Further education pilots new techniques and resources in e-learning

Citation

(2005), "Further education pilots new techniques and resources in e-learning", Education + Training, Vol. 47 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2005.00447cab.003

Further education pilots new techniques and resources in e-learning

Some £500,000 is being invested in projects that will help trainee teachers to use the latest learning technologies. The money has been awarded to nine “transformation” projects, based mostly in further-education colleges, that will pilot new techniques and resources in e-learning. The projects, which will finish at the end of July, explore different ways of embedding e-learning into initial teacher-training programmes for further education. Each project, run by a single college or a consortium, is receiving between £20,000 and £40,000. The projects are being managed by the LSDA and funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC).

The aim is to find the most effective ways of integrating e-learning into initial teacher-training courses so that all newly qualified teachers working in post-16 education will be competent in using new technologies, from interactive whiteboards to online assessment. The intention is to show new and aspiring teachers how to exploit the benefits of new technology. The end product will be a resource pack that can be used by teacher trainers and trainees in further education.

Markos Tiris, Executive Manager for e-learning and technology at LSDA, said: “Our research shows that there has been a vast improvement in the development of staff skills and a huge increase in the take-up and usage of the internet and other key e-learning technologies by teachers. But there is more to be achieved in order to make e-learning a mainstream activity, and meet the expectations of the Government and the needs of learners”. The projects seek to discover ways of using learning technologies that transform and improve the way people learn so that e-learning is integrated into all teacher-training programmes, rather than offered as a stand alone course. They are investigating what works and why, in areas such as mentoring, assessment and observation, as well as the barriers to e-learning and the support and resources that trainers and trainees need.

Themes being explored through the projects include:

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  finding new ways of observing teachers on teaching practice, such as using video and other technologies;

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  how to use interactive whiteboards and web-based materials effectively;

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  how to set up a “virtual learning environment” so that trainee teachers who are not able to attend a full time course can gain teaching qualifications; and

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  ways of recording achievements through an online professional journal.

The nine colleges and consortia running the projects are Greenwich Community College, Kingston College (with Kingston's Adult Education Service), Weymouth College, South Birmingham College, Barnsley College, Bradford College, Tameside College, the College of West Anglia (with Isle College), and a consortium of colleges in the north east led by Sunderland College.