Futuristic learning at Southampton City College

[Laura Downton]

SOUTHAMPTON City College has been awarded £20,000 to launch its own state-of-the-art learning method. The college bid for and won funding from a national government project, MoLeNET, after putting forward a proposal to use mobile technology to improve learning.

The money is being used to fund the Capture project, which sees more than 50 students across a number of vocational courses being given PDAS (Personal Digital Assistants) so they can submit evidence for their NVQs and Diplomas to an ePortfolio using mobile and wireless technology.

It adds to the college’s existing high-tech initiatives - including a remote learning resource where students can catch up on work from home and an e-tracker, which shows learners how far they are through their qualifications.

Now students can use their free PDAs to upload photos, videos, audio and text files to an ‘eportfolio’, which their tutors can access anywhere at any time. Similarly, the assessors and examiners are given a password so they can mark the portfolio online.

The PDAs have most of the functions of a mobile phone or laptop, such as word processing software, wireless internet, cameras and video cameras. It means that a painting and decorating apprentice could take a video of themselves painting a room at their workplace and upload it to their eportfolio, where it would be marked and count towards their qualification. Similarly, a student could use it on a train on their journey home to create written evidence or voice recordings which contribute towards their NVQ and Diploma qualifications.

The Capture project will be piloted across the construction courses at City College, with carpentry, bricklaying and painting and decorating apprentices and students just some of the 55 to receive the PDAs. Tutors, who have been issued with their own Netbooks and Ultra Mobile PCs (UMPCs) will also benefit from the forward-thinking project as it is expected to reduce duplication of records. They will also be able to film demonstrations on the PDAs, which students can refer to in college or in their workplace.

Clare Georgeson, E-learning facilitator at City College, said: “This is such an exciting time for us and the first project of its kind for the college. The hard work we put in to winning this funding for the students has already resulted in saving teachers’ time as they can electronically mark off the criteria and work completed by students in the workshop.

“Having the PDAs helps the learners engage even more than before because they’re using technology that they enjoy using in their spare time to help them gain a qualification. Most of them have iPhones, Blackberries, laptops and other mobile devices and these PDAs work along similar lines.”

Principal and CEO of City College, Lindsey Noble, added: “Business people these days would be lost without their PDAs or smartphones, so it's fantastic that we've won this opportunity to make the best use of technology and get our students into the mindset of working on the go from the outset. It means they can make productive use of their time and record information as they go along, making it fresh and more useful to them when they return to it at a later time. We will assess the pilot closely and continue our investment in equipment, as we always have, to ensure that our students are learning with leading edge technology.”