Digital Educators
An ETF funded OTLA Digital Project
The drive to achieve Outstanding Teaching Learning and Assessment
Who are we, what are we doing and why?
This project is a collaboration between Gateshead College, North Tyneside Council Adult Learning Alliance and YMCA. It brings together a college with ‘outstanding’ status and significant strength in the delivery of ICT/digital media with community and local authority providers who are successfully accessing hard to reach learners and learners with complex needs.
Our aim:
- To train 15 Digital Educators to lead and inspire teams of staff
- To embed Digital Educators in delivery teams and training environments as a resident resource
- To provide opportunities for vocational staff to extend their professional roles as digital educators
What do we hope to achieve?
Through a series of face-to-face training sessions and remote individualised support we look to encourage all participants to consider the rational of why digital technologies are being used in their practice. In addition we would like to study how such implementation can have an impact on the learning process and the learners.
Our outcomes:
- Enable staff to extend their digital technology skills in curriculum planning, curriculum development, and delivery
- Enable staff to demonstrate improved understanding of the role of digital technology in extending inclusive learning opportunities
- Enable staff to develop their skills in leading formal and informal professional development sessions for their teaching peers
- Enable staff from a range of providers to collaboratively investigate and address local issues through use of digital technology
- Provide a career-development opportunity for established vocational professionals
- Enable managers and leaders to deploy appropriate digital resources
Additional outputs:
- Participants to achieve a Level 4 Award in Digital Learning for Educators
- A forum created for practitioners to share practice beyond the lifetime of the project
How is it going?
Things that have worked well to date
Introducing QR codes
Why?
How?
What have we learned? Our challenges
- Why are participants not accessing the VLE?
- What can we do differently to ensure they do going forward?
Planning of content for training days as a response to previous learning.
Support between sessions not always timely. This delay can impact on scheduled training or can minimise how well the training can be adapted to fit the individual participant. Questions we need to ask ourselves includes:
How can we move forward from this and ensure we gain the best from the main training days?
How can we better plan to provide specific support required outside of training days?
Clear messages of roles and expectations needs to be shared and understood by all involved. A reminder of the project focus, it's aims and outcomes should be at the forefront of what we do, not the possible outputs.
Measuring Impact
Statistics
Participants anonymous feedback
Staff sharing ideas through micro CPD sessions has generated a supportive culture across direct and indirect participants.
Quality Observations
Looking forward
Next steps...
Continued conversations via:
- social media @joannemillsGC @E_T_Foundation #OTLA #OTLADigital #digitalETF
- North East Professional Exchange Network
For further information about this project
You can read more about this project on the Excellence Gateway at https://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/content/etf2934
Joanne Mills - Project Lead
Email: joanne.mills@gateshead.ac.uk
Website: gateshead.ac.uk
Location: Gateshead College, Quarryfield Road, Gateshead, UK
Phone: 01914902471
Twitter: @joannemillsGC