News: Telephone and Writing Skills
Remote training absorbs new technologies
22 October 2007
Remote learning is evolving, with some American universities even running training programmes in the Second Life online virtual world.
Closer to home, the University of London, the Open University and the University of Leicester are using podcasts, blogs, wikis and other new technologies to improve their own training offerings.
Niall Sclater, director of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) at the Open University, told the Independent: "It's a very exciting time. We're helping students to get to know each other better, and their tutors too, by using blogs, online forums and wikis."
He explained that, for example, tutors could maintain blogs in order to inform their students what is going on.
"Students are also using blogs for learning journals," he continued.
"Another group of students gathered their findings on a wiki, a website where people can contribute, comment and change things. They said they didn't see how the project could have been run without the wiki."
These developments could all be used effectively for distance-learning management and sales training programmes, but more traditional means will also still be used.
Sclater concluded: "One of the most amazing technologies ever invented is reading from paper. It's a key way to learn, and it's not gone away."
