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Gimborn adapts to the Covid way of life Neil Hallam , Editor Educational establishments around the world closed their doors to students in March this year, when the Covid-19 pandemic made on site lessons too risky. Schools, colleges and universities had to rapidly adapt to new, on-line methods of teaching. IBZ Gimborn was no exception, as they adapted to the new technology. A ny establishment with a large IT department must have had a head start on Gimborn, who have no pool of IT Professors and technicians to call upon. Many of their regular lecturers, myself will see a PowerPoint presentation, just as if you were in a class room. All the participants are listed by name, but you cannot see or hear them. If you have questions, the system has a text message function, through which you can ask your question. Terrorism was the first subject area to go on-line, with a series of six weekly lectures around this fascinating area of policing. Of course, lectures on current policing issues are the cornerstone of Gimborn’s program.

included, are from a generation who did not grow up with today’s technology. Teaching on-line has been a big challenge for all of us, but it is one that we are taking on with increasing confidence. The simplest form of online teaching must be the Podcast. Gimborn quickly embraced this concept, through the Spotify App. For those not in the know, a Podcast is simply a voice recording, which can be played back through your computer. Gimborn’s first Podcast offering was from Professor Karl Roberts, Professor of Policing & Criminal Justice at Western Sydney University, in Australia. Professor Roberts’ lecture explored the challenges faced by the police from Covid-19. He discussed previous pandemic planning, before moving onto the day to day challenges of enforcing new, and sometimes unclear, legislation. Among the challenges, he also explored changes in crime patterns during a lockdown and the important subject of officer wellbeing. Closest to traditional lecturing is the Webinar. This is a way of holding an interactive lecture, or seminar, over the web. Where a Podcast is a recorded event, a Webinar is held as a live broadcast over the internet. Although a Webinar sounds very technical, it is actually quite accessible. You register by simply clicking a link on the Gimborn website, or the IPA Facebook Group. The process is easy and you receive a confirmation e-mail. In this e-mail is another link, which you click a few minutes before the start of the Webinar. This takes you straight into the right area of the website. On your computer screen, you will see the lecturer in a small window and you

But the IPA also looks after our members’ social and cultural needs. This is important both for our retired members, and for the mental wellbeing of our serving officers and staff. The Global Writers’ Forum, led by Section UK’s Writers’ SIG, took the lead with a series of cultural seminars.

Gimborn Seminars - 2021 I hope that you are all as well as can be in these strange and uncertain times. Happily the world, in the main, seems to be getting over the peak of the pandemic and seminars tentatively resumed at Gimborn Castle, in Germany, from June - with drastically reduced numbers for social distancing etc of course. W hilst we don’t know what will happen within the UK for the rest of this year, we can tentatively look forward to 2021 and the ‘new normal’ (dare I use that phrase). It is that time of year when I start to confirm the seminars that Section UK will chair at Gimborn next year. Get in touch and email me ASAP - vpturner@ipa-uk.org - with the following as a guide: • A seminar topic that you think would attract an international audience • Any subject you can speak/lecture on confidently • Seminar topics relevant to the whole policing family, particularly police staff • A seminar topic which you’d go to Germany to attend We aim to reschedule the Gangs seminar with US speakers, hosted by Martyn Linton, in the Spring. We also plan to do joint seminars with Poland and Ireland. However, new ideas are welcome. Whether you want to Chair a seminar, offer your services as a subject matter expert or just fancy a new topic; I want to hear from you.

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POLICE WORLD Vol 65 No.3, 2020