Virtual & face-to-face

Saturday 17 December 2011

Just back from the English B Grade Award in Cardiff. A very successful Grade Award, in that everything was wrapped up efficiently within the time, and with no significant problems. There were no important hitches caused by the new e-marking system, and very few 'at-risk', or problem scripts, to re-mark. The team, as we have become accustomed, worked like a dream, and we laughed a lot … coping with Jeehan's phobia for odd numbers, for example (sorry – in-joke).

 

At the end, we made arrangements for the next year's tasks, and this leaves me musing on the changing nature of work. In this session, we have had a virtual Standardisation meeting (which means that we all worked at home, setting up the e-marking system by marking texts online, and debating them through Moodle-based discussions) – and a face-to-face Grade Award (which means that IB paid for us all to travel to Cardiff and work in the same room). For the May session, we are likely to have a face-to-face Standardisation (not least to involve the new members of the expanding team), and a virtual Grade Award (because if we've done the Standardisation job well, it should all be routine work…er…we hope).

 

These options weren't even available two years ago, and the choice of working systems only exists because all student exam-scripts are now scanned onto a data base which is available to the examining team anywhere in the world. Now, I'm discussing a specifically IB context here, but I used the phrasing “the changing nature of work”, above, in a deliberately general way. The 'virtual' or 'face-to-face' systems have inherent advantages and disadvantages. Succinctly put, the virtual system cuts out all the costs and effort of travelling, but reduces drastically many of the subtleties of personal interaction – and the face-to-face system makes complex personal interaction central, but at a heavy cost (financially to the IB, but also personally to every examiner – think of examiners who travel from Asia to Cardiff: 24 hours door-to-door, probably, plus jet-lag, unpaid).

 

My view is that 'the changing nature of work' means that you now do whatever you can from home, virtually and on-screen, but that you distinguish very carefully those aspects of the job which are best done face-to-face, and you invest powerfully and forcefully in those. In the specific case of English B, I argue, that means that IB should pay for all senior examiners to meet in Cardiff at least once a year. However … I see perfectly clearly the stony face of Lisa, the marvellous IB manager of English B, when you mention such extravagance ! Nobody should ever forget that no matter how 'expensive' the IB may be to schools, it still costs a shit load of money to organise a global educational system.

 

And what are these aspects of the job which need to be done face-to-face ? In essence, the discussion of values and the building of team-work. In the first case, the development of agreed marking standards, there is no virtual substitute for sitting in a room and saying “...hang on, what about the bit on page two … ah but, on page three she says … NO! It's all about ...” You can do that sort of stuff online, but it is so much more laborious and ineffective. The second case is even more significant – in face-to-face meetings you understand your colleagues in the round, and that means that policy is properly rounded off. In the informal chats over coffee, and over a glass of wine at dinner, assumptions and prejudices and bigotries are challenged – subtly and tactfully, yes, but I promise you it happens. When your good and intelligent friend looks at you and says “Look, I see what you're saying, but you must realise that ...”, you may find your world view changing. It is absolutely in the interest of examiners, teachers and students, that examiners' views should at least be coherent – and that those views should have been tested out personally and nakedly.

 

In the end, the world really is not virtual.

 

 


Tags: technology, thought, values