Provide a rationale for the use of four resources with a group of learners, at least one of which should include emerging technology, and evaluate their effectiveness

by markedby (student)

University Degree Education and Teaching

Unit 1 Developing and managing resources within the lifelong learning sector

Provide a rationale for the use of four resources with a group of learners, at least one of which should include emerging technology, and evaluate their effectiveness

Logo PowerPoint – ICT used in order to put the resource together, relevant images and activities included in order to meet the aim of the lesson which is for learners to share their experience of logos and to gain a full rounded knowledge of why they are used and to produce a logo from a company that they are aware of and share any interesting facts about why it has been chosen.

This resource is effective in that it hits all learning styles:

Visual - images and videos included in presentation and learners are encouraged to use visuals within their activities and presentations.

Auditory - sound from video clips used, instructions given, objectives discussed and explained, and findings presented verbally.

Kinaesthetic – activities with pens, paper, design and doing/action.

Interpersonal – activities in pairs and groups being switched and changed throughout

Intrapersonal – individual work carried out in some areas/activities.

I received feedback that I was not asking specific questions at the end to check that the original objectives have been met. I made this change and was then observed on this session. I received a further development point as I did not utilise the feedback session by explaining why the learners’ logo had not been selected. This will help the learners to understand and use the feedback for any future documents produced. I have now adapted this for future sessions.

Summarising E safety – This resource is used to encourage the learners to read out loud but the guidance on summarising is not appealing as it contains no images. On completion of assessment, it was found that no one scored top marks. Resource to be revisited and add any words necessary to the learner glossary as this will encourage the learner and teacher to use these key words more regularly. This resource hits some of the learning styles:

Auditory – Listening to others read aloud, instructions given verbally and discussed.

Visual – Use of a highlighter pen to identify the main points in the document, these main pints then used to write a summary on the information.

Kinaesthetic – I could make it kinaesthetic by using a board game and check the learning by asking the relevant questions if they land on a certain colour or number.

Interpersonal – The above board game would make it interpersonal if they worked in pairs or teams

Intrapersonal – Lone working to identify the main points to be used in their summary of the document and summary typed individually.

This resource has been discussed and reviewed within our company quality meeting and an idea has been put forward to display this information and go through it at induction as there are already resources within the induction PowerPoint that relate to E-safety and so this is covering the topic twice.

Smoking hand out – used to read aloud, contains images and sparks a good conversation on who smokes, who is thinking about giving up, the health implications, etc. Also, great ice breaker for when the learners spend their money as they can show what type of person they are, what they like and the task works on presentation and body language skills. When used, learner feedback given on the fact that they were very unclear when speaking and I would have liked the learner to stand at the front and present in a professional way to get this information across. This learner was very confident and had volunteered to go first which made me feel that they would accept the criticism and respond well. This resource hits some of the learning styles:

Visual – It has images of the smoking but also the items that you could purchase with the money that you save

Auditory – reading the document aloud as a group

Kinaesthetic – Could make it more kinaesthetic by handing everyone some play money and they use pots and present each spend by explaining why and putting the money into that pot. Numeracy could be worked on by working out the percentage spend on each item and check back that they have 100%

Interpersonal – After presenting, they answer questions from the group and interact

Intrapersonal – ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Visual – It has images of the smoking but also the items that you could purchase with the money that you save

Auditory – reading the document aloud as a group

Interpersonal – After presenting, they answer questions from the group and interact

Intrapersonal – Lone working in order to work out what they have spent and how much is left, what they are going to buy and creating a word document with images copy and pasted.

When brought to the quality meeting, the general feedback on this was to focus on the health implications more and not the fun task of spending money. The positive feedback was that numeracy was being included and areas for development can be picked up on without the learner necessarily noticing – hidden curriculum.

Work diary – used for the learners to take away, record their progress at work and bring back in to prompt them when writing an account of the work based experiences. This resource hits some of the learning styles:

Visual – This could be made visual by asking the learners to bring along photos that relate to each of the sections on the form – ask their colleagues to take them with their mobile phone or web cam and email them over to be printed.

Auditory – This could be made more auditory by asking the learners’ to present their placement statement along with the images in the form of a PowerPoint with verbal explanations of their time at work.

Kinaesthetic – We could include role plays here if there was a situation that the learner did not know how to resolve and we could use this time to give feedback and development points for the future.

Interpersonal – With the above three adaptations, this would naturally cover interpersonal as they all involve presenting and working as a team.

Intrapersonal – This resource is very intrapersonal as they are essentially producing their placement statement on their own.

These get lost when given paper based and I found it safer to email. Also, there are lots of instructions at the top but found that the learners did not read these and just ticked and dated all boxes but no specifics were added as instructed – maybe the instructions need to be bullet pointed to make it clearer.

Learners returned to class without the document and so we completed a group activity where they made notes individually on a form and then we used the Smart board to note down what everyone had met. I chose the most common experience and we used that to base our first statement on. We discussed the unit that it related to and the group were able to ask questions. I circulated, checking their first sentence and then the paragraph for spelling and grammar issues which were identified and I used an activity to note down key words which developed into a sentence – asking what should go at the beginning and at the end, use of commas, etc. Once the opening sentence was perfect, the learners used the same skills to write the rest of the paragraph and I was able to give individual support to suit their needs on a 1:1 basis.

I have made an employer pack for each place of employment to have on site. This includes lots of information about the company and the apprenticeship process. I could include the work diary issues such as lack of product evidence, photos, losing the work diary, not being given enough varied tasks, etc.

Produce an assessment which demonstrates how relevant theories have been used to inform resource development

Logo PowerPoint – The Honey and Mumford theory suggests that not all learners will fall into one style and that they are a mixture if these four; activist, pragmatist, theorist and reflector. This theory makes sense on some level and was used in order to split the teams and mix levels and personalities. – I put the quietest learner with the loudest, the lower level literacy learner with a willing to learn personality with the learner that has a high level of literacy and a nurturing personality. I felt that this would balance the teams and where one style is lacking, their team mate would hold the strength in that area. I find that styles can be seen from the initial assessments but very often change when the learner is more comfortable with the group.

Summarising E Safety – Bruner was a cognitivist and his scaffolding theory mentions that the learner is not always ready to process the information and in order to build on this; the learning must be linked in several different ways. When summarising, I originally made it so that they simply read the text and wrote a summary based on what they will be taking away from reading the text. Next I layered the task by first having a session on why it is important to read and understand something, then activities on how to summarise and a quiz in order to test the understanding before issuing the text that I would like the learners to read. Once issued, I asked the learners to highlight the main points in the article and circle any words that they were unsure of so that they could look these up. When summarising, the learners used the techniques from earlier in the session. When spiralling back to the topic later in the program, the learners referred to the learning file where they had stored the information on how to summarise. Some points were remembered and the same quiz completed highlighted the fact that they had improved on their score since last time.

Smoking Handout – Gagne’s theory suggests that when taking the cognitivists route, a rigid structure should be in place for the learning which was originally the plan here.

The smoking exercise it to not only explain the health implications of smoking and show the designated areas for this outside the learning environment but also to look at the financial implications and a fun exercise on how they would spend the money in a year. Gagne suggested that by planning a regimented structure, challenges from the learner would not be allowed. If you intend to be dynamic with your teaching, there will be unpredictable outcomes. There was a positive unpredictability within this task. On presentation of the final spend, the learners had produced handouts and displayed their purchases with confidence and excitement. However, the last learner to present managed to change the whole feeling of the group. The learner in question simply divided the money between his family and a small portion for him to put into savings! This threw the group into total panic, the others felt as if they had been selfish and spoiled, quickly trying to justify their decisions and had a new found respect for the individual. The outcome was planned as a simple numeracy task but in fact, the learners gained more of a moral outcome which has encouraged the exercise to be developed and used knowing the moral undertones.

Work Diary – Skinner suggests that as a behaviourist, he believed that the learner would repeat the desired behaviour if positive reinforcement follows. I have found that when developing the work diary, it was very important for me to use the past learners’ experience in order to guide the learner to the correct procedure for completing the work place statements, when this is followed the positive reinforcement follows by using them as an example, rewarding the learner or using verbal positive feedback. The reinforcement selected is tailored to their individual needs and personalities.

Demonstrate effective use of a resource including the use of new and emerging technologies within legal requirements.

When developing and using resources within the learning environment, it is important to make sure that they are used within legal requirements. Extracts, internet research and resources are submitted to the quality team who standardise the resource to the company requirements and the copyright rules are followed depending on the specifics and origin of the information. When completing statements, accounts and their work diaries, learners are trained on and encouraged to follow The Data Protection Act where customer and company details are concerned.

When using emerging technologies, it is vital to follow the manufacturers’ instruction, company guidelines and follow the health and safety legislations. Risk assessments are completed and full training is given in order to monitor, minimise and record risks.

Inclusivity is encouraged by making sure that when using images, graphics, clips, etc. a variety and diverse selection are chosen on order to promote the differences in people.

When delivering the logo PowerPoint (Appendix 1), I felt well prepared and motivated to deliver the session. I enjoy the content and am very familiar with it as I have delivered this on many occasions and made small changes in order to make it suitable for inclusivity and differentiation. Handouts produced for the learning which does not contain every slide – I didn’t want them to see the answer pages or the activity before we all got to that stage.

I felt that one of the slides could have been more interactive – there is a slide that requires the learners to approach the board and move the correct logo to the correct company name. To utilise this activity, I have to Esc out of the PowerPoint and use the slide in edit mode. The activity can be seen and still works perfectly, but I would have liked to set this up as a drag and drop activity using the Smart board software. I have arranged for training on this area of need.

Design three resources for your subject specialism, including the use of new and emerging technologies. Justify each resource in terms of its suitability for individual learners and groups.

Assure model used when looking at/designing resources and my understanding of this is as follows:

Analyse the learners – what is their motivation, previous learning that they have had, age, level, learning style, etc.

State objectives – this is included in the lesson plan, what are we going to do? When using a PowerPoint, the first slide to state objectives so that everyone knows what we are working towards

Select resource – what are we going to use to achieve the objectives

Use – preview material, prepare resources, prepare learning environment, prepare learners – let them know and provide the learning experience.

Required learner participation – the learners need to take part so that the resource can be tested and trialled fully

Evaluation and revise – how well did it work? Are there any changes that need to be made for next time? Make sure that these changes are made so that the resource does not go stale

I have changed the Logo PowerPoint to include hyperlink activity (slides 10-18) Behaviourists like small chunks of learning and this has proved to energise the learners as they are joining in, moving around the room, asking their peers for confirmation when making the choice. I make sure that I have at least one activity for every learner in the group so that no one feels excluded.

Glossary page now added when summarising E-safety to track the progress of the learner and for them to have a resource that is made by them, in their own words. The key here is to make sure that this is regularly used, updated and assessed for development.

Presentation and PowerPoint learning added to the smoking resource. Learners will be able to present in a professional way, focussing on the verbal skills and incorporating ICT/new emerging technologies. Built for the cognitivists – problem solving with regards to the money they are able to spend, where to find the images they need to present.

Include an extract from their own *professional development journal to identify and evaluate their own collaborative approaches to resource development within their organisation, including an inclusive approach.

Quality meetings and collaborations take place regularly in order for good practices to be brought to the table and discussed. Staffs are given training and resources are presented in a way that tests the resource for its suitability. As a group, the resources are used as if we are a group of learners, feedback is given and edits are made to ensure that it is usable for all teachers, tutors and learning advisors. CPD is updated on a personal basis and reviewed regularly by the quality manager.

As an organisation, we complete a regular SWOT analysis. As a group we contribute to the SWOT analysis and the results are collated and put forward to feed into the overall strategy for the company. I would like to start to complete an individual SWOT analysis to look at my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. I feel this would help me to feed into my personal development plan and stay on target for meeting not only the company targets but also my own personal goals.