Warrington Collegiate: LRC pop-up training area to enhance staff training and development

Warrington Collegiate wanted to locate an area of the Learning Resource Centre (LRC) and equip it with a smart board and ten laptops primarily for staff development. Since the pop-up seminar area has been created it has been used for Vado, Moodle, Quizdom and e-book training plus much more. From an empty corner in the LRC the addition of this technology has created a welcoming comfortable learning space. It has encouraged staff across all the curriculum areas to come into the LRC and extended their role in a place for high quality staff development.

Colchester Institute: Virtual bricklaying lays the foundations for the future

Brickwork Lecturer Chris Holland has created a resource that allows students to lay bricks on a computer screen. The former bricklayer has used the ActivInspire suite on the Promethean interactive whiteboard to draw various types of bricks, as well as other interactive tools from the building site. Students are now more engaged in the classroom as they can practise cavity walling, block work, and setting walls on foundation before they get out in the workplace. Learners using the resource range from 14–16-year-old school students and full-time 16–19-year-olds completing Diplomas in brickwork to apprentices completing NVQs.

The Grimsby Institute Group: Making it easy for students to use their own devices to learn

The Grimsby Institute wanted to create an infrastructure that would enable staff and students to use more mobile technology to enhance learning. They have improved the wifi connectivity in college and streamlined the software used to access college areas, as well as encouraging individuals to use their own technology. So far this has had a positive impact on retention and simplified the support that the college needs to provide, as well as saving the organisation money through some strategic changes.