Molenet - Birkenhead Sixth Form College

Year 3: Thin.clusion - Developing sustainable digital infrastructure to support teaching and learning based on thin client and learner owned technology 2009/2010

Project Description

The consortium colleges will evaluate a range of mobile devices for their suitability in delivering thin client college applications to bridge a specific technology gap in Childcare and Health & Social Care courses. To achieve this, each college will develop a wireless and thin client infrastructure that can support 100 concurrent mobile devices either within the college or via the internet/3G, and evaluate a range of mobile devices which can be used to determine the most appropriate device for this project. Learners will be able to connect to a range of thin client applications over the internet/3G.

Aims:

• To develop a sustainable digital learning infrastructure to support teaching and learning based on using thin client and learner-owned mobile technology.
• To promote the use of digital technology for women learners in Health & Social Care occupations.
• To support a step change in the use of mobile learning across the whole college.
• Investigate the creation of wireless community hubs in partnership with stakeholders to develop local digital provision.
• To develop a secure environment for capture, transfer and storage of sensitive data to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 and BECTA e Safety guidelines.

Objectives:

• To enhance the wireless infrastructure in the 2 colleges by creating & expanding the VMWare server farm to accommodate 100 concurrent sessions from mobile devices at each college
• To investigate and compare the suitability of delivering thin client mobile applications on a variety of mobile devices over WiFi and 3G
• To deliver a range of services on a suitable mobile device to bridge a specific technology gap in the consortium colleges
• To provide training and support for staff and learners to enable the application of digital technology to work-based learning in Health & Social Care
• To assess the impact of using learner-owned mobile devices and thin client technology to address digital inclusion issues for women learners.
• To demonstrate the positive impact and effectiveness of mobile learning for 16-19 learners
• To provide a sustainable model for accelerated institutional change in teaching and learning using mobile digital technology
• To provide WiFi facilities, within work placements, that will enable learners to have remote access to learning resources within college.
• To build a secure infrastructure using VMWare that has data input through a virtual private network.
• To develop an E-portfolio application capable of providing a framework for the learner to record child development details in line with the requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage.
• E-portfolio to be adapted for use in Health and Social Care evidence recording and rolled out to other vocational subjects.

Target audience:

The primary audience will be full-time 16-19 year old learners following Level 2 and Level 3 work-based learning programmes for Health & Social Care occupations. This cohort is predominately female and the occupations, particularly child care, are traditionally gender stereotyped. Evidence suggests that women learners are less familiar or confident in using digital technology and IT applications are less frequently used in these occupations.

The secondary audience is the wider 16-19, who will benefit from the roll-out of this project in terms of institutional change in the use of mobile and thin client technology to support learning and achievement.

Partner

KGV Sixth Form College