Online Sessions, with Onsite Support - Joint Success

Dale ready for online sessions

A great reminder that sometimes the simplest technology can make a huge difference.

Just before the end of term, Dale was invited by Glenalmond College in Scotland to run CV development sessions for their students.

Sadly he couldn't make it to Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 this time because of other commitments, so we agreed to run the sessions online.

Then one of the teachers, Caroline Murie, had a brilliant idea:

Why don't we get all the students to share their CVs in real time on Google Drive?

That way, Dale could actually see their CVs as they were being developed.

What a great suggestion! 😀

We ran three sessions, with around 15–20 students in each.

Dale introduced a section of the CV, shared some relevant examples and anecdotes, and then the students worked on that section themselves.

They also peer-reviewed each other's CVs throughout the session - checking for typos, spelling mistakes and those pesky capital letters!

And Dale had a second laptop set up so he could see all the CVs being created in real time. 👨🏻‍💻

Halfway through each session, the students took a break. While they were away, Dale quickly reviewed every CV and made notes.

When they returned, he was able to give each student 1-to-1 feedback on their CV before we moved on.

Nothing particularly clever......just Google Drive and two laptops.

Instead of delivering a virtual "knowledge session", he was able to get much closer to actually being in the room, could see what each student was doing and could give individual feedback in the moment.

Steve Smith MA, PGDE, Deputy Head at Glenalmond College, said afterwards:

"Dale led a terrific workshop on CV writing, ensuring that no pupil left the room without a completed CV to open doors to work experience, future job applications, or graduate apprenticeships."

Dale learnt a lesson here too!

You don't always need more sophisticated technology. Sometimes you just need to use the simple stuff differently.

And now he can use this method to deliver CV sessions in other schools where he can't quite make the travel logistics work.

A big thank you to Caroline for the idea, and to the students and staff at Glenalmond College for making the sessions such a success. 👏