Solihull College & University Centre’s and Stratford-upon-Avon College’s Learning Technologies team have taken their skills to the airwaves as they launch a new podcast.
Teach, Tech, Connect is a resource made by Further Education practitioners for Further Education practitioners or anyone working in education who wants to develop their learning technology to improve learner outcomes.
The podcast is about sharing ideas, creating conversation and reflecting on the use of technology. It is focused on sharing and connecting with those in education to help generate new ideas to better the student experience.
The initial idea came from Isal Flood, Head of Learning Technologies. She comments: “I have dabbled with podcasts before. I love listening to them. As a full-time working mother, podcasts allow me to fit in professional development whilst driving to work or doing other things. In my new role (Head of Learning Technologies) I really want to connect with others across our college and externally and celebrate and amplify what great work we do as well as find out as much as I can about other’s edtech practices so we can learn from it and improve our offer here too.”
The podcast uses the Digital Media Production facilities across the College’s campuses to record episodes and is presented by Isla and Learning Technologist Emily Cossey. The first episode discusses the teams use of Virtual Reality (VR) and in the second they interview Mark from the Learning Technologies team who set up a ‘Give Praise’ system to allow staff across the colleges to share appreciation, thanking them for the work that they do that connects to the College’s values.
The most recent episode features an interview with Wolf Wright from Askham Bryan College who talked to Isla and Emily about the work they are doing with AR and VR at their college. Future episodes will feature guests from Nottingham College and Activate Learning with more to follow.
Isla and Emily hope that it will benefit a wide range of listeners. Isla commented: “I hope people will get ideas, gain confidence and realise what they might be able to try themselves with their learners.” Emily added: “I’m hoping the podcast will help people to explore what is possible and be inspired. I’m already learning from our guests! I’m also hoping that it can help strengthen connections with other colleges.”
The podcast is available on Spotify.
