Below I have chosen four standards from the eLearning Guidelines for New Zealand and reasons why I feel they are important in my organisation.
Teaching Staff/Other Support
TO2 Are staff provided with opportunities to learn online so they experience e-learning from a student perspective?
My organisation is currently part of a 3 year ICT cluster. This provides opportunities for staff to experience online learning during professional development sessions. It allows staff to play with elearning resources and learning activities before implementing them into classroom programmes (learning from a “student” perspective). Professional development sessions can often be overwhelming for new staff and infrequent users, for these staff, additional online learning (a course like this for example) or support groups within the organisation would benefit.
Teaching Staff/Other Support
TO7 What ICT support is in place specifically for e-learning, and is this support reviewed regularly?
The schools elearning policy is available to all staff and accessible on either the school server or hard copy in the resource room. This provides staff with information on the purpose and delivery of elearning in classroom programmes. This document has the names of lead teachers including contact details, they are the first port of call for staff requests in ICT. All policies are reviewed and updated yearly or on a needs basis. Technology technicians are on sight weekly and a log book can be filled in by teachers who have technical difficulties. For the past few weeks there have been major glitches with the server due to an upgrade, resulting in very frustrated teachers. The risk of using technology to support learning can have serious impacts on teaching and learning when technology is unreliable.
Managers/Learning Design
MD6 Does the institution value the work of e-learning innovators by supporting, celebrating and disseminating their work?
It is a requirement of my organisation that, elearning is be part of our daily classroom program. Staff are aware of the benefits of e-learning. With confidence, staff will continue to be more actively involved in e-learning, learning the skills and knowledge needed to ingrain it into our school culture.
Managers/Other Support
MO16 Does the institution support creativity and innovation in e-learning?
Staff attend regular facilitated professional development sessions which tend to focus on learning new tools and resources each time. Teachers require more time to practice using one e-learning tool/resource well. I feel this develops teacher confidence, retains high interest levels and sustains creativity and innovation in e-learning, rather than feeling bombarded with an overload of information each P.D session.
