Just had major clear up of study - trashed a whole load of old OHP slides - with regard to instructional technique, they were much easier to use, especially for eliciting say several factors for a topic. If a student came up with a different “item,” you could just flip over the one small covering section of cardboard to show only that one specific item, rather than Powerpoint where you can only use the sequence as per the pre-constructed list.
Yes, powerpoint is a bit limiting in that regard.
There are ways to make it more interactive but it’s a fiddle.
A Cpl at my sqn just pointed me to this Andriod App.
Thought others might find it useful for Jet Engine Propulsion
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rollsroyce.cle.apps.trentxwbar&hl=en_GB
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I see that ACT 014 has gone live, regarding the Teams delivery!
“For meetings that only involve CFAV, there is no requirement to have an associated SMS Event, but MS Teams must be used for all RAF Air Cadets business meetings.”
Should that not read:
“For meetings that only involve CFAV, there is no requirement to have an associated SMS Event, but MS Teams must be used for all RAF Air Cadets online business meetings.”
Or are we banned fro staff meetings in the pub? 
I mean, you’re banned from the pub…
Well, atm we’re just banned from meeting…
An SMS event for every meeting? We’re doing 2 parade nights a week, each one has to have its own SMS and Cadet Portal event? What madness and pointlessness is this?
How else are the cadets going to get the Teams link?
Sqn fb group? Email?
Sort of presumes everyone has access to FB - which not all cadets should as it technically has 13+ age limit.
Email is probably a fair point but I just think it’s easier to tell them it’s on CP. Admittedly, a streamlined event set up process would be enormously appreciated but it is what it is at the moment.
We’re aiming for the same amount of parade nights as @GrandMaster_Flush and I’ve done all the SMS/Teams admin for them, not finding it too onerous at the moment.
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The links in the portal don’t work, and they can’t sign up to the portal without an email address in the first place… So we just email the link.
They can copy and paste the link text - not really a hardship.
The attendance tracking element and notification integration of a portal-publicised activity outweighs that minor hindrance.
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I agree, but you did ask!
The new ACTO seems to micromanage a lot of things. One of my friends is a staff cadet and lives in Uni halls. So every staff meeting and cadet session where video is used must take place in his shared kitchen (as bedrooms are not allowed) and he must police the language of his fellow students (assuming family really means ‘other residents’). Can see people being punished for following the spirit not the letter of the law.
It is the only accredited platform through which CFAV can host official RAF Air Cadets meetings
Wonder if i’d be punished for following the letter not the spirit here though… Staff Cadets don’t have to host official meetings through Teams?
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are we all meeting here on ACC?
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Yes, but it’s not official RAFAC business
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It seems to me that this whole thing has evolved a bit organically and serves to cobble together a few knee-jerk reactive policy decisions. The ACTO doesn’t necessarily give the best or most logical guidance.
For a start the bedroom “ruling”. The first line of that paragraph is fine: “Any computers using the video facility should be used in appropriate areas”. Why go on to “ban” bedrooms?
A bedroom may be a perfectly appropriate area, especially for youngsters for many of whom it will also be their primary working/“hang out” space. What the camera can’t see is absolutely inconsequential.
Indeed, a quiet bedroom might be a far more “appropriate” space than the other areas of the home for some cadets and staff.
The Recording/SMS Event/Register/Two staff members requirements do not sit well together.
The question HQ must ask themselves is WHY do we need an SMS event for each online meeting?
SMS provides a simple enough way to push the required information to cadets, but if we create a recurring meeting on Teams the link stays the same so the cadets need only receive it once to cover all generic parade nights. SMS events are a useful way to advertise different sessions and push associated files so their use may be helpful but why does it need to be mandatory?
Is it about recording the fact that a session has taken place? We also have a “Virtual parade night” register type which does that. We will also have an MS teams meeting in the calendar and a full video recording, dated, which further proves the same.
What necessary feature does the SMS event provide which a full recording and a register entry doesn’t?
The requirement for two staff to be present serves what purpose?
“Safeguarding” we are told. How?
On the Squadron we are often the only member of staff in a room with multiple cadets when delivering a lesson. We don’t consider that a problem since there are a dozen or more independent witnesses to say whether or not Mr Bloggs acted inappropriately.
Not only do we have the same dozen or more independent witnesses in a video meeting with cadets but we will also have a full recording of the whole session meaning that we are all in fact safer as a single CFAV in MS Teams than we are in the classroom. Not least of all because for many of us we will be just a voice narrating a powerpoint presentation.
So what desperately necessary benefit does having a second staff member provide?
I have very few tech-savvy staff available so under the two staff ruling if I want to run two separate and concurrent sessions I’m basically stuffed.
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Personally, having run sessions I’ve found it difficult to keep on top of the text chat and rattling off whatever I’m talking about at the same time. The second member of staff, in addition to the safeguarding function, can be incredibly useful as a chat moderator and/or question answerer.
I would also be far more comfortable with another member of staff present - all of the classroom/office doors on our unit have glass in them so even if you are teaching to a group of cadets on your own people outside the room can see in. For personal piece of mind as much as anything else.
My simple answer is that I’m not planning on running any live online training. That way I don’t have to use teams. Instead we’ll deliver stuff like competitions, quizzes etc.
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Perfectly summarising HQAC’s paranoia and pathological need to control everything we do. Yet again they show their total lack of trust in CFAV. I’d like some mission command and delegation, rather than micro management and yet more policy to wade through.
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ACTO 14 is six pages. That includes the cover page and amendments sheet, hardly that onerous to read…
The policy is in place to protect both cadets and CFAV. If you can’t see the point of that I don’t think anyone can help you.