James Culley
Chief Technology Officer, London Design & Engineering UTC
An online learning programme has been designed to enhance the digital knowledge of teachers, helping them integrate technology and innovation skills into the classroom.
Not all teachers are digitally savvy, admits James Culley, Chief Technology Officer at London Design & Engineering (LDE). “Some subjects — such as History and English — haven’t traditionally required teachers to be well-versed in tech, but arguably, all teachers should be teaching digital skills these days,” he explains
This is where Intel’s free Skills for Innovation (SFI) training programme comes in. It equips educators with essential digital skills, continues their professional development and offers a set of activities designed to integrate technology and innovation skills into the classroom. “It’s one of the tools I use to enhance the digital knowledge of our staff,” says James.
Teachers can access the SFI website through Dell’s E360 landing page, choose an activity or piece of content — all mapped to the national curriculum — and, by dipping in and out, learn new skills at their own speed. The hope is that by improving the staff’s digital and technical know-how, LDE will be able to achieve its aim of moving to 100% digital teaching and learning wherever possible.
Some subjects — such as History and English — haven’t traditionally required teachers to be well-versed in tech, but arguably, all teachers should be teaching digital skills these days,
Transformative for teachers and their students
Meanwhile, the programme’s lesson plans can help teachers create more inspirational, dynamic, tech-driven lessons. “A teacher might have been teaching a concept for 10 years without the help of technology. Now they can understand how to teach that same concept, but by embedding a digital tool or digital method.” This allows teachers to look at their lessons differently, which can be transformative for them and students, notes James. It certainly offers students a more interesting digital experience across the curriculum.
James, who teaches digital media at LDE, has benefitted from the programme personally, using it to devise a six-week digital twin project for his students. “We created a virtual version of our classroom and embedded sensors around the room to study the movement of people and power usage, and then presented our findings to an audience,” he says. “The students really enjoyed that because it felt ‘real’ to them — and real-world, tech-enhanced projects always feel more exciting.”
