Is there a way?

• Main Author: Gabriel Jacobs
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Association for Learning Technology 1996-12-01
• Series: Research in Learning Technology
• Online Access: http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/9973

I am currently a member of a working party set up in my own university to look into a range of IT matters, including learning technology, with the aim of producing a mediumterm institutional plan. At many of the meetings I attend, I hear about the urgency of focusing our CAL effort, but the conviction around the table is often tempered by lecturers' complaints that the off-the-shelf courseware they have tried either does not work well, or does not fit their particular needs, or both. So a suggestion is made: we should move in the direction of developing our own high-quality educational software tailored to our individual requirements. And since these requirements are very diverse over the whole campus, we should establish a Centre for Educational Technology, a Courseware Resources and Advice Unit, a Virtual Learning Development Laboratory, an Institute for Computer-Based Academic Practice . . . call it what you will. It should be staffed by experts who can advise departments and produce for them, or help them to produce, the exact software they require. It should be supported by a battalion of technicians, and should not only be equipped with white-hot multimedia but also backed by sufficient financial resources to ensure continuous upgrades so as to remain in a permanent state of state-of-the-art. The bank balance is not as healthy as it might be (whose is?), but the university management must nevertheless somehow be convinced of the necessity of spending money on the project.