A teacher from the 1950s would not recognize an interactive white board but they would recognize the traditional A4 Scheme of Work grid and so perhaps it is time to bring Schemes of Work into the 21st Century.
The i-Learning Portal (to the right) is an electronic Scheme of Work that is intuitive to use and you can test it out on collegenet.co.uk. The i-Learning Portal is three interlinked web pages designed to offer learners a topic-by-topic guide to their learning.
The letter i is for independent because the portal extends learning beyond the classroom to learn anywhere anytime. Teachers can build the content as they go forward and move even faster in collaboration with colleagues. They can easily import, into the i-Learning Portal, all of their existing handouts, videos, web links etc. Check out a demonstration here.
Who It Helps
Most teachers struggle to cover their whole curriculum within their timetabled lessons but with the Portal the more capable will find opportunities for stretch and challenge and the less capable will gain vital support.
A 21st Century Pedagogy
The i-Learning Portal is not simply a repository for resources but a complete 21st Century pedagogy which draws together the best guidance in effective teaching and learning across constructivism, meta-cognition, reciprocal teaching, blended learning, differentiation, self-assessment, personalisation, employability skills and the new Bloom’s taxonomy which has identified creativity as the highest form of cognitive development.
How It Works
If you can use Word and make email attachments then you can quickly create your own i-Learning Portals for your subjects. The Portal may be downloaded as a zip file and installed on a VLE for all staff to use or an individual teacher can access the i-Learning Portal on the Collegenet website and provide their students with a unique URL to access the Portal entirely independently of a school or college.
Take a look and encourage your learners to access the Portal on their computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone and drive their own learning.
What It Costs
It only costs about five dollars (3 Pounds Sterling since it’s a British company) and the installation is straightforward. Just purchase your portal and you’ll get all the instructions you need. If you try it out, be sure to let Edudemic readers know about it down in the comments or on the Edudemic Facebook page. Good luck and have fun!
This article was written by Bradley Lightbody, a guest author for Edudemic. Bradley can be reached at bradley @ collegenet.co.uk. Want to write for Edudemic? It’s fun and easy! Just click here to get in touch.
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