Digital Technology at the Heart of Further Education

The Importance of the FELTAG Report

We live in a connected world and digital technology is increasingly at the heart of day to day life. Nowadays, students use technology as a matter of course and there is the expectation that it will be an integral part of everything they do, including how they are educated.

This fundamental change within modern society requires all education institutions to respond. The response should be to build technology into the very heart of institutional life.

But this can be a difficult outcome to deliver. There are many stakeholders advancing different perspectives; teachers, learners, employers,

college administrators, government. And technology can seem complex to stakeholders without the necessary digital skills and awareness.

However, an agreement that this is the right approach is essential if further education colleges are to deliver their full potential. The importance of the Further Education Learning Technology Advisory Group (FELTAG) report, dated March 2014, is that it does this – by analysing a complex landscape and identifying the practical barriers that need to be mitigated. Importantly, it also makes a set of practical recommendations, each linked directly to ownership by a stakeholder group.

Digital Technology at the Heart of Further Education 1

Taking Forward the Recommendations of the FELTAG Report

Digital Technology at the Heart of Further Education

Cisco’s approach to education is to incorporate digital technology into every aspect of institutional life. We endorse the approach taken by the authors of the report and welcome the recommendations. We believe we can help colleges to better understand technology, and so jointly overcome some of the barriers to adoption. This short paper provides more background on how this may be achieved.

Digital Technology and Further Education

From the web, you can see education defined as ‘the process of giving or receiving systematic instruction’. But modern education is moving to ‘learner presence’, rather than physical attendance. This requires a clear focus beyond instruction and on the creation of ‘enlightening experiences’ for students.

The use of digital technology provides the scope to deliver systematic instruction in new and engaging ways, and so deliver those experiences. It also allows institutions to adapt teaching and learning for individual students, so they are able to take personal ownership of their education. And, through the use of new technologies, like video, it allows the process of learning to adapt to student lifestyles.

But what does Cisco mean by digital technology in further education? This question can best be answered with practical examples:

• Pervasive connectivity: so that staff and students can use fixed or mobile end-points of their choice to access applications, services and education content in a location-independent fashion;

• Security technology: to ensure that students are safeguarded from external threats, and all education content and student records are protected;

• Unified communications, video and information sharing applications (including virtual learning environments): that allow students to take control of their own personal learning and so improve outcomes;

• Network-based technology: to manage and control buildings and their use of energy, and provide physical security and access control.

Cisco agrees with the report that learning is no longer about physical presence; but about being secure, about providing personal options for students, and about engagement to achieve best outcomes. And at Cisco, we are convinced that digital technology is a key to opening up these opportunity areas.

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Digital Technology at the Heart of Further Education

How Cisco Technology Supports the FELTAG Recommendations

The FELTAG report makes a number of recommendations covering people and process, as well as technology. This approach is essential because technology alone cannot advance all the business and educational outcomes sought by further education colleges.

Nonetheless, many of the key recommendations are underpinned by the use of technology as evidenced by the following selection of recommendations:

• “Further education should be about learning presence, not physical attendance” – Cisco can provide secure, borderless networks, and mobility and ‘bring-your-own-device’ (BYOD) solutions, to deliver location independent learning;

• “Colleges should drive to develop and use on-line learning content” – Cisco can provide stored and real-time video solutions, and the tools to allow professional video content to be created and shared – so complementing existing virtual learning environments. Capability in this area also links directly to the available financial incentives for increasing levels of on-line delivery;

• “Data security, identity security and physical security should always be paramount within further education” – Cisco can provide technology that supports defence-in-depth security for IT. It can also provide physical security as part of a next-generation campus solution. Cisco also has substantial expertise in all aspects of security, and can advise colleges on people and process best practice;

• “The need to engage employers more directly in development of FE curricula and mentoring of students” – Cisco can provide video conferencing and information sharing technology to help increase engagement with communities, employers and stakeholders in other sectors of education; the Cisco Networking Academy Programme provides institutions globally with course materials for networking and technology training;

Also many colleges have campus builds or refurbishments using College Capital Investment Fund (CCIF) funding – Cisco can provide technology to create ‘smart and connected buildings’, and implement energy monitoring and control to reduce costs and create a greener and more sustainable environment.

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How Cisco can Help

Cisco has a sales team focussed on the UK education and research markets. Within that team, a dedicated FE group works with further education colleges.

That further education group helps co-ordinate the development of digital awareness and digital skills within colleges, and within the wider academic community; it does this through the Cisco Networking Academy Programme, through Cisco open days, and through the Cisco apprenticeship scheme.

The FE group also provides advice and guidance to further education colleges on how to exploit the fullest range of digital technology solutions to help achieve business outcomes – end-to-end IT infrastructure, defence-in-depth security, voice and unified communications, video and conferencing, and next-generation campus solutions.

And can also provide help on how to get the very best from all that Cisco has to offer – product demonstrations and product loans, leasing solutions to reduce capex, understanding lifetime warranties, and how to maximise the value of our service and support capability.

You may want to learn more. If so, the FE group can offer Cisco briefings at your own site. Or, alternatively, full Cisco business and technical briefings for senior management at our Executive Briefing Centre at Bedfont Lakes, Feltham.

If you would like more information on any of the above, please contact us on FEUK@cisco.com

UK Public Sector website www.cisco.co.uk/publicsector

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