Blog Everything

What's an award ?

greenman — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:00:48 +0000

School of Everything has been selected as an entrant in the "Social Innovation" section of the Europas. (Being a greedy, award-loving lot, we would like to win it, so please go and vote for us! Now.) In the discussion below the list of nominees there is a good bit of healthy criticism about most of the selections and whether or not they actually fit into the category. Dejan Strbac from aleveo.com asks why "aggregation of teacher ads" is seen as social innovation. He has a point. We know it.

The sound of ideals smashing against reality is not pretty. Grand concepts are never easy to bring into being. School of Everything was founded on extremely lofty goals - we wanted to change the face of education. We are still pursuing our grand ideals, but we are also very aware of how much work is involved in reaching them.

We would love School of Everything to make a difference to society. It is very important to us that our work is more than just a commercial enterprise - but it is just as important to us that it is a commercial enterprise. At the moment we are hard at work building the tools that will allow us to survive as a project. If we can sustain ourselves in the market, then we have proof that our work solves a social need. With a foundation in place, we can safely pursue the next steps of our plan.

The sound of ideals being brushed under the carpet? I am also very open to the argument that we have strayed too far from our vision. Simply building a tool that makes change possible is not the same as making the change happen. Perhaps we have been too quiet about our big idea, or does it make sense to quietly go about changing things step by step?

Education needs to change. In its current form, School of Everything plays its part by making it a little easier for those who are pro-active about learning to find people to teach them. Maybe it's a baby step, but it is in the right direction. We have a mountain of plans for the future that will reach way beyond where we are now - but first we must get the basics right. There is nothing like the sound of ideas forever lost in the clouds.

If we are going to truly be a social innovation, we have to think in the long term. We have to be practical and pragmatic. A website can only be a tool, one tool among many. The real innovation we want to achieve is in the way society thinks about learning. Education is not a product of mass production, it is an active journey, an adventure into new and unknown territories. Education is not a spectator experience, a choice of brands to be consumed. We learn best by participating, by being involved. The innovation we hope to inject into the fabric of society is this: Everyone has something to learn and everyone has something to teach. If you can help us on our way, we would love to know of your ideas.

Glasgow-a-go-go

Claire M — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:26:02 +0000

At the weekend, half of Team Everything headed up to Glasgow, bonnie Scotland to take part in the third SI Camp - so we thought we'd do a city showcase of School of Everything teachers in the area like we've done with Sheffield and Newcastle in the past.

As you can see from Sangeet's graphic the most popular subjects are Driving, Dance, Guitar, Scottish Harp, Singing, Chinese - Mandarin, Tai Chi, Jazz, Yoga and Cheerleading.

Mishra is an elegant professional belly dancer. Her style is infectious, energising, whilst expressing the emotions of the story of the song.

Becks Armstrong is a certified doula and birth educator who has attended more than 75 births of all types.

Daisuke Tani teaches all things Japanese - language, massage and cuisine.

Karen Marshalsay performs on gut, wire and bray harps and can teach any of these instruments, and is also active as a composer.

Here are a couple of things happening outside School of Everything that we think might take your fancy:

Celebrating its 14th year in 2009, the West End Festival brings families, friends and children together to celebrate the community spirit and cultural diversity of Glasgow’s West End, with over two hundred events crammed into two weeks of carnival entertainment.

We made a visit to the Mitchell Library and left feeling inspired. It is a lovely place.

Tips for teachers

Claire M — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:27:19 +0000

We want School of Everything to be as good for all you teachers as possible, but how can you get the best out of your teaching profile? Well here are a few tips from Everything HQ to help bag loads of students.

What do you look like? Perhaps most important is to put a good picture on your profile. It makes it 5 times more likely that people will click on your profile. That's a good start isn't it?

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Don't give your life story but filling in this section on your teaching profile helps students decide if you're the teacher for them.

Where are you? Setting your location is very important. Make it as local as possible because all search results are sorted by location first. This is important for cities such as London.

What do you teach? Choose the simplest way of explaining the subject you teach. When adding subjects to your teaching profile it is better to add them separately. i.e. 'French'; 'Spanish' rather than 'French and Spanish' We now automatically show related teachers and subjects (ask Russell from Team Everything about Matchy Matchy).

Keep in touch. There are a number of ways for students to contact you through School of Everything so make sure you're set up for them all. Have you sorted your Marketplace settings? Well you should.

Spread the word. Why not put the link to your School of Everything profile in your email footer? The more you link, the more Google loves you; the more Google loves you, the higher up in Google searches you get; the higher up in Google searches you get, the more people see your teaching profile; the more people see your teaching profile, the more students you get; the more students you get, the happier you get. That's most important. Phew.

Now, over to you - you're the teachers and you know best. What tips do you have to share with other School of Everything members? Add a comment. Please and thank you.

What's new in Newcastle.

Claire M — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:21:30 +0000

Paul is in Newcastle at Thinking Digital, so we thought we'd do a city showcase of School of Everything teachers in the area, like we did with Sheffield last week.

As you can see from Sangeet's graphic the most popular subjects are Driving, Saxophone, Tai Chi, Guitar, Science, Qigong, Self defence, Maths, Jazz and Music theory.

Ivy Taylor has been DJing for 7 years, specialising in Turntablism. She scratches, beat juggles and creates intensive mash-up routines.

Nick Able is a professional Musician, Composer and Teacher who runs a studio and teaching practice from home.

Ben Drury has 'empowered many people to achieve amazing success and has been described as "a catalyst for others" and "an inspiration".'

Sarah-Jane Miller is a folk and traditional music teacher - singing, ukulele, penny whistle and much more.

Here are a few things happening outside School of Everything that we think might take your fancy:

EAT! 2009 - sixteen days of edible activity.

For cycling enthusiasts there's the Northern Rock Cyclone Challenge.

Join WILDWORKS on a stirring outdoor adventure on the banks of the River Tyne where the old certainties have melted away like the ice.

Sheffield of Dreams

Claire M — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:50:07 +0000

Dougald was in Sheffield yesterday so we thought we'd do a little city showcase of School of Everything teachers in the area.

As you can see from Sangeet's lovely little graphic, the most popular subjects are Driving, Piano, Maths, Digital Photography, Yoga, Guitar, Drums, Jazz, Violin and French.

Luke Bradley is a young and ethusiastic Maths tutor who started tutoring GCSE students whilst studying for his A-levels. "It was relatively informal but something I vowed to take up again in the future as I enjoyed it a great deal."

Elton Clough has been hairdressing for 35 years and loves creating highly individual styles. Nice profile picture.

Learn for Life Enterprise is a community organisation based in Sharrow. Take a look at their teaching profile for a wealth of public classes in a range of subjects.

Nigel Townsend is a Wood Enthusiast who says "I love being outside. I love nature. I love making things out fallen nature."

There's also lots going on outside of School of Everything of course. Just take a look at Sheffield Forums to get a feel for how vibrant the scene is.

Fancy learning about edible wild plants and how to identify them and use them in traditional recipes and to make herbal remedies? This workshop led by local herbalists might be for you.

This year's Music in the Round Festival runs from Friday 8 - Saturday 16 May, celebrating the work of Johannes Brahms, one of the most prolific and influential composers in chamber music.

And finally, the SCM are a mob of crafty so and so's from the Steel City promoting craft and creativity. Some of the craft mafia members will be holding a Spring craft fair at the Basement on West Street, Sheffield on 16th May.

Experience start-up life

paulmiller — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:32:28 +0000

We're on the lookout for some great interns to join us over the summer at Everything HQ. According to Internsforyou.com this is what start-up life looks like:

We're not sure where they got that from. Compare and contrast with this photo of our CTO Pete (on a good day):

That's a bit more accurate. We're a tiny team so coming to work with us will involve mucking in and helping out on all kinds of things. We've had some great interns over the past year who have worked on everything from research to marketing to taking some amazing photos of School of Everything members.

If you'd like to follow in their footsteps and get a feel for start-up life, there are more details and information about how to apply on our jobs page.

More Photographs of Everything

Claire M — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:19:03 +0000

Anita Lasocka, from the BA Digital Photography Course at London South Bank University has just visited Everything HQ with some of her photographs of School of Everything Morris Dancing classes. Here's a taster showing Spring Grove Morris Men and Bacchus Border Morris in action.

Find out more about the School of Everything Morris Dancing community. And we will keep you updated with both Anita and Chris' projects. You can contact them through School of Everything for photography lessons:

Chris: http://schoolofeverything.com/teacher/christopherkamper

Anita: http://schoolofeverything.com/teacher/anitalasocka

Things I Like

Claire M — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:29:21 +0000

When I go through all the new profiles on School of Everything I find loads of great content from members - I normally just send it around the office but Andy said I should blog it, so here is my first little look/see. Enjoy.

Giles Kennedy - Classical Piano teacher
Nice write up and mix of subjects.
Sue Macniven - Fly fishing instructor
Fly fishing and wool spinning.
Rick O'Shaughnessy - Fundamentals of Aviation teacher
Learn to fly!
Joanne Croxford - How To Dress Well On A Tight Budget teacher
Credit crunch couture.
Peter Wing - Kiho'alu -- Hawai'ian Slack Key Guitar teacher
Read the small print.
And an extra gold star for Nico Major for posting this brilliant video: Bboys, Bgirls, Just B.

Happy Birthday Open University

paulmiller — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:32:13 +0000

So today is the Open University's 40th Birthday. Since 1969 over 2 million people have been educated through the OU and it's now the UK's largest university with 200,000 students each year.

It was also one of the most radical educational ideas of the 20th Century and, although Harold Wilson took the credit, it was Michael Young (after whom our backers the Young Foundation are named) who initially came up with the idea saying, "If the student can't come to the lab, then lab must come to the student."

The simple idea at the heart of the OU was that anybody should be able to be a university student independent of their age, social background or family commitments.

If the OU opened up learning to more students, at the heart of School of Everything is our belief that 'everybody has something to teach'. Here's hoping that we can be as successful as the OU in practically proving a radical idea.

The OU spread because of a technological revolution that was spreading like wildfire at the time - BBC 2. I'd say today the most interesting education innovations are definitely spreading because of the web. Looking through our fellow webby honorees is a pretty good start for seeing what innovations we might be celebrating in a few years time. It's also worth having a look at the stuff that came out of the Hacking Education workshop back in March.

Photographs of Everything

Claire M — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:39:44 +0000

Over the last month or so we've had two interns - Chris Kamper and Anita Lasocka, from the BA Digital Photography Course at London South Bank University working on projects photographing members of School of Everything. Chris has just sent over a sneaky peak of his project so far. Here's a taster showing Jeremy Carroll's Martial Arts class and Diana Defries' Hula Hooping class.

Chris and Anita are both offering photography lessons through School of Everything:

Chris: http://schoolofeverything.com/teacher/christopherkamper

Anita: http://schoolofeverything.com/teacher/anitalasocka