LIT2T Leadership Guide

36 TO: TABLE OF CONTENTS LearnIT2teach offers four stages of professional development training for instructors starting at Stage 2. Trainees are able to put the courseware to work with their learners after Stage 1, a face-to-face or online session with a project trainer and a short introduction to pre-Stage 2, online and also mentored by a project trainer. Instructors enrolled in LearnIT2teach training can manipulate the courseware to accommodate the needs of their learners. They can even lend their expertise to colleagues at the centre. Hyperlinks to relevant resources for each class can easily be added to the courseware and archived for future use. Further training support is offered at the LearnIT2teach portal through an extensive Support page which includes demonstration animations, PDF instruction sheets, slideshows and interactive simulations for instructors to learn new skills or use as help files. 7.3 Resource Sharing Digital resource sharing between instructors should be stress-free with the availability of shared network drives, USB Flash drives and email. However, this is not the case at most centres, as it takes a great deal of communication, planning, discipline and work to ensure that instructors are sharing resources appropriately. Sharing digital resources efficiently requires a reliable shared drive and a coordinated system to store files. Maintaining a local server with a shared drive for instructor materials is time consuming. Tasks include planning the folder layout as it relates to levels, subjects, and a myriad of additional delineations such as administrative, archives, rich media, miscellaneous, surveys and others. Sharing resources between language educators is one of the functions offered by Tutela, the national repository for ESL/ EFL professionals. Launched in 2012, Tutela is a community driven sharing centre for relevant settlement language training materials from instructors across Canada. Tutela can eliminate time-consuming searches for learning activities because resources are tagged with the appropriate CLB level and language skill. 7.4 Sustainability Sustainability of learning materials is an ongoing issue at all schools. Digital files may be mistakenly deleted, or archived and forgotten. Paper lessons and worksheets are stored in common file cabinets, borrowed, photocopied and the originals often misplaced. Organization is a key factor in sustainability. At edulinc.org, all essential learning objects are backed up and stored on a file directory. As well, the Tutela repository, the SettlementAtWork wiki and the LearnIT2teach portal also house full replications of the LINC learning objects. In addition, the learning objects have been created using the international Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) international standard for online learning. This increases the sustainability of the learning objects since they can be added to any learning or content management system that adheres to international E-learning standards. 7.5 Creating Content Instructors prepare lessons based on the resources that are LINC relevant. Some instructors prefer to prepare original learning materials to suit the local needs of their classes. In the blended mode, instructors can use digital content prepared by providers such as LearnIT2teach.