Erik Kats’ thoughts on the Network of Trainers
Thoughtful and reflective answers to the evaluation questions by Erik Kats in a Skype video interview with Graham ASttwell
Three Questions given by Jenny
Jenny has helped the Network by three questions which became the core of the video evaluation:
What is the network doing that it should do more often?
What is the network NOT doing that it should start doing?
What is the network doing it should do less of or stop doing?
What are your answers to the questions?
Eileen
UK Evaluation Society (UKES): Evaluation 2.0
Just back from doing a keynote speech at the UKES Annual Conference in Birmingham. The title was Evaluation 2.0. Great feedback - but the most useful thing for me was is that it made me focus my random thoughts into something more cohesive. It also forced me to organise and develop the ideas around Evaluation 2.0 into a format capable of being communicated to an audience of several hundred experts rather than late night, drunken debates in the Viva - better known for their passion than their dialectic.
I will try and get my presentation out as a slidecast in the next few weeks - I am trying to make sure I have all the attributions water tight before I stick it up on slideshare - which is time consuming. However, if anyone wants a copy before then, let me know and I'll skype you one - as long as you don't publish it!
Evaluation Answers Part 1
Here are some of the answers given by the project partners.
Silvia from IBW, Austria
Evaluation Questions
Here are some of the questions we will be asking in the evaluation:
what is the network doing that it should do more of?
what is the network NOT doing that it should start doing?
What is the network doing it should do less of or stop doing?
Network of Trainers in Europe Wordle
The Wordle above is based on the text of Pekka's 2008 evaluation report. I spent a few minutes looking at the size and juxtaposition of the words - which spun off all sorts of thoughts. For example, professional / development / issues seems to sum up what the network is all about but then I was interested why projects figured so largely - is this because the network is overly dependent on project funding? I could go on but I'm interested in patterns that other people are seeing that set them thinking!
About Evaluation 2.0
Evaluation 2.0 is a set of ideas about evaluation that Pontydysgu are developing. At its simplest, it's about using social software at all stages of the evaluation process in order to make evaluation more open, more transparent and more accessible to a wider range of stakeholders. At a theoretical level, we are trying to push forward and build on Guba and Lincoln's ideas around 4th generation evaluation which is a constructivist approach incorporating key ideas around negotiation, multiple realities and stakeholder engagement. For those of you who want to explore this in more detail, there is a much fuller explanation in another post.
Pekka Kamarainen is proposing to use some of these ideas and practices in the evaluation of the Network of Trainers in Europe. This web page will be the 'home page' for all those who are involved in the evaluation, in the network and in the wider community around the network activities.
We hope all of you will use this page to help us build the evaluation processes, to provide data and, even more importantly, to participate in the interpretation of that data.
Dirk Stieglitz
Graham Attwell
Eileen Lübcke
jenny Hughes