New videos on innovative use of Learning Toolbox in vocational learning

June 9th, 2020 by Pekka Kamarainen

In my latest post on this blog I reported on the new Support pages for users of Learning Toolbox (LTB) and Demonstration page with brief introduction and a video presentation. At the end of the post I mentioned that the developers of the LTB had also published three new videos that present innovative use of the LTB in the apprentice training of Bau-ABC Rostrup for different construction trades. These videos had been produced for promoting the use of LTB among other similar training centres in Germany. Therefore they are (for the moment) only available in German. All three videos are available on the following web page: https://support.ltb.io/fallvideos-learning-toolbox-im-bau-abc-rostrup/

Below I present some screenshots of these videos and then give a nutshell summary of the key messages that are conveyed by the respective videos.

Apprentice Jonas reporting on his carpenter’s project with the help of LTB

The two screenshots demonstrate, how apprentice Jonas documents an interim phase in his project in carpentry with the help of the LTB-app on his mobile phone. He takes a photo, gives it a title and then uploads it into the LTB-Stack of his trade as contribution to the current project. The trainer, who is supervising the project gets a notification and sees immediately from the LTB-Terminal in his office, what Jonas has reported and what he has to do in the next phase.

Apprentice Jannis using LTB in the context of masonry

Here the two screenshots demonstrate, how apprentice Jannis uploads the instructions for his new project in masonry by reading the QR-code from a mini-poster with his LTB-app. Firstly he synchronises the LTB on his tablet with a Leica-app on aseparate device. Then he takes a picture and edits it with a line and then takes measures with the laser of the Leica-app. At the end he shows the completely edited picture with all the necessary measurements with explanations in the picture. All this has been achieved with the help of the LTB-app on his tablet PC.

Using the shared LTB-terminal as support for trainers and apprentices in the trade of carpentry

The third video presents the LTB-terminal that has been developed for the training of carpenters – one terminal at the office of the supervising trainers and the other as a ‘kiosk’ to be used by the apprentices at the carpentry workshop. The following screenshots give insights into different potentials of the LTB-terminal.

The first two pictures show that the LTB-terminal (whether in the office or at the workshop) provides access to the training contents of the respective trade firstly as an overview on the whole training year and then at the level of particular projects. In this context it is worthwhile to note that the apprentices can compile their individual learning logs (consisting of completed projects) throughout their training and save them in their own project spaces of the respective LTB-stack. In this respect the LTB has provided a digital solution for the former paper-based White Folder of the training centre Bau-ABC Rostrup.

As further support for training and learning the LTB-terminal provides additional resources. Above the first picture demonstrates the ‘dictionary’ (Lexikon) space of carpenters. It provides overviews on training materials, health and safety and other apps that are being used in the training. All this information is based on reliable sourcesand has been validated by the responsible trainers. The second picture demonstrates the 3D-viewer for carpentry that gives multiple insights into wooden constructions.

I think this is enough of these videos. As I see it, the trainers and apprentices have made great progress as users of the LTB. Thus, the toolset (with these further user-initiated additions) has made its case as support for vocational and workplace learning in the construction sector. Moreover, it is worthwhile to follow the further developments in the field.

More blogs to come …

 

Updates on the corona crisis – What news from field activities with the Learning Toolbox?

June 5th, 2020 by Pekka Kamarainen

In some of my recent posts I have discussed the impact of the corona crisis on education, training and learning as well as on conferences that are of interest to us. In my latest blogchat session with developers and promoters of the Learning Toolbox – Gilbert Peffer and Werner Müller – I was able to get more insights into the current activities in the field: What is happening currently with the use of LTB to support education, training and learning during and after the lockdown period? What is happening with the use of LTB as support for conferences that are being organised as online events? I will start with the conferences and then proceed to the field activities in education and training.

What news on the use of Learning Toolbox (LTB) in conferences

As I have told in my recent posts (on the impact of the Learning Layers project), the Learning Toolbox (LTB) was developed primarily to support vocational and workplace learning. However, a very successful spin-off prospect emerged when LTB was used to prepare ePosters (supported with mini-posters on poster walls or cubicles). This kind of complementary use of ePosters alongside other modes of presentation started to spread already before the corona crisis.

Now that many conferences have sought ways to convert face-to-face events into online events, the prospect of using ePosters as a major solution has been taken up by several conference organisers. Here, new arrangements have been made to keep the ePosters visible online already during a pre-conference period. Then, during the actual conference period, particular sets of ePosters have been discussed in batches in online sessions. Now this mode of work is taking up and will probably sustain even after the exceptional period. For the developers and key promoters of LTB this has reduced travelling to conference venues and participation in face-to-face events. Instead, they have done more online tutoring and customisation of the use of LTB with supporting online communication services.

What news on the use of Learning Toolbox as support for vocational and workplace learning

Whilst the lockdown has given a push to conference organisers in finding new solutions to prepare online events with larger scale, the picture in the field of vocational education and training (VET) varies. As we have seen it, the transition from classroom teaching into online learning has been implemented rapidly in general education and higher education. For vocational and workplace learning such a transition has not been an easy exercise. In particular the intermediate training centres (that support work process oriented learning in simulated learning spaces) have gone through hard times. In Germany these organisers have been interested in promoting the use of LTB in education and training. Now, due to the lockdown, some advanced training centres – in particular the training centre Bau-ABC Rostrup – have managed to provide LTB stacks to support independent learning of apprentices during the closure period. However, in other training centres the lockdown has interrupted the process of getting a core group of trainers to promote the use of LTB in several trades. Moreover, the reopening of the centres just before the examination period has provided additional challenges.

I think these were the most important messages that I need to share in my blog. In addition to these general impressions I had some further thoughts concerning the designed Multiplier Event of the ongoing TACCLE4 CPD project that we want to organise by the end of the project. As I see it know, it is not likely that we can organise it as a face-to-face event – whether before the summer holiday period or shortly after it. And since we need to organise an online event, we still have to think about the arrangements and the timing.

As we have a short time to complete the tasks for the project, we need to opt for a prerecorded webinar or a series of short webinars. And with this arrangement we need to think of a flexible mode of participation  within a flexible time frame. In this way we can probably adjust this event to the time constraints of the designed participants – teachers and trainers in the field of VET. As we have seen it, it is essential to provide new impulses at a time when the potential participants have time and energy to work with the content we provide for discussion.

These were my preliminary thoughts. I need to have further discussions with my colleagues who are supporting me in the TACCLE4 CPD project. Let us see where we can get in the coming times.

More blogs to come …

 

Quiet period in education and training activities – What news on the project fronts?

April 6th, 2020 by Pekka Kamarainen

Normally I am populating this blog with reports on field visits and project meetings or on emerging results. Right now we are in the middle of a very quiet period. The hitherto normal activities of education and training providers have been closed due to the spread of the corona virus. And in a similar way all face-to-face meetings – whether project meetings, field visits or workshops with local/regional partners – all such events have been cancelled or postponed. So, it is very quiet right now. But yet, it is worthwhile to look at the possibilities that digital tools and online services may provide under such circumstances.

Indeed, as Graham Attwell mentioned in the online meeting of our TACCLE4 CPD last week, this crisis has been a strong push for teachers and trainers to move their activities online. What has been so far considered as a sideline opportunity – something complementary to the ‘regular’ teaching and training in presence – has to be considered as the remaining main option. From this point of view teachers, trainers and university lecturers are making rapid progress in implementing new online learning solutions in their own context. And at the same time developers of online learning platforms and software solutions are doing their best to support such transitions. All this is reflected in many online conferences and meetings. So, even during this quiet period, there are several new developments that need our attention.

From this point of view we discussed the role of our next transnational meeting – which we cannot organise as a face-to-face meeting but as an online meeting. Nevertheless, we agreed to book time slots to catch up with these new developments in online learning and in knowledge sharing within online communities. Also, we discussed the prospects to organise the forthcoming Multiplier events of the project as online events (and to use new formats for such events). Here, we need some time for further planning. BUT, if we want to capture the most valuable fruits of the new developments, we would need to organise the events at a time when our target groups – teachers and trainers – are getting back to the new normality after the period of lockdown. Therefore, I hope that the funding agencies are flexible enough to extend the working periods of projects like ours.

At any rate, I am trying to bring myself back to working mode (at least after the Easter period) and catch up with my friends and colleagues who are closer to new developments. Let us see, what all we will find out.

More blogs to come …

Twitter & Flickr in 5 Minutes

February 25th, 2009 by Cristina Costa

I thoroughly enjoyed today’s session as part of Buth’s workshop. There were very though provoking questions there! It is great to connect to new people all the time…it’s just brilliant to be challenged by people’s ideas and experiences. It makes me think, it helps me reflect, and most important it helps me see things from someone else’s eyes.
Now that is what I call a great learning experience.

I have been thinking about what someone in the room said. I have written about this before too and I do understand where she (sorry didn’t get the participant’s name! ) was coming from.
We, the enthusiastic about everything that involves pushing a button, has a plug and enables interaction, sometimes come across as evangelists, or at least as people who think technology is the answer for all our problems, when, in matter a fact, that is not what we think and neither what we believe in.
But the fact is that there was, there has been, and probably there will always be really good and also really bad teaching. [my best teacher was my 3rd grade teacher…in such a poor school that we didn’t even have a phone… wonder if that would be possible today…?].

But as I was saying… Technology is not everything…it’s not even that much to be honest, but it can be something that can help us reach out to a wider world, simultaneously widen the classroom and make it closer to the world…
Technology is about bridging connections, open new communication channels, enable collaboration at a larger scale and situate the learning activity in environments and spaces as never possible before.

For me, technology is only useful if it enables me to enable my students with the opportunity to efficiently and effectively learn in a more realistic context. After all, learning has never been limited to the classroom walls…how many of us have not advised our students to travel in order to get closer to the reality, the culture and the language they are studying? How many of us haven’t made meaningful experiences outside the official learning place and schedule? And how many of us didn’t wish we had more opportunities to do so? Oh well… technology provide us with new ways of traveling, of making new experiences, and of transforming our practice and approach at the push of a button. Of course, it is not the push of the button that really matters, but rather where we allow that button (that channel) to take us to…

Times are changing, and the change changes us too.
Like I once said, my grandfather used to ride a donkey, my father had a motorbike, but soon realized that a car was better for him. These days I spend a lot of hours on airplanes to reach the places where I have to be. We live in a changing world! We need to adapt to continue to be relevant, to provide students with more opportunities… I wonder what the future awaits us, but I am sure my offspring will be experiencing many different channels I haven’t dreamed of yet… maybe because they are still not part of my reality, hence embedded in my habits and part of my needs.

Here is the presentation I attempted to give yesterday. It was developed in collaboration with Carla Arena

Feel free to contact us. we love to connect! 😉

Post origianlly posted here.

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