Promoting digital and literacy teaching practice.
Creating cross-curricular collaboration between IT, English and ESOL colleagues to promote digital and literacy teaching practice.
Tutors attended online workshops to collaborate on ideas for the teaching 'nuggets'. Resources were developed and made more accessible and tutors across the service were invited to use them with learners on accredited ESOL, Supported Learning English, Functional Skills English and Digital classes from pre-entry to Entry Level 2. They were given the opportunity to give feedback on the teaching nuggets and reflect on their digital progress. The nuggets encouraged easy steps to digitise exisiting actvities, which naturally embedded digital skills for learners.
OTLA 8
2. Evaluate and challenge your practice, values and beliefs - The project allowed space for IT, English and ESOL teams to share their expertise and understand the pedagogy and value of different approaches – in a way that does not happen regularly. For example, using verbal recollections to relay steps in a process underpins processing of language (e.g., use of imperative) but also allows to breakdown and simplify processes required to be successful in digital tasks.
4. Select and use digital technologies safely and effectively to promote learning - This project offered an opportunity to promote functional digital skills across multiple curriculum areas. By embedding the ideas from Digital Skills Framework within other areas, the team were actively facilitating the teaching of themes around staying safe online.
6. Develop collaborative and respectful relationships with learners, colleagues and external stakeholders - From the offset the project focussed on bringing staff together. The team focussed their attention on promoting the project to multiple curriculum areas and setting up a collaborative space for ideas to be shared in. The team facilitated an interactive webinar as part of the idea forming stage and this was received as being uplifting for practitioners who have often felt they work in isolation. Lack of time and space to work across curriculum areas is cited by tutors as a barrier to sharing of practice in the organisation which is spread across multiple sites throughout the county. This project opened up avenues for how this can be overcome.