The Ferl Practitioners’ Programme: The Launch

1. The Ferl Practitioners’ Programme: The Launch Transforming Teaching and Learning with ILT Sarah Knight, Education Officer, Ferl

2. Introduction The Ferl Practitioners’ Programme is an innovative staff development programme created to equip the teaching, learning resources and learning support staff and technical staff in colleges with the skills essential for harnessing the potential of ILT. ‘Technology does not make a bad teacher a good teacher: what it can do is help teachers do what they already do – but better.’

3. Introduction ILT and Culture Change… ‘ILT places ‘learning’ at the heart of IT; it is a means of supporting best professional practice with information learning technologies to benefit all learners.’

4. ILT Skills of Teaching Staff Percentage of staff rated as “competent” or “advanced” Closing gap Skills needed by teaching staff: • Integrating ILT into classroom practice • Technical skills (web authoring, spreadsheets etc etc) • Using a VLE • Developing learning materials

5. Practitioners need to… • Respond to learner needs – differentiation is a primary inspection criteria • Be able to make judgements about when it is appropriate to use and not to use the technology • Know how to integrate different resources, including one or more self-contained learning objects (chunks of learning), into a holistic lesson • The IT and ILT awareness to be able to ‘produce’ and deliver technology-based learning

6. Implementation – The Pilot • Pilot has run from November 2002 to 31st March 2003 with the first three strands of the programme • 108 Colleges in England and 8 colleges in Northern Ireland participated in the pilot • The Regional Support Centres in England and Northern Ireland offered programmes of support in implementation and delivery • Colleges have participated in a quantitative and qualitative evaluation ‘Use ILT to support and enhance rather than replace existing good practice.

7. Key Findings of the Pilot • Over 1500 practitioners from over 58 % of the pilot colleges participated in the evaluation through the Ferl website (http://ferl.becta.org.uk/fpp) • Of these, roughly 60% were following Strand 1, and roughly 20% each following Strands 2 and 3 • In total, 245 practitioners completed all their chosen modules • Most guides and practitioners interviewed as part of the qualitative evaluation (79%) viewed FPP as a valuable programme of staff development for their college

8. Practitioners registered on FPP

9. How the materials were accessed

10. Learning Materials • Learning Materials – guidance materials (e.g Trainer Tips, Lesson Plans), content and activities, video clips • Use of the printed packs together with the CD-ROM was limited • Little customisation of learning materials – and 39% had made no change to the materials • Interactivity versus simplicity • Practitioners were able to apply what they had learnt to their everyday classroom practice • Whatever model of delivery, the appropriate level of support needs to be in place

11. What does a college need to do to prepare for implementing FPP?

12. Four critical steps… • Secure the support of Senior Management • Make contact with your local RSC and FPP Development Officer • Develop an Implementation Strategy for FPP • Integrate FPP into existing staff development programmes

13. Implementation Plan • FPP Steering Group - SMT, Staff Development Officer, FPP Guide, ILT Champion, Practitioners (Teaching, LRC, LS, Technical), Network Manager • Resources – human, physical and technical • Role of FPP Guide • Selection of trainers • Models of delivery • Selection of groups of learners • Support for learners – peer support and external • Accreditation? • Links to staff appraisal and TPI

14. Alistair McNaught Clare Killen Meet the FPP Development Officers… Appointment of 2 Full Time FPP Development Officers in England with a national remit:

15. John Moulson: Northern Jan Simpson: Midlands Meet the FPP Development Officers… Appointment of 4 0.5 FPP Development Officers in England with a regional remit:

16. Mark Banks: South West Ann Thunhurst: London/SE Meet the FPP Development Officers… Appointment of 4 0.5 FPP Development Officers in England with a regional remit:

17. We had an idea…. …and with a little help from our friends

18. The Ferl Practitioners’ Programme was born!

19. Eta De Cicco, Education Officer, Ferl Ali Close, Project Support Officer, Ferl Sal Cooke, Development Officer, Ferl Claire Gill, Becta Clare Killen, ILT Co-ordinator, Newbury College Alistair McNaught, Development Officer, Ferl Geoff Minshull, DirectLearn Bob Powell, Sector Support Manager, JISC Ros Smith, Content Officer, Ferl Paula Taylor, Independent Consultant Steve Davies and Jan Simpson for their work on the evaluation of the Pilot Pilot colleges FPP Consultation Group members Practitioners from across the sector for assistance with the video clips Sue Townsley and Sarah Mulberry, Becta, for print and publishing Iconography for CD-ROM production Xube for video production Pure Interactive for website developments Our thanks…

20. ‘As a Network Manager, doing FPP has enabled me to see things differently.  It has helped me communicate better with teaching staff and with breaking down barriers.’ ‘The programme has opened my eyes to the wealth of possibilities that exist for a lecturer with regard to ILT’. ‘FPP is our ILT staff development’.

21. The Ferl Practitioners’ Programme Transforming Teaching and Learning with ILT Sarah.knight@becta.org.uk http://ferl.becta.org.uk/fpp fpp@becta.org.uk