FET Colleges are obliged to step up their innovation in Information Communication Technology (ICT) Multi-Media in order to keep abreast of the development of our future students, who both at school and in industry are exposed to these recent trends. The target market of the FET sector has become so engrossed in ICT that it seems natural that they receive their future education and training development in an environment to which they are accustomed. Northlink College has responded to this demand by launching an ICT Innovation Project driven by the College’s Education and Training Unit.
The project focuses on:
- Infrastructure development
- Staff training
- Software support and a
- New pedagogical approach
The Project was launched with the installation of ICT equipment in a number of classrooms at each of the seven campuses and includes a podium that was custom made to house all the necessary ICT equipment safely; along with a screen, tower case and keyboard and a mouse. The project is further supported by the fact that the majority of educator staff with their own laptop computers can be conveniently connected to the podium and save time before presenting a lesson.
Says Ina Louw, HoD: Blended Learning at Northlink College: “With this project we will be taking the next step of innovation and closing the technology gap between the students and the lecturer to help improve the students’ learning experience.”
Northlink staff training will include exposure to the new Northlink Learner Management System (LMS) powered by Moodle which will serve as the platform for the project. The second phase of the project will see that the classrooms where the podiums are installed will be furnished with more technological apparatus such as projectors.
With the implementation of these phases Northlink will be equipping and empowering their lecturing staff to make the classes that they conduct more interactive and conducive to learning. This will not only change the learning experience for the students, but change the whole pedagogical approach to education and training.
