In this project, staff in the Construction department at Burnley College explored the use of educational technology (EdTech) in their vocational teaching to support students learning remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic, but also to develop and innovate their teaching practice more broadly. They were tasked with sharing their learning with colleagues in their department, as well as helping to foster college-wide practitioner networks.
The project was focused around a variety of levels and programmes; Level 1 Painting and Decorating, Level 2 and 3 Carpentry and Joinery, and HNC/HND students, ensuring students involved were from a variety of backgrounds and age ranges. Many of the learners had lower level literacy skills and lacked digital skills for online learning.
The Burnley College project was one of six Reflective Explorations funded by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) in spring 2021 to help practitioners develop their digital skills by engaging with the resources and communities of practice on the Enhance Digital Teaching Platform (see below).
The staff involved were:
The participants were supported by ETF EdTech Mentor Sarah Simons.
“Traditionally an area [Construction] where EdTech is less prevalent, we were keen to look at how EdTech can be used to enhance learning and teaching remotely, specifically enhancing the theoretical elements of programmes which historically the students are less engaged with.”
Sarah Condren, Staff Development Manager
Practitioners were asked to:
The Project Lead was responsible for:
The ETF EdTech mentor Sarah Simons supported the project through regular weekly meetings with the Project Lead and practitioners, helping to signpost relevant training on the Enhance platform that would be relevant to their individual areas of interest.
Gary Nolan talks about his favourite part of the ETF EdTech modules.
Value of the ETF EdTech training
Searching for tools to help active learning: Gary Nolan talks about his search for tools to help active learning.
Each of the three practitioners had different areas of interest where they wanted to improve their practice.
Sol Whittaker wanted to try out different approaches to learner feedback in online environments to help increase learner engagement, looking at the accessibility and viability of using Mote in particular.
Gary Nolan was interested in the use of online collaborative learning tools – specifically collaborative presentation and shared documents in Google Workspace – to help Level 3 Carpentry and Joinery students with lower level literacy transition from answering multi-choice questions to answering open questions in an exam, requiring higher levels of literacy.
Trainee teacher Mark Smith wanted to increase learner engagement with the theory content of the curriculum by introducing more hands-on activities, creating inclusive content and focusing on learners with lower level literacy skills.
The project team selected modules on the Enhance platform that fitted with their interests and the areas of practice they wished to develop. In addition to completing modules, the team submitted reflections on the #EdTechSwap Awarded Practice Wall on the Enhance Digital Teaching Platform to gain two- and three-star EdTech award badges.
“It’s become infectious…” Sol Whittaker describes how the Construction Department has started adopting new practices.
The three practitioners discussed their learning with each other and with their colleagues in the Construction department, encouraging them to get involved when they were trialling new tools.
Members of the project team were involved in wider college professional development discussions about new tools and strategies through their role as Digital Bright Spots Champions, helping to set up in-house workshops and foster communities of practice.
The project team also used the EnhanceDTP Management Dashboard facility to track and support staff progress in use of the EdTech and Essential Digital Skills CPD resources on the platform. The College subscribed to the free facility in autumn 2020 and started rolling out to staff from December. Already 21 staff have started sharing their learning data and overall staff have completed more than 300 modules and gained 150 badges (as at mid April 2021).
Practitioners
#EdTech Swap Awarded practice wall
Sharing practice
Management Dashboard
The project team trialled a variety of tools, specifically:
Using Mote: Sol Whittaker describes the benefits he’s found of using Mote.
Sol tested out the role of verbal feedback using Mote with a Level 3 Brickwork Apprenticeship group. Sol used Mote to record developmental feedback and encouragement. It took a while to get used to recording, but then Sol found that it both speeded up the task considerably and allowed for more depth and personalisation of feedback. He went on to trial adding verbal instructions onto Google slides:
“Adding verbal instructions onto the slides gave me the confidence that the content was easier to follow and that the voice prompts gave a more personal touch to the content resulting in enhanced engagement.”
Sol Whittaker
Gary used the collaboration tools in Google Workspace to get his students working together and supporting each other. Some learners were self-identifying as people who didn’t like computers and also had low level literacy. Gary set them the task of collaborating on a slide presentation interpreting a document on how to use woodworking machinery safely, which students needed for their theory. The learners were allocated separate sections of the legal document to review and each asked to create a Google slide about their findings. The group supported each other and were encouraged to read each other’s summary slides and compare them with their own work and the original text. Gary added comments on the students’ work in the Notes section of the slides.
Gary also developed a full set of bite-size video tutorials breaking down a common task into 18 manageable units of instruction. He found that this approach was equally useful to reinforce instructions or to recap a previous task when students returned to the classroom. As a result, he developed a booklet with QR codes so that the learners can now scan the code and be taken straight to the appropriate video instruction.
Mark experimented with Nearpod to make theory-focused sessions more interactive but found that some tasks did not lend themselves well to mobile phones. He experimented instead with use of Jamboard, creating a chart for students to rate their subject knowledge at the beginning and end of sessions. This provided a self-evaluation process for the students which showed them their progress. He also introduced Bamboozle quizzes to help gamify learning, which was very successful.
“There are lots of tools available that can feel overwhelming for students and staff, yet you do not want to limit people innovating and exploring new ideas. Applying the Rosenshine principles to EdTech was quite useful for me in terms of considering how we view different tools. This is something to take forward when looking at how we disseminate EdTech tools.”
Sarah Condren, Staff Development Manager and Project Lead
Sol Whittaker
Gary Nolan
Mark Smith
Sarah Condren sums up
All three of the practitioners involved felt there had been a positive impact on the learners in three ways:
As well as an increase in confidence of the learners:
“I really do think that everyone got something out of this way of working. The lower ability learners gained in confidence and went from, ‘I hate these things’ (PCs) to ‘I didn’t realise that I could do all of this within one document’. At the other end of the spectrum the learners contributed to their peers’ documents and grew in stature in relation to their own contribution and their own skill set.”
Gary Nolan
The impact of online collaboration: Gary Nolan describes the effect on learners of using collaborative learning tools.
“One learner stated when asked that ‘I have learnt more in the last few months, than I learnt in the entirety of my time at school.’ This learner, when pushed couldn’t tell me why he was now a more effective learner but stated that he had found a way to be involved with the learning rather than ‘just being told some stuff’.”
Gary Nolan
“The marking as mentioned above did spark in some cases an immediate response and they’d send me a written message back saying that they would resolve the issue. Again as in the initial reflection I really like the way that Mote sends a summary of how many times the feedback has been opened and listened to. I asked the learners from a Level 3 BTEC Group how they felt about the recorded feedback and the initial response from most was ‘Yeah its good’.”
Sol Whittaker
“This resulted in less questions and confusion and an increased amount of work submitted. The work submitted was of a better standard too. I often find myself saying and repeating the term ‘read the instructions’ or ‘read the assignment brief’ and in some cases they still seem to miss the point or a critical point in the brief. Mote reassured me that this would be reduced.”
Sol Whittaker
“Impact on learners has been that the session content had been clearer. They have had verbal prompts at each stage with reminders and I feel as though this has really kept them on task. It has given me the opportunity to differentiate within the lesson and make sure that individual learners in the group are learning at their own pace and level.”
Sol Whittaker
Confidence
Engagement
Standard of work
There was also a noticeable impact on the practices of the tutors in terms of new tools and collaborative practices:
“The peer discussions and observations that ensued following the project interventions and discoveries have generated a buzz across the department and created a culture of collaboration and peer support around EdTech strategies. This has led to some really exciting project work for the rest of the academic year on developing and implementing VR.”
Sarah Condren, Project Lead
The use of Mote to give verbal feedback saved considerable marking time whilst also allowing for more personalised feedback:
“Overall this experience of adopting a new strategy has been positive and has had many positive impacts on both my own time and also the learners’ experience of receiving valuable and meaningful feedback that will aid development in both academic writing skills, digital skills and strengthening subject knowledge. I also feel that this will benefit their future progression as they will be more aware of a wide range of digital skills and platforms.”
Sol Whittaker
Collaborative practices and strategies have been further enhanced through the utilisation of Google Workspace apps, specifically around using collaboration to improve literacy skills and outcomes for students:
“Adding verbal instructions onto the [Google] Slides gave me the confidence that the content was easier to follow and that the voice prompts gave a more personal touch to the content resulting in enhanced engagement.”
Gary Nolan
As a trainee teacher from industry, Mark Smith appreciated the opportunity to engage with flipped learning through the project:
“One [EnhanceDTP] module highlight for me was ‘Flipped Learning’, I’ve heard it mentioned a few times but never really knew what it was. I’ve since tried to incorporate it and can see the benefits when used correctly.”
Mark Smith
Staff Development Manager, Sarah Condren, aims to build on the project as follows:
“Departmentally this project has really galvanized the EdTech agenda within the Construction team and there is a buzz around developing and sharing new strategies and tools.”
Sarah Condren, Project Lead
Burnley College is a medium sized general further education (FE) college rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted. It is located in a purpose-built £100 million campus at the centre of Burnley, which has significant levels of deprivation. The college has achieved outstanding results with learners. As an AoC Beacon College, staff share teaching and learning best practice across the UK. Edtech has been a significant focus for the past few years and 95% of teaching staff use Google Workspace for Education. There are currently 40 Level 1 Google Educators from across divisions and a community of practice to support technology integration into curricular and extracurricular activities. Several platforms and initiatives encourage collaboration, including ‘Bright Spots’ where staff deliver training and support to staff across the organisation with an associated portal.
Six Reflective Exploration projects were funded by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) from February to March 2021. The aim of the projects was to help teachers and trainers in six organisations to develop their digital skills by engaging with the resources and communities of practice on the Enhance Digital Teaching Platform. The projects were focused, in particular, on the opportunities for skills development and pedagogic dialogue around submission and sharing of reflections and resources to gain digital badges.
Practitioners worked in groups of up to three supported by a Project Lead, who was also involved in the reflective CPD process. All projects were supported by an ETF EdTech Mentor. Projects were invited to focus on one of the following six themes:
Participants produced reflective diaries and short videos to record their CPD experience and the impact on their practice. Feedback from the project is being used to help refine and develop the badging and community of practice models on the Enhance Digital Teaching Platform.