V2Training has run workshops for hundreds of School, TAFE and private RTO teachers this year, and with our “ear to the ground” this is what we are hearing are the common physical Barriers to eLearning as we approach 2012. Now is the time to remove these basic but common hurdles to implementing your eLearning strategy.
Barrier 1. Locked-Down Laptops
Give your team computers that do the things they need to do. Laptops in the hands of teachers are meant to be a tool for productivity, development and innovation. Unfortunately security measures placed on many computers actually hinder the teacher from accessing modern web tools and using their computers in a productive and flexible way. Securities important but don’t give your tradesman a useless tool and expect a good job to get done.
Barrier 2. Old Browsers
Upgrade your Browser, your teams Browsers, and politely ask your learners to upgrade their Browsers. At some stage, Browsers come to a ripe old age when they need to be put to rest. We said goodbye to Netscape, now upgrade your IE all the way up to 10 when and if you can, or switch to a different Browser, Chrome or Firefox. A good test of how capable your Browser is to handle the modern web, is to visit HTML5test.com and see that you get well above 100 out of 450, if not, you know what to do.
Barrier 3. No Wifi Access
Make fast and reliant Wifi available for you teachers and learners on-campus. Coffee shops, Parks, Train Stations, lots of places, have free Wifi, so why not places of learning?. Set it up with passwords, and cap the limit per user, and you can allow your training space to keep up with what your staff and learners are experiencing elsewhere, even at McDonalds.
Barrier 4. No Staff Training
I’m not talking about the much needed staff training for authoring tools, the LMS and the backend of your website. What concerns me more is that many teachers don’t know the basics, such as, how to turn on Wifi on their computers, what a browser is, and that Google is not where you enter URL’s. Send your most enthusiastic staff to workshops, conferences and to learn from other eLeaning experts. Take yourself along to some strategic training sessions in 2012. Teachers will not be replaced by computers, but they might just be replaced by other teachers who at least get the basics.