17 December 2010
BUSINESS & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
JISC Netskills is promoting a culture shift towards more effective, widespread use of networked information services by users of information and those supporting them within UK higher education. JISC Netskills does this through a programme of direct face-toface training, and by developing online training materials and tutorials, as well as participating in projects and consultancy which move on the development of new technologies in research, learning and teaching, and other activities, such as BCE.
JISC Netskills - Training for Engagement By Caroline Ingram
The Challenge for BCE Institutions are involved in a wide range of external engagement activities and supporting the development needs of staff involved in these diverse activities is a challenge. Regarding JISC Netskills day-to-day activities, people from all sorts of roles and backgrounds attend training courses, particularly information skills workshops, and these will include BCE practitioners. JISC Netskillls Web2practice guides implement a new approach to skills development, providing succinct practical guidance and examples of innovative practice by early adopters, on the use of technologies such as social media, blogging, microblogging and podcasting. The use of these guides has been well received at BCE related events. JISC Netskills training provision is much broader than just face to face courses addressing single topics or technologies. JISC Netskills has been building networks and communities of practice in order to deliver their valuable training in different ways. JISC Netskills
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training expertise has also been coupled with BTEC validation and quality assurance, to provide professional development accreditation. Onsite training is a further development. Facilitating Engagement Work based learning is core to what JISC Netskills offers, as a group of lecturers and learning support staff from the Southampton Solent University Business School discovered at a hands-on training course. Many of the staff are associate lecturers who are professionals in their own right, but work part time as tutors, sometimes with distance learning, but also face-to-face with students, teaching particular units. Southampton Solent had identified a particular need for training involving the use of mobile technologies and innovative use of online tools for supporting the student learning experience. Their technologyenhanced learning support officer worked with JISC Netskills to develop a bespoke training course for staff from the business school. The group participating were further asked to lead the
direction that the training took in order to maximise the value realised from the course. A pretraining questionnaire had indicated that the group were technically literate, and aware of the challenges of embedding technology in learning and teaching. On the day, some of the associate lecturers were not as familiar with some technologies as others, but all participants were encouraged to share their knowledge. The main objectives for the training were to increase the participants’ confidence to use available technology; to identify new tools to engage learners; to find ways to get students to reflect ton their learning; and to engage students in online collaborative work. It was acknowledged that both the staff and students’ abilities and expectations vary with regard to use of technology, not all will be as proficient in using the technologies as learning tools. Some of the part time and distance learning staff would prefer more support, but still want to use technology to evolve their teaching as they would their business.
www.jisc.ac.uk/bce
BUSINESS & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT 17 December
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For the associate lecturers, who are generally practitioners in their subject as well, it is often hard to find time for research and keeping up with the latest developments in teaching. Further it is hard to get involved in work-based learning when only a restricted number of hours are available. They often have to learn intuitively, therefore this course, with its bespoke nature, and wiki for reference after the event, proved ideal: “I’ve learnt today how much I don’t know and how much more is out there; I only hope I can find time to use some of it” (Paul Wynell-Sutherland, Barrister and Associate Lecturer). Further challenges arise as many of the students that the associate lecturers are responsible
for are also professionals, who may be taking courses for CPD or other personal development purposes. Another large group of students are current servicemen, mostly in the Army. The students are time pressured and, apart from technical support being harder to offer to distance learners, the learners themselves are unlikely to have time for training on use of technology, whether it enhances their learning or not. During the course the lecturers were able to voice their concerns, but then try out the different technologies that the JISC Netskills facilitator indicated would be worth using in the situations that they were describing. In particular the group felt that, as they were often working very closely with business, they
should identify what skills and competencies can be developed or demonstrated through the use of the technologies. The group were also impressed by the capabilities of social bookmarking tools for sharing learning. “This was a very good workshop as it covered all the things that the learning technology unit can offer, so has allowed the promotion of these technologies to a group of staff in related areas” (Timos Almpanis, Learning Technologist, Southampton Solent University). http://www.netskills.ac.uk
www.jisc.ac.uk/bce