Techfast 2008-May 9th
Our short presentation kicked off with Jim Breen who is the CEO of Pulse learning. Jim came to talk about inclusive e-learning and gave an inspiration talk about his own experiences and move into a career in Technology. This session was very much about how we could be more inclusive and apply technology to closing the digital divide. We need to have a compelling vision of how becoming a digital community will benefit the community and the individuals in it - tackling social deprivation and widening opportunities. Feedback from individuals and groups will allow us to develop an achievable and practical plan for reaching that vision.
Here are some of the ideas from Friday morning!
What would make people interested?
-Sense of achievement
-Power of knowledge
-Currency
-Social networking
Provide the tools
-I phone in every hand
-Formal learning is decaying! Informal learning solutions needed.
-Build off other successes---learn from tried and tested
-Keep language jargon free
-Go for the most ambitious idea- even if it is not likely to succeed, work on area where there is an interest and magnify success. Success feeds off ambition!
-Report---problems with report in that people can’t read-how to deal with literacy problems
-Technology ---fear amongst Teachers about using Technology. Once the first step is made the learning curve to adapt technology is small.
-Culture change to technology---technology embrace by all (used as a way to improve literacy.)
-Create a whole network of learning in community---a critical mass of web users. Communities of learners.
-Break the taboos----use technology as a tool rather than technology for technology sake.
-Free wireless broadband---pay people to use it---would that work?
-Google and social networking---currency and value as technologies
-Internet --supports social networking
-Corporate world---technology given where they need to do the job
-Focus on the Interest, not the internet and in order to see, first engage!
The plan is nothing, planning is everything.
All of these should come under an umbrella where there is a broad partnership which includes the key players (e.g. local authority, schools, private sector etc) who can make the initiative happen in our community. The hope is that we can create a comprehensive and sustainable future management plan.
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Welcome to eInlusion Limerick, a blog created to share progress and seek views during the development of a Community ICT (Information and Communicatin Technology) strategy for Limerick City. This Blog has been created by Limerick Community ICT Steering Group as part of the Building Digital Communities Project. Please help us to develop a truely inclusive strategy by posting your comments on this blog.
2 comments:
Well done Brendan, Elaine & Jim - very stimulating presentation & discussion this morning.
For me the key issue in eInclusive learning is to start with the individual. We must understand and make each individual aware of the possibilities and choices that they have. They must decide “I want to” do whatever is their choice, before we can help them on how to do it.
We must address the “know what” (ie. Awareness) first and only then the “Know how” (support, training, learning etc).
While ICT in just a tool to achieve that, it is becoming an ever more important tool for everyone. Reading, Writing and ICT Literacy are now core skills for everyone to be aware of their options and possibilities in our society. As your report shows the Digital Divide is increasing, as ICT is becoming mainstream for most services, communication and even interaction with our friends and communities. The Internet is knowledge and power. So individuals who do not use it are becoming even more marginalised.
I totally agree with Jim, that you need to go for the big visionary Impact, rather than the safe “guaranteed to succeed” smaller initiative. Still behind that must be the work of many many people who do the smaller evolutionary inputs that actually directly impacts on and changes individual’s lives.
Brendan, Elaine and Jim:
As John said, a very thought-provoking presentation. Thinking through the points Jim made in telling the PulseLearning story I think that as learning providers we need to approach technology from a different viewpoint than we do now. For me it's about taking a social practice approach to IT learning - introducing people to technology based on how it is, or could be, used for everyday tasks in their lives (many providers already do this it must be recognised). I'd like to see us move away from formal IT courses to courses that teach every day skills in practical ways. Why not have short courses on making the most from your i-pod, booking a holiday over the Internet, using Skype to contact your family abroad etc. We already have a model for this which is quite successful the "Surf to Learn" and "Digital Skills" programmes" running in various communities around the city - what's particularly innovative about those programmes is how they bring the family and different generations together in the learning process. More of that kind of approach would be great. If we keep asking ourselves "how to we make ICT relevant to our learners" then I think we can continue to adapt our own approach to learning provision in a way that truely meets the needs our learners have.
I also liked what Jim advocated in using new technologies to deliver learning. Why not integrate the use of mobile phones, i-pods, social networking sites etc. into how we teach and deliver learning programmes? As I mentioned at the session, we should continue to look at ways of integrating technologies into all forms of learning - formal and informal provision, IT- and non-IT based courses. Why not integrate technology into flower-arranging courses or history courses etc?
Great to have had an opportunity to think about some of these issues and hear what is going on in wider circles. I thought the breakfast format and informal approach was excellent. Would love to see events like this run on an annual basis. Well done again.
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