It would be difficult for anyone involved in delivering or supporting FE courses not to have encountered the expression e-learning in recent months. If your role has any element of responsibility for the development of the use of new technologies in teaching and learning then you will have been inundated with leaflets, reports, briefing notes, CDs and invitations to seminars and workshops with e-learning in big letters somewhere. And, yes, here’s another but my intention is to try and pick out what appear to be the important bits from all the stuff I receive or hear about and explain in reasonably Plain English what it’s all about and how all this can be really valuable to all of us involved in making our teaching and the students’ learning experience as efficient, as successful and as enjoyable as possible.
Isn’t that what ILT was all about? Yes. And
it still is but Charles Clarke calls it e-learning now and so do the myriad
organisations charged with putting Government policy into practice. Greater
minds than mine are still attempting to define e-learning but if you want
a short definition it’s making the best use of new technologies
to enhance the learning experience. Which is what ILT was, ‘transforming
teaching and learning through development of information technologies’
to quote another leading partner in this field.
So don’t panic – whilst there will be many new developments
there’s nothing really different in any theory that you need to
take on board and whatever progress you’re making with ILT is just
as important, valid and valuable as it has been. The nice thing is that
Charles Clarke has thrown loads more money into the pot for e-learning
and, even if an awful lot of that will be used up by strategy reports,
glossy documents and duplication of effort by the many expanding organisations
who control the flow of funds to those of us who actually teach people,
we shall see some of the cash and some of the ideas and resources produced
with it will make a big difference to what we do for a long time to come.
Keep informed
The purpose of this and future newsletters is to
tell you about those new ideas and resources and to advise how I hope
to be able to help you make sense of it all and make the best use of what
is interesting and relevant to you. Andrew Hill
Your co-ordinator
I have three jobs here at Dunstable College: a lecturer,
ILT Co-ordinator and this is my base for a secondment to the LSDA as the
National e-Learning Co-ordinator for the Eastern Region. These roles provide
an excellent opportunity not only to review and consider developments
but also to see them work in practice and experience some myself. It is,
interestingly, as a lecturer, that I gain the most meaningful insight
and have the constant reminder that, no matter what we call it, all this
is simply about improving teaching and learning. If Martian dust is discovered
next year to have some wonderful effect on the way we produce documents
and a new Secretary of State calls it Red Teaching that’ll just
be another step on the same road.
The National Learning Network
There are currently 7 partner organisations directly
involved in promoting e-learning on behalf of the Department of Education
and Skills.
Becta
JISC
LSC
LSDA
NIACE
NILTA
UKERNA
Web site addresses for these organisations are provided where you can find out more if you wish. Some additional links are also included in the Links section at the end of this newsletter.
What do we need to do?
OFSTED grades will be the prime indicator used by
the Department of Education and Skills in confirming to the electorate
the success of policy initiatives and that will, naturally, include e-learning.
Inspectors will be focussing on the quality of our provision and we shall
need to demonstrate that we have an e-learning strategy and are implementing
it.
In practical terms, this will include:
Efficient and accurate management of
student records.
The duplication of basic student information by
individual staff and departments producing their own lists over and over
again needs to be addressed. Enrolment data, registers, Course Management
File data and progress recording can be co-ordinated but for individual
staff to be able to utilise the central lists training is necessary for
some in how to access and extract what they need. The data management
techniques are little more than many may have learned on a modern IT course
but, unfortunately, few will actually have completed a ‘modern’
IT course and their RSA CLAIT certificate will not be of much help. Staff
training in today’s modern office environment techniques is a must
– referred to later.
The College itself, though, needs a system which will ease the co-ordination and access tasks and, to this end, a Managed Learning Environment (MLE) can provide much of what is required. We are currently considering options such as blackboard (the market leader) and it is expected that the introduction of an MLE will have a significant impact upon the support for the development of e-learning across the curriculum as well as ensuring efficient course administration and communication.
Staff development
Whilst the separate requirement that all teaching
staff acquire an appropriate teaching qualification is already driving
most of our training provision we must also ensure that our training includes
the development of skills both to recognise opportunities to incorporate
new ideas resources and material in delivery and, of course, to implement
them with confidence. We have subscribed to the Ferl Practitioners Programme
(FPP) in order to gain the tools to provide this vital training. It is
intended that all staff involved with the delivery of courses, including
many support and technical staff will have access to the FPP and will
complete the strands of this course most appropriate to their role.
In addition we shall be running briefing sessions on specific topics and recommending that selected staff attend seminars and workshops arranged by the National Learning Network partners. These staff can then pass on the best of what they find to colleagues.
Our ILT Team, representing staff across the Programme Areas and relevant support areas will play a significant part in helping to disseminate good practice and assisting colleagues to recognise opportunities for e-learning development in both the staff rooms and classrooms.
Staff IT skills development
As mentioned above, the certificates held by staff
are no longer a reliable guide to their ability to make the most of the
opportunities new technology brings. The speed of change in today’s
equipment and software has outpaced all but a few of our staff to the
point where even the most experienced of our lecturers may find that their
students can use them more confidently. This balance has to be redressed.
To a large extent it is likely to be a short-term problem as new, younger
staff are more likely to be familiar with modern technology and to accept
it as a natural tool for the job.
A thorough assessment of skills, and attitude to using skills, will be commencing soon. Provided we can get honest answers from people we will be able to provide the relevant training – and in the most effective manner. Whilst there will be many instances where general group sessions will work well, we recognise that there will remain occasions where only one-to-one training, or the provision of an assistant in class for a while, will enable the universal implementation of the best e-learning for the benefit of our students.
Training
will be provided in a wide range of areas including:
File and folder management
E-mail
Using the internet
Desktop Publishing
Data management
Graphs and charts
Simple web design
Digital cameras
Working with image files
Short videos
Presentations
Using projectors, smartboards
as well, of course, as training in specific new applications associated
with our MLE and use of learning resources
Equipment and software
PCs aren’t just for IT students any more,
cameras and videos are not just for Art & Design. Now every student
needs access to the internet, e-mail and every lecturer needs to be able
to make a short video, a smart presentation, create a web site –
or, at the very least, have easy access to people who can understand what
they want to achieve sufficiently well to do the job effectively. Those
‘people’ will be more likely to be teaching colleagues in
future, not IT technicians. This is a significant shift and will be a
welcome incorporation of vital co-operation amongst staff where previously
many have worked very much as individuals doing their own thing.
This co-operation will, in due course, have further very significant implications for developments between colleges too. The key to success for all will, indeed, ultimately be the sharing of ideas, resources and materials. For now, though, we need to get our act together.
IT Services are currently updating equipment and upgrading software across the College with the aim of standardisation of operating systems and the range of programs available to staff and students. This is a continuing process fuelled by the computing industry but the signs are that we may be reaching an ‘equipment specification’ plateau where further processing speed may not actually be necessary to perform efficiently the tasks we require of it. There is no such plateau, though, for ancillary equipment such as smartboards, projectors and digital cameras where major advances continue apace and, mercifully, prices fall or, at worst, remain static. Nor is there a sign of software development easing but as programs improve they get distinctly simpler to use and both the desire to acquire new skills and the acquisition of those skills should serve to help rather than hinder achievement through training.
Examples of software which may be new to many include:
Serif PhotoPlus (image editing)
Macromedia Contribute2 (web site, MLE and intranet editing)
NetObjects Fusion (simple web site creation)
Dreamweaver MX (more advanced web site management)
Hot Potatoes (creation of learning materials)
Windows Movie Maker (simple editing of short video)
Windows Media Player (dealing with sound files, music etc)
Microsoft Visio (creation of visual display documents)
Word XP, Excel XP, PowerPoint XP (even if the names are familiar, what
you can do with them won’t be!)
So, we’ve got the theory, the training, the IT skills, the equipment
and the software . . .
what will really make a difference in the classroom?
Learning materials.
Thousands of them. Your colleagues in other colleges are being encouraged to contribute as many of their notes, assignments, activities – ‘learning objects’ – and most of the National Learning network partners have already produced masses of new stuff. It’s all available. Free. For you. So now it’s your turn. We shall be asking you for copies, preferably not hard copies but we’ll take them if that’s all you’ve got, of whatever you’re using. Initially a catalogue of your materials was going to be created on our MLE or intranet but the advance of web technology and the availability of internet access has expanded to such an extent that it makes sense for national databases of resources to be created and merged with the new, specially designed materials rather than every college developing variations on the same theme. We shall, of course, have a resource bank here but it will comprise links to the many national resources and your stuff there instead. There will be a direct link to your items to make them easy to locate and items which are very specific to your own courses or which you would not wish to share at this time can continue to be stored wherever you wish as at present. As you begin to see what others have created, however, whether within the College or in the National Learning Network or elsewhere on the web, it is very likely that you will increasingly be utilising excellent alternatives, adjusted for your own purpose or as they come and we shall begin to see the fruits of our e-learning labour. A fresh look to an ever-increasing proportion of our teaching and a more student-centred learning environment. There are quite remarkable developments in Key Skills, for instance, and once traditionally tedious subjects such as Health & Safety and Maths can actually become interesting.
Normal, friendly, wise
– practitioners to the fore
I am comparatively new to the concept of e-learning
and very suspicious of so-called ‘new policies’ in education.
There is, indeed, an awful lot of rubbish out there as you will soon discover.
There are still too many people talking ‘eduspeak’ and scaring
many of us with their academic theory and their ghastly jargon. But now
there are many more quite normal teaching staff, friendly staff development
personnel and wise, eloquent technical staff coming to the fore in the
forums that matter. Inspection will remain the bane of our existence for
a round or two more yet, but we shall have a lot to tell them about next
time and to show them the next.
E-learning will not change our grades overnight and your sessions for the rest of term will be pretty much as they are now. But if our attitudes to e-learning – from top to bottom in the College – can be positive, actively interested, co-operative and focussed on providing the best experience for students – change will come. If my attitude can be changed then I’m sure many of yours can too! So, next time you notice ‘e-learning’ don’t just file it away. Please read, and participate, and enjoy it.
Contact
Views, news and requests for help are welcome.
Call Andrew Hill on Ext 219.
E-mail ahill@dunstable.ac.uk
on-line edition with active links and updates available at http://ahi2000.com/studyzone/news2.htm
Links
LSDA
www.lsda.org.uk
LSDA learning resources and databases
www.learningtechnologies.ac.uk
LSDA vocational learning support programme
www.vocationallearning.org.uk
LSDA Key Skills support
www.keyskillssupport.net
help is @ hand
http://www.ukonline.gov.uk/centres/onlineresource
JISC
http://jisc.ac.uk
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