Young Scot on the road

Citation

(2005), "Young Scot on the road", Education + Training, Vol. 47 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2005.00447gab.008

Young Scot on the road

Young Scot, an organization offering incentives, information and opportunities to people aged 12 to 26 to help them to make informed choices, play a part in their community, and make the most of their free time and learning, is using a mobile satellite van to take computing facilities and internet access to the Highlands and Islands, providing ICT training and web access to communities in some of the remotest corners of the country.

In partnership with the Scottish Executive Safer Scotland Campaign, Young Scot operates the Young Scot Sp@ce initiative – a Young Scot satellite van touring Scotland, setting up mobile cyber-cafés in various youth-friendly locations. The road show visits school and youth centres, running sessions on topics relevant to young people, as well as shopping centres and other public events when the Sp@ce internet café enables young people to register on youngscot.org, see what Young Scot has to offer and have the opportunity to surf the web.

There are no cyber-cafés or home broadband connections in the small fishing villages and rural communities on the Isle of Skye or the Outer Hebrides. The van has removed many of the obstacles that previously restricted access to internet on the islands. A truly mobile set-up, the satellite van does not need cables or wiring to be installed, taking away the organizational headache of preparing for the technology to be installed and of disposing of the solution afterwards. Effectively a plug-and-play mobile ICT classroom, the satellite van provides instant IT in a box, delivering high-speed internet access and the latest information on health, entertainment, politics and the arts. Simply pressing four buttons creates a wireless network that can support up to 250 users, wherever they are, be it in a local community hall on the Western Isles or a village school in the rugged expanse of the Highlands. The mobile units come equipped with multi-media laptops, a range of digital equipment, scanners and networked broadband internet access.

Meanwhile, e-learning software developer Intrallect is making it easier for the umbrella group of colleges under the University of Highlands and Islands (UHI) Millennium Institute to share valuable learning resources. The institute comprises 14 independent FE colleges and research institutions that come together in a partnership to deliver higher education to the Highlands and Islands region. Teaching and research materials have to be created and moved between the partners and used in online and face-to-face environments. To facilitate this, the institute is using intraLibrary, Intrallect’s learning object management system, to enable the use, reuse and sharing of learning objects across the college network.

John Casey, UHI learning-materials manager, said: “The UHI is using intraLibrary to support the sharing of modular teaching materials in order to cut the costs of developing new courses. It is currently developing workflow models and metadata profiles. The new licensing capabilities enable us to develop an intellectual-property framework integrated into the use of the repository supporting our institutional e-learning strategy.”