Day 38 – 25 February 2014
Today I was mostly at the Education Development Centre (EDC) in Spennymoor. The morning was taken up by another of the Customer Services workshops that I described on day 19. The building was different but the format the same.
The focus of the training was around the ICT Strategy, understanding what it means, how everyone has a role to play and getting it to stick but the main purpose was to get the different functions to mingle and get to know each other. I think the strategy is really easy to remember but apparently not. There are only five things to lodge in your mind, focus on Durham; better technology; people; engagement and processes.
We started with an exercise designed to get us on our feet by trying to gather information about our colleagues and a piece of paper was thrust into my hand. Surely that doesn’t count in my quest to avoid paper? I’d been doing so well up until then. Anyway I found out that Paula has a pet dog called Frankie, Gurpreet hasn’t always worked in ICT (me neither), Anthony was born in the seventies, Andy has a boy called Jake and Alan supports the only true football team.
The next exercise was around branding and how we have emotional engagements with organisations. We see their logo and we feel. This led onto a discussion about our own brand and what our customer feel when they see it. Is it good, bad or indifferent? Probably all three. I am convinced that people form opinions at the point at which they are asked. You see this when the public is interviewed in the high street for the television or radio. They’ve never given it a thought before but it’s disgusting, intolerable and something should be done about it. Lots of good ideas came forward.
My last meeting was with Jackie from Lodestone about getting young people into digital using documentary, drama and the arts. She told me that media production is an excellent tool to develop collaborative learning skills while achieving personalised learning goals. I believed her as it is content that will drive take up of digital rather than the technology
She talked to us about North East Centre for Transformative Education and Research (NECTER) and the role it could play in bringing organisations together that are interested in building opportunities around digital. This was the theme of the Digital Durham conference that we held at the back of last year and something we need to focus on at our next conference which is coming up in a couple of weeks.
Today the government has offered us another large wedge of money to take the Digital Durham infrastructure further. In these straightened times all donations are welcome.
Learning points for today: The Thinford roundabout can be exciting depending upon who is driving; Alan allegedly likes cream cakes; No one ever wants to be the scribe on a flip chart; It is better to sleep on a pebble beach than a sandy one and; Iconography isn’t just about Russian Orthodoxy.
Today’s enjoyment rating 9/10 – Great mixing with the team.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 