We have been doing an online surevy to help in the evaluation of the conference and I will post some of the results this weekend.

In the meantime, if you missed the conference here is your second chance to see what happened.

5 November 2008

Theme: The changing role of trainers in learning

Morning sessions (for Elluminate sessions click here) featuring:

• Professor Alan Brown, Institute for Employment Research, University of Warwick
  • Employees supporting the learning, training and development of other employees while working in groups: examples drawn from aerospace, health and accountancy (mp3, ppt, paper)

• George Roberts, Oxford Brooks University, UK
  • Education, training and employment (mp3, ppt)

• Barry Nyhan, Ireland
  • Lifelong learning and the role of trainers (mp3, ppt, paper)
• Lorna Unwin, Professor Alan Felstead and Nick Jewson, Professor Alison Fuller
  • Can anyone be a trainer?: towards a more embedded role for vocational trainers (ppt)
    

Theme: Support for the professional development of trainers

Afternoon sessions (for Elluminate sessions click here) featuring:

• Seija Mahlamäki-Kultanen and Anita Eskola-Kronqvist, HAMK, Finland
  • New Innovations into trainers’ training: Documenting and analyzing work processes with digital photos (mp3, ppt)

• Prof. Eduardo Figueira, University of Évora Portugal
  
  • Developing competence for trainers in Portugal (mp3, ppt)

• Simone Kirpal, University f Bremen, Germany
  • The Eurotrainer network survey (mp3, ppt)

• Eileen Luebcke, Pontydysgu, Germany
  
  • A framework for continuing professional development of trainers (mp3, ppt)

• Summary of the first day By Graham Attwell (mp3)

6 November 2008

Theme: E-learning for trainers

Morning sessions (for Elluminate sessions click here) featuring:

• Cristina Costa, University of Salford / Pontydysgu, UK
  • Using social software tools for supporting the online training of trainers (mp3, ppt)

• Doris Beer, Lohberger Unternehmerinnenzentrum e.V., Germany
  
  • e-learning for medical healthcare assisstants in Germany (mp3, ppt)

• John Pallister, Wolsingham School, UK
  • The ePortfolio process, supporting the Trainer and Training (mp3, ppt)

• Vance Stevens, Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi
  • Teacher professional development in groups, communities, and networks (mp3, ppt)

Afternoon sessions (for Elluminate sessions click here) featuring:

• Carla Arena & Mary Hillis, USA and Japan
  • Professional Development in Online Circles of Learning (mp3, ppt, wiki)

• Anne Fox, CV2, Denmark
  • VITAE – introducing 21st century skills through mentoring (mp3, ppt)

• Regina Lamscheck Nielsen, DEL, Denmark
  
  • TrainerGuide – made in Denmark (mp3, ppt)

• Linda Castañeda, University of Murcia, Spain
  
  • On-line Collaboration to teach and learn with each other (mp3, ppt, wiki)

We have just finished the two day online Conference on the training of teachers and trainers organised by the Networork for the Training of Traners in Europe and Evolve.

It was - at least I felt - an inspiring event. Although I don’t have accurate figures I guess at least 70 people attended at some art of the conference - including particpants from more than 20 countries. Despite the usual technical annoyances, the technology never got in the way of the exchange of ideas. In fact, rather the reverse. The discussion was more interactive and reflective than in most face to face events I have attended. We had 15 presentation in four two hour sessions - allowing about 15 minutes presentation and 15 minutes discussion for each presentater. As we had hoped, bringing together researchers and practitioners in the training of teachers and trainers and e-learning practitioners allowed for a productive interchange of ideas and practice.

We will be provding access to the outcomes of the confernece in a variety of different media over the next seven days. Here are just a few of my impressions about the themes of the discussions.

One theme was the increasing prevalence of work based learning. This is expecially so as the divide between initial training and continuing training becomes blurred. As learning becomes embedded in work processes then it becomes increasingly bound by context. Technology can help greatly in capturing learnng from practice in the context it occurs. But this does not really fit with the idea of predeterminded outcomes specified in qualifications. Furthermore the competences required today are changing with a focus on collaboration, working in teams and the ability to support others in their learning and work. Two different approaches were put forward to deal with this. One was to support more community based learning with facilitalors to support enquiry based learning. Another was to move from seeing learning as primarily a question of individual qualification to see it as an integral aspect of innovation. An inovation approach would lead to a focus on learning rich work.

The role of teachers and trainers is also changing with a move from didactic teaching to supporting learners especially in scaffolding learning and developing learning pathways. In many ways we are all beoming teachers and learners. The best teachers, it was said, are learners. It is no longer possible to merely absorb a body of knowledge, especially given increasing job flexibility. But how much employees need to acquire basic competences before being able to learn from work and what those competences are was an issue around which there was no agreement.

Given that more and more people are having responsibility for supporting the learnering of others, the issue of how they are supported in that role becomes an issue. Traditional training the trainers courses are not enough. Rather there is a switch to encouraging peer group support and facilitating the development of communities of pracice. The many web 2.0 tools are valuable in this repect. However, many teachers and trainers are not confident in the use of such tools. There are different approaches to how to deal with this, ranging from targeted courses, the provision of interactive web based resources and fostering self directed learning networks. For all this motivation, the willingness to invest time and effort and above all self-reflection are critical. There is an issue about in whose time learning should take place and to what extent we should be personally reposnsible for our learning and employability. Web 2.0 tools can allow us to link self directed and networked learning to practice. Especially important are the wide range of open learning opportunties being developed through the web.

Three buzzwords emerged from the conference - sharing, collaboration and openess.

Sorry for all I have missed. But please feel free to comment below and add to what I have said - or correct me if I misrepresented what people said.

Tomorrow and Thursday is the the first annual on-line conference on the Training of Trainers, sponsored by the Network to Support Trainers in Europe and Evolve.

When we first launched the conference I was rather doubtful of how many would come. After all this was not an event targeted at the EdTech community. Most researchers and practitioners working in this field have never been involved in an online conference before. I have been overwealmed by the response. To date some 110 articticapnst have registered from I guess about 20 countries. I don’t suppose all will turn up for a free event but I still expect a sizable turnout. For me this represnets two things. The first si the mainsteaming of online conferencing technologies which are now being embraced by researchers and practitioners in many diverse dicplines and subject areas. The second is to reinforce the idea of open events - I huess you could say this conference in a mini-MOOC!

We have been fairly conservative in the conference programme for which I am grateful. One issue which arose in the conversation with Dave Cormier last night is that size matters! It is not easy moderting discource with 100 peole online. I am sure we will hit some technical problems but we will juts have to overcome these as we go.

If you would like to attend the conference please register as soon as possible. The registration page is online here. It is free and open, but we need some record of who came for our project reporting.

We also have created a conference exhibition on wikispaces. Have a look - there is some neat stuff there. And if you would like to contribute to the exhibition please get in touch.

The conference will take place through the internet using the Elluminate conference tool. We hope this will not only reduce the carbon footprint of our activities, but will allow wide participation by those who might not be able to travel.

The conference will be organised around four themes:

• Theme 1 - The changing role of trainers in learning
• Theme 2: E-learning for trainers
• Theme 3: Work-based learning
• Theme 4: Support for the professional development of trainers

You can find full details including a prelimary programme and details of speakers on the conference web pages. Attendance is free but we would ask you to register in advance. You are also welcome to contribute to the conference on-line exhibition.

The Network of Trainers in Europe is a European Commission sponsored project aiming to:

• Provide an opportunity for exchanging experiences and knowledge though an easy to use web portal. Enable policy makers, managers and trainers to access ideas, materials and opportunities for professional development.
• Undertake a small-scale survey of the work of trainers and their professional support.
• Provide access to research and ideas through the organisation of workshops and on-line conferences.
• Enhance the quality of support for trainers by sharing effective practice.
• Stimulate new approaches to the training of trainers related to the concept of lifelong learning, knowledge sharing and peer learning.
• Encourage researchers and trainers to share information and materials based on practical experience.
• Bring together research and practice from different projects and initiatives throughout Europe.will implement a survey on the work, situation, qualification and status of VET trainers in the 32 European countries.

The survey is designed as a a tool to assess the situation of trainers and project future trends as well as recruitment and qualification needs.

It is available as an on-line version in English, French, German, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

The English language version can be accessed here. For other versions please go to the survey page on the network web site.