News:

* The impact of Digital Britain on e-learning

The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), an independent body aiming to make the UK more innovative, has welcomed the government’s Digital Britain report.
The report, undertaken by Lord Carter and published yesterday, is a detailed set of recommendations for the media and telecoms industry in the UK and includes a framework for the provision of broadband internet for all, funded in part by the BBC licence fee and a £6 a year  ‘broadband tax’ on telephone landline owners.
Director of NESTA’s Innovation Generation programme, Benedict Arora, welcomed the development of high speed broadband across the country and its potential impact on learning. 
He said: “We expect learning to become far more porous in the future, taking place both inside and outside institutions such as schools or colleges, so the infrastructure that Digital Britain promises will enable that to happen more effectively because if you want rich content you certainly need the pipes to put it down.”
NESTA chief executive, Jonathan Kestenbaum, added: “Digital Britain is no longer a marginal issue. It lies at the heart of unlocking economic potential and radically reshaping how we deliver public services. Get this right and people will no longer accept being passive consumers of services, but will become a part of the solution. The challenge for policymakers is to harness this new power in a positive way. It’s time for Britons to get digital.” 
And the Trade Unions Congress (TUC) general secretary, Brendan Barber, welcomed the idea of broadband for all despite having reservations about using the licence fee as a funding source.
He said: “'Ensuring the whole country has high-speed broadband access is an essential requirement in the digital age and shows the government has recognised the need for an industrial policy that will allow the creative industries to play a leading role in the UK's post-recession economy.” 
A recent NESTA survey found a majority of youngsters aged 11-16 wanted e-learning introduced into classrooms. 
And Arora says it is likely that this trend will develop into a greater demand for e-learning in the workplace as that generation begins employment. 
“I’d be very surprised if workplace training didn’t adapt to the expectations of employees and their existing skills base especially as the use of clever and inventive IT approaches to training can be a very cost effective and effective way of increasing the skills of the workforce,” he said. 
He concluded that e-learning was not as popular in schools as it could be because of the older demographic of much of the teaching staff, many of who were not digital natives and so found it harder to integrate the necessary techniques into teaching practice. 
However the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) feels the government targets for high-speed broadband are too modest. 
David Frost, director general of the BCC, said: “The report does set out plans to meet the target of bringing two megabits of broadband to every household and business by 2012, but this is a very modest target. Given the rate at which content and technology usage is increasing, there is strong argument for a more ambitious long-term strategy.”

* E-learning professionals offered free peer support

E-learning professionals who work alone or in small teams can get free access to peer support following the setting up of a Community Interest Company (CIC) in the sector.
The eLearning Network (eLN), a non-profit e-learning community organisation, is changing from an unincorporated association to a CIC this week.
It will now be known as the eLearning Network Community Interest Company (eLN CIC) and has inherited all the assets of the eLN. Its membership remains free.
Company chairman Clive Shepherd said: “The eLN CIC is a 'social enterprise' - that is, a business with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community. Social enterprises tackle a wide range of social and environmental issues and operate in all parts of the economy.
“In the case of the eLN CIC, we recognise that many e-learning professionals work alone or in small teams, without the peer support they require. The eLN CIC is determined to remedy this and build the most vibrant community of practice in the industry - hence this move to become a CIC.”
Community Interest Companies (CIC) are limited companies, with special additional features, created for the use of people who want to conduct a business or other activity for community benefit, and not purely for private advantage.
This is achieved by a 'community interest test' and 'asset lock', which ensures that the CIC is established for community purposes and the assets and profits are dedicated to these purposes. Registration of a company as a CIC has to be approved by a regulator, who also has a continuing monitoring and enforcement role.
The current 12 members of the eLN's committee have been appointed as directors of eLN CIC. The former eLN chairman, Shepherd, continues as chairman of the company's board and Pat Straughan, the eLN's administrator, has become the company secretary.
Straughan said: "Becoming a CIC gives us greater status within the business world and should encourage further confidence among those doing business with us."

* Growth of social learning stalls

Social learning is not being encouraged in organisations because business leaders do not understand its value, research has found.
The study by e-learning provider Brightwave found that data security concerns were one of the key barriers to the uptake of social learning with many UK workers lacking social media access at work, despite support and high usage among L&D professionals.
Almost half of all people developers surveyed said they used networks such as LinkedIn, a business-oriented social networking site, to learn and gather knowledge. Despite this Brightwave say social learning is unlikely to make much impact in the majority of large UK organisations in the near future, as almost two thirds of those surveyed confirmed they do not plan to facilitate social learning in the next 18 months.
Lars Hyland, Brightwave director of learning services, said: “UK businesses are missing out on a huge opportunity to cost-effectively build knowledge and understanding, as well as engagement, across large volumes of employees in different locations. Business leaders must be informed about the real opportunities in applying social networks to business, otherwise they risk alienating their highly networked current and future talent in today’s global workforce.”
Researchers found a secure company intranet is the only tool that is actively encouraged for informal learning and that three quarters of employees lacked access to popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
And data security concerns were found to be the main reason why most businesses do not actively encourage participation in social networks. The fear that employees were wasting time on social websites was also cited as a reason for not employing social media for learning.
Virginia Barder, director of projects at Brightwave, said: “Organisations should certainly be concerned about data security as more people than ever can theoretically access personal and confidential information online. Most organisations should have processes in place to manage this.
"Any worries can be addressed by developing and communicating an effective information security policy. In fact, opening up access to such networks can benefit organisations hugely as it enables a freer flow of knowledge and access to information for people to do their jobs better.”
The Brightwave research polled e-learning and training specialists within large UK organisations, defined as those having more than 5000 employees, this month.
Barder concluded: “Common sense, context, communications training and moderation should be enough to enable safe and effective social learning.”

* E-learning debated at the Oxford Union

The inaugural e-learning debate at the Oxford Union took place on September 30th. The event was attended by over 250 learning technology professionals who witnessed a debate on the motion 'This house believes that the e-learning of today is essential for the important skills of October 2009'.
The debate, organised by e-learning company Epic, was chaired by Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC's technology correspondent, and led by Professor Diana Laurillard arguing for the motion and Dr Marc Rosenberg against it.
In the debating chamber, the audience spent nearly two hours listening to the arguments of a range of speakers drawn from the learning and development field. In the end the 'noes' took it, with 90 in favour of the motion and 144 against.
Jonathan Satchell, CEO of Epic said: "Never before has such a diverse group of experts been assembled for an e-learning debate. As Dr Rosenberg said, to paraphrase Shakespeare, 'we are not here to bury e-learning, but to save it.'
"We now hope to use the discussion to take e-learning to the next level, embracing new ideas and designs, and in doing so increase engagement and access to a broader audience."
To enable further debate and discussion online, Epic has set up www.elearningdebate.com, where users can read a summary of the arguments, view the highlights, add comments, and continue voting on the motion.

* BETT Awards now open for entries

The BETT Awards partners, Emap Connect, Becta and BESA (The British Educational Suppliers Association) have announced that online entries for the 12th annual BETT Awards are now being accepted.
The awards run alongside BETT, the technology in education event, which is taking place on 13-16 January 2010 at Olympia, London.

The BETT Awards 2010 categories are:

• Early Years Solutions

• Primary Digital Content

• Secondary, FE and Skills Digital Content

• Digital Collections

• Leadership and Management Solutions

• Special Educational Needs Solutions

• Promoting Safer Learning

• Learning and Teaching Tools

• Digital Devices

• ICT Company of the Year

• ICT Exporter of the Year

• ICT Education Partnership

• ICT Service and Support Award

• Outstanding Achievement in ICT Education

Richard Joslin, exhibitions director at Emap, said: "The BETT Awards seeks to reward exceptional resources that help improve learning standards across the UK, as well as on an international level.
"Last year attracted such a great host of outstanding entries and we certainly hope for more of the same this year to celebrate some of the very best on a fantastic evening when the world of ICT in education is together in London for BETT."
Ray Barker, director of BESA, commented: "For educational suppliers, winning a BETT Award is a true mark of excellence in ICT. Judged by a comprehensive panel of independent ICT expert practitioners and consultants, the industry holds the awards in high esteem as a means of creating informed consumers and purchasers.
"Suppliers are offered the opportunity to showcase their most innovative resources which must realistically face the challenges of educators in today's schools."
Dr Stephen Lucey, executive director of strategic technologies at Becta added: "We're very hopeful that this year's entries will impress us with an even greater level of innovation which offers real and practical support for teachers and learners alike. Becta will also be interested in how the products are being developed to encourage greater use of technology 'outside the classroom' so that products offer flexibility of learning on the go – whether that is in the classroom or at home."
Award entries can be completed online at the BETT Awards website until the closing date, Wednesday 22 July 2009, and the shortlist will be published in November. The winners will be announced at a gala evening event at the London Hilton, Park Lane on the 13 January 2010, the opening day of BETT (13-16 January 2010, Olympia, London). 

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Events:

CIPD Organisational Development Conference
April 2010
London, UK

IFTDO World Conference
Held in conjunction with the CIPD annual HRD Conference and Exhibition
20-22 April 2010
Olympia, London, UK

2010 HRD Conference and Exhibition
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
21-22 April 2010
Olympia, London, UK

HR Software Show
16-17 June 2010
London, UK

Learning Forum London
The event will feature ePortfolio 2010, the 8th international ePortfolio conference, with a special track on healthcare as well as Key Competencies 2010, the 4th international conference on skills for life.
5-7 July 2010
London, UK