The effective use of technology has great potential to support better teaching and learning across the FE system but there are important questions arising from the opportunities presented by new technologies. For example:
- how teachers might best develop the right skills
- how learning is organised and delivered
- how education can be agile in adapting to new technology developments
The site contains ideas that have emerged so far. This conversation – and your contribution – represents an important opportunity to give direction to the sector and Government. It will, ultimately, help inform the final FELTAG recommendations and their implementation.
We hope that learners, teachers, technology developers and practitioners, policy people, researchers, people from industry and any others with an interest in and experience of this field will join the conversation.
With regard to how teachers might develop the right skills… there is a debate going on at the moment regarding whether educators should be qualified in order to teach in the class room.
Many educators are against such proposals, but what happens if we change this discussion to technology? Are there people who are expected to be digital teachers and leaders but who have skipped the part of first being a digital learner? How can you advise on best practice or pitfalls if educators are not exploring the medium themselves?
We need to encourage people in FE to Tweet, blog and engage with their various stakeholders. I have by no means always held such a view and most definitely have not been a proponent of new media… I got involved because I was informed that it was expected for the industry that I worked in, I think the same now applies to education.
My journey from skeptic to proponent can be found here – “One small click for a digital immigrant…” http://edutechstories.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/one-small-click-for-digital-immigrant.html
The potential implications for exploring, and not exploring, new media for students can be found on this link – http://edutechstories.blogspot.com/2013/05/social-media-and-better-job-prospects.html
For people who never explored any of new media in any great detail then a useful resource might be some of the “Connected Educator” resources including;
CEM Starter Kit – http://connectededucators.org/cem/cem-getting-started/
What does it mean to be a “Connected Educator” – http://www.edutopia.org/groups/community-bulletin-board/570301