LIT2T Leadership Guide

37 TO: TABLE OF CONTENTS Industrious instructors may aspire to generate or customize their edulinc.org courses to further enhance learning opportunities for their learners, for example, by adding local community content or links that build on a topic. The LearnIT2teach Project provides two stages of training and support for these instructors. Stages 2 and 3 permit instructors to manipulate the Moodle LMS to customize the courseware by adding new activities and using functions to improve communication and manage learning. A list of these enhancements is detailed in Appendix A3. Stage 4 trains instructors to create and share original learning objects and e-activities. Learning objects can be interactive, recycled and include multimedia elements. They also report activity and performance to learning management systems. Some instructors find it very motivating to create learning materials that can be reused and placed in a repository for long-term sharing. 7.6 Upgrades Conventional TELL computer labs require upgrades to the hardware, the network and the software on a continual basis. Upgrading technology can be expensive. Many upgrades are free patches or add-ons but some, such as upgrades to new versions of operating systems or word processors, are costly. In addition to upgrading the software, training may be necessary to ensure that instructors and learners can adjust seamlessly to the changes. Many contemporary software vendors provide support files and even videos at their corporate sites. It may be useful to locate these and direct instructors to them as a means of fast-tracking the upgrade. A more comprehensive approach would include face-to-face sessions to introduce new features and strategies for transferring older files into the new version. The LearnIT2teach Project will provide a customized set of training for any upgrades to the learning management system or the courseware. 7.7 Branding If your centre chooses to create a customized version of the learning management system or the LINC courseware or to brand it with your logo, colour scheme and other corporate information, you will require a private or independent service. Branding takes some experimentation with Moodle themes or templates. Moodle themes can be located within the Moodle.org site or at a variety of independent vendors. These vendors offer Moodle templates, free of charge, but will customize a template for your centre at a cost. 7.8 Information Dissemination Information about Technology-enhanced language learning and teaching is available on Internet sites, social media posts, in blog posts, in professional journals and at live conferences. Most of these TELL articles, workshops, tweets and blogs are targeted at general audiences. The newcomer client is distinct and language training instructors need TELL strategies that relate to their daily teaching context. The LearnIT2teach Project provides relevant information about blended learning in the ESL classroom through a variety of means, for example, a digital newsletter with links to current articles, resources, community events and employment postings. In addition, this project produces podcasts featuring ESL-connected strategies and examples. Current information is