Investigating ILT best practice and implementing new and...

Investigating ILT best practice and implement ing new and emerging technologies in the FE sector – A best practice guide

April 2009

Roger Pilgrim&Darren Moore North Devon College

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Investigating ILT best practice and implementing new and emerging technologies in the FE sector - A best practice guide

Contents

Introduction 3

Context 4

VLEs to enhance engagement 5

- Xaverian 6th Form College – VLE to support tutorials 5

- Brockenhurst College – VLE to support tutorials 6

- Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College - Effective cross college use of VLE 8

•Communication tools 9

•CPD and ILT 10

•Management of VLE 11

- Highbury College Portsmouth – Effective cross college use of VLE 11 •Virtual library 13

•Assessment 14

•CPD and the VLE 14

•Management of the VLE 15

- Lessons learnt regarding VLEs to enhance engagement 15

Other technologies which support teaching and learning 16

- Walsall College - The use of LanSchool to support learning 16 •Walsall College’s VLE 18

- York College – technologies utilised within a new FE build 19 •Three Key technologies: 19

North Devon College – New technologies put to the test 20 •Integrated IT Desks 20

•Mobile laptop storage and recharge units 22

•Visualisers 22

•Audio Sticks 23

- Lessons learnt through the use of other technologies 24

Glossary 27

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Introduction

At North Devon College we have been engaging in BECTA funded research which investigates current Information and Learning Technology (ILT) best practice in the Further Education (FE) sector, through visits to other institutions and the selection of examples of new and emerging technology to trial in teaching and learning at the College.

North Devon College is a highly successful FE College in rural North and East Devon employing over 1000 members of staff and attracting over 17,000 enrolments onto a wide range of vocational and academic programmes each year. In October 2006, Ofsted graded the College ‘outstanding’, recognising the use of ILT as widespread across the college which enhances learning. The College has Beacon status for its widening participation work and in 2008 was named as one of ten ILT exemplar Colleges by Becta, for its strategic approach in embedding technology across the organisation.

This research proceeded through two related strands. We visited other FE institutions that have been considered to have examples of ILT best practice. We have also selected several new or emerging technologies we have not used before at North Devon College to objectively trial over the course of this research project.

This approach to research allows practitioners at North Devon College to learn from their action, decisions and experience around the new technologies trialled. What we learn from visits to other best practice providers will inform management decisions around current and future ILT purchases made as the College seeks to move to a new build site in 2011. We very much hope that managers and practitioners elsewhere will also be able to benefit from this Best Practice Guide. We showcase and assess current best practice and discuss what we have learnt from the new technology trialled, so others can make informed ILT decisions.

This best practice guide focuses on one underpinning area of ILT, Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). Our consideration of VLEs has particularly focused on the pastoral uses of VLEs, including their use in effectively supporting college tutorial functions. Several visits to best practice colleges have been made to learn about their use of VLEs. However, this was non-intentional. We often visited providers to here about other aspects of ILT, but a common theme was that an effectively used VLE was at the centre of best practice ILT in teaching and learning. In a second section we also mention several other ‘best practice’ technologies which support teaching and learning. The final section of the guide highlights the trials of integrated IT desks, mobile laptop trolleys, visualisers and audio sticks at North Devon College. This commentary describes their uses and assesses their value for teaching and learning in FE environments.

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Context

A useful context for the consideration of the use of ILT is provided by a recent Ofsted report into the effective use of VLEs entitled ‘Virtual learning environments: an evaluation of their development in a sample of educational settings1’ It noted that despite expectations, the use of VLEs across schools and colleges has been slow to take off. The report found that while VLEs allow learners and staff to access a wide variety of learning materials, such as notes and handouts, practice tests, PowerPoint presentations, video clips and links to useful internet sites, the concept of VLEs was still relatively new, and represented only a small aspect of learning.

Of those organisations surveyed, colleges were found to be making the most use of VLEs, while primary schools the least. VLEs were shown to be effective:

In reinforcing lessons seen in the classroom•Allowing catching up on missed work •In improving learners’ knowledge.•When use of VLE materials were encouraged by teachers• When skilled and confident teachers and tutors treated the VLE as an extension •of their normal work

Where a “technology champion” was a key element to the VLE. •

Where VLEs were found to be least effective, the tool was used as a “dumping ground” or storage place for rarely used files, rather than for material that enhanced the face to face learning done inside the classroom.

Despite the fact that the sector as a whole has been slow to embrace new technologies there are good examples of effective practice that the sector can learn from. Some colleges have used VLEs particularly well to assist in the pastoral role as described in the following section.

1 Ofsted, 2009, ‘Virtual learning environments: an evaluation of their development in a sample of educational settings’, HMI: 070251

Example VLE page from North Devon College

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VLEs to enhance engagement

A number of colleges have used VLEs to effectively enhance learner engagement. This combines academic engagement and pastoral care. With regard to learners, social and personal development, VLEs are used to support the tutorial function and help with improvements in retention rates by providing tools for both tutors and tutees.

Xaverian 6th Form College – VLE to support tutorials

Xaverian College is an open-access inner city Roman Catholic sixth form College. The College draws from a diverse community, and 64% of its learners are from disadvantaged areas.

It has a rich tradition but is also very keen to make good use of technology. The College has a well developed integrated VLE that has been particularly effective in relation to its use as a tool to support the tutorial function.

The VLE is used to provide an online individual learning plan (ILP) for every learner that supports the tutorial process. An effective feature is a traffic light system used to monitor attendance, punctuality and academic performance for which each learner has a specific target. When learners log on they see their lights against these criteria and this helps them to focus on actions required to improve. The College’s attendance rates of 94% are very good and are partly due to this close monitoring.

Good access is essential in order to ensure that learners and their tutors are able to make effective use of technology. Consequently each student has a one hour tutorial and one hour learning skills sessions each week, both of which are located in IT rooms. In these session learners can access the VLE, work on resources provided and see their performance against targets. Furthermore learners can access the VLE from home.

A variety of information is available to staff and students beside the ILP and monitoring of targets. Content to support the curriculum is provided in order that learners know what is going on in any session, and what additional resources could be accessed before or after the session to support their learning. This information includes: course guides, assessment plans, schemes of work, exercises and

Xaverian Sixth Form College

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additional resources. In some subject areas podcasts of key concepts are made to support revision and students can download them onto MP3 players.

A particular emphasis at the moment is to provide resources to assist in extending •gifted and talented learners.

Proxy servers are used effectively to ensure that social sites are only available •during periods when it would be appropriate for learners to access these sites.

The burden of report writing has been reduced for staff due to the system that •has been developed that allows the output from regular reviews to be captured online and to feed into formal reports.

A parent portal is also part of the VLE. This allows parents and guardians to •view timetables; attendance data; punctuality data; reports; reviews and exam results. About 20% of parents make regular access to the portal.

To support the developments and encourage the effective use of ILT a number of structures and support is available at Xaverian. An educational technologist is on hand to help staff. A teaching and learning base has been created within which ideas can be developed and good practice shared. An ILT strategy group provides the steer for developments. This group include key decision makers and budget holders and is able to be a key driver.

The next planned development of the VLE is to allow learners to record more information themselves including the use of blogs; information to support the creation of references; and submission of assignments.

Brockenhurst College – VLE to support tutorials

Brockenhurst College is a large tertiary college in the New Forest in Hampshire with learners attending from a wide catchment area. It has also developed electronic tutorial support tools. These developments have coincided with a review of the tutorial process whereby the College has moved away from requiring all teachers to be tutors. Instead, teachers with particular tutoring skills can now tutor a number of groups. This is only possible if very good access to timely information is available alongside good communication channels.

The success of its approach has been identified in a recent Ofsted inspection where the College was graded outstanding throughout. The report noted that pastoral support is exceptionally good at the College. Personal tutors monitor students’ progress thoroughly and systems for recording students’ individual learning plans, achievement, attendance and overall performance are excellent. Ofsted felt teachers and tutors share information particularly well and use a range of modern technology to facilitate communication with students and with each other.

The College has developed a bespoke package that it has called Emily. It is a web based ASP.net application. Connected to online registration facilities, the system provides clear, up to date information regarding a learners’ progress. Teachers

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see one view, with data related to their learner. When logging on a teacher is presented with student-related messages. This view includes flags against their list of students (with photos) that indicate progress, attendance and academic performance.

A useful facility is a log of the communication between students, teachers and tutors. This is particularly valuable when students require formal reviews. Teachers can raise a subject level agreement with target dates for completion and review dates.

Tutors can view all their groups and information required to undertake tutorial support. At a glance they can view flags that indicate potential concerns that need to be acted upon and can see the relevant messages. In order to facilitate ready access to technology most tutor groups are scheduled into an IT room.

Students see a different view of the data, which includes an individual learning plan (ILP) where they are able to keep a blog that describes progress and issues encountered. Teachers and tutors can contribute to these blogs.

Brockenhurst College – EMILY Teacher’s view

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A Parents Portal is also available within which a student’s progress, attendance, timetable, etc can be viewed by parents or carers that have registered for this facility. 30% of parents are regular users of this.

Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College - Effective cross college use of VLE

Ealing Hammersmith and West London College is a large multi-campus general further education college based in the London boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham, and Ealing. The College offers courses in all 15 subject sector areas. The College is the largest provider of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) in the United Kingdom.

The use of ILT and managed learning environment (MLE) is integral to everything that the College does. In order to support this, all teaching staff are given their own

tablet PC, which gives flexible access to the MLE and improves mobility of teachers and their classes. The development of wireless campuses and fully web-based MIS/MLE supports all college operations. By this method the use of e-learning and the VLE has been totally embedded at all stages of a learner’s life and across the whole institution. Development of the college network is now focussing on Web 2. The IT Services Manager is starting to explore the use of Web 2 and social networking and also the possibility of using the online virtual world, Second Life. As part of this he is experimenting with embedding a link to the college VLE within learners’ social networking sites.

The college network supports various MIS systems: central admissions; identity cards; online registers; as well as learning in the classroom. There is a student portal to offer the learners a ‘highly personalised learning experience’. 14-16 learners from schools automatically have access to the college’s student portal and the school staff can have access to resources and these learners’ records.

The students’ portal is the core of the personalised support that is offered on the college network. Learners can access it from anywhere at any time. Through their own user identification and password, each learner sees their own programme of study linked to their individual timetable.

There is much support for learners’ activities on the portal e.g.-

Induction• covers the use of the students’ portal and ILT, to enable the learners to settle quickly, as it provides online information about their responsibilities and demands of their course. This includes videos of college services which are particularly useful for part-time learners or those who miss the original

Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College - Southall Site

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induction. At induction the learner will complete a self assessment about their confidence and record their learning goals and these will be reviewed in tutorials

Individual learner’s needs• are assessed using online diagnostic screening tools. The results of which are fed into the register system to provide additional support and for practitioners to review during tutorials.

• Schemes of work: When a learner logs in to the portal their individual timetable is presented where each session is linked to the scheme of work, showing learning outcomes for the session; key skills covered; links to the handouts; PowerPoints; online learning resources; blogs and assignment downloads. Every member of staff throughout the college provides this online information for their students and this is reviewed by senior managers to ensure quality.

• Advice and guidance and learning support information is available on the portal allowing learners and potential learners to explore the college services including careers and counselling. ‘The Edge’ keeps applicants informed and interested in the College. For instance, a learner wrote about her experiences when she spent a day at the College; this was posted on ‘The Edge’ for other applicants to see how exciting it is at the College.

• Attendance and punctuality: Each learner sees their current attendance and punctuality percentages on their home page, which is provided from the online registration data. This encourages self motivation.

Tutorials• use aspects of the learner’s portal to guide the tutorial discussions. For example, information stored on the portal such as assessment grades and feedback, are used to compile strengths and areas for improvement and to set targets. This review, which is always available on their portal, gives students ownership of their learning.

Benefits for learners - One teacher from a local school said “Having been part of the pilot of the VLE with our 14-16 learners, studying in the Business division, I can really see the positive impact on learners’ engagement and retention. Learners being able to access their work online and at home have made a real difference to learners’ achievement. The biggest benefit has been that they can track and follow their achievement grades so that they all know where they are and what they need to do to improve.”

Communication tools

Each division of the College has an online Community. The community home page links to aspects which will be of interest and includes induction; newsfeeds; galleries of learner work; podcasts; resource spotlights and videos produced by the learners which are frequently changed.

Each college campus also has a Community which covers aspects of interest in the centre and the local area.

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There are class discussion forums which are moderated by a practitioner. These also have the photos of each member of the class, allowing learners to send an email to a discussion member by clicking the photo.

The above communication tools are used in many ways at the College, for example:-

Induction using Google groups.• ‘The Apprentice’ is a two week activity used by the Business division as an induction for level 3 learners. The project involves small groups producing a business and marketing plan for a given scenario. The teams meet once a day; firstly they compile a skills audit, and then work collaboratively using the learning centre and Google groups to prepare the plans and a presentation. There is a staff mentor available remotely. This develops team work, verbal and written communication skills. Learners have reported getting part time work on the basis of this experience.

A teacher commented, ‘This is a great way of delivering serious business skills in an interesting way. The learners were really engaged and seemed to have a lot of fun too’.

• Blogs. One example of blogging occurred before, during and after a visit to Germany by students with learning difficulties, most of whom had never travelled away from home before. They took with them video and digital cameras and MP3 players. The staff and learners used cameras and audio devices to record the experiences and enable people at home to view the daily activities on the blog. Everyone participated with their own personalised experience and parents at home were reassured. The staff were not particularly familiar with these technologies before the trip, but now are convinced of the benefit they brought to the experience.

CPD and ILT

Two ILT trainers within the Professional Development Division offer cross college ILT support for staff.

With such a high usage of ILT in the College, a new member of staff needs to be familiar with the ethos and practicalities from the start. Each new employee has an ILT Training Log which lists the expertise required and begins with an ILT skills audit. This is supported by an ILT induction which includes use of the:-

resources i.e. network; tablet PCs; data projectors; interactive whiteboards; •digital cameras and video cameras

staff intranet and student portal; •MIS functions: how to enrol a learner; data; registers;•online schemes of work and learning resources.•

Beyond induction, there is support from ILT Curriculum advisers; ILT teaching and learning workshops and an ILT home page on the staff intranet. Recorded on here are examples of best practice; many videos of learners’ voice – the views of learners regarding aspects of provision. Also on this home page is advice on how

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to apply for innovation funding, a central resource open to all practitioners to fund innovative ideas.

Ambitious ILT development days are held to raise awareness. Here, staff can choose from a wide range of sessions including blogging; using mobile technology; splash casting; Web 2.

Management of VLE

A variety of services supports the use of ILT. These are guided by the MIS/MLE Strategy Group:-

Design team service• is a cross-college team managing innovation, accessibility and consistency of web and multimedia environments. They will transform paper-based materials into multimedia resources; create multimedia resources; develop and advise on new technologies.

ILT Curriculum advisers• support staff to identify appropriate use of ILT to enhance delivery; give in-class support; help teams to build schemes of work and assignments; help create or find interactive learning materials.

• Learning centre service is an extended library service which also offers support to help with: ILT; online testing support; research online resources; IT skills workshops; catalogue web-based learning materials and links.

Highbury College Portsmouth – Effective cross college use of VLE

Highbury is a large general further education college situated in Portsmouth. The College offers a wide range of vocational programmes in most sector subject areas. The Highbury College VLE has a range of services for learners and practitioners which are available anywhere in the world. Currently there are over 4,000 users of the VLE and statistics show high usage, even at weekends, when the system has around 1000 hits.

When learners or practitioners log onto the VLE they see their home page - MyPage. Here they have access to:-

their courses; •assignments due in; •learning resources;•latest course news; •messaging facilities;•

Highbury College Tower

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calendar of up and coming events; •range of forums;•student support services courses;•Wikipedia search;•course users who are online;•

All learner surveys take place on the VLE, which analyses the results for use by the Quality team.

Whenever a new resource is planned for the VLE, all learning styles are considered and, where possible, it will include interactive resources, videos and printable materials. Each month there is an analysis of usage of the VLE and the most popular (those areas which are always in the top 20) are highlighted to users.

Student Support Services have extensive resources on the VLE including:

• Message boards which are very well used and cover many topics from finance to accommodation issues;

• Glossary which is very comprehensive for learners’ support. It is not only searchable alphabetically but can also be searched by category – e.g. Bullying.

• Careers section with many useful resources and videos on researching careers, job hunting tips, exemplar CVs (chronological, functional and targeted) and letters for job application. Local labour market information with a PowerPoint on the skills that employers require, work experience and local part-time vacancies. There are also many resources here for applying to Higher Education.

Induction• section where all induction materials are stored for use by learners who may start their course late. This area includes quizzes about the College, resources on study skills, information about Individual Learning Plans and a quiz to recognise SMART targets.

….and much more including:

Up and coming events•Student magazine •College information•Photographic images•Counselling service•Connexions•Students’ Union •Useful web links•

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Virtual library

The virtual library is for both practitioners and learners to assist with study and providing access to electronic resources and other information. Again there are a range of interactive resources, videos and quizzes in the following sections:-

Curriculum resources1. Ask a librarian2. Information sources3. Finding information4. Equality & Diversity5. Heritage Online (library catalogue)6. Searching the Internet 7. Using electronic resources 8. Study skills 9. Newsletters10.

Within the virtual library resources there is access to Symbol World for learners with learning difficulties where the interactive resources use Makaton symbols for explanation e.g.

The Virtual Library is supported by a virtual librarian who manages this area of the VLE, as well as news feeds, library message boards and learners’ queries.

An example of IT curriculum resources

All learners have access to their course area on the VLE. Within that area will be course information including timetable; glossary; handbook and discussion forums. Within each course there will be an area for each unit with:-

Unit specifications•Unit Scheme of work•Useful websites•Resources for the unit•Assignments•Resources for the unit•

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To give an example, the resources for Units of a level 2 full time ICT course included a very wide range of learning resources e.g.

Interactive tutorials for HTML; Flash guides• Web links for Domain names; advantages of web hosting; DDA •accessibility for websites

Slides on how to make Flash presentations; how to create forms in •Dreamweaver; working with layers

Learning objects on using colour; creating buttons and a navigation •bar in Dreamweaver; creating pop up menus in Fireworks; examples of Splash screens

Moodle quizzes on hardware basics; binary • Documents relating to proof reading; audiences; examples agendas; •colour theory for web design

National Learning Network (NLN) materials•

Assessment

Staff make use of the formative assessment opportunities on the VLE through quizzes and multiple choice tests. Moodle generates the results of tests for practitioners, each learner’s answers with results and time taken. This information can be downloaded onto a spreadsheet.

Learners can upload their assignments to the VLE. Moodle enables the practitioner to record their written feedback and grades, which can be viewed by the learner.

Benefits for learners - A recent Ofsted inspection commented favourably on the progress being made. Reference was made to developing the use of ILT to help students to learn and the virtual learning environment being used to good effect in many areas.

Ofsted reported that Literacy and Numeracy teachers utilise a good range of methods and use well-produced learning materials, including ILT, which help to motivate learners.

CPD and the VLE

ILT training is well embedded in the CPD programme of the College. Every new member of staff has a half day induction to ILT, this is part of a ‘Tips for Teachers’ course which is 6 half days in duration.

There are many very useful tutorials on the VLE to support staff after they have attended any ILT training sessions. For instance, following training in the use of Smartboards there are several learning resources on the VLE to support

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practitioners, including 2 minute interactive tutorials, five printable documents and the BECTA guidelines on the use of Smartboards.

There are many learning objects for practitioners on the use of Moodle, some of which have been designed and written in-house. There are several user guides, Moodle videos and other e-learning materials for practitioners, which include: Good practice guides; CPD quizzes and NLN materials.

The College also delivered CPD to practitioners from a local school and supported this with a mentoring facility on the VLE.

Management of the VLE

The ILT Development Coordinator at Highbury is responsible for the management of the content of the VLE with the support of an e-learning Advanced Practitioner and the e-learning Officer. These colleagues work closely with the 8 other Advanced Practitioners in the Centre of Excellence of Teaching and Learning which is part of the Quality function in the College.

Lessons learnt regarding VLEs to enhance engagement

The effective use of a VLE to support tutorials requires a college to •have a clear view about what it expects from tutors and tutorials and a recognition that support continues outside of the formal tutorial slot.

Ready access to ILT during at least some of the tutorials is essential. • Clear indicators of progress, whether through traffic lights or flags helps •considerably to focus attention on issues as they arise.

An effective VLE can facilitate communication between all parties •involved in the support of a learner, including their parents/carers.

The development of an effective electronic individual learning plan is •also important and becomes a live document that is regularly referred to and updated.

Broader curriculum use of a VLE requires CPD, as well as a whole college •approach stimulated by senior managers.

Opportunities for sharing good practice need to be provided • ILT champions are effective where good use is made of their enthusiasm •and expertise.

The most effective use of VLEs occurs where providers have the capacity to develop bespoke elements that best meet their needs and where there is good use made of MIS data. In all the examples visited colleges have invested in teams to develop solutions. Despite the existence of some good ‘off the peg’ software, colleges need access to expertise in order to tailor solutions to best meet their needs.

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Other technologies which support teaching and learning

A variety of technologies have been used in colleges for many years. Most schools and colleges have introduced interactive whiteboards, including the ones sampled in this report, and their use has been well described elsewhere.1 What follows is a summary of the effective use of some other technologies observed which may represent current and emerging best practice.

Walsall College - The use of LanSchool to support learning

Walsall College is a large further education college situated within Walsall Metropolitan Borough. The College offers courses in most subject sector areas and recruits 57% of its learners from areas of deprivation.

Walsall College has invested in the use of LanSchool.

LanSchool provides teachers with the tools to control, display, broadcast, disable and interact with student PCs. It enables the teachers to enhance the learning

experience and ensure that their students remain on task. The teacher’s screen can be broadcast to all students, so they can follow the demonstration on their screens. Teachers can also send a student’s screen to all other students.

The remote control function allows the teacher to ‘take control’ of any student’s computer. This allows the teacher to give guidance to a student on a particular task and not make this obvious to other students. Rather than demonstrating in person

1 e.g. Becta annual Research conference 2006 - symposia session - Fostering participation of learners using interactive whiteboards

Wallsall College

LanSchool – Viewing thumbnails of students’ screens

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on a student’s computer, the teacher can correct any mistakes, open programs etc for the student from a distance. The teacher can view one or all students’ screens at once. This makes it easy to make sure all students are on-task. Student screens can be captured, ensuring that a record of work is saved.

LanSchool can power up and shut down all students’ PCs. This can save time at the beginning and end of sessions. Teachers can send messages to individual students or groups, allowing reminders of how long is left, offering advice to a student or effectively getting a distracted student back on-task etc.

LanSchool also allows assessment; LanSchool’s test builder easily creates tests that can include graphics and be timed. When the test is taken by students, the teacher can watch in real-time where and how they are doing on the test. Results are

automatically calculated and can be exported to an electronic grade book, significantly reducing the time to administer and grade tests. Voting means teachers can get a quick pulse on whether or not students understand a concept. A question can be answered and the results shown immediately to the teacher. Voting using LanSchool replaces the need for other voting technology.

The initial attraction for Walsall College was the way such technology could help with behaviour management in IT rooms, and in particular to view learner screens and adjust access to websites for individuals. Learners quickly moderate their use of the internet when they are aware that the teacher can easily see the contents of their screen and also see a log of activity for a session. Teachers can display thumbnails of students’ screens using the overhead projector.

It soon became apparent that teaching and learning could be enhanced in many ways besides providing teachers with a level of control. Pace can be added to a lesson with a message reminder of the remaining time for a task. Displaying good work is effortless. A learner’s work can be displayed on the desktops of all the PCs in the classroom to demonstrate a particular aspect of a piece of work. Collaborative solutions to problems a learner is experiencing can be developed in a similar manner.

LanSchool – Viewing websites accessed

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Walsall College’s VLE

Walsall College also makes use of a Moodle VLE. In certain departments all course content is stored on the VLE. For these qualifications coursework is now submitted online (providing an electronic date stamp) marked online and returned with comments.

The managers find the cover arrangements for absent staff much easier as schemes of work, lesson content, course notes, etc are readily available. Quizzes, formative and summative assessments stored on the VLE support learning.

A significant benefit of the VLE is its use in supporting absent students and helping to ensure that a period of absence does not end up in a student leaving the College. The College is situated in an ethnically diverse area of the West Midlands and some students need to visit the Indian subcontinent for up to 6 weeks, which includes term time. Staff are able to support these learners through the VLE, maintain contact, direct the learning and assess submitted work.

The College has a team of 4 developers to support the VLE, develop staff skills, etc.

LanSchool – Student voting

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York College – technologies utilised within a new FE build

York College moved to its impressive new building in September 2007. The main atrium is set out like a high street, featuring student run facilities such as travel agents, restaurant, and beauty salons. The college offers a wide range of subjects, levels and modes of study.

York use Blackboard as their VLE platform connected to their MIS software for automatic registration of enrolled learners.

Three Key technologies:

Tablet laptops are provided for all permanent staff with a contract of at least 0.5. Docking stations for the tablets, which include a mouse and keyboard are available in staff rooms and classrooms. Tablets provide a level of

interaction for staff and students. They are used by learners to contribute and collaborate, e.g. using ‘Mind Genius’ software to ‘mind map’ solutions to problems. The tablets can easily be connected to multi-media projectors in classrooms either through the base stations or via wireless access. This means PCs are not needed in most classrooms.

Centrally controlled multi-media projectors are used. This allows for central monitoring of lamps, temperature of projectors, etc. It also means that central messages can be broadcast to all multi-media projectors if required. This allows urgent messages to be displayed to learners in classrooms, rather than assuming students will look at information screens in central college areas.

Unsupervised quiet learning hubs The current floor space at York College is only 60% of the previous building. Learning centres are found on each of the 3 floors which feature a combination of PCs. In addition effective use is made of open spaces with quiet learning hubs on each corridor within which learners work unsupervised. These have desk spaces and PCs. Because these are in visible, open spaces adjacent to thoroughfares that staff walk through, learners work well independently, but without the need for additional supervision.

York College

York College – Tablet docking station

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North Devon College – New technologies put to the test

North Devon College is a medium-sized tertiary FE college with its main site in Barnstaple, serving a large rural and dispersed local community. Courses range from recreational learning for pleasure to full honours degrees offered in partnership with the University of Plymouth. On commencing this research the College selected several technologies that it felt represented new ILT with the potential to be best practice and has trialled these technologies for eight months.

Integrated IT Desks

An integrated IT desk is characterised by the majority of the PC’s hardware and cabling being integrated within the desk itself. A jigsaw design means that the desks can be linked and locked together. This means that the heavy desks are almost ‘theft proof’ and a locked faceplate means that students cannot access the computers, hence the desks and computers become almost vandal-proof. The unique cable management system ensuring all cabling is inside the desk, prevents accidents and eliminates the chance of cables becoming disconnected.

North Devon College selected integrated desks not only for their security features, but also for their flexibility. While a standard IT desk gives more work

space, in two of the three IT suites selected for trialling the desks, the College has equipped rising integrated desks. These desks allow the computer screen, keyboard and mouse to drop into the desk

North Devon College

North Devon College – Rising Integrated IT Desks

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converting an isle of computer stations to normal desk space. Now classes that require both computers and large desk spaces can use the one room, saving space and timetabling issues. This system therefore allows a combination of individual access to PCs and collaborative group work within the same session.

The College had anticipated the effective use of the rising desks in lessons such as technology where students create plans using CAD software and then need large desk space to view and discuss the printed plans. However, a Functional Skills Lecturer revealed that ‘They are ideal for project work, students can discuss their project in groups across the table and then we raise the computers up when each student has their particular subject to research’.

However, the issue staff experience with rising IT desks is that when the isle is up, due to the layout of the rooms, students need to stand up to see the whiteboard over the isle; this is not ideal. Also, having to lower the whole isle rather than just individual machines is not as flexible a solution as being able to use single flip desks. It also takes several minutes for students to shut down their machines, tuck in keyboards and mice and lower the desks. Having the isles lowered while the session is introduced so learners cannot be distracted by their computers is beneficial, but such benefits do not warrant the cost.

In one of the classrooms with rising IT Desks they have very rarely been lowered, this is likely to be the case because these rooms are considered IT rooms by teachers and students alike. They are booked and used when learners require computers. One student commented ‘Waste of money, if you want desk space at a computer you just move the keyboard out the way’. As such these rising IT desks are not recommended as a replacement for general IT rooms, but do hold potential for learning environments where students do require a mix of large table space and IT access.

However, integrated IT desks have also been installed in open access areas to allow students unsupervised use of the technology. In a common room a bar stool approach has been adopted. This provides students

North Devon College – Integrated IT desks in common room

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with access to computers for tasks requiring a short amount of time such as accessing timetables and messages. Indeed, a student commented ‘It’s good to have computers in the common room, I can quickly check my emails and send any lecture notes to print’. Since the computers are situated in a busy common room, students do tend to use the computers briefly and for work purposes

Mobile laptop storage and recharge units

These mobile units offer a function whereby laptops can be securely stored and charged ready for use by students as necessary. Laptops can be used by students as necessary in normal classrooms, saving space otherwise needed for fixed PCs and allowing use across classrooms, meaning laptops are rarely out of circulation.

At North Devon College a trolley of laptops are shared across the School of Humanities and Science, loaded with specialist software, but shared across over 50 qualifications.

The laptops are taken to the students rather than the other way around. Options before the

use of this laptop trolley included, students sharing a few PCs available in some classrooms, relocating classes to a room with PCs for analysis and/or borrowing of laptops from learning resources. The availability of laptops gives flexibility in their use, means students can seamlessly work in labs throughout experiments and particularly reduces the need for PCs in science labs which has health and safety implications.

However, a problem experienced at North Devon College is the significant reduction of battery performance, as laptops are used for up to an hour at a time and then recharged rather than being fully charged from a flat battery as recommended. In the Science labs where they are most often used this has not been a problem as there is ready access to mains supply at workstations. This is not the case when these laptop trolleys are used in other subject areas.

North Devon College – Laptop Storage Trolley

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Visualisers

A visualiser or document camera is a type of video camera that can display any object and document on any projection screen. The object can be a 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional object and can be a map, handout or any page from a book.

The projection screen used can be a whiteboard, interactive whiteboard, wall or any flat surface. Visualisers can also save documents and objects as moving or static images. In teaching, a visualiser can be used to display a high quality image of an object on a whiteboard for students to see up close, without the need to crowd around a demonstration. With a number of visualisers, students can capture their individual work to be displayed on the screen, in order to evaluate and compare work.

At North Devon College, visualisers have been purchased both for teacher use, as well as portable visualisers that students are able to use. Students can project their images onto a wall, but all images can still be displayed on the main projection screen at the teacher’s control.

Visualisers have been used at the College primarily in Science subject areas, where they have been used to magnify slides in biology, record demonstrations that can be made available to students indefinitely and to effortlessly display a key page of a textbook.

Dissections can be undertaken and viewed by the whole class through this technology with key stages captured on video and made available on the college VLE. Chemical reactions can be displayed and recorded easily. For example, a beaker can placed on the flat bed visualiser, chemicals added and the reactions noted by the whole class as the image from the visualiser, which looks up through the beaker, is projected onto the whiteboard. Images can be saved on the VLE and then used by students as they write up the experiment. Within Mathematics tessellations and rotations can be captured and easily displayed to the whole class.

North Devon College – Visualiser for Student Use

North Devon College – Flatbed Visualiser

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Over time and after wider CPD training on the use of visualisers this technology will be used in other subject areas, particularly where demonstrations are given and students need to capture evidence of their work in progress, eg catering.

Audio Sticks

Dictaphones are now affordable as an option for use by small groups of learners. Digital recording, compact size and large capacities, have led to these audio sticks being purchased and used at North Devon College in a variety of ways. They provide a useful revision tool. Learners summarise key concepts in there own words and then record them in order that they can be played back as part of their revision. The files can be made into a podcast, uploaded to the VLE and later downloaded onto I-Pods, mobile phones, etc.

In keeping with revision, audio sticks can also be very effective when used to encourage students to explain an aspect of the curriculum. Based on the principle that to explain something to others one first has to have a good understanding of that concept. The effectiveness of ‘teaching’ others as an approach to learning can be seen, as students spend time in groups developing and then recording a summary of a concept. This summary is then shared with the other groups and a discussion takes place over the accuracy of the content. This is a very useful learning tool and has been used to good effect across A Level provision.

Teachers have also taken and used the Dictaphones when marking and tried providing students audio feedback, particularly for formative assessment tasks. This has been effective, with teachers often finding it quicker to record verbal feedback as they mark work and also the feedback is typically emailed to students who can receive and implement their feedback more quickly.

North Devon College – Audio Sticks

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Lessons learnt through the use of other technologies

Software such as LanSchool provides more than behaviour management facilities. It can enhance the learning experience considerably through allowing teachers and students to share good practice, problems, etc. Additional tools available in such packages such as voting facilities can support learning interaction. Key benefits involve subtly keeping learners on track without disturbing other engaged learners and teachers being able to take control and therefore model solutions on a learner’s screen potentially from a different room.

On the basis of the visit to Walsall College and other positive reports, North Devon College has purchased LanSchool. The College is now considering whether to use LanSchool not only in IT suites but also in Learning Resources areas, in order that support staff can remotely assist students working in open access IT rooms, but also monitor and manage student access to websites in these areas that are strictly for college work purposes.

A visit to York College and trials at North Devon College has revealed that unsupervised PCs are effectively used, if they are strategically positioned and secure. When staff and other learners are nearby or likely to be around, students tend to engage in their work and not use computers for long periods of personal use. Integrated desks are very effective in their security. At North Devon College four such secure integrated PCs are available for use in a Common room until 9.30pm each evening. Adults studying evening classes often check their College email accounts using these PCs.

Flexible integrated IT desks are also of use where learning environments are multi-functional. In new builds, where space is often constrained, they could be particularly useful. However, rising isles of desks were less successful in the trials undertaken due to limited flexibility and their constrained use. It would be better to be able to convert individual IT desks to standard desks as needed.

Current and emerging best practice can often save space and the need for large numbers of PCs within Colleges. For instance mobile laptop trolleys mean learners can use laptops in standard classrooms and in practical rooms where PCs are often impractical. Equipping teachers with laptops or tablets implies that each classroom does not need a PC. The tablets seen at best practice providers replace the function of a classroom PC as they make use of multimedia projectors and college networks, they are also mobile and students can use the tablets effectively.

The great benefit of Visualisers is that students can remain in their workspace and view on a large screen something in microscopic detail either on the teachers desk or other learner’s work. Before this new technology students would have had to have moved around the classroom to view the work of

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others. Also there is no need to take turns at a microscope as the visualiser’s image can be projected onto any clear wall. When one further considers that the visualisers can act as digital and video cameras, the opportunities for use of this technology are countless. As such North Devon College can thoroughly recommend this ILT and is investing in wide CPD training to roll out their use in many subject areas.

Perhaps the most effective best practice evident has been seen in the simplest (and cheapest) technology. Audio sticks have proven to be very effective in teaching and learning at North Devon College. They save time when teachers use them to record feedback for students. Moreover, this also holds potential to reduce the amount of paper-based assessment. The sticks have proven to be dual purpose as learners also use them. This has been most effective in individual revision and during all manner of groupwork.

Opportunities need to be given for staff to explore these applications of technologies and experiment with their use. ILT like Tablets, LanSchool, Visualisers and audio sticks can be used in a variety of ways, but staff need to be encouraged to explore their applications. At North Devon College new technology is often trialled in certain subject areas or with certain types of learners before being used more widely if found to be effective. But broader use of ILT requires opportunities for sharing of good practice. Show and tell events can be successful in disseminating best practice within a college. CPD is essential, but so is a whole college approach supported by senior managers.

It has been apparent when considering these other teaching and learning technologies that the use of a VLE is often associated or necessitated by other technologies. LanSchool can be used alongside a VLE, with demonstrations and test results made available on a VLE. Considering visualisers and audio sticks, the application of these technologies is limited without the use of a VLE. For instance pictures and videos captured using a visualiser can be uploaded to a VLE to be accessed again. Class feedback and the outcome of student groupwork recorded on audio sticks can be uploaded to a VLE as a resource. Therefore the output from these examples of ILT can significantly add to the quality of resources available on VLEs, as well as reducing the need for hard copies.

Finally it is worth reiterating the importance of effective use of a VLE. The range of best practice providers visited as part of this research were diverse. However, they all held in common efficient, varied and innovative use of their VLEs. Therefore regardless of specific ILT used, FE Colleges must ensure their VLE actively engages learners and is used to improve the learning experience for both students and teachers.

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Glossary

ASP.net is a Microsoft web development environment that allows programmers to build dynamic web sites and web applications

Blog is a frequently updated online journal or diary

CAD Computer-aided design software is used by architects, artists, and others to create precision drawings or technical illustrations.

Dreamweaver A Macromedia software product that aids in the authoring of web pages and the management of web sites

Fireworks is a bitmap and vector graphics editor used in web design.

Flash is used to create animation and various web page components. Can be used to integrate video into web pages and to develop rich Internet applications

ILP Individual learning plan

ILT Information learning technology describes the methods of using technology to enhance the learning experience within education. It is an acronym used within further education.

Makaton is a method of communication using signs and symbols and is often used as a communication process for those with learning difficulties

MIS Management information system

MLE Managed learning environment which is the integration of MIS and VLE.

Moodle is a free and open source virtual learning environment, or course management system, that is widely used around the world

Podcast is an audio or video recording posted on a website that can be downloaded and played later.

Proxy Server is a server on a computer network that provides security for the machines behind it and also can speed up access to certain resources

Second Life is an online virtual world within which a community of users interact

Social networking on the web is similar to networking in real life but with some differences. For instance there are sites to share your bookmarks or your photographs. You find something you like and can share it with other people in a variety of social networking communities (e.g. Facebook, Bebo).

Splash casting is the editing of video, audio and text to make a programme or podcast. It allows media to be easily embedded within social networking sites

Splash screen An image that appears while a computer program is loading. Often refers to an introductory page of a website.

TeacherTube is a facility for teachers to use to share educational videos on the web

VLE Virtual learning environment

Web 2 see JISC publication ‘What is Web 2.0? Ideas, technologies and implications for education’.

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/techwatch/tsw0701b.pdf

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/techwatch/tsw0701b.pdf

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Acknowledgements

We are extremely grateful to the colleges mentioned in this report for their sterling work, hosting of visits and assistance provided. North Devon College would like to thank Becta for funding this project and the support and guidance they have offered throughout the research. We are appreciative of the contribution during the early stages of the research from John Laramy, now Deputy Principal at Exeter College; we wish him every success. Special thanks also to Meryl Tanton for her hard work on the design of this best practice guide.

Disclaimer

Every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this report is accurate and credible at the time of publication. Permission was sought to use information and images from the institutions mentioned in this report for the purpose of this best practice guide; all of which were visited by one of the authors.

Any opinions expressed in this communication are those of the authors or the individual quoted and not necessarily North Devon College. Furthermore both the authors and North Devon College accept no responsibility or otherwise endorse any information contained in these pages or any sources cited. The cases described and the evaluations of new technologies trialled represent the opinions of the authors at the time of press. Where a specific product is referred to in this publication, no recommendation or backing of that product is intended, nor should it be inferred.

Rather than act on any of the information contained in these pages, we would invite any interested reader to contact the authors or the relevant best practice institution in the first instance.

Contact detailsDarren Moore Research Coordinator [email protected]

North Devon College Old Sticklepath Hill Barnstaple Devon EX31 2BQ

www.ndevon.ac.uk

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