From Blackboards to Blogs: Suffolk’s E-Learning Innovation - 4 August 2006
Across all sectors of education, teaching and learning practices are being transformed by the Internet and other new communication technologies. In Suffolk, the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) are using European Social Funds (ESF) to support a unique initiative to raise the awareness of educators in the post-16 sector of ‘electronic’-learning technologies and their potential application in the classroom. The Suffolk E-learning Service is managed by CREATE, a research centre at the Suffolk College. Since its launch in November 2005, the E-Learning Service has delivered over 20 events, training workshops and forums on various aspects of e-learning, involving over 300 of the County’s educators.
The E-Learning Service is attracting the best of national and local expertise to lead focussed training events and workshops. Recent events have included training workshops on online assessment technologies provided by the University of Newcastle, presentations on open source software from Randy Metcalfe of Oxford University and a series of conferences based on Virtual Learning Environments featuring national experts from the further education sector and teachers from schools in Suffolk.
The Service has also hosted a number of regional and local e-learning forums for the further education and adult and community learning sectors and as part of its work delivers training courses for teachers about online learning materials and the use of electronic whiteboards. The Service is currently developing a range of further events for Autumn 2006 which will focus on subjects such as mobile learning, Web logs (‘blogs’) and Wiki’s, accessibility issues, as well as further workshops on online learning resources and virtual learning environments. The E-Learning Service is based at the Suffolk Institute of Technology, which has first-class conferencing and training facilities in the centre of Ipswich. It also delivers and hosts training throughout the County.
The success of the E-Learning Service derives from two factors:
• Firstly, effective relationships with the governments national advisory services in the e-learning sphere, the British Educational Computing and Technology Agency (BECTA) and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).
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• Secondly, the Service benefits from the input and support of its Suffolk-based partners which include the County’s four colleges, schools, libraries and adult and community learning, work-based learning providers as well as education providers from the voluntary and charitable sector.
According to Dr. Harvey Osborne, the project coordinator, “it is the willingness of different providers and sectors to work together and contribute ideas, resources and expertise that has helped the E-Learning Service achieve so much in such a short time – the support and good will of leading practitioners from colleges and schools in other parts of the UK who have contributed to our programme of events has also been incredibly valuable.”
The innovative practice of the Suffolk e-learning service has recently attracted national recognition from the Government’s Learning and Skills Development Agency. According to Gerard Hayes, manager of the JISC Regional Support Centre, “Suffolk LSC are to be congratulated in supporting this initiative and the County is lucky to have it – other parts of the region could equally benefit from such a forward thinking measure”.
Nick Foster, Executive Director of the Learning and Skills Council for Suffolk, said in support of the Suffolk E-Learning Service, “this project is doing a great job of bringing together the various groups – from local libraries to schools and training providers – involved in e-learning in the county, making sure they are kept up-to-date with all the latest technological developments. In this way they are successfully promoting new ways of learning in our area and ensuring that a much wider group of people in Suffolk have access to learning opportunities.”
For further details of Suffolk E-Learning Service events and services for Autumn 2006 see www.suffolkelearning.org or contact the project coordinator Dr. Harvey Osborne on 01473 261109.
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NOTES FOR EDITORS
For further information please contact:
Dr Harvey Osborne, Project Coordinator
Tel: 01473 261109
Email: harveyosborne@suffolk.ac.uk
Suffolk College, located adjacent to the historic Ipswich waterfront, offers the widest range of high quality further and higher education courses in Suffolk.
Web Links: www.suffolk.ac.uk
Issued by Promotions. 4 August 2006.