend, there are always new faces, too. I can’t quite see what the alternative is – is that not what larger organised conferences do? You go along to a preselected seminar that a colleague is given and learn? Or you take up a CPD course and learn by doing?

Perhaps what’s required additionally to the realists’ innovations of TeachMeet is that equally essential headspace to think what would happen if? Let’s call it DreamMeet. You must talk about things that are not happening in classrooms We could have some fun reversing some of the TeachMeet constraints, and it would give me an excuse to put my head back around this particular unconference’s door!
Krysia
August 23rd, 2009 @ 5:40 pm

John,

You talk about “genuine systemic transformation”. TeachMeets are never going to achieve this, even the big ideas that were floating around at the edu2020 unconference were indeed just that. Although the edu2020 event didn’t intend to achieve conclusions or ‘action points’ it gave me (and I imagine a great many others) a greater degree of clarity in my thinking about some of the big issues facing education.

TeachMeets don’t quite achieve this. I think they offer most people who attend them one or two fantastic ideas that may make a difference in their classroom or school.

But you are talking about transformational change. I believe the main thing that this has in common with the TeachMeet model is that it happens when the hierarchies are flattened. But what would this “occasional alternative” model look like? One that achieves transformational change? A few key factors (in my humble opinion) are:

– Sharing good or leading edge practice.
– Working in clusters of educators with a common goal
– Cross authority/establishment collaboration where authorities realise their role as true facilitators
– focused goals (Going against the teachmeet model which I feel can result in a feeling of innovation overload)!
– continue to push forward the use of new technologies to create an epidemic of change

Unfortunately I don’t believe that transformational change can be achieved through a series of events certainly ones that require educators to give up their own time to participate in.

If educators are given the time and resources and appropriate facilitation from ground level leaders, allowing us to work collaboratively towards focused goal within and outwith their Authority then it may be possible.

The next best alternative in my opinion is already happening, educators are coming together and seeking out better ways of, for example, assessing. If you are looking at some sort of alternative to teachmeet then it would be to come together with the purpose of tackling a particular area (eg. assessment) and the participants agreeing on what actions they want to take forward with a view to sharing what they achieve not only to those already involved (the insular model that already exists) but with a view to set up subgroups within their different authorities/ schools.

Lots and lots of great things are happening out there already and I think the challenge to create real change is to effectively spread this. To do this you need a lot of confident, supported individuals who are willing to challenge the barriers that exist outwith the cosy climate of teachmeet.

(Oh heck, just going to click ’submit comment’. My views are likely to change).
Leon Cych
August 23rd, 2009 @ 5:59 pm

I think the education strain of Amplified 09 is very much involved in getting cross-fertilisation happening between groups and organisations like the RSA et al have seriously been looking at outreach to communities that aren’t plumbed into Web 2.0 either using Open Space techniques or other emergent experimental ways of getting marginalised groups into the debate. I think that effective change can only come in education, as in business and academia, when the silos start to come down and more community access is given at all levels. I feel that if TeachMeets aren’t going to just become a self-congratulatory hermetically sealed meetup then parallel activity needs to happen outside of and then interact with other communities. Surely if everyone is into emergent communities then they need to evolve at some point rather than produce new inflexible orthodoxies of protocol. I do think the reality of TM’s is slightly different to the ‘purity’ often portrayed as well – the dynamics also vary from Meet to Meet and different formats are, indeed, evolving up and down the country. I think that the initial suspicion of commercial partners is justified having attended ’stacked’ – so called similar events in the past – but some corporates are doing stuff just as radical with Web 2.0 or even virtual Worlds – take IBM’s Dark Star and Wonderland technologies which, if shown to practitioners might well open up their minds to possibilities in certain areas without having to sell anything other than ‘expertise’ and newer models closer to 21st Century working than what goes on in may schools still. Also in the fields of Health, Social Services and yes, business – there are practitioners who could give insight into the bigger picture. Otherwise I suspect TeachMet may well end up stuck in a series of parochial backwaters. The Recent Rebooting Britain conference was interesting – people from many different arenas came together to share their insights and experiences and I think that model would we quite interesting to pursue as well in the form similar to TM. Certainly at the Rebooting Britain conference Derek Robertson’s and Dawn Hallybone’s presentations were a revelation to many there. Similarly if more techers had the time to attend they might have been surprised by the number of effective models for change happening in other areas. Certainly, LeadMeets are an interesting well needed offshoot but there needs to be more opportunity to flatten down the silos and let some of the good practice that is going on spill out and mix.
Jaye Richards
August 23rd, 2009 @ 6:17 pm

I’m still thinking about your substantive points from this thought-provoking post John, but I just have to comment on your modesty with regard to this…

” it would be absurd in the extreme for someone in my situation, for example (almost 15 years since I last took a class in any formal sense), to offer hard-working, dedicated classroom teachers any kind of teaching advice that would be at all relevant or appropriate to them”.

You do yourself a grave injustice. I think you are in an almost unique position to offer advice to educators, having taught, managed, written, presented and observed education in its broadest sense both here and internationally.

If the sum of all this isn’t rooted in classroom practice than I don’t know what is….
Peter Schneider
August 23rd, 2009 @ 7:10 pm

Have a look at what Julie Lindsey and Vicki Davis have done with conferences. They held one in Qatar in June http://flatclassroomconference.wikispaces.com/ and Julie is putting on another one at the 21st Century Learning conference in Hong Kong this Sept. here is the ning http://21clearninghk.ning.com/

The concept is ridiculously simple, practice what you preach…

They take the time to give students a project that must be completed at the conference. There is no reason why that couldn’t work for teachers. All the time you get the unconverted at conferences who sit in on the great sessions but the concepts never make it back to the classroom. If you were to dedicate most of the conference/”unconference” to complete a project that supports C.E., APP, 21st CS or whatever…

they would have a tangible example to work off of and understand what their students would be going through as well.
Nick Hood
August 23rd, 2009 @ 7:21 pm

@Jaye hear, hear. Education is more substantially improved by those who, like John, are prepared to offer and develop informed opinion based upon credible experience. This very thread is witness to this.
Iain Hallahan
August 23rd, 2009 @ 8:42 pm

Very interesting post John.

Had a Twitter discussion a while ago about TeachMeets and the ‘preaching to the choir’ issue was the one I felt to be most concerning. Since then, however, there has been noticeable evolution in the format, and both the recent Student Edition and LeadMeet showed how it could be taken outwith its usual ‘audience’. Introducing TeachMeet to these new attendees is of vital importance, and the suggestion of a local authority based TeachMeet by some practitioners in Falkirk seems like a good – and sustainable – way to continue building awareness. It also shows the other evolution that seems to be occurring, the move towards a genuinely crowd-sourced event – a very welcome trend that seems to be on the increase.

Finally, I’m loving the sound of Ewan’s DreamMeet as well, think it sounds like a fantastic idea. I would certainly be signing up.
Ian Stuart
August 23rd, 2009 @ 9:06 pm

DreamMeet
Sounds good.
Again I suppose its what we were doing with education2020. “What should education looklike in the year 2020″
I think the important thing is not to get too caught up with the rules.
At the LeadMeet I noticed that those who were at the main part of the conference were the organisational leaders.
The informal leadmeet format allowed the classroom pracitioners and informal leaders to have a voice and influence the formal leaders.
Gordon Brown
August 23rd, 2009 @ 9:32 pm

John,
An article which encapsulates thoughts I had but didn’t know I had.

I taught for 26 years, but because of 5 years out of the classroom I also feel uneasy about/unworthy of participating in TM events. Ewan’s Dream Meet idea sounds excellent – a way of expanding possibilities and parameters. Definitely worth pursuing.

Regards,

Gordon
Dan Nstone
August 23rd, 2009 @ 9:47 pm

I have to say that most of the best teachmeet presentations I have seen have been teachers sharing their practice. Teachers seldom get to see and share what other teachers do, observing someone’s lesson is a luxury, and the opportunity to share good practice shouldn’t be underestimated. Of course many other great non-teachers also take part.
With regard to teachmeet rules, every teachmeet has its own rules and they are often flexible as you say, Havering had keynotes (shortish ones) and Channel 4 & NCSL ones had discussions.

With regard to preaching to the converted or creating mass change… little things can make a difference too and for those that have never been to a teachmeet before they are always rather inspired – the networking aspect also shouldn’t be underestimated and even built on. For mass change don’t you need a government initiative to do that… and we all know how successful they always are Actually I love the points Leon makes above on this.
The only other thing I would advise to reach out to more people is to advertise better and harder, not just via Twitter and the Teachmeet Wikis.
Tom Barrett
August 23rd, 2009 @ 9:53 pm

Thankyou John for a timely post, since the offer of 3 events is on the table for BETT 2010.

I don’t think we need to look for an alternative – after all the unconference is already by definition an alternative, a breaking of the mould.

I am not sure what the numbers are of people attending TeachMeets over the last few years but the ongoing success is surely an indication of grass roots change. Real transformational change. Change in the way that teachers perceive CPD, in my opinion that is very important – and not to be overlooked.

When I first began teaching I thought courses, seminars and CPD were fixed agendas, telling you how long you had to listen for and a pile of paper hand-outs repeating everything you see up on the (all)Power(no)Point. TeachMeets changed all of that. There was another way and these events began to show people what that may look like.

It may be crucial to consider the importance of the regional or local TeachMeet. How a shared geography effects how participants interact and connect with each other at the event and what they do after it. A good idea is still a good idea no matter where it has come from, but being able to share that with people in your school’s LA or cluster may lead to greater impact. Having attended the larger TeachMeets at SLF/BETT and the smaller regional events too, I consider the smaller events to have the most potential for regional change.

The “preaching to the choir” or “clique” issue that Iain mentions is an interesting one. I think that this is due to limited awareness of the events. This is especially true for the regional events. Only a limited number of people use Twitter and read blogs (the 2 main places a TM event might be publicised) and then only a limited number are in your region – and then only a limited number might attend! For TM Midlands we used sponsors money to design and send out an email shot to every school in the region. Admittedly I hit on this idea too near the event and the effect was limited – but I did meet two primary teachers from Derby who had never attended or heard of anything like TM and went away with a stack of ideas. (And also realised how different CPD could be)

I would highly recommend this more traditional way of marketing the event. It would help to get the message to a wider audience beyond the usual networks, outside of the usual circles.

I agree that the TeachMeet model needs to evolve. But there a many different ways to “unconference” an event and perhaps we need to tap into that variety.
Cassie
August 23rd, 2009 @ 9:58 pm

I’m very new to the whole TeachMeet idea and I’m definitely one of the ‘friends of friend’ people who got involved through chance, and to be honest it was the best CPD I participated in all year!

I agree with you that TeachMeet is a worthwhile method of learning from others. It has definitely helped me in many different ways, and it has put me in touch with other professionals that I perhaps would not have been fortunate enough to meet otherwise.

I would also agree with your point that, at the moment, TeachMeet does attract like minded people. When I presented at TeachMeetSE09 I did notice that there were a couple of main themes that ran throughout all of the presentations, but, in saying that, I still learned a lot.

I think that TeachMeet has the potential to evolve, picking up other practitioners as it does so, either through the way I was introduced to it or, through encouraging local authorities to have their own TeachMeets.

Hopefully through taking the idea into different local authorities it will encourage more people to get involved. I know that a lot of the staff in my school had never heard of TeachMeet before and I think this is something that should be addressed.

Perhaps this natural evolution will result in a change to TeachMeet as we know it?
Iain Hallahan
August 23rd, 2009 @ 10:16 pm

Regarding Tom’s point about reaching out to ‘new’ attendees (can we call it marketing?), the e-mail approach that we used to spread the word about TeachMeet Student Edition worked reasonably well and certainly has potential. The response from the local authority probation co-ordinators was very positive with only one negative reaction to our approach. That, of course, was the response that stuck longest in our minds though.

By building relationships with a network of local authority CPD co-ordinators and learning reps and compiling a list of their e-mail addresses, information about future TeachMeets can be e-mailed to them to forward to the teachers in their authority/area, achieving wide distribution at a very low cost. We could also give an e-mail address to respond to for those wishing to attend, taking away the obstacle (for some) of registering on the wiki.
Nick Hood
August 23rd, 2009 @ 11:48 pm

Teachmeet organisers need to promote the event carefully to the right audience. I organised teachmeet:Physics earlier this year and the promotion was in the main via Local Authority CPD officers, the Institute of Physics and in particular, their List Server used by a signifiant number of Physicists. We had Glow (Drew Burrett) and Flashmeeting (Sinclair Mackenzie) experts fix up the virtual attendance. 80% of participants were new to the format – almost all said “when’s the next one?”.

The unconference format, evolved, loosely adapted and dynamic, is the key: teachmeets are brand shiny new to the majority of teachers and far from being ready to grow up, have some time to run as the awkward brat of CPD.

Let’s evolve the format: I like Ewan’s idea of reversing one or more rules, if for no other reason than it keeps it unstable, and us on our toes. This is the place where the best development takes place.

IMHO
John Connell
August 24th, 2009 @ 5:05 am

Lots of brilliant comment – thank you all. I want to come back to pick up on many of the points made, but I will do so in a new post in the next day or so.

Just one minor comment here, though: ‘dreammeet’ is a nice idea, but not a good name – it’s important to have dreams but a slightly more ‘grounded’ title would help to indicate the need for real change that turns those dreams into reality.
Stephen Lockyer
August 24th, 2009 @ 11:13 am

As a co-organiser of the TeachMeet Sussex/ Kent this September, I think one of our key objectives has to be to get the message out to a much wider audience. One of the most regular statements I made at the bottom of CPD review sheets was that ’sharing good practice’ was the highlight – the TeachMeet model provides this without the paperwasting and clockwatching. To this end, we shall attempt to pay to get the message to all schools in Kent and Sussex, and fingers crossed for the response!
@mrlockyer
Twitter Trackbacks for Time For A TeachMeet Alternative? : John Connell: The Blog [johnconnell.co.uk] on Topsy.com
August 24th, 2009 @ 9:48 pm

[...] Time For A TeachMeet Alternative? : John Connell: The Blog http://www.johnconnell.co.uk/blog/?p=2215 – view page – cached [...]
Twitter Trackbacks for Time For A TeachMeet Alternative? : John Connell: The Blog [johnconnell.co.uk] on Topsy.com
August 25th, 2009 @ 7:45 am

[...] Time For A TeachMeet Alternative? : John Connell: The Blog http://www.johnconnell.co.uk/blog/?p=2215&cpage=1#comment-3794 – view page – cached [...]
TeachMeet Alternative: follow up : John Connell: The Blog
August 29th, 2009 @ 5:52 pm

[...] parts of a text that interest us most. The comments on my previous post on this subject – Time For A TeachMeet Alternative? – amount to a very stimulating discussion of the issues that I raised. However, I was [...]
J Arrol
August 30th, 2009 @ 10:07 am

I can’t help adding a comment about the ‘preaching to the converted’ issue.

The TeachMeet Student Edition concept was different only in target audience. Initially, it had been hoped that there would be many student/probationer speakers, but very few students wanted to present, so it was mostly the usual crowd presenting. However, many students said they were encouraged by hearing from teachers already out there, people regularly using innovative ICT in the classroom.

The number of newcomers at TMSE suggests that, as students (lots of free time) and digital natives (a huge amount of interest in ICT), they’re far more open to coming along. To many, the evening was an eye-opener – some commented that it was one of the best ‘lectures’ they’d had all year. They now understand the TeachMeet concept and many are already looking forward to TeachMeetSLF.

If we want a new audience, I suggest more TMSEs.
Learn 4 Life » Out of our tree … are we weird or are we in the vanguard? New ways forward for teacher Continuing Professional Development? Beyond TeachMeet…
September 3rd, 2009 @ 3:18 pm

[...] Connell – in a recent blog, suggested it was time for a TeachMeet alternative. I [...]
Teachmeet….LeadMeet…..TreeMeet? And now GregMeet! : John Connell: The Blog
September 3rd, 2009 @ 6:15 pm

[...] had some great responses to my recent posts (here and here) on possible extensions or alternatives to the venerable and valuable TeachMeet concept. A [...]
Helen Myers
October 18th, 2009 @ 1:28 pm

Excellent comments John. I gained many ideas from the Teachmeet at BETT ‘09 from the excellent contributors .. very well hosted by Ian Usher. I understand disadvantages of rules excluding those who may genuinely have something to offer teachers e.g. researchers, trainers, (dare I say this? …) .. commercial people who have designed things which can help us.. or excluding those who happen to use the Powerpoint software to make an aide-mémoire of what they want to put across (I understand the rationale .. but I think there are other ‘guidelines’ which can be given to address this). A comment following TM’09 (I think from Tom Barrett)was something along the lines of how can we get more / different people to come forward. Perhaps some more ‘encouraging’ and positively phrased rules could help? (It could be quite daunting for someone to put themselves forward if they’re not super-confident …)and Ewan, I’d favour an inclusion of dream-meet’, nt a separate dreammeet .. teachers can dream too .. and teachers want to hear about your dreams …

What about a good old-fashioned title like ’show and tell’? .. focuses still on the ’show how it works / might work’ bit ..
Learning, Teaching and ICT » Falkirk TeachMeet Update – Take 2
November 9th, 2009 @ 9:21 pm

[...] insistence that all presentations should be based firmly in classroom practice in this excellent blog post. Before reading this, I hadn’t actually thought too much about the rules and regulations [...]