WEEK 5: TEACHING FOR LEARNERS’ FUTURES

This final week considered wider issues concerning blended learning in the Vocational Education and Training sector. The issues considered included employability, inclusiveness, quality and efficiency.

THE WEEK AHEAD VIDEO (01:36) Developing learners’ digital literacy.

This activity considered the digital literacy skills needed by learners to improve employability opportunities. This is matched by a report from the UK Government (2016) on the digital skills gap and the detrimental effect on the UK economy, social mobility and inclusion. This is not specialist skills, but generic skills that anyone in the modern workplace is likely to need.

A 2015 survey of Further Education and Skills (FES) sector students’ expectations and experiences of the digital environment highlighted two key findings:

• Learners’ digital experiences are strongly dependent on the confidence and capabilities of their teachers, but currently staff workload and career pathways are hindering staff development.
• The lack of funding for research into the learner experience in the VET sector, leads to out-of-date research and assumptions about students’ level of digital literacy.

Digital skills for the workplace

The skills required for Information Communication Technology (ICT), would be defined and evidenced terms of three categories of digital skills: (see
Qualifications Wales in the Downloads section)

Using digital systems

• Use ICT systems, such as search engines, email, calculation tools, presentation tools.

Finding digital information

• Find, select and exchange information, and do this in an appropriate way, using the appropriate tools and systems.

Presenting digital information

• Develop and present information, using a variety of types of information, display and formats, appropriate to the task and audience.

A descriptions of the ways that learners could provide evidence of skills is provided in the PDF. The range of digital skills here shows how I could support my learners with developing and demonstrating these skills and collect evidence of this for their CV and employability.

Communication and networking skills

In addition to these basic digital literacy skills, there are also the communication and networking skills needed for success in the workplace.

Communicating in the digital workplace

• Communication online (sometimes called ‘netiquette’) – how to use email appropriately, selecting the right tools for the task, adjusting to your audience.
• Self-presentation – being aware of your online identity, managing your online presence.
• Keeping up to date – using alerts, RSS feeds, blogs, social networking, online communities.
• Researching job opportunities – how and where to look, following up.
• Team-working online – tools for collaborating, protocols, making it work.
• Sharing – ways of sharing, what to share, copyright, and your ownership and responsibilities.

The Open University site Being digital covers these, as well as using, finding and presenting skills, in a set of self-assessment pathways which is useful.

Improving access to learning, flexibility and inclusion

In this activity inclusive teaching practices and the support of students with special educational needs.

INCLUSIVE TEACHING VIDEO (06:00)

This reinforced my understanding that digital technology enables education and training to offer greater flexibility (not elasticity) in:

• time and place.
• pace of learning.
• a variety of learning modes.
• content focus.
• differentiation.
• Improves educator’s use of time.

The effects on my workload can be ignored in education strategy and policy documents, assuming that it is more cost effective and efficient (elastic). However, this still needs my time management and skills in designing the course using the correct tools, feedback, tracking and assessment both formative and summative for learners progression.

this approach to flexible learning is demand from stakeholders – learners, employers and government alike. Partially due to the neoliberlist ideologies and the marketisation of education in society (Furedi 2011).

Here is a US-led global analysis of the top-ranked trends in technology outlook for community, technical and junior colleges for 2013-18:

• People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want.
• There is a growing interest in using new sources of data for personalising the learning experience and for performance measurement.
• As technology becomes more capable of processing information and providing analysis, community college efforts will focus on teaching students to make use of critical thinking, creativity, and other soft skills.

Hence, the need for me to explore and understand how to use digital technology to make teaching and learning more flexible.

Here is a very useful Jisc site, which shows the kinds of technologies and assistive technology tools are available to support flexible learning:

• Built-in accessibility.
• Documents, presentations and spreadsheets.
• Free and open source software.
• Learning platforms.
• Alternative formats.
• Mobile technology and m-learning.

During this course I have gained a plethora of online resources and insight into the array of digital skills required of me and my learners required for blended learning.

This has been a very helpful course. Now to do the sumative assessment 🙂 !!

References

Furedi, F., (2011). Introduction to the Marketisation of Higher Education and the Student as Consumer, Chp:1, Molesworth, M. (Ed.), Scullion, R. (Ed.), Nixon, E. (Ed.). (2011). The Marketisation of Higher Education and the Student as Consumer. London: Routledge.

Future Learn (2019) Blended Learning Essentials: week 5. [Online] available at Future Learn.

Gov.UK. (2019) Digital Skills Report 2016. London. Gov.UK.