Reflection on ADE 2017 London Academy

A blog by @mircwalsh

Reflection on ADE 2017 London Academy

The new academy structure.

Call me a pole hugger but I was really unsure about how this was going to work. Having attended 5 institutes I did not want our geo to be split and was afraid that it just wouldn’t work and be too small. When we first heard that EMEIA was going to be split I was sad and somehow hoped it wasn’t true.

Fast forward to now and I have to say the academy exceeded my expectations. Yes I missed friends that attended amsterdam but I left feeling that this new structure gave me the opportunity to get to chat to and know a lot more of my region. I ate meals with different people, I had evening chats with different people and in the end I actually think I might prefer it this way.

That being said I really hope next year is a global so we can all get back together.

The showcases and Teachmeet.

I don’t know if it’s just me but i think these get better every year. I really enjoy mentoring and seeing them develop and this year there were some amazing stories that made me think, made me cry and made me proud to be an ADE. From the outside it is hard to imagine the time and effort that goes into these. The multiple drafts, the multiple rehearsals and the nerves but everyone did so good.

The workshops and guest speakers.

Due to running two of these i only got to attend the photography workshop but it was really good and gave me a lot of great ideas. I really liked Gill as as a guest speaker she gave a good insight into life as a photographer. A career path of very nearly choose for myself so it was definitely interesting to me. Will from Chase and Status was also amazing especially when you look at how he went from someone who hated school to someone involved in transforming education .It was a really inspiring story.

The venue.

I think the venue of the London academy was pretty amazing. Arriving it seemed so big part of me thought it might have been too big but the rooms were great for workshops and I actually liked the round table layout of the main ‘ballroom’ compared to the rows of chairs. The food was also really really good!

I hope that future academies/ institutes might be held in the same location.

The projects.

For me the big highlight of this academy have been the projects. In the past few years we have created books or courses and it takes a little while for the projects to be released but this time it was a matter of hours. I think that is the real job of Clips the fact that projects can be created and realeased so fast. Some projects from our Academy are already making their own dent on social media most notably Teach Tech Goals, One Small Clip, Clips Tours and Gimme 5.

I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of the One Small Clip team and when I got home I made some coding clips. Little did I realise then that my clips would have a collective reach of over 50k views! The One Small Clip team are amazing and I am excited about what we can do in the months ahead.

Another group I absolutely love are the Clips Tours project group. They bring the world to life through these Clips. After learning about the project i immediately went through albums of photos and created 10 Clips within a long afternoon. I can see this project having real momentum over the next few months and being in a college that has over 40 Erasmus trips a year as well as a travel department I can see this idea being one I will share with colleagues when I return in September.

To conclude this may not have been what I had wanted from an Academy and I might not have gone into it too excited but I was totally wrong (insert failure bow!) and it exceeded my expectations. I don’t want to mention anyone because I know I will forget someone but thanks to everyone who made it a great academy!

Highlights from ADE Academy London