AI Solutions: The ADI Forum Circus

AI Solutions: The ADI Forum Circus: How many forums are there for ADI's? Well there seems to be a plethora of them. So how would an instructor choose? There are quite a ...

The ADI Forum Circus

How many forums are there for ADI's? Well there seems to be a plethora of them. So how would an instructor choose?

There are quite a few on #Linkedin covering a wide range of topics and with very impressive membership numbers. I have chosen the ones I like and the level of professionalism attached to the posters. However as you move deeper into forum life a darker side of poor internet etiquette, childish behaviour and general disappointing management is exposed.

'how do you choose?'

OR

'do they choose you?'

I surveyed a selection of people, I did move outside of the instructor industry for some answers, to ask why they use forums and what they would like from them. Initially this research was for the benefit of my boards. Reviewing the results on the basis of developing a super board, or should that just be something to please everyone without the usual elite selection displayed by those who hide from debate, challenge and questioning. I know that seems harsh, but as a professional person I learn from criticism and praise. I will never grow as a person if I do not take on board views of others however unpalatable that may be. I rub shoulders with friends and colleagues outside of the boards, I therefore do not need 'stroking' within them. Show me debate and sell me your view. We can always agree to disagree. 

So the results showed that boards were rarely chosen on social networking sites, rather acquired. One person adds another and they bring a friend and suddenly we have a party. Specialist sites such as illness, drink, beauty were chosen specifically through searching and often were much harder to find than most admin would like to imagine. It's a case of if you know then you can come in. Or is it? Specialist sites were found not to discriminate, if two people didn't share a view and became vocal, then rarely admin sent a message, but generally no censorship took place. I found this was relevant on a coaching board I belong to. I think many see coaching as uber calm contributions and adequate niceness, but it isn't, in fact honestly, disagreements and plain brutality is commonplace but despite the occasional toe curling it actually is a true reflection of real life in contrast to the fantasy of controlled internet forum playing. The same as other industries, passion rises above the dare I say, tame threads, and it actually was these boards that people enjoyed more. I know that the feed of adrenaline entices activity. For admin that's wonderful news. So controversy sells, in fact a bit like sex. In soap operas the controversial story lines hit the headlines and get best viewing figures. This does of course assume that admin starts a board for pleasure within their chosen field and not as a massive ego boost and power wand waving.

Have you ever followed a thread and thought, ouch? You can put money on the fact that everyone else has seen it too and is talking about it. That is good business.

Would you be more likely to tell friends or colleagues about a board, or encourage to join a forum on a social networking site if you felt you needed help to (a) explain your point, (b) to add weight to your argument, or because (c) you felt the specialist interest was worth sharing. As admin I'd like to think option (c), sadly it was (b). Which I guess even the most cynical would be saddened by. I chose the questions on my research so clearly I knew without knowing that I may be surprised.

So are forums the host of bullying? Well if you asked a member from a gaming forum they would be disappointed by the lack of camaraderie, if you watched from the wings on a study forum you would be shocked if a post went by without a war. Because we are all different we express in different ways. The one that caught me out was an English study group, if you were not well read enough, you were not welcome, never excluded because grown-ups are better than that, but, miss a good quote at your peril. Clever language? Clever wit? Or unclever? Oops now that word would be ousted with a shovel of disrespect, however as a novelist I excuse myself with artistic licence. 

So did my survey turn up bullying on line?

Of course it did, however it amazed me how many people took literal offence at indirect comments and genuine belief in ability, experience and candour. The bullying raised it's head significantly in the smaller group who took part, those who described themselves as age 16 - 24. The majority group came in second. The age range of 40 - 65, which was kind of wow.  

We do of course see bullying in different lights depending on our side of the fence. However, it was more often described as being forced from a forum, blocked by admin or pushed out due to personal differences. The final one being laughable. It's a forum. Can we only agree? That is not very politically friendly, democratic or, and I risk this statement, adult. The under 24 group is understandably different, it covers vulnerable age groups and the highest group for suicide in the UK and in fact many parts of the World. 

Of course if the question was asked, do you believe in World peace, few would dare to say no. My own take is, absolutely, as long as it's forum free.

So why did I choose this subject, for my thought for today?

Some years ago, I wrote a Saturday essay for a well known newspaper, which I admit to being the days of Windows 3.1 beyond DOS but still wrapped in an envelope with a few give away white blotches from correction fluid.  It was actually a politically motivated article, but the undercurrents were the gang warfare of groups. I think the only thing that has changed is anonymity, the unlikely event of meeting someone the other side of the computer screen and that bullying is more technical than in the past. People haven't changed. Sadly. Understanding, appreciation and acceptance of everything living is not quite there yet. Life is precious. 

My topic here is ADI forums and how we socialise as a group. Yet did I get misled? No. There is a culture creeping through our communities, where secret people and power hungry nobodies gather, does it grow and fester and become approved by the back slappers, or do we cut the ugly culture now and open our arms to everyone, the place where true unity begins.

Do you want to be in my gang?

I am of course crossing two boundaries here. My forums involve people from all around the World, I respect them all. Their desire to take part. To evoke change in the driver training community. I accept the articles that I may not have the language for, but Google does, and I read them all. I want to take time to appreciate everyone's fight. Yet I have been the subject of forum bullying, I may be quite tough when it comes to fighting my corner, but I do feel great pity for the ones who see me as enough of a threat to block and bar me based on my beliefs, and of course the fact I run a business in a similar driver coaching genre. I'm also saddened that members of my family have been abused by bully boy tactics when the song is the same even if the hymn sheet is not always the same way up.

Today I write from a room where I can taste chemotherapy poison as I fight the good fight in the hope I have many tomorrows. My one quest. Get a grip please forum fighters, life is VERY short.

AI Solutions: The Black Box Phenomenon

AI Solutions: The Black Box Phenomenon: I saw a car the other day, in front of me in the petrol station. It had a notice in the back window, so large it was a wonder the driv...

The Black Box Phenomenon

I saw a car the other day, in front of me in the petrol station. It had a notice in the back window, so large it was a wonder the driver could see. It said 'sorry I am driving within the limit I have a black box fitted'. The driver and the young lady with him appeared to be in their late teens, although I am not known necessarily, for my age guessing techniques, I do meet a lot of teens during the week, so consider myself to be accurate-ish.

I wondered why it would be acceptable for apologising for not breaking the law. You don't often walk in to a shop and see someone with a sign on their back saying 'sorry I am not shoplifting today I am being watched'.

Breaking the speed limit has become socially acceptable, and even with pedestrians, drivers and vulnerable road users becoming casualties everyday, it is still thought to be okay. Why would that be? The reason I hear the most is the common misconception that because cars are safer and can (theoretically) stop quicker, the speed limits should be higher. How could that little nugget of information have become accepted amongst drivers so readily? After all if that was so we would have no accidents surely? Or could it be the group of people who can't afford a techy car with modern technology. Let me see, could that be the new driver, the driver most likely, statistically to crash? When you put the inexperienced driver into experienced situations and shared space, the result surely has to be painful when it goes wrong. It's easy to blame the young driver, but the ones making excuses for their speed are the older, experienced, complacent driver, because it's easier to blame the young person. Although young drivers frequently crash in a situation where another vehicle is not involved, we all learn by example, and not one of us is better than the next person, we store information from learned behaviour whether we choose to or not. Breaking the chain is harder than going with the flow, and to be fair what is the incentive. A driver who only sees chaos in their mirror has no need to believe they are in the wrong.

So maybe black box technology, which I have to say I don't support, and I will explain why shortly, should be encouraged by insurance companies. However the uptake would be poor. After all the experienced drivers are not doing it wrong. If they were, we would see more people keen to have further driver education, instead of the sulkers in the speed awareness class, acting like naughty children who got caught, on their roads and now having an infringement on their liberty.

Compulsory black boxes would be a bit like VAT, you have to have it, the premium is added in to everything, and as time goes by on the low rate teaser it then gets higher until you wonder exactly what you are getting for your money, but you are now bound in law and don't have a get out clause.

I seriously have no time for enforced control, because average speed cameras do a better job, you have to take responsibility for your action and watch your speed more closely, with a black box, speed limiter, you can just pay up more later and have no other price to pay. It's also a bit cheeky, have you ever met a poor insurance broker? Why is that then? So why would I want to get poorer while they get richer.

We also then have to investigate learning techniques. Based on a book written in the 1950's no doubt stumbled upon by a degree student, I know this because I stumbled across it the same way while studying for my BSc (hons) Psychology, the decision to move into coaching was made. Would someone please tell me where the coaching is in black box. You see black box technology supports rote, and although I believe rote has a place, and Socrates does agree with me and he was the first coach, learning would come from repetitive behaviour, not exploration of what we do and responsibility. Is that not a backward step or is rote the way forward with driving? The supporters of the black box, and I can name a few fairly quickly, are also the same people who have jumped on the coaching bandwagon to make their living. Probably because actually being out their teaching the drivers of the future wasn't going so well. Understandably. Why not take a more lucrative market.

So sadly the drivers of tomorrow do not have the help they need, because insurance is their concern, not their life. Will black box save lives? Statistically there is no evidence, and as a researcher I like hard figures to work with. Do I want my children to have a black box, no, absolutely not. Until someone can prove to me it's not an intravenous line into the brokers bank. You see I'm sure if it was a case of  a years free insurance if you don't break the rules was in place, they'd be withdrawn.

As a supporter of road safety, education is the key. Not gimmicks. Not money orientated schemes.

Teach the drivers of the future, by whatever method suits them, not us, teach the drivers of the now, not with insurance premium carrots but licence rights.

AI Solutions: Driving Examiner Working Practices

AI Solutions: Driving Examiner Working Practices: So driving examiners made the news, well at least another media hit on a Facebook share. Only 700 tests cancelled in Northampton, I...

Driving Examiner Working Practices

So driving examiners made the news, well at least another media hit on a Facebook share. Only 700 tests cancelled in Northampton, I expected it to be far more. To be honest I don't see a rally of support from any quarters, and in days gone by and definitely if I was in charge I'd sack them all and start again. Harsh? Hardly, we all have a job to do, it pays the bills and for some it pays the bills of the owner of the company. Driving tests are a public service and as such it is only fair to expect that service to go ahead without foot stamping of the employees. As a business owner, and driving instructors are just that, a turnover of income is required to make a living. Keep cancelling tests and instructors lose business and money. It also messes up the diaries and ruins the enthusiasm of the student. So surely there can be no sympathy from the very people that need this service.

Well surprisingly there is some.

Is the sympathy from the instructor community who befriend the examiner for favour, or is it in a misguided belief that if they show anything other than support their students will be treated unfairly. So should the examiner have the support of the tutor, the tax payer, the government, the union, the media, the student?

Starting with the union as that's the easy one. Of course. Pay your fee and have your voice heard, over the last few years unions have crept in the back door and although they do not have the clout of previous years they do have some power. I'm not anti union, I totally support having a voice particularly for the minorities, but I don't support mob rule. Not every examiner belongs to a union so now we have a disturbed working practice. Those who belong strike, or follow the mood of the moment and work to rule. I mean seriously? I pay tax, in bucket loads, and for that I expect something in return. I require my bins to be emptied, my streets to be swept and my driving examiners to turn up for work. Otherwise the money saved for non-paid strike days goes into paying for something else, possibly something I don't actually want, like a new bronze statue in a town centre, or similar. So work to rule equals payment but not service, hmm, nice one - not.

The tax payer, well I have covered that a little, but tax is always a sore subject, we would willingly all have a rise if the NHS and education system were organised properly and run well, would we willingly pay more for a driving test examiner, probably not. Some of that is because many tax payers do not appreciate the importance of good driver training, because driving is often seen as a right. So theoretically they cannot expect any support here.

The Government, well lets hope they would not be supportive of strike action or work to rule, we pay these people to run the country and if something is not working change it. Privatisation has to be the way forward, it's come up so many times it makes me dizzy, yet heel dragging by the back office is a joke. Tenders from other parts of Europe take some negotiating but it could be the step of support for a revised test.

The media. I have some experience here. To sell newspapers it must be good or at least interesting, this is not new news so it is serious straw clutching to revive this old story, and statistics may be cool to the researcher but they are boring as hell for some, trust me, as researcher in a previous life, I've seen plenty of glazed eyes during my number quoting. So how can the media be rallied as an ally, personally I think that's an uphill battle.

The student. They spend a wheelbarrow of money preparing themselves to hit the road, alone, so scary stuff, and manage to negotiate this shared space with inexperience, crossed fingers and in some cases closed eyes. The build up is fretful for some, not so much for others, but test day is a moment that most people can recall regardless of how long ago it was. So to stand outside the test centre excited, scared, stressed, clutching a provisional licence in anticipation of it being upgraded to a full one to be told, sorry your examiner doesn't like his 8 - 4 Monday to Friday job, carrying out 7/8 tests a day, so your test is cancelled. You only have to wait another 12 weeks until you can take it now. So you will need some more lessons, more test preparation, you have to pay for today anyway as this is how your instructor makes a living and this is not their fault, you can claim your expenses of course, it will only take eight weeks for a cheque, yes cheque, you can't pay for your test with one but you do have to receive one for your trouble. Just don't forget to cash it. Sympathetic? I think anyone can answer that.

The tutor. Now we are on tricky ground. Many examiners were tutors too and there is a belief, I have no idea how true, that a driving instructor would become an examiner if their business was unsuccessful, and to be fair in that case I understand the work to rule. To exchange being self employed for a regular job in an industry that is familiar, it must be very difficult to adjust to the demands of the government, to do more work than they anticipated when signing on the dotted line. Shame really. The tutor is torn here. They feel an obligation to support the examiner during these trying times, they also have serious ear ache from their students, who is after all a priority far greater as they pay their wages, about why they have an email on the day of the test saying due to unforeseen circumstances (unforeseen is stretching the truth, they are on work to rule) their test has been rescheduled for the week the ADI is on holiday, but it's okay you can rearrange this but it will mean a longer wait. The ADI is then left hanging for the money that the student will claim back, find a last minute cancellation and spend the claim on their phone bill ringing around to find someone else to take them, as surely it must be the instructors fault they were let down in the first place. I struggle to see this being a win win ever for the instructor as they are in direct firing line, and for every student that smiles and says it's okay it's not your fault, their will be two who secretly think it is.

91% voted in favour of strike action. That is pretty good, they must be really hacked off. They earn the same as an EO in the civil service, so not bottom of the barrel, and from my days of civil service experience, which was CA then CO, to get to EO was hard work, so not a bad pay rate to go in at. You need to be patient and tolerant, sit in a car all day, have a clear disclosure and barring, be a safe driver, have no academic qualifications, be able to write a report and see seven clients a day for an average of 40 minutes at a time. Wow sounds horrific.