Packing
your bag for the journey into online learning.
ScotFEICT is primarily
for you, a lecturer in Scottish Further Education (although
we do welcome others to ScotFEICT) who is considering
the idea of using technology to support your teaching.
These topics in ScotFEICT are organised as a series
of stages, each one taking you a little bit further
down the road of ICT
in the Curriculum.
This topic, Before you Begin, is to make sure that
you are prepared and ready for the journey ahead. The
main point is that this journey is neither arduous or
treacherous: it is not Frodo and Sam on their dark journey
to Mordor. It is exhilerating, stimulating and it can
also be fun.
So what do you need to take? You’ll be pleased to know
that you can travel lightly. You’ll need:
Basic computing skills.
Can you switch on a computer?
Use a mouse? Can you run a computer program?
If so, move on to the next item. If not, go speak to
your Staff Development Officer about what options you
have to begin. Most colleges now are using the European
Computer Driving licence scheme as a standard. Visit
the ECDL
site for more information.
Word Processing
Do you use a word processor (most likely Microsoft Word)
for handouts, notes or correspondance?Can you save a
file? Print a document? Maybe even ‘cut, copy and paste?’
If not, get yourself to your SDO, and see what they
have for you. Meanwhile, here’s an online tutorial in
Microsoft
Word to get you going.
e-mail
E-mail is the communication tool of our times. Do you
use e-mail; within your college; to contact distant
friends; offspring at University; connecting with your
students? If so, that’s another item in your backpack.
Browsing the web.
If you are reading this, you are doing just that. Do
you know how to visit a website? Do you understand the
vital importance of blue underlined text like this?
If you are still unsure about this, the BBC (bless their
socks) have just the place for you: Webwise.
Here they help you pack your backpack of basic skills
in the way that only the BBC seem able to. Off you go:
you can come back here at anytime.That’s it. Your backpack
contains 4 items: basic computing skills, word processing,
e-mail and web browsing. Other items you will pick up
on the way.
The first stage in the Skillzone, Discover and Explore,
is a collection of websites that demonstrate various
tools, techniques and ideas that you might want to look
at for enhancing your own teaching and learning.
Safe journey!
-Noel Chidwick, 8 March, 2002, revised Jan 2004
