9. Technology Enhanced Situated Learning and Virtual Skills Rehearsal in Workforce Development comparing the effectiveness of technology enhanced situated learning with traditional, classroom approaches to workforce development Using Mobile Devices to Support Workplace Learning:
10. Retention of Learning Technology Enhanced Situated Learning and Virtual Skills Rehearsal in Workforce Development
11. The Effect of Practice on Retention of Learning Technology Enhanced Situated Learning and Virtual Skills Rehearsal in Workforce Development Source: the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
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14. Technology Enhanced Situated Learning and Virtual Skills Rehearsal in Workforce Development The Glasgow City Pilot
19. Next Steps: Educational gaming and professional learning Technology Enhanced Situated Learning and Virtual Skills Rehearsal in Workforce Development
This presentation relates the strategic approach of the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) to professional learning, undertaken as a case study experiment within the CREANOVA (LLLP/EACEA Transversal) Research project. It illustrates a range of initiatives that have enabled employers, learners and providers to develop innovative coherent approaches to professional learning and development. The Scottish Social Services Council is the regulatory body for social services in Scotland. Supporting a workforce of 198,000 social service personnel, SSSC has a broad remit, everything from care of older people to early development childcare. SSSC supports the delivery of consistently high quality training and education for high staff numbers, geographically dispersed throughout Scotland. SSSC has developed and is developing a range of technology enhanced learning solutions to address the challenges faced. SSSC have also identified the use of virtual world/game technologies as a potential way in which the particular challenges of practice assessment can at least be partially met. The aim of the Creanova experiment was to examine innovative ways of meeting the needs of professional learners across the care sector working with children and adults (mixed economy) in childhood practice and social work through a series of innovative transferable modalities that can be designed to meet different needs of different professional learners across the Scottish care sector. The reason being that the SSSC has embarked on a radical strategy to develop their professional (intellectual) resource, and are firmly committed to developing their staff working in diverse cultural areas and extended community practice fields.
This presentation relates the strategic approach of the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) to professional learning, undertaken as a case study experiment within the CREANOVA (LLLP/EACEA Transversal) Research project. It illustrates a range of initiatives that have enabled employers, learners and providers to develop innovative coherent approaches to professional learning and development. The Scottish Social Services Council is the regulatory body for social services in Scotland. Supporting a workforce of 198,000 social service personnel, SSSC has a broad remit, everything from care of older people to early development childcare. SSSC supports the delivery of consistently high quality training and education for high staff numbers, geographically dispersed throughout Scotland. SSSC has developed and is developing a range of technology enhanced learning solutions to address the challenges faced. SSSC have also identified the use of virtual world/game technologies as a potential way in which the particular challenges of practice assessment can at least be partially met. The aim of the Creanova experiment was to examine innovative ways of meeting the needs of professional learners across the care sector working with children and adults (mixed economy) in childhood practice and social work through a series of innovative transferable modalities that can be designed to meet different needs of different professional learners across the Scottish care sector. The reason being that the SSSC has embarked on a radical strategy to develop their professional (intellectual) resource, and are firmly committed to developing their staff working in diverse cultural areas and extended community practice fields.
This presentation relates the strategic approach of the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) to professional learning, undertaken as a case study experiment within the CREANOVA (LLLP/EACEA Transversal) Research project. It illustrates a range of initiatives that have enabled employers, learners and providers to develop innovative coherent approaches to professional learning and development. The Scottish Social Services Council is the regulatory body for social services in Scotland. Supporting a workforce of 198,000 social service personnel, SSSC has a broad remit, everything from care of older people to early development childcare. SSSC supports the delivery of consistently high quality training and education for high staff numbers, geographically dispersed throughout Scotland. SSSC has developed and is developing a range of technology enhanced learning solutions to address the challenges faced. SSSC have also identified the use of virtual world/game technologies as a potential way in which the particular challenges of practice assessment can at least be partially met. The aim of the Creanova experiment was to examine innovative ways of meeting the needs of professional learners across the care sector working with children and adults (mixed economy) in childhood practice and social work through a series of innovative transferable modalities that can be designed to meet different needs of different professional learners across the Scottish care sector. The reason being that the SSSC has embarked on a radical strategy to develop their professional (intellectual) resource, and are firmly committed to developing their staff working in diverse cultural areas and extended community practice fields.
Gaming architecture creates rich environments for tacit knowledge sharing and creation of new knowledge. It builds capacity for sustainability through continuing professional and technological development. More precisely, as technology rapidly improves the potential of the learning environment, it is challenging to keep up with advanced technologies that facilitate this. This raises issues of changing attitudes to innovative learning environments, creative staff development and engaged management support. Advanced technology constantly creates rich potential for new and better-informed learning environments (often not fully utilised). SSSC aims to enable full use of educational gaming potential to address challenges in practice assessment. This centres on attractive online three-dimensional, multi-channel multi-user platforms for continuing educational development of professionals, which are legitimate, fully personalized and offer a wide range of knowledge services which are flexible, highly interactive, and reliable.
This has been seen particularly in relation to employers’ abilities to reduce expenditure, improve providers’ abilities to reduce waste in relation learning materials and the learner’s ability to more clearly focus their effort. There are two themes resident within this professional as learner focused philosophy: learning to adapt, and learning to learn.
Financial : All resources produced to date were produced on small budgets. SSSC has been fortunate to be able to access modest amounts of money through the Sector Skills Councils to promote a sector learning strategy. It has worked hard to get the best return on this investment. However, these sources of funding are drying up as public sector funding is constrained. Therefore, it is unlikely to be able to maintain the current rate of development unless alternative funding streams are identified. Inertia/anxiety related to adopting new approaches : For many learners, “learning technology” equals “computers”. Given the dominant demographic of the SSSC workforce, this can be assumed to be a barrier to uptake. However, the 2006 SCIE report has gone some way to dispelling that myth. However, the vast majority of the target learning audience spends the majority of its time in the community in direct contact with service users, not at a desk working with a computer. This issue encouraged SSSC to develop approaches not reliant on the PC as a delivery platform, but using handheld mobile devices as an alternative (as is the case with the PSP/Second Sight pilot project). These devices were both portable and cost-effective. It is hoped to develop more of these resources for mobile deployment. With regard to learning and development personnel working in the sector, there are the additional fears that the use of learning technologies could be used as a rationale to reduce staff complements in training departments Lack of familiarity with the technologies is a question and there is recognition of perceived and actual skills gaps for staff working with learning technologies Can be perceived by management as a cost cutting measure in a difficult socio economic and politicised climate rather than encouraging learning efficacy and capacity building